Adaptive skateboarders took first laps on finals day at Dew Tour Des Moines to showcase a variety of styles, ages, and abilities, especially on the street course. The all-terrain Brazilian, Felipe Nunes ripped his way to take back-to-back top honors on the day.
The Men’s Adaptive Street Final featured 12 distinct styles, with each athlete taking three, 40-second runs. Creative hits and exciting energy pushed each athlete to their limits.
American 10-year-old Josh Tancos was the youngest competitor of the entire Dew Tour event, and he came out firing with kickflip to set up to ollie the 11-stair. Tancos also stomped a feeble grind on the round bar to set himself for a 50-50 backside 180 out and even a frontside 180 down the Tik Tok double set. Tancos finished just off the podium in fourth, respectively.
Brazil’s Vinicios Sardi just barely edged out Tancos, with a score of 83.97 to Tancos’ 83.95. Sardi was at a slight competitive advantage, though, as he came into the street event full of adrenaline from a third-place finish in the park event less than an hour earlier.
Sardi scored another third-place rest by jumping into his run with a boneless, tossing kickflips and a nollie inward heelflip off bumps and super stylish frontside flips and blunt fakies on quarter pipes.
Brandon White for the United States took second with big tricks like a 50-50 on the 11-stair hubba and throwing out both backside and frontside lipslides on bump to bars and handrails.
Aaron ‘Wheels’ Fotheringham and Dan Mancina were also on course getting major support from the crowd. Mancina, a blind skater, locked into the 50-50 on the round bar and battle smiths during his runs, while Wheels whipped out a hand plant on a quarter pipe, firecracker to off the Mountain Dew pallet and even tried gapping to grind one of the handrails.
However, Brazil’s Felipe Nunes was without question the man of the hour. Skating fast, Nunes landed a back 270 lipslide that set him for 50-50 11-stair in his first run but later upped to a back 5-0 down the hubba. Nunes also nailed a front bluntslide off a bump and a front feeble back 180 out on the Tik Tok double set.
Nunes’ best run was his second with a score of 95.28, which earned him the win in Men’s Adaptive Street just over an hour after he won the park final.
“I’m super happy to have the opportunity to skate here. I really love to skate park and street, and everything here, especially the bowl, is amazing,” said Nunes after earning his second win. “I love to show everyone watching on TV and in the crowd that there are no excuses. We all have trouble in life, but we have to do whatever to keep going and inspire other people.”
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