Outside the top 3 finishers were Bucky Lasek, Rune Glifberg, Sandro Dias, Rob Lorifice, and Marcelo Bastos, and that's just who made the final! That's right, 8 out of 10 vert finalists live in Southern California. They skate together and continuously push each other, and their sport, to new levels.
Those aren't all the awesome So Cal skaters who took part in the Dew Tour. Danny Mayer, Bob Burnquist, Adam Taylor, Alex Perelson, Josh Stafford, and Paul-Luc Ronchetti all scored points at various stops this year.
Some of the reasons so many athletes choose Southern California include the great weather (of course), the fact that this is the birthplace of skateboarding in general, and the tremendous influence Tony Hawk has had on San Diego County skateboarding facilities. It is because of Tony Hawk (and many other skaters, including Andy Macdonald) that there are 2 world class vert ramps here in San Diego. Ecke Family Y.M.C.A. in Encinitas is home to the vert ramp from the 2003 X Games, and the ramp from the 2006 X Games lives at the Krause Family Y.M.C.A. in Clairemont. So Cal is also home to THI headquarters (Tony Hawk's personal training facility), as well as PLG's DC Shoes facility. How long will we be lucky enough to have the best vert skaters mainly in one location? It is a special time to be vert fan in Southern California.
One day this summer I was lucky enough to stop by the Krause Y.M.C.A. skate park to find Andy Macdonald skating the vert ramp. He had a filmer and a photographer with him from Allisports. I had the pleasure, along with about seven or eight other people, of seeing Andy land a brand new trick. It was awesome to see him work through the challenges of this crazy inverted body varial 540 that day. It really showed me Andy's determination to be innovative in his skating. While watching the Dew Tour Finals today, Andy threw that new trick for the first time in a run! I was so stoked for Andy, and thrilled I got to see it before the world!
