Dew Tour Portland: Coming Up Roses
Wendy's Invitational wraps at the Rose Garden Arena August 16.
Friday, August 14, PORTLAND, Ore. -- The five-stop summer Dew Tour cruised into Portland, Ore. August 14 for another platter of trickscuits and steeze. Scenic PDX provided highlights including seamless public transportation from airport, to hotels, to the Rose Garden Arena, which played host to the weekend's beefy competition and hot pink pop-rap performance by LMFAO.
Friday's big news out of the Beaver state as reported on the front page of The Oregonian was a giant pot bust. Here's your Pacific Northwest fun fact of the day:
"Outdoor pot seizures are common in late summer months across much of Oregon as growers prepare to harvest one of the state's leading—although illegal—cash crops. ... The estimated street value of the plants seized on Friday was $5 million, said Warm Springs Police Chief Carmen Smith."
But not even the giant ganja gathering could outshine the haps of the Dew Tour. In the first final of Friday's action, the BMX Dirt comp excited those of us X-vets who are not used to seeing big boys on small bikes pulled out of park/pipe and sprinkled onto a course usually devoted to FMX excursions. Portland featured a ramp roll -n that spit riders into burly dirt jumps before a 270-degree berm curled them into the last big hit.
Ryan Nyquist (the perennial power that was noticeably absent at X Games 15) was back on bike in Portland and wasted no time regaining the top spot. Nyquist won with run featuring an opposite double truckdriver combo and a flawless barspin 720, but other highlights included crash-landed but much appreciated attempts like Chris Gerber's 360 backflip bail, Anthony Napolitan's 360 triple tailwhip slide-out, Chris Doyle's 180 nearly landed backwards, Diogo Canina's brakeless Brazilian 720 crash and Ryan Guettler's crowd favorite double backflip. A for effort, boys.
In the end it was the 30-year-old dad from San Jose smiling with trophy in one hand and his new baby, Tristan, in the other.
BMX Dirt Podium:1. Ryan Nyquist (92.69)
2. Dennis Enarson (91.75)
3. Scotty Cranmer (91.50)
In Friday's nightcap, Oregonians huddled around the vert ramp like cold hands to a campfire (and judging by the community's unrivaled recycling efforts, bike-friendly conveniences, and general Greenpeace goodness, we can assume their b'dass action enthusiasts also have an organic cotton campfire snuggly side.)
True to the seething skies of the region, the Portland Dew stop featured a constant catapult of neon orange t-shirts brought to you by Oregon's local, little mom-and-pop shoe shop—Nike. But 6.0 wasn't the only precipitation provider. When Anthony Furlong came to rest in the pipe after a run that would burrow him into ninth place, his helmet quickly became a souvenir as it was hurled into the stands & Except that the guy who caught it didn't want a helmet souvenir, so he chucked it onward and upward into the stands before a woman finally welcomed it with loving arms.
The heavens didn't stop there.
After Bucky Lasek disappointed hard and fast on the last run of vert competition, he stepped out of the pipe and launched his board high into the rafters. This gift giving strangely did not leave the men, women and children reaching out to catch it—as if a ball of cotton—but rather left a section screaming and covering their heads for dear life. Buck would immediately go over to the woman who received the unexpected delivery and make sure all was gravy. She got to keep the board but the package probably should have come in bubble wrap.
Pierre-Luc Gagnon, fresh off his second consecutive XG gold medal in vert, rode the momentum to Portland and nabbed the top spot with a smooth switch heelflip 360 and a butter 720 good for $15,000 grand prize and, of course, the commemorative recycled salmon trophy.
Said the Portland champ of his recent hot streak, "I'm feeling great about my skating. I'm really satisfied with the last few weeks—second place at Maloof, same in Boston, a win at X Games and first place here. Definitely looking forward to take a few days off. I'll spend some time at home, maybe film some stuff, if you know what I mean."
