Austin Zito Lights Up the Final Jam Session to Win the Free Flow Tour Skate Street Championship

With San Francisco’s City Hall providing the incredible backdrop, the Dew Tour’s newest street course was broken in by the am skaters of the Free Flow Tour today. Following a summer of contests around the country, the 27 skate street finalists were narrowed down to one champion.

The opening heats of the contest showcased the impressive skills of all the young skaters, as plenty of big tricks went down. Jonathon Reese was the star of the day’s first heat, closing the session out with a massive hardflip that helped get him to the final five-man jam as the top qualifier.

Jonathon Reese had the best jam session in the competition’s first round

The very next jam session saw two of last year’s finalists put in strong efforts of their own, with Devin Abreu landing a bigspin down the stairset and Fletcher Renegar casually executing switch tricks all over the place. Brent Bell, also riding in the 2nd heat, was the best of the bunch though, qualifying 3rd overall.

As the final three heats ensued, Miles Canevello – another veteran Free Flow competitor at just 19 years of age – would join Reese and Bell in the finals, along with Austin Zito and Corey Glick. At that point, the scores were reset, and each rider was given the opportunity to prove themselves in both a solo run and a jam session.

Miles Canevello came in hoping to improve on last year’s 3rd place finish in finals

After advancing into the final round as the #2 qualifier, Austin Zito had a few miscues in his solo run, but he made up for it in a big way once the final jam session got underway. Absolutely lighting up the course, the 18-year-old out of San Diego landed a blunt 270 on the China banks, a feeble front 360 across and down on the handrail and a nollie front blunt on the other downrail among the bangers in his run. As the session was drawing to a close, Austin ramped up the insanity of his tricks, and it became increasingly clear that he was about to become the latest to earn his way into the pros through the Free Flow ranks.

“Most of the tricks I landed were kind of random,” Austin explained after the contest. “I changed my mind as to what I was gonna do, as I was doing the trick. I kind of thought that I might as well give it my all if I’m gonna be here and be proud of what I did. And I’m just really glad that I landed anything.”

Austin Zito’s final jam session sealed the deal

All four other skaters in the final round provided some electrifying tricks of their own. Brent Bell put down one of the best solo runs of the group, capping it off with a backside 5-0 on the hubba. After a solid jam session which included a noseslide 270 shuv out, Brent finished in 2nd – just one point behind Austin.

Here’s where we give a special mention to the other guys throwing down in the final jam session. Among the tricks that got folks hyped were Corey Glick’s front feeble down the big rail, Jonathan Reese’s backside feeble into a 180 body varial out and Miles Canevello’s gap up to frontside 5-0.

Left to right: Brent Bell (2nd), Austin Zito (1st), Corey Glick (3rd)

Austin Zito’s win earns him a spot in Thursday’s Dew Tour skate street prelims, where he’ll get a shot at competing against the pros. He’ll hope to follow in the footsteps of guys like Chaz Ortiz, Alec Majerus and Brendon Villanueva, who all had strong Dew Tour debuts on the heels of their Free Flow Tour street titles.

No surprise, Austin’s pretty hyped for the opportunity. “I’ve been thinking about it for a long time,” he told us. “Ever since I won at Skatelab, I’ve had my mind to it to try and win, try to have fun and I’m really excited to come skate with the pros tomorrow.”

Final Round Results

1. Austin Zito, 84.25
2. Brent Bell, 83.25
3. Corey Glick, 69.25
4. Jonathon Reese, 69.25
5. Miles Canevello, 56.50

Round 1 Results

1. Jonathon Reese, 84.00
2. Austin Zito, 83.75
3. Brent Bell, 81.75
4. Miles Canevello, 80.25
5. Corey Glick, 77.00
6. Alex Midler, 76.50
7. Jamie Foy, 76.00
8. Bradley Elias, 74.75
9. Fletcher Renegar, 74.00
10. Jason Siebert, 73.75
11. Shalom Larson, 72.75
12. Devin Abreu, 71.25
13. Kallen Matlock, 69.25
14. Zachary Kovacs, 67.50
15. Mike Berdis, 67.50
16. Cole Wayka, 62.50
17. Tyler Thomas, 61.50
18. Bern Iseli, 61.50
19. Josh Love, 58.50
20. Corey Millett, 57.25
21. Ryder Lawson, 56.50
22. Kenny Prattico, 56.25
23. Travis Harrison, 56.25
24. Zach Plank, 56.00
25. Gard Jenssen Haavra, 53.75
26. John Bejarano, 52.50
27. Brandon Strosser, 17.50

Brent Bell

Corey Glick