Dew Tour San Francisco Event Wrap Up
The new Dew Tour touched down in San Francisco last week for it’s Toyota City Championship taking full advantage of the cityscape surroundings to incorporate iconic spots from the local area in addition to shutting down three blocks of a busy street to introduce a brand new discipline to both skate and BMX – streetstyle. With great success, the crowd turnout at the streetstyle event showed the respect and interest for the course design as it ties to the culture with both industry and fan turnout to take it all in.
FMX Triple Threat
Dew Tour opened up it’s San Francisco Toyota City Championships with a brand new FMX Triple Threat competition developed by none other than FMX’s Carey Hart. This new style of FMX competition combines three rider and crowd favorites; whips, flips and upright tricks with no inverts allowed. To top it all off, the venue’s location sat directly in front of City Hall with approximately 11,250 yards of dirt shaped into the FMX landing. “It doesn’t get much more city than this,” said Hart when referencing the venue.
Once all the whips were tallied, flips ranked and uprights scored, the combined points winner was Adam Jones. Despite leading the entire competition, Jones said that with every trick he threw he had something to worry about. “My first trick landing with no hands… A no-hander shaolin, to McMetz, to a no-hander lander. Then, I whipped like everyone else, but I finished with a double seatgrab backflip.”
Results
1st Place – Adam Jones 91.10
2nd Place – Wes Agee 88.63
3rd Place – Takayuki Higashino 86.23
Click to check out the FMX Triple Threat recap article, photo gallery and highlight video.
BMX Street
For the first time ever, Dew Tour offered a street-specific event for BMX. Every rider knew going into it that getting on top of the podium would make them a part of history. With all the new tech talent on display during the BMX street competition, it seemed all but predictable as to who would become the champion of the street discipline. However, as the heats progressed it came down to the final three riders who were already in podium positions to ride one more run each to determine the final order.
Garrett admits to being a little out of it when he first started riding that day, “I rolled in a little bit late so the whole time I was riding I was kind of scrambling to find things to do. If I got one thing feeling good I just tried to feed off of that,” said Reynolds. Garrett also commented on the course saying, “I think they did a really good job making all of the replica San Fran spots. I love riding this stuff.” Needless to say, no one was surprised to see Garrett ride as good as he did. Although he said he started off a little slow, he really stepped it up in his second and third runs laying down a huge 360 bar-to-bar down the nine stair as a well as a nollie 180 barspin. He also laced a crazy rail ride to tailwhip out and a 180 barspin to backward crooked grind down one of the many rails on the course.
Results
1st Place – Garrett Reynolds
2nd Place – Chad Kerley
3rd Place – Bruno Hoffman
Click to see the BMX Street recap article, photo gallery and highlight video.
Skate Street
The iconic street course, inspired by San Francisco’s historic skate spots, attracted a whole slew of new skaters to Dew Tour’s Toyota City Championships making for a contest that will long be remembered by all who skated, watched and especially by those who missed it as these replicated spots mimic those that have shaped early street skating into what it is today – most of which are no longer around in their original state if at all.
In the end, it was Nyjah Huston topping the list and taking the 2012 Dew Tour skate street title! Nyjah has grown to become one of the most consistent skaters in the game and is certainly not afraid to throw his tricks onto or down any size obstacle. Nyjah landed just about every trick he tried and pulled multiple in lines such as a kickflip frontside boardslide on the big rail before a bigspin frontside boardslide on the second rail. Nyjah also landed a kickflip backside 5-0 down the hubba then hopped onto the top of the China bank and hardflipped off the end into a lower bank. Other notable giant hubba tricks included his kickflip backside tailslide to fakie and his hardflip backside 5-0. Nyjah was in beast mode all day and nobody was able to slow him down.
“I think [the course design] is awesome! It was a really sick idea, replicating spots from a city that has so much history such as San Francisco,” said Nyjah after he hopped off the podium with his trophy at his side. “To be on the podium with [Torey Pudwill and Paul Rodriguez] no matter what place I get is an honor because I have looked up to these guys for a long time, and they absolutely killed it!” stated the always modest Nyjah.
Results
1st Place – Nyjah Huston 93.75
2nd Place – Torey Pudwill 89.50
3rd Place – Paul Rodriguez 86.75
Click to visit the Skate Street recap article, photo gallery and highlight video.
BMX Dirt
Following an action-packed semi-final that narrowed the field down to the top eight the day before, the remaining riders threw everything they had in a last ditch effort to take the 2012 Dew Tour dirt title at the Toyota City Championships – add in the fact that this marked the first major dirt competition in the states this year, nobody left anything to chance! With the Pioneer Monument acting as the centerpiece, diehard BMX dirt fans and curious San Francisco citizens alike packed the stands and lined the city’s public library building to watch the action unfold.
The man of the hour was none other than Ryan Nyquist. He laid it all on the line and pulled it together in his final run leaving himself on top of the podium. After seeing the level of riding that went down in the semi’s the day before Nyquist knew he had to have a solid game plan heading into finals. Nyquist commented, “Going into finals I knew that I had to step it up completely and that is what I did.” He also had a little bit of a hometown advantage, which never hurts. “It’s a dream to have a contest sort of in my backyard being from Northern California. Just with having so many friends and my family here, this is going to be a contest that I will remember forever.” Nyquist had one run left and put it all on the line with tricks including a backflip double barspin on the first hit, a 450 truckdriver over the second and an insane 720 late barspin on the last set. After that run’s score came in it was game over from there and with only one rider left that could take him out Nyquist had to sit with his fingers crossed.
