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Golden Gate Xpress

The Student News Site of San Francisco State University

Golden Gate Xpress

The Student News Site of San Francisco State University

Golden Gate Xpress

Dew Tour day three: BMX and skate final results

Dew Tour
Lil' Wayne gets some major air during his set at Dew Tour in downtown San Francisco Oct. 20, 2012. Photo by Matt Saincome / Xpress

BMX Dirt Final Results:

1st Place – Ryan Nyquist 90.87
2nd Place – TJ Ellis 89.19
3rd Place – Colton Satterfield 89.13
4th Place – Dennis Enarson 88.56
5th Place – Kyle Baldock 88.31
6th Place – Luke Parslow 87.56
7th Place – Kevin Peraza 87.82
8th Place – James Foster 86.75

Skate Street Final Results:

1st Place – Nyjah Huston 93.75
2nd Place – Torey Pudwill 89.50
3rd Place – Paul Rodriguez 86.75
4th Place – Milton Martinez 85.00
5th Place – Felipe Gustavo 83.25

BMX Street Final Results:

1st Place – Garrett Reynolds 92.13
2nd Place – Chad Kerley 91.25
3rd Place – Bruno Hoffmann 90.75
4th Place – Dennis Enarson 88.88
5th Place – Sean Sexton 88.13
6th Place – Ty Morrow 88.00
7th Place – Dakota Roche 87.00
8th Place – Steven Churchill 86.00

GoDaddy.com Best Trick Results:

1st Place – Kyle Baldock
Cliffhanger Frontflip
2nd Place – James Foster
Bar-to-Bar back to Downside Whip
3rd Place – Colton Satterfield
Barspin to Tailwhip Backflip

Soaring through the crisp night air on the last jump of the last heat in the BMX Dirt Final, TJ Ellis goes for his biggest move, a front flip tailwhip. And not only does he land it, he does so flawlessly. The crowd, made up of diehard fans and more casual San Franciscans surrounding the free event, explodes into a frenzy.

Ellis runs up to the top of the ramp, celebrating ecstatically and excites the crowd even further. The announcers, fans and Ellis all yell in excitement—but it’s not without reason. The run consisted of three extremely difficult tricks, all of which Ellis executed perfectly.

When he dropped into this run, Ellis was in second place behind local BMX legend, Ryan Nyquist, who had just performed a similarly amazing run. After the post-run celebration ended, tension filled the air as judges calculated the final scores. Everyone—fans and riders—looked up to the big screen eager to see if Ellis had done enough to dethrone Nyquist.

He didn’t.

At least, according to the judges. Many members of the crowd, including Alexander Yohannes, a Bay Area BMXer and diehard follower of the Dew Tour — he’s attended six different years respectfully — disagreed with the decision.

“I BMX so I know how hard that run was,” Yohannes said. “It was beautiful technique. Every ramp he went above and beyond—he deserved it.”

“He won. We all know. Everybody knows,” Yohannes said, comparing the decision to the controversial Pacquiao split decision loss to Timothy Bradley in the World Boxing Organization’s Welterweight Title Fight.

Nyjah Huston, the youngest skater in the Skate Street Finals at 17, took first place and $40,000 in prize money after defeating Torey Pudwill (2nd place) and Paul Rodriguez (3rd place). Huston collected another huge paycheck after winning the Street League’s championship back in August.

Huston stunned the crowd with his ability to consistently land big tricks on the Hubba Hideout stairs, like his hardflip backside 5-0 and many others. But what really took the spectators by surprise was when the band that had been warming up on the side of the course turned out to be Lil’ Wayne’s.

By the time Lil’ Wayne got the go ahead from the video production people, the crowd was heating up. And when he went right into the hit song “A Milli,” running all across the skate park and jumping up and down on the different recreated San Francisco skate spots, the crowd was boiling over.

Then Lil’ Wayne played a new song called “No Worries” while dancing on top of the course’s picnic table. Skaters whizzed by pulling off tricks as Wayne led the crowd in a sing along.

But when the song ended it turned out someone on the video production team should have been doing a little more worrying after all, because due to an error Wayne was forced to play his new song again for a crowd now filing out of the bleachers. Undeterred, Lil’ Wayne played it again, this time standing on top of the Hubba steps and pointing at Paul Rodriguez, a personal friend of Wayne’s, giving him a shout out mid-song.

According to Theotris Beasley, Paul Rodriguez has given Lil’ Wayne his own key to P-Rod’s personal skate park, and Wayne comes by frequently to get in some sessions.

“Everybody listens to Lil’ Wayne. Well, if they don’t — they should. It’s crazy that I know Lil’ Wayne. It’s tight. It’s unbelievable. I trip out on it. People are like ‘How’s Lil’ Wayne?’ and I’m like ‘Damn, he’s tight,'” said Beasley, who was featured in 2 Chainz’s “No Lie” music video (Warning: explicit language).

After the set, Lil’ Wayne tried to hang out near his skater friends but the fans were simply too much. He was forced to leave in a hurried fashion with a team of security circling him on his way to a waiting SUV.

Garrett Reynolds took the top spot in Dew Tour’s first-ever BMX street competition. The landmark event was fiercely competitive and impressive.

Kyle Baldock shocked the BMX world in the GoDaddy.com BMX Dirt Best Trick contest by unveiling a move that has never been done before—a frontflip cliffhanger. The trick consisted of Baldock leaving his seat and pegs while upside down, only making contact with his bike by using the top of his feet to touch on the bottom of his handle bars. The feat won him first place, $5,000 in prize money and a spot in BMX history.

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Dew Tour day three: BMX and skate final results