Kelvin Hoefler stomps second straight skateboard street win at Dew Tour Los Angeles
The skateboard street action was hot for the first Dew Tour in Los Angeles – and not just because of the weather. Kelvin Hoefler, who won the last Dew Tour contest in Chicago back in June made it a repeat today, putting on an impressive display to take his second straight win in street.
Louie Lopez and Shane O’Neill joined Hoefler on the podium after beating out a heavy crew that included Paul Rodriguez, Sean Malto, Trevor Colden and Chris Joslin.
Everyone was stoked on the event, and stands were packed despite the high temperatures. Los Angeles is a natural city for a big contest as it has such a huge place in skateboarding from the sport’s earliest history all the way up through present day.
“This is my first Dew Tour, so it’s a whole new experience,” O’Neill said of the event coming to LA. “I live here, just 20 minutes away. Skating’s based here, so there’s no reason it shouldn’t be here. I thought it was cool.”
Kelvin Hoefler backed up that sentiment. “I live a few blocks away so it’s in my backyard,” he said. “It’s comfortable to skate here, all my homies are here. It’s amazing.”
Hoefler repeats as champion of skateboard street. (Photo: Chris Ortiz)
The course was a simple affair, but sometimes simple is best. There were three zones – each zone was skated in one direction for 8 minute sessions. After two zones, the field was narrowed down to 6 skaters for the final jam section. The primary obstacles in the first two sections were an A-frame, bump to hubba, bump to gap with a rail on both sides an manual pad and a flat bar. The final section was a big stair set with a round bar in the middle and a hubba on each side. Scores from the first two zones and the final zone were combined to determine the winners.
Chris Joslin skated amazing, pulling maybe the hardest tricks with some of the best style. Consistency may have been the only thing keeping him off the podium, but either way, it was a great time watching him skate in the event.
O’Neill has a deep bag of tricks and tremendous skill set, so it’s no surprise he was on the podium in third. Louie Lopez has been shredding everything in his path lately and earned second place.
Kelvin Hoefler is on a tear though, sweeping both of this year’s Dew Tour street contests. His strategy was to just get through the first two sections to get to the big final section.
“I was nervous in the first and second session because I mostly skate big stuff – stairs and rails, you know?” Hoefler said. Upon reaching the final jam session, Hoefler – as he put it – “started the third session with simple tricks and landed those right away and moved on to harder tricks.” Those harder tricks included a kickflip backside noseblunt on the rail and a cab backside tail on the rail. Harder indeed.
Dew Tour LA will wrap up on Sunday with skateboard streetstyle. The contest will stream live on DewTour.com at 3:30 p.m. ET, so make sure to tune in.
Dew Tour LA Photo Gallery: Skateboard Street
RESULTS
1. Kelvin Hoefler, 92.33
2. Louie Lopez, 87.83
3. Shane O’Neill, 86.67
4. Tom Asta, 86.08
5. Chris Joslin, 85.92
6. Trevor Colden, 85.08
7. Cody McEntire, 85.13
8. Alec Majerus, 84.63
9. Felipe Gustavo, 77.63
10. Boo Johnson, 64.50
11. Paul Rodriguez, 63.88
12. Sean Malto, 62.25
13. Manny Santiago, 50.00
14. Nick Tucker, 28.75
HIGHLIGHTS
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