Lance Dawes
Review Dew Tour 07-Sheckler celebrates third overall victory
The AST Dew Tour has never been so “bullish:” This year Ryan Sheckler garnered his third overall victory in a row; Daniel Dhers his second, and Shaun White his first. When Ryan Sheckler celebrated his third AST Dew Tour overall victory in Orlando, one of his fans found some particularly warming words for reporters’ mics: “Ryan is an amazing person. He's a wonderful human being and he has such a great heart. I think that it's really awesome to be able to see somebody with that kind of heart be able to realize his dreams.”
Support from family
Whether Gretchen Sheckler, Ryan’s mum and manager, satisfies all criteria in objectivity regarding her son is arguable. That she seems to have done everything right in terms of supporting Ryan in his career, even the envious would have to acknowledge. “Early on,” she remembers, “when people knew that I allowed my son to skateboard, they asked me: ‘Are you crazy?’ They thought I was a bad parent for letting him do it. But my husband and I really saw that it was his passion and what he wanted to do, so we supported him in every way we could.” This passion made the 17-year-old the most successful skater of the hour – and also the crowd’s favorite at this year’s AST Dew Tour.
Top sportsperson and swarmed by girls
Ryan managed to pull of his most difficult trick to justify this status: balancing the image of being chased after by smitten girls, fans of his MTV show “Life of Ryan”, and the respect he wants to receive from his rivals. “When the show first came out there were a lot of haters, but I think now everybody is starting to see it as something really positive for skateboarding,” Ryan says. “So it’s cool that the other skaters accept me for my skateboarding and not for everything else that’s going on.” His performance at the tour, which he finished with a third place at Orlando’s PlayStation Pro, no doubt contributed to that: alongside the BMX Vert rider Jamie Bestwick, Ryan is now the only person to celebrate an overall category win in all three of the Dew Tours to date.
Second overall win for Dhers
But it wasn’t only Sheckler who managed to defend his title successfully: with his triumph in Orlando, Daniel Dhers also secured his second victory in the BMX Park overall table. In total, like Sheckler, Dhers celebrated three victories this year: in Baltimore, Cleveland and Orlando.
Victory party in hospital for Shaun White
Most dramatic was how Shaun White orchestrated his departure from the Dew Tour: while training after the first of three final runs White fell so hard that he was knocked unconscious for a while. For the 21-year-old, who was delivered to hospital with concussion, the point lead he collected before the last two rounds was enough to secure him third place that day. But he had already made his standing in the overall table clear as early as Salt Lake City. At the final contest none of his adversaries had any chance of endangering White’s title.
