Dew Tour San Francisco Event Wrap Up
Dew Tour returned to San Francisco last week for the Toyota City Championships. For the second consecutive year, Dew Tour dropped courses into the heart of San Francisco’s Civic Center. To show the rich history of action sports in San Francisco, the Street course incorporated iconic SF spots like Hubba Hideout and the China Banks. While the BMX Dirt jumps wrapped their way around Pioneer Monument from the Asian Art Museum to the San Francisco Public Library. Sunday, the Dew Tour Streetstyle course worked its way down three-blocks of San Francisco’s famous hills. Fans were full of energy and excited to take it all in.
The biggest buzz moment of the weekend may have been Ryan Sheckler’s kickflip off the shipping container into the Toyota car bank during Skate Streetstyle; but other memorable moments throughout the weekend included new father Kyle Baldock taking home the win in BMX Dirt, while his son watched his first ever competition and Garrett Reynolds sweeping another victory in BMX Street. Topping off the memorable moments, two-time Grammy winning hip-hop artist Common performed for Dew Tour fans in an epic show at the Regency Ballroom, making it a weekend to never forget.
Ryan Sheckler, kickflip
BMX Street returned to San Francisco, California for its second consecutive year. With a stacked list of BMX Street riders retuning to go all out in the final on the iconic course with an enthusiastic crowd, the BMX Street Final was action-packed.
Defending champion Garrett Reynolds came ready to keep his title. Although, last year’s second place rider, Chad Kerley, also came ready to win. With hopes of swiping a win away from Reynolds, Kerley dropped into his final run, after a few mishaps earlier in the contest, with a score to settle.
Kerley launched right into it with a 180 into a manual on the pad then spun a 180 barspin out straight into a feeble tailwhip on the picnic table and went on to nose manual up the long pad to 180 out. Then, toward the end of his run Kerley laid down a giant 540 down the stairs after having trouble with it in his first two runs.
Unfortunately, Reynolds had already proved to the judges that he was number one. With bangers like a double truckdriver down the big set, Reynolds had already secured his first place title.
“It feels good to take first place,” said Reynolds with a bit of shock. “I seriously thought right in the end Kerley was gonna take it. He totally held his run together but I don’t know, he put it on the judges and somehow I got it, so I’m psyched.”
Results
1st – Garrett Reynolds
2nd – Chad Kerley
3rd – Dan Lacey
Click to see BMX Street article, photo gallery and hightlight video.
On a course full of replicated San Francisco skate spots, including Hubba Hideout and the China Banks, skaters have access to the best hubba ledges and rails the city has to offer. The 10 skaters who proceeded from the semi-final returned to give it their all in an effort to make the top five and advanced into the Final Round 2, aka the Super Final, where athletes had another five-minute jam followed by a two-minute open jam on the big hubba and stairs.
After taking first in prelims and second in the semi-final, Kelvin Hoefler was coming in hot to the Skate Street Final. His confidence shown in his backside nose blunt across the top of the picnic table and a nollie frontside nose slide down the big hubba. After a round of bangers from the ten skaters in the final, five advanced to the Super Final. Louie Lopez, Ryan Decenzo, Sean Malto, Kelvin Hoefler and Chaz Ortiz threw everything they had in the final minutes of the competition.
It was rookie, Louie Lopez, who would take the win in his Dew Tour debut. The judges weren’t the only ones impressed with Lopez’s skating that day, “I had this strange feeling that Louie was going to kill it,” said Ryan Decenzo who skated out in third overall.
Lopez skated effortlessly with tricks like front a bluntside down the huge hubba as well as frontside and half cab flips down the stairs.
“There was definitely some pressure, but I didn’t really think about it too much – it’s just unnecessary stress,” said Lopez once it was all over. The humble Lopez went on to speak to the rest of the talent in the super final, “Pshh, man all of those guys were going off! Malto is my favorite, though. Malto’s the man!”
Results
1st – Louie Lopez
2nd – Kelvin Hoefler
3rd – Ryan Decenzo
Click to see Skate Street article, photo gallery and hightlight video.
For the second consecutive year, Dew Tour dropped their massive dirt jumps down in SF between the Asian Art Museum and the San Francisco Public Library. With a stacked list of riders after Friday night’s Semi-Final, the crowd was roaring with excitement heading into the BMX Dirt Final.
With Daniel Sandoval taking first place in Friday night’s semi-final, he came to the Final prepared and ready to keep that top spot. Likewise, defending champion Ryan Nyquist also had some bangers up his sleeve. But it was last year’s BMX Dirt Best Trick winner, Kyle Baldock who would take the win.
