Today’s vert finals marked two firsts: Jimmy Wilkins winning his first Dew Tour, plus the first Dew Tour event ever to be held in Los Angeles, California.

Having a vert event in LA represents a return to the sport’s roots. From the Z-boys barging backyard pools to kids building quarterpipes against walls, the dawn of the skatepark era and many other countless stories, LA was a huge part of early transition skating’s roots. Zephyr’s own Jeff Ho, among many with other industry icons and some of skateboardings greatest were standing in the crowd to watch the whole spectacle. An LA event also serves as a homecoming of sorts since the majority of the skateboard industry and the vert skaters themselves all live within a two-hour drive.

Elliot Sloan and PLG joined Jimmy Wilkins on the podium.

Elliot Sloan might be from New York originally, but he currently lives in North San Diego county’s Vista.  Elliot spends a lot of time in his backyard there since it’s got a vert ramp in it, and having that ramp is an obvious advantage when it comes to getting on a contest podium. Elliott said he was most stoked to make 720s – landing that trick helped him complete his final run and get into third place.

One of the all-time winningest Dew Tour competitors, PLG has a deep bag of tricks as well, and his runs today – which included a switch heelflip 360, 540 kickflip mute body varial, and a nollie heel flip indy 360 to name a few – landed him in second place.

Being the gentleman that he is, Pierre complimented Jimmy’s performance. “Jimmy pulled the perfect run,” PLG said. “I’m super happy for him. He deserved the win. It feels great to be skating out here in LA. All my homies and sponsors were out here watching, so I was pretty hyped to see them out in the crowd, it pushed me to skate well.”

As PLG stated, Jimmy Wilkins stole the show by combining big airs, spins, some high-speed technical skateboarding and, of course, his signature insane ollies. His run went like this: backside lipslide to mute 540, alley-oop frontside ollie, tail grab 540, kickflip melon, kickflip indy, lien air, ollie 540, stalefish to disaster, 270 switch 5-0. His first run scored an 88.75, and that score held up throughout the rest of the contest to give the 21-year-old his first-ever Dew Tour victory in skateboard vert.

“It’s great,” Jimmy said. “My mom lives in LA, I love LA. I come here all the time, it’s awesome. Plus it’s great to win, it’s always nice to make a run.”

 

RESULTS

1. Jimmy Wilkins, 88.75
2. Pierre-Luc Gagnon, 88.00
3. Elliot Sloan, 86.75
4. Mitchie Brusco, 85.75
5. Paul-Luc Ronchetti, 83.50
6. Sandro Dias, 82.75
7. Andy Macdonald, 82.25
8. Alex Perelson, 79.75
9. Marcelo Bastos, 79.75
10. Bob Burnquist, 75.50
11. Rony Gomes, 69.25
12. Bucky Lasek, 2.75

 

EVENT HIGHLIGHTS

 

JIMMY WILKINS, WINNING RUN

 

PLG, 2ND PLACE RUN

 

ELLIOT SLOAN, 3RD PLACE RUN

 

SWEET TRICK OF THE DAY: ALEX PERELSON