I don't know man. Cockiness and confidence are not the same thing. Confidence doesn't hype itself up the way he did, and confident people respect others around them, he was classically cocky.
Paul Rodriguez's opinion of skateboarding is the exact opposite of COTG's.
Forrest came out well in the end. I like the redemption aspect to this year's story. The buying ice cream touch was nice.
Honestly, I think Forrest probably has been kind of cursed with dickriders surrounding him too much. If you are good like forrest you can be a total prick to everybody, and you'll still make a few friends who think you are the shit for being so good, and in turn encourage you to be even cockier, because they will act like you are awesome no matter how you act or what you do (example: that dude "shouldn't")
also, John did plenty of other shit throughout the contest. He was the only one to skate the fence bar thing at the ditch on treasure island and got a 5-0 to fakie on it, also at that spot he got the 180 fakie 5-0 frontside cab out, which was sick, �he was ripping the hardest at all the tranny spots, he fakie ollied that 12 stair, and a lot of it was done with staples in his head. He also was skated pretty fucking fast the whole time.
Not saying he is a clear far and away winner- Forrest and Reuben killed it for sure