One day after successfully defending his Adaptive Street title, Felipe Nunes also successfully defended his Park title from 2021, sharing the Adaptive Park Presented by Toyota podium on Saturday with fellow Brazilian skater Vinicios Sardi and American skater Brandon White.
Nunes landed the two best runs of the contest, earning the highest marks for his Run 2 pass, which opened with an enormous fingerflip drop-in into the bank from the large Toyota extension feature, sending him into a high-speed frontside flip, backside flip, and 540. The crowd went wild, and Dew Tour judges gave him a nearly perfect score, 96.66, for raising the bar so high.
“I feel grateful to be here and on top again,” Nunes said after the podium presentation, with a translation assist from Davidson Fortunato. “In the last year I’ve been training a lot and I always like trying to learn some new tricks. I’m glad everything I tried worked out, and I’m grateful to be invited and that it came down to a win again.”
Nunes and Sardi are both double above-the-knee amputees and skate without using prosthetics. Nunes sits on his skateboard; Sardi stands on his knees, and is able to pump effectively for speed: his best runs included frontside airs above the coping and no-grab grinds through the corner. White, in 3rd place, is deaf.
In the analyst seat from the commentators’ booth, Adaptive Action Sports co-founder Daniel Gale helped give context for fans to help understand different challenges each skater faces in the Park course and the strategies they use to adapt skateboarding to their personal needs.
Saturday’s field also included blind skater Justin Bishop, U.S. Skateboarding board member Oscar Loreto Jr. skating with a left foot prosthetic and multiple upper limb impairments, Grind For Life founder Mike Rogers skating with a patch over his missing right eye, Steven “Lefty” Breeding skating with a missing right arm, and Des Moines local Joey Murillo, skating with a below-the-knee left leg prosthetic.
While Nunes said the ultimate goal is to have enough skaters in the adaptive field to have separate classes for different impairment divisions, particularly as adaptive skateboarding makes its push towards inclusion in the Paralympics, he personally loves skating in the diverse field at Dew Tour.
“I definitely feel inspired to be here skating with them,” Nunes said of his competitors. “With each trick they land, I’m inspired to go forward and do my best for them, too. I can’t wait to come and skate with them again.”
Nunes said he also loves skating in non-adaptive pro contests, as he has done at X Games, Tampa Pro, Copenhagen Open, and other events. He has also devoted himself to filming street video parts, like his August 2021 pro video debut, Limitless, for Tony Hawk’s Birdhouse Skateboards team.
After his win on Saturday, Nunes dedicated his trophy to the fans who lined the hill above the Park course at Lauridsen Skatepark: “I’m super thankful for all the people here, and for skateboarding: I always work hard and I like to win awards when everything’s working. It feels amazing.”
Men’s Adaptive Park Results
1.) Felipe Nunes, 96.66
2.) Vinicios Sardi, 86.66
3.) Brandon White, 83.66
4.) Steven Breeding, 70.33
5.) Mike Rogers, 64.66
6.) Justin Bishop, 57.00
7.) Oscar Loreto JR, 53.33
8.) Joey Murillo, 48.33
Men’s Adaptive Street Results
1.) Felipe Nunes, 95.66
2.) Steven Breeding, 91.66
3.) Justin Bishop, 88.66
4.) Josh Tancos, 85.00
5.) Vinicios Sardi, 83.00
6.) Mike Minor, 75.66
7.) Andy Hernandez, 61.00
8.) Dan Mancina, 56.33
9.) Oscar Loreto JR, 37.66
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