Cover photo: Jamie Walter
Modified pipe was definitely the most unique element of this year's Dew Tour and it showed a ton of potential to build on in the future. As a new event, it was clearly taking some getting used to from a rider perspective, meaning a decent number of bobbles and crashes, but also some real dope moments. Unfortunately, the positives faded into insignificance somewhat with Torin Yater-Wallace taking a horrendous hit on the bottom hip, getting his takeoff angle wrong and landing in the flat bottom. Early indications suggested that it was a bad injury to his heels but we'll update you when we get more info. Best wishes on a speedy recovery go out to him.
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Run 1:
Started off hot with T-Sizzle bringing back-to-back switch 9s and then Nico Porteous dubbing both off the side take-off up to and out of the pipe. Neither really had clean runs but they set the tone for what was about to go down. Simon D'Artois, unfortunately, bobbled on a switch cork 5 on the fin because the rest of his run, with a huge air to fakie and a switch 12 was fire. David Wise was the first to put down a properly clean run on the day to score an 84.67 with switch bio 9 off the fin, a solid dub 12 in the pipe and a cork 7 on the hip at the bottom for an 84.67. It was at this point that Torin crashed and the course was on hold for 20+ minutes as he received medical attention.
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Torin's Crash:
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The event did continue but it was only one more run before Aaron Blunck hit the deck hard. Alex Ferreira, last to drop, managed to put a clean run down, the best to this point with back-to-back dub 12s in the pipe section and clean hits stylish hits out of the pipe and on the hip at the bottom to lead with a 90.
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David Wise (3rd Place Run):
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Alex Ferreira (1st Place Run):
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Run 2:
Nico Porteous landed backseat on his first hit dub 10 from the side take-off but put down a technical run which still scored and 83 and put him provisional third. Simon D'Artois then mostly put down his run with the dope air to fakie to switch 12 blunt and an alley-oop dub flat 7 high safety at the bottom but again, bobbled on the first feature. Rolland stepped up his second run with back-to-back dub 12s of his own and a big straight air on the hip at the bottom, but his cork 7 out of the pipe came with a dodgy grab which hurt his score (84).
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Nico Porteous
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Simon D'Artois
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Rolland:
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Run 3:
Run three started off with several crashes as Birk Irving was the first to put it down, going third at the time with a dope switch dub 10 in the pipe and a dub 12 out of it. David Wise changed things up for his third run but uncharacteristically went down on a right dub 12. Kevin Rolland was headed for the podium, backed by his shouty french coaches, but went down on an alleyoop 270 on the hip at the bottom. Aaron Blunck put down a run to end his day on a high after a big crash earlier with a dope switch 360 drop-in, his switch dub 9 and a nice hard way 270 on the hip at the bottom for 86.0 and second place. That result left two of Torin's best friends top of the podium, a fitting way to send vibes in his direction.
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Aaron Blunck (2nd Place Run)
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Results:
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