With an arsenal of tricks like a frontflip barspin to tuck no-hander, Baldock came ready to impress the fans. Kyle Baldock’s biggest fan also happened to be one of Dew Tour’s smallest fans in attendance, his four-month old son Lucas. With his good luck charm cheering him on, the new father threw a 360 double downside whip over the final hit in his first run, securing the top spot.
Baldock said, “We’re all friends, everyone wants that first place but I was sitting sweet at second or first, it didn’t really matter to me. I was out there saying to myself, ‘I’m out here to do this and I’m doing it,’ and to be able to do that means so much to me.”
Results
1st – Kyle Baldock
2nd – Daniel Sandoval
3rd – Jaie Toohey
Click to see BMX Dirt article, photo gallery and hightlight video.
FMX fans were pleased to see Dew Tour bring back FMX to the Toyota City Championships. This freestyle motocross competition combines, flips, whips, and upright tricks. The Triple Threat contest allows riders the opportunity to show off their traditional tricks while not allowing inverts or spins during the Upright tricks section.
Last year’s champion, Adam Jones, returned to Dew Tour ready to add another trophy to his shelf. “I knew coming in I had a fairly good chance,” said Jones once he hopped off the podium. “I’ve been working really hard on my upright tricks, but when I got here I had some trouble with the ramp.”
His trouble with the ramp is almost unbelievable as he threw a no-handed Shaolin to McMetz to no-hander lander.
Although, Takayuki Higashino and Todd Potter also came with a large arsenal of tricks, they were not enough to knock the existing champion, Jones, off first place. Potter came out firing with his three tricks throwing a lookback kiss of death, seatbounce whip and a cliff hanger backflip, which landed him in second.
Results
1st – Adam Jones
2nd – Todd Potter
3rd – Taka Higashino
Click to see FMX Triple Threat article, photo gallery and hightlight video.
During the Skate Streetstyle Final, athletes kept muttering the same word to describe the course—terrifying. With a downhill, three-block course filled with obstacles like a massive container that drops off to a Toyota car as a landing pad, it is no reason why skaters were worried. Making it down the course is a feat in itself. Despite the obvious obstacles, the 16 skaters showed little signs of intimidation, as they charged down the course throwing unbelievable tricks.
By the time it came to the final run of the day, Ryan Sheckler had already laid down the highest score on the course and was left with a victory lap – the same situation as last year. In Sheckler’s first run he threw everything from a backside 360 off the top kicker, to a nose grind down the A-frame rail, a wallride off the Toyota Corolla, a huge tailslide on the top of the pyramid rail before blasting an ollie out of the shipping container over the car that pointed him straight to a backside flip onto the flatbed trucks where he eventually capped his run with a back lip down the last rail – an impressive run from top to bottom..
“This competition is gnarly, man!” Sheckler exploded. “It’s nerve racking just sitting up there and getting ready to go because you know you have to make it to the bottom. So, it’s a lot to think about but it is one of my favorite events. I really have a blast doing this! It seems crazy but it’s super fun.”
There was no question that Ryan Sheckler deserved his first place win.
Results
1st – Ryan Sheckler
2nd – Curren Caples
3rd – David Gravette
Click to see Skate Streetstyle article, photo gallery and hightlight video.
Closing out the weekend, BMX Streetstyle showcased an insane amount of talent and brought some of the best street riders to the Dew Tour for the first time.
Covering a three-block radius, the Streetstyle course was filled with obstacles for riders to get creative and showcase their best tricks and combinations. Many riders took the opportunity to slow themselves down by hitting as many obstacles as they could on the steep downhill course. Last year, Scotty Cranmer changed the event by throwing his bike on top of the shipping container so he could throw a tailwhip off and onto the nearby Toyota Corolla. This year, Dew Tour built a ramp up to the container and upped the ante for all of the riders.
In the end, Kerley claimed the top spot on the podium and he couldn’t have been any happier.
“It’s so unreal, I had one run under my belt and I just wanted to send it on the last one,” and send it Kerley did. “I thought I did as good as I could on the first run, so I was just going to try the 540 and maybe the nose [manual to barspin] on the last run, and I’m just thankful for the way it worked out. I’m stoked!”
Kerley’s best run consisted of a 540 over the first wedge, to hop whip, to bar manual feeble hard 180 on metal ledge, a double peg up to no-hander off the uprail, then an ice pick to barspin off the picnic bench, the technical nose manual to barspin off the top of the brick bank, then a 180 over the handicap rail, a 540 up the dock and then a truckdriver off – this run deservingly bumped him to the first place position.
Results
1st – Chad Kerley
2nd – Ty Morrow
3rd – Scotty Cranmer
Click to see BMX Streestyle article, photo gallery and hightlight video.
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