Dew Tour 2011 – Open Qualifier update – Chris Miller
Dew Tour Bowl Update
The open qualifiers went down today and there was some amazing skating that happened. I have to say that I was impressed with the diversity of skating styles and the range of approaches to this bowl. In many ways the judges had a tough job just sorting through this variety. How do you compare the smooth flowing riffs of Tyler Mumma to the youthful back and forth of Steve Pineiro? There’s a lot to admire about both, so hats off to the judges for trying to rank all the skaters who shredded the bowl today at the Dew Tour.
Having nothing to do with the results, the standouts in my mind were Sandro Dias — who adopted his high – powered big air style to the hips and curves of the bowl very well, Steve Caballero with his classic smooth flow and patented bag of tricks, Josh Mattson with alley – oop front blunts, mini -grom Tom Schaar who did a 720, and Tyler Mumma who did some of the most stylish lines and grinds of all. In the end the results of the open qualifier looked like this:
1 Dias Sandro
2 Dern Dalton
3 Mattson Josh
4 Schaar Tom
5 O’friel Michael
6 Sorgente Alex
7 Caballero Steve
8 Kimbel Willis
9 Blair Charlie
10 Pineiro Steven
11 Mocquin Guillaume
12 Beckett Sam
13 Taylor Adam
14 Horrwarth Juergen
15 Lorifice Rob
16 Mumma Tyler
17 Benoliel Julien
18 Stafford Josh
19 Boulanger Joey
20 Jones Rodney
21 Wisniewski Paul
22 Fancher Packy
23 Merlino Mason
24 Harris Corbin
25 Furlong Anthony
Looking forward to more Dew Tour ripping this weekend– Chris Miller
George Crosland-viewpoint
The question of whether we could successfully build a temporary, moveable cement bowl on the beach was answered today. The Dew Tour Pantech Open bowl in Ocean City, Maryland was completed in time for practice and qualifiers to not only go down but go off. The first of it’s kind, since the bowl can be used again, the overall conclusion is that the bowl is rad; designed and built well, smooth flowing and fun. The bowl, designed by Chris Miller, consists of a shallow end that allows for a huge variety of options with pockets, flat wall, corners, and hips. The shallow flows into the deep which is essentially a square bowl that can be attacked by way of high speed corner carves, halfpipe style back and forth lines or any combination you want. It is not too tight and not too mellow. If you like 15 foot deep Oregon bowls, it might be too mellow but you get the idea, it’s fun.
Despite the hot temperatures, a varied group of skateboarders came out to practice. You had veterans like Bucky Lasek, Omar Hassan and Rune Glifberg ripping along side younger guys like Tom Remillard, Ben Raybourn and Ben Hatchell. Being freshly built, the cement was a bit grippy but everyone got used to it and proceeded to find their lines. Watching the variety of styles out there today was a blast. From the flowing lines of Tyler Mumma to Alex Perelson blasting airs to Ben Raybourn’s trickery, hell everyone was ripping. Those that showed up early got some alone time in the bowl. But with such a big group of guys throwing down, the practice sessions eventually got hectic with the usual two to four guys in the bowl at a time. A few collisions happened at the height of the session but no serious injuries.
As practice ended and qualifiers started, things got way more mellow. There were 6 heats with 4-5 skaters in each heat. Each heat had their own practice session limited to the guys in the heat so they could dial in their runs without the criss – cross crash factor. There were fifteen minute jams & the guys skated in order. This was the format and it seemed to work out. Of the 28 guys that competed today, 13 got to move on to meet 22 pre -qualified skaters tomorrow. Some of the pre- qualified skaters include Bucky Lasek, Rune Glifberg, Pedro Barros , Alex Perelson and more. Today was great and tomorrow will be better as everyone finds more lines and the pre -qualified guys go to work on the bowl, stay tuned. – George Crosland
Thank you to Chris Miller & George Crosland for the updates. Thank you to Chris Ortiz for the images. Skate- Ozzie