The penultimate stop of the 2006 Dew Action Sports Tour last weekend in San Jose, Calif., set the stage for a final showdown in BMX and a likely sweep in skateboarding and FMX at next month’s finals in Orlando, Fla.
Baltimore vert skateboarder Bucky Lasek finally found the top step of the podium in San Jose, besting Brazilian vert kings Sandro Dias and Bob Burnquist with his best run of the tour. Lasek’s 313 tour points, followed by Dias with 264 and Burnquist’s 227, make him almost a shoo-in for the tour’s top Skate Vert prize.
On the same ramp, BMX vert king Jamie Bestwick’s styled 540-flair variations delivered another victory in San Jose, his third first-place finish in the Dew Tour’s four stops. The Brit’s 375 tour point tally will be virtually impossible to surpass. But the battle for No. 2 between pals Chad Kagy (280 tour points) and Kevin Robinson (244) will be a throwdown.
California teenage skater Ryan Sheckler seems to have recovered from frying his left foot in a beach campfire in early July, taking first in Skate Park at the past two tour stops. His 355 tour points will not likely be passed in Orlando. And 11-year-old skate park sensation Nyjah Huston has a firm grasp on the tour’s third-place slot with 205 points.
The tour’s BMX Park contest is shaping up to be a dogfight, with a mere 14 points separating the top three competitors. Scotty Cramner’s strong victory at San Jose pushed him into the tour’s lead, but Daniel Dhers and Ryan Nyquist are in close pursuit.
In the neck-and-neck FMX contest, two-stop winner Travis Pastrana was an unexplained no-show at San Jose, delivering an easy win to backflipping specialist Nate Adams, who has finished just behind Pastrana in the past two tour stops. Adams’ first-place finish in San Jose increased his total to 350 points, followed by Pastrana with 275 and Mike Mason with 187.
SNOWBOARDING
Coloradans make top 10 in Chile
Three Colorado snowboarders placed in the top 10 in last week’s Continental Cup at El Colorado ski area in Chile, the first stop of the 2006-07 World Cup season. In the parallel giant slalom, Boulder’s Dustin Sysco finished sixth, Adam Gibney of Colorado Springs finished eighth and Denver’s Jessie Hazen finished sixth in the women’s race.
ACTION SPORTS
Elite training comes to Copper
A common theme among the world’s best skaters and BMX riders is tenure at Camp Woodward, the Pennsylvania-based training facility that infuses aerial gymnastics into action sports. Copper Mountain has forged a partnership with Camp Woodward to bring the program’s innovative, foam-pit instructional techniques to Colorado for snow sports. Open to riders and skiers of all abilities, the first winter-centered Woodward facility will offer the same teaching techniques that fuel the top skateboarders and BMX tricksters. The camp, renowned for using foam-filled pits and bungee cords to teach dangerous inverted tricks, will give Copper visitors a chance to safely hone terrain park and pipe skills.