The final pack of 10 skaters kept things close with Bucky Lasek, Bob Burnquist, Rob Lorifice and Adam Taylor all in the mix of possibility, but the competition didn't stem from one-upping runs, rather, the notable lack of clean runs quickly separated the three best from the rest.
Bucky had a chance to podium on his last run, but tumbled to sixth after falling on his first trick attempt.
PLG later commented on the ramp's unforgiving coping. "That's how I fell on my last run. I hit the coping on a kickflip mute and it just stopped my board. That's how Bucky fell on his heelflip indie. The ramp is pretty much perfect but for some reason the coping sticks out really far. It makes it really hard on certain flip tricks—you had to pop early."
Skate Vert Podium:
1. Pierre- Luc Gagnon (90.00)
2. Andy MacDonald (84.75)
3. Sandro Dias (83.75)
Saturday, August 15—The laborious Skate Park finals Saturday afternoon left some skaters looking like they could use a nap. Not amongst the winded warriors was the victorious Chaz Ortiz, whose 15-years-young lungs were ready for more. "I could skate more right now," he cheesed after a 10-minute final jam. "I was actually pulling some stuff out of nowhere, stuff I didn't even practice just worked."
Oh, to be 15 again and free from bills, old bones and unnecessary pit stick.
The park format in Portland was such that the podium finishers from Boston (1. Ryan Sheckler, 2. Ryan Decenzo, 3.Chris Cole) earned a free ride to the finals in Portland. It should be noted that Sheckler [and his loyal disciples] took the weekend off after he left LA two weeks ago with an ankle banged up from X Games 15. Coming into Portland, Sheck topped the Dew Cup standings with 100 points (since there was only one skate competition in the two previous stops). Sheckler was trailed by Descenzo (90 points) and Cole (82 points).
Said Ryan Decenzo (your Dew Tour '09 Cinderella story in the making) of his in-comp projectile vomit, "If I could have not been puking so much I might have maybe been able to use more time to land tricks." Lesson learned. Decenzo beat out Adam Dyet and Jordan Hoffart with a nollie backside nose blunt down one of the real rails outside the Rose Quarter during the best trick jam.
With Sheckler out in Portland and Ortiz scarfing the top spot, the new skate park Cup standings have been shuffled significantly, with Ortiz taking the lead, followed by Cole and Decenzo.
Skate Park Podium:
1. Chaz Ortiz (91.88)
2. Chris Cole (90.38)
3. Paul Rodriguez (88.58)
Just before BMX Vert began on Saturday night, Simon Tabron uncharacteristically crashed on a 540, hanging up his front wheel and rendering him unable to compete. The unconfirmed word on the street is that he may have broken his hand. What a tough break for Tabron, who was riding hot, coming off a silver at XG15 and second place finish at the Nike 6.0 BMX Open (both right behind Bestwick).
Two weeks ago in Los Angeles, I spent a good chunk of time with Jamie Bestwick, but I didn't think the English duke of bike would remember me, since our sesh happened before he took the tumble on a tailwhip 540 that knocked him unconscious and unable to remember the run that won him gold. So his greeting in Portland [a warm and very British, "Hel-lo Ma-ry"] was as comforting as tea and crumpets, not just because Jamie's about the kindest guy on the circuit, but also since it proved his mainframe wasn't completely fried at the hands of a ramp.
Speaking about that power outage, Bestwick said, "I don't remember much about that crash—nothing in those few minutes of the competition that followed. It's not something you want to remember, either. It makes no sense. It's just a loud bang, like someone lights a stick of dynamite off beside your ear and that's it. You open your eyes and you have no idea what's just happened. It's scary and you have to really adjust the first time you're back out there. I came into this Dew Tour with the mindset of 'I have to get through this without hitting my head again.'"
But even a traumatic tumble can't keep Jamie from straying off the road to his fifth consecutive BMX Vert Dew Cup. He's already taken the top podium spot on the first two stops of this year's tour. Saturday's competition was stiff, but Bestwick's 6-foot-1-inch frame just seems to go bigger than anyone else in the biz. Bestwick's run that bested the field featured an alleyoop downside tailwhip (what?!). No wonder why he's the all-time winningest athlete in Dew Tour history.
