Dew Tour Des Moines delivered a heated 32-skater Men’s Street Semifinal despite rain delays. The day wrapped with Manny Santiago, Aurelien Giraud, and Yuto Horigome leaving semis on fire and leading the group of eight qualified for the final.
The best 21 skaters from qualifying met the top 11 World Skate ranked pre-seeded for an abbreviated semifinal format of two, 45-second runs with the best score counting. Each of the three heats felt like international finals of their own.
Manny Santiago, 35, came out blazing for Puerto Rico as the oldest skater in the contest. His first run fired everyone up and gave him the top score, but he bested himself on his second run and burnt the place down.
“My first run was my plan A, then I knew inside of me that I had upgrade tricks. I knew that there were more heats coming, and they are all good skaters,” said Santiago after cooling off from his runs.
Santiago sent it immediately with an impossible lipslide, heelflip frontside 5-0 and a frontside pop shuv to backside feeble down the double set handrail. After managing a gap to nollie flip crooked grind down one hubba, he set himself up to stomp a varial heelflip to backside 5-0 down the 11-stair hubba to end both of his runs. His second run earned an 88.10.
Santiago commented on the need to go all out saying, “I wanted to set myself into a place where even if I get bumped down I’m still going to be in the top eight. I really want to be in this final.”
The second heat was complete with international heavy-hitters, but nobody surpassed Santiago’s score. France’s Vincet Milou, Australia’s Shane O’Neil, and Brazil’s Felipe Gustavo each cracked into the 70-point range. However, by the end of the third heat they would barely make the top-8 transfer slots to the final.
The third heat started cold with hardly anyone landing a full first run, but things quickly changed. First it was Jamie Foy that fired off in his second run with a 180 to switch crooked grind down the 11-stair hubba and then a fakie ollie to switch front feeble the big handrail to finish.
Then it was the defending 2019 Dew Tour champ, Aurelien Giraud got hot with huge tricks like frontside noseblunt down the 11-stair hubba, hardflip frontside boardslide, and a surprising gap to backside noseblunt on the hubba to finish. Giraud’s effort earned him an even 80 to finish the night behind Santiago.
Other qualifiers included Yuto Horigome finishing third with signature tricks like nollie 270 backside lipslide and an incredible nollie alley-top backside 180 to switch 50-50 down the 11-stair hubba. Nyjah Huston also earned the 6th place transfer position to the final.
- Manny Santiago
- Aurelien Giraud
- Yuto Horigome
- Vincent Milou
- Jamie Foy
- Nyjah Huston
- Shane O’Neill
- Felipe Gustavo
Top Three Runs from Men’s Street Semifinals | Dew Tour Des Moines 2021
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