AST Dew Tour Wrap Up
Words, Photos, and Videos by Erik Bragg

Ryan Sheckler snatched first on Sunday at the EnergySolutions Arena in Salt Lake City and secured the Dew Cup Championship for the third year in a row.  It was a gnarly, soggy weekend and the "action" never stopped

The park prelims took place on Thursday and it seemed obvious that Ryan was going to place first at the Toyota Challenge.  His first run was flawless and steezy.  He had first place qualifier locked up before his second heat and decided to have a little fun with it.  After missing a few tricks, he went to the top of the bank and started laughing and shaking his head.  With, the crowd curious about Ryan's giggle fest, he darted for the big quarter and threw out a massive back flip Indy.  He landed it bolts and, seriously, the crowd lost it's collective mind.

Greg Lutzka qualified second and the much anticipated battle for first was a couple days away.  Favorites Paul Rodriguez and Jereme Rogers were landing everything during warm-ups but couldn't keep the heat on lock when the prelims rolled around.  The Brazilian Takeover was in full effect as Rodil Araujo Jr., Rodolfo Ramos, Danilo do Rosario, Tuilo de Oliviera, and Fabrizio Santos all made it into the finals.

The finals were to take place on Saturday night, but it'd been whizzing rain all day and it didn't look like it was going to happen.  I rolled up to the outdoor course and it was soaking wet.  There were about fifteen AST Dew Tour employees with giant fans, squeegees on broomsticks, leaf blowers, towels, and shimmies getting down.  I would have bet $100 they couldn't dry the course in less than three hours.  Twenty minutes later, the course was completely dry and the skaters were already practicing for the finals.

The stands were overflowing and there were thrice as many heads trying to get up in the stands.  Cue the disappointment and the rain.  We didn't have more than 10 minutes of skate-able terrain when it started to pour again.  I jammed with the Sheckler crew down to the Arena to hide from the rain while we waited for the officials to cancel the contest. 

Ryan got bored and decided he'd go mess around on the giant BMX course inside the Arena.  We thought it'd be cool to get some videos for the site so I started filming.  The arena was divided into two giants sides and Skateboarding Vert Practice was happening on the other side of the curtain.  Apparently, one kid wandering around noticed Ryan's little session and that's all it took. 

Before we knew it, kids were pouring in by the thousands.  It was unbelievable.  Literally, thousands of kids were scrambling to get a decent seat and after a few minutes the arena was packed.  The crowd screamed and cheered with ever single trick Ryan landed.  It took Ryan a minute to figure out what was possible on this GIANT course meant for BMXers, but once he did, he stuck a ton of gnarly tricks.