Bestwick on his forthcoming time off: "The break between now and the next stop in Salt Lake (September 16-19) will be welcomed. I'm going to relax and do some motorbike racing. I have been taking classes at the Yamaha Champions School at Miller Motorsports Park in Utah. I want to take a few more before I enter a race because there's an etiquette about it, I don't want to just jump out there. That's dangerous, I'd hate to think that my lack of preparation put someone else in danger."
Bestwick's picks: "Keep an eye on Zack Warden. He has really picked up his game. He made the finals this weekend—his highest finish on the tour. Also, Vince Byron, the 19-year-old Australian, is one of the next-generation vert riders coming up. I'm looking forward to watching him grow. Kevin Robinson also really seems to be on a resurgence this season. "
Bestwick on Kevin Robinson's do-rag: "It's like a huge tea strainer."
BMX Vert Podium:
1. Jamie Bestwick (93.75)
2. Chad Kagy (92.00)
3. Steven McCann (90.25)
Sunday, August 16—Garrett Reynolds couldn't have been any less specific about the secret to his success ... unless maybe that is his secret that accounted for the cool $15,000 at BMX Park he came into Sunday afternoon. "I don't know, I can't really believe I won. I don't even know what I did, I'm just a street rider who has fun."
I told him that the judges seemed to be wowed by his big truckdriver to table top among other things that made the crowd especially pink in the cheeks. "Yeah, that surprises me that that scored so high because that is such an easy trick for me. I don't know how that did it."
After the first of two runs by each of the 12 competing riders, Garrett came out atop the standings with the day's best score of 91.38. He'd throw out his less impressive second run score.
Dave Mirra was consistent all afternoon. In his first run, he rolled in twelfth of the field of twelve and banged out a run good enough for second place, featuring a 540 tailwhip and a big 720. Yes, he's 35. Yes, there was a rider in the same comp that was more than half his age (14-year-old Brett Banasiewicz). Mirra beat him handily, but it should be noted that although the kid from South Bend, Ind., fell off the course on both of his runs, leaving him in the standing's basement, don't be fooled—he brought some heat including huge triple tailwhips, a fan favorite front flip (that he just learned last month) and a 180 backflip with a tailwhip. Keep truckin' kiddo.
Rounding out the podium was the Venezuelan Daniel Dhers despite a low-scoring first round on account of a failed 360 can can attempt. His highlight reel will surely feature a silky smooth 360 tailwhip (on the stepdown!).
BMX Park Podium:
1. Garrett Reynolds (91.38)
2. Dave Mirra (91.00)
3. Daniel Dhers (91.00)*
*Mirra's low score of 90.25 was higher than Dhers' low score of 86.38.
Over on the freestyle moto course, first impressions were that it was pretty tight quarters, tucked into the Memorial Collesium (Home of the Portland Winterhawks, which begs the question: What's a winterhawk?). It is, after all, the same space that BMX dirt took place on two days ago—bulldozed and resurrected as an FMX course. This is a snug spot which forces a quick turnaround from the first kicker to the second/last. But Portland didn't seem to mind. It was as if all these screaming hippies had never smelled diesel before. Put brap in your Prius and smoke it.
The NCAA tourney-style bracketed jam was such that the big dogs weren't actually in an official competition, but it still successfully filled the FMX void. Six riders were prequalified for the face-off format which pitted two riders against each other at a time, dropping the loser out of contention until a winner climbed to the top, win-by-win. Adam Jones, last year's Dew Cup champ, earned a buy past this comp's first round, but in the ultimate face-off, Nate Adams topped Robbie Maddison for final PDX FMX bragging rights.
FMX Jam Results:
1. Nate Adams
2. Robbie Maddison
3. Adam Jones
