Thursday night’s informal Cash For Tricks contest served as a preview for this week’s Dew Tour action on the Skateboard Park course, with nearly every skater in the field taking some cash during the contest, and Sky Brown and Kieran Woolley winning the overall cash bonuses and trophy watches from Nixon.
Brown and Woolley, each fresh off of their X Games wins last weekend, will be favorites on Friday and Saturday as the main events kick off in the Skateboard Park course here at Lauridsen Skatepark in Des Moines, Iowa.
“I love it here,” Brown said after the event. “I love Dew Tour, I love Des Moines, I love the girls…. We’re just having lots of fun.”
Brown’s first order of business, after being handed the wad of cash? Making it rain on some of her fellow competitors, especially Sakura Yosozumi.
“I felt like Sakura won: she was putting down some gnarly stuff so I was a little confused, but you know I’m stoked: spread it around,” Brown said.
The duo went 1 and 2 at Dew Tour in 2021, with Yosozumi taking the top spot. Last week at X Games, the positions were reversed. It’s one of the biggest rivalries to watch for this weekend, but Brown insists it’s the friendliest of rivalries.
“Sakura’s my idol. She’s my big sister, my best friend,” she says. “I wouldn’t be this good without her help: She really pushes me and I don’t know what I would do without her.”
Woolley won the overall cash prize on the men’s side, largely thanks to his 5-0 grind transfer straight off of the Toyota vert extension, the biggest feature on the course.
“I’d been trying that all through the practice, then got it second-try in the contest,” Woolley said. “It’s super fun to open a contest weekend with an informal jam contest like this: it gets everybody together skating and the vibe felt just right. It’s just fun and games but it’s amazing to walk away with a wad of cash.”
Woolley says he can barely believe how his fortunes have turned in the year since Dew Tour 2021, when the Australian team was barred from competing due to a COVID exposure the week of the event. In the interval, he has finished 5th at the Tokyo Olympics, won the Tampa Am Bowl Jam, won the Cold Bowl Invitational in Philadelphia, taken 2nd at X Games Chiba in Japan, and won X Games gold last week in Vista, California.
“Dude, honestly, I’m just having fun skating with my friends,” Woolley says. “But doing well in some contests is a good feeling, like, wow, I guess I can skate!”
The Women’s Park Final is Friday night at 6:30pm CDT. The Men’s Park Final is Saturday night at 8:20pm CDT.
Sound off in the comments below!