Dew Tour Ocean City 2014 Event Wrap Up: Skate
The Dew Tour Beach Championships return to Ocean City celebrating their fourth consecutive year in Maryland, while Dew Tour celebrates its 10-year anniversary. The Beach Championships kicked off with Skate Vert, making its return to Ocean City for a fourth time, along with Skate Bowl. Making only its second appearance at the beach, the Skate Street Session also went off in the hot sand.
The week was filled with memorable moments, but the hometown crowd was most excited to see Maryland native, Bucky Lasek, take home the Dew Cup. After a disappointing showing during vert, Lasek stepped it up and took home his first Beach Championships’ Dew Cup, making the local crowds go wild with Maryland pride. Other notable moments included PLG’s vert win, which now makes him the proud owner of half of the vert Dew Cups in existence and wild child Greyson Fletcher made the Skate Bowl final with an epic showing in the semifinal, although he didn’t make the superfinal, his runs in the final were some of the most exciting and exhilarating skating of the weekend!
Maryland native, Bucky Lasek, skate bowl final
The Skate Vert final had many people wondering who was going to take the Cup before it even began. Some of the usual suspects, like young guns Tom Schaar and Mitchie Brusco didn’t make it out of the semifinal. Nonetheless, the final was stacked with the likes of Sandro Dias, Pierre-Luc Ronchetti, Jimmy Wilkins, Marcelo Bastos and more.
It was hometown hero Bucky Lasek that the crowds came to see, but in very uncharacteristic fashion Lasek was not able to put together any of his four runs. This left the door open for PLG to scoop the win. And that he did, putting down an alley-oopkickflip mute, switch heelflip 360, nollie heelflip McTwist and a nollie bigspin heelflip right at the buzzer. PLG is no stranger to the Cup, this win marks his fifth Dew Cup, an outstanding half of the ten vert Dew Cups in existence.
1. Pierre-Luc Gagnon
2. Jimmy Wilkins
3. Sandro Dias
Click to see Skate Vert article, photo gallery and highlight video.
Making its way back to the beach for a second time, the Skate Street Session had fans lining up in the sand to catch all of the action. The crowd was in a frenzy cheering on favorites like Kelvin Hoefler, Jordan Hoffart, Theotis Beasley and Dave Bachinsky.
The eight rippers took turns hitting the 9-stair set, handrails and hubbas. The jam was thirty-minutes long and was action-packed the entire session!
Last year’s runner up, Kelvin Hoefler was the man to watch. He landed an insane amount of technical tricks – front blunt on the hubba ledge, nollie front blunt on the rail, kickflip front lipslide on the rail, kickflip back lipslide on the rail and a switch backside lipslide. Making him the overall winner and the Best Trick winner for his 360 flip lipslide.
1. Kelvin Hoefler
Best Trick – Kelvin Hoefler
Click to see Skate Street Session article, photo gallery and highlight video.
As the Dew Tour Beach Championships came to a close, there was one event the hometown crowds were dying to see – the Skate Bowl Final. After a disappointing show in vert, Bucky Lasek was hungry for a chance to prove himself. And in the absence of three-time champion Pedro Barros, the competition seemed wide open. Coming out of the semifinal, Alex Sorgente was on fire, but his teammate and friend Tom Schaar had a few more tricks up his sleeve.
It was Greyson Fletcher’s wild-style that made for some of the most exciting and engaging runs to watch this weekend. The youngest of a surf and skate dynasty, everyone was impressed the ripper put together solid runs in the semifinal to make it though to the final. However, he wasn’t quite able to hold on to that momentum and did not make the superfinal. Looking forward to what Fletcher will bring to future Dew Tour stops.
Little Cory Juneau blasted right through the final and ended up in third in the overall. Juneau skates with the style and ease of someone twice his age, the 15-year old was a crowd and athlete favorite to watch.
The superfinal was heated, Lasek had seemed to snake the lead in his second run, there was no reassurance as his fellow competitors still had tricks to pull. Tom Schaar hit a 720 just outside the buzzer two runs in a row, the pressure was on as he went in to his last run hoping to knock the hometown hero out. But it wouldn’t be enough to hold off Bucky. With three flawless runs, the Maryland native pulled his final run and the crowd rejoiced as he nabbed the victory. Lasek now boasts back-to-back Beach Championship wins, making him a Maryland legend.
1. Bucky Lasek
2. Tom Schaar
3. Cory Juneau
Click to see Skate Bowl article, photo gallery and highlight video.
Sound off in the comments below!