Results
1st Place – Ryan Nyquist 90.87
2nd Place – TJ Ellis 89.19
3rd Place – Colton Satterfield 89.13
Click to check out the BMX Dirt recap article, photo gallery and highlight video.
BMX Dirt Best Trick
Directly following the BMX dirt finals the riders made their way back to the top of the drop-in ramp to line up for their chance to take all with one trick as part of the GoDaddy.com BMX Dirt Best Trick competition for a grand finale to the Dew Tour Toyota City Championship with regard to BMX dirt! It all went down right after dirt finals and needless to say it was an amazing event. TJ Ellis, Kevin Peraza, Colton Satterfield, Anthony Napolitan, Kyle Baldock, James Foster and Pat Casey all got together and decided to send themselves for some serious cash. The prize money was broken down to $5,000 for first, $3,000 for second and $1,000 for third making a total of $9,000 grand up for grabs.
The format was set up like an organized jam with riders going in order until the clock ran out of time, once the clock stopped, every rider had the option to take one last run and lay it all on the line. Every single rider brought their best bag of tricks to the table, but history was made that night by the Australian sensation, Kyle Baldock, as he shocked the BMX community with a trick that had never been done until then – a frontflip cliffhanger. Not only did he unveil a new trick, Baldock sent it on his final attempt of the night once the clock had stopped, which only added to the night’s excitement. “I don’t even know where to start. Going out there and doing that trick was in dedication to Brett Banasiewicz first of all, to everyone at home and [to the fans] here in San Fran because I wanted to make it happen for you guys,” said Baldock.
Results
1st Place – Kyle Baldock – Cliffhanger Frontflip
2nd Place – James Foster – Bar-to-Bar back to Downside Whip
3rd Place – Colton Satterfield – Barspin to Tailwhip Backflip
Click to see the BMX Dirt Best Trick recap article, photo gallery and highlight video.
BMX Streetstyle
The unvieling of BMX streetstyle incorporated the San Francisco downhill vibe that the city is recognized for. The streetstyle course brought in obstacles to mimic the feel of true street riding as only San Francisco can properly portray and consisted of an incredible mix of talented riders out there putting on a ridiculous display of BMX insanity. The course was littered with rails, ledges, jersey barriers, tractor-trailers, box jumps, cars and wallrides giving it that authentic street feel. All of the riders had their chance at the course three times with only the best run counting making for an exciting contest to say the least. In the end, with the last three riders left to go Scotty Cranmer, Garrett Reynolds and Dennis Enarson were all in podium positions knowing they had to step it up and make their final runs count in order to take the top spot from one another.
Garrett Reynolds had some serious pressure leading up to his last run. He was sitting in second place and knew what it would take to get into that top spot. “I didn’t expect to land the 540 truck driver for my first trick but once I pulled it I just said whatever about the rest of my run and it all worked out,” said Reynolds. By throwing down some serious tricks the entire way down including the 540 truck driver, a barspin to double peg grind and a 360 off the end of the tractor trailer, he laid down the top score and came through in the clutch taking over the number one position right out from under Enarson who took it with the run just prior. Reynolds commented on the actual setup saying, “I was really psyched on the course. It was kind of hard to ride, but I think it was real fun and I think it has a lot of room to grow.”
Results
1st Place – Garrett Reynolds 93.00
2nd Place – Dennis Enarson 92.00
3rd Place – Scotty Cranmer 89.63
Click HERE to go to the BMX Streetstyle recap article, photo gallery and highlight video.
Skate Streetstyle
With San Francisco’s Bay Bridge in the back drop, Dew Tour’s first-ever streetstyle course shut down a major street for three blocks in order to showcase the urban enviornment contest setting while utilizing all types of street inspired objects such as jersey barriers, cement bustop benches, semi-truck trailers, stair sets, rails, ledges and erected scaffolding with kicker ramps to launch up to and off of – the creativity of the course build alone was a spectacle in and of itself. With this new style of competition nobody knew what to expect from the skaters and all fourteen brought something unique to the street. The format consisted of four runs a piece with only the best score counting making for an all-or-nothing style of skating from everyone.
From the beginning of the competition it was clear, Ryan Sheckler put together the absolute best run on his first go with his giant 360 out of the dumpster kicker onto the scaffolding as the highlight near the end of the course – following his kickflip off the first kicker-like obstacle and ollieing over the Toyota Prius as he smashed through the open cargo container. “I really liked the course and the format. It was cool to be back at Dew Tour and skate with these guys I haven’t skated with in, realistically, five years competitively. That whole event was awesome!” said Sheckler still signing autographs and taking pictures with countless fans that flooded the course following the award ceremony. “Hell yeah!” said Sheckler when asked if he liked the new discipline and course design. “I’m a super fan of this. I hope they do a lot more events like this and I hope I get invited!” Lucky for him, an invite isn’t hard to come by for the reigning champion, especially when you are the first-ever to win at the new discipline.
Results
1st Place – Ryan Sheckler 90.25
2nd Place – Milton Martinez 89.75
3rd Place – David Gravette 89.00
Click to visit the Skate Streetstyle recap article, photo gallery and highlight video.
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