The showers and blooms of spring nearly behind us, it’s time to start looking ahead to summer — a time when temperatures are on the rise and the trick-heavy dog days of action sports are just taking hold.
The Dew Tour, the prize-money pinnacle of action sports, enters its sixth season with tons of competitive buzz, a wave of momentum, and a fan base champing at the bit for ticket info. This year, the five-event tour puts the world’s best action sports athletes on showcase in Boston, Massachusetts; Chicago, Illinois; Portland, Oregon; Salt Lake City, Utah; and Las Vegas, Nevada, providing an extreme-sports fix that stretches from coast to coast. But an all-out television blitz expands that reach, putting boards, bikes, and dirt into the living rooms of some 150 million homes in 50 countries.
Chris Prybylo, the General Manager of the Dew Tour and Vice President of Events for Alli Sports (
www.allisports.com), is the ringmaster in charge of making each event a unique and safe experience for the 150 or so athletes and the hundreds of thousands of spectators who will file into venues this summer.
“We are constantly evaluating all aspects of the Dew Tour to ensure the best possible event for fans, athletes, and at-home viewers,” Prybylo says. “We've updated competition formats and course designs to make each event unique and world class.”
To this end, Prybylo and company have spared no expense in making sure that athletes are well fueled and adequately hydrated — with the PowerBar
® product line being a big piece of that performance puzzle. But Prybylo knows that cramming thousands of adrenaline-crazed spectators into an arena in the summertime — whether outdoors or indoors — also requires some careful planning. There's no sense in having five-figure attendance if half the crowd is heat stroked, Prybylo rationalizes.
As you’ll read below, these guys thought of everything. But that’s what you’ve come to expect from this juggernaut of action sports, right?
| Dew Tour Schedule |
| Event | Date | Location/Venue |
| ISF Skate Championships | June 25–26 | Boston, MA/TD Garden |
| Nike 6.0 BMX Open | July 23–24 | Chicago, IL/Museum Campus |
| Wendy’s Invitational | Aug. 12–15 | Portland, OR/Rose Quarter |
| Toyota Challenge | Sept. 16–19 | Salt Lake City, UT/Energy Solutions Arena |
| Dew Tour Championships | Oct. 14–17 | Las Vegas, NV/Hard Rock Hotel & Casino |
|
PowerBar: What are the main story lines about the Dew Tour that you want spectators looking out for in 2010?
Chris Prybylo: With such a high level of talent among Dew Tour athletes, the race for the Dew Cup will be a tight one, and exciting competitions are guaranteed throughout the entire season. The culmination of the five-stop tour will take place at the Dew Tour Championships, held at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. Coming to Las Vegas for the first time in our six-year history, the glitz and glamour of the Vegas strip will make the perfect backdrop for the world-class, elevated Dew Tour Championships.
PB: You’re an event executive, but you’re also a fan. What’s your take on how the events will shake out in 2010?
CP: Well, fan favorites for skate park include three-time Dew Cup champion Ryan Sheckler, Paul "P-Rod" Rodriguez, and Chaz Ortiz, the youngest Dew Cup champion in the history of the tour. In skate vert, the legendary Bucky Lasek will defend his Dew Cup against the new generation of vert riders, including 19-year-old Alex Perelson, one of the few skaters to ever land a 900. BMX veteran Dave Mirra will continue to hold his own in BMX park against a new school of riders like defending Dew Cup champion Garrett Reynolds, 15-year-old Brett "Maddog" Banasiewicz, and three-time Dew Cup champion Daniel Dhers. BMX vert athletes will continue to try and knock the undefeated Jamie Bestwick off his five-time Dew Cup pedestal, and BMX dirt always promises a good time with dynamic riders like Ryan Nyquist, Corey Bohan, and Dennis Enarson.
PB: What improvements have been made to the tour this year to ensure better events?
CP: In addition to making the skateboard park and vert formats more jam-session focused — multiple athletes on the course for an extended time period — we’re putting a real focus towards elevating our freestyle motocross this season. At one stop, fans might see a step-up and best whip competition; at the next event, there could be a 20-person, two-run event. The Dew Tour Championships in Las Vegas will be a completely unique and exciting event. The event will literally take over the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, and the skate park course will be built in their legendary concert venue, The Joint.
PB: Are you pleased with the growth that the tour has seen in recent years?
CP: The Dew Tour fan base is constantly growing, and with the addition of Chicago and Boston event markets last year and Las Vegas this year, we continue to bring these sports and athletes to more fans across the country. The Dew Tour Championships in Las Vegas will be the largest-scale event in the history of the tour.
PB: And you’ve also made strides with increasing TV coverage, correct?
CP: The Dew Tour boasts the most hours of action sports programming, reaching 150 million homes in 50 countries via NBC, USA, MTV, Eurosport2, Fuel TV, Extreme Channel, and Fox Sports Australia. Each stop of the tour is broadcast live on NBC Sports, in addition to the original programming on MTV2 with The Alli Show, featuring behind-the-scenes looks at athletes’ lives away from the competition.
PB: What else should spectators be on the lookout for with the Dew Tour in 2010?
CP: In addition to the competitions, fans can experience a Festival Village where they can play games, meet athletes, and walk away with free goodies from our sponsors. The Mountain Dew
® Dew Underground enables fans to check out the best music and art in each of the tour cities as well as watch the taping of Fuel TV's
Dew Underground show. Fans can also customize their own pair of shoes at the NikeiD
®(SM) design-a-shoe station, ride the mechanical bull at Matador’s setup, or get their hair cut with Paul Mitchell
® stylists. Each Dew Tour event also includes a live concert by some of the top names in music. Some past performers have been All-American Rejects, Lupe Fiasco, Common, and Plain White T’s.
PB: You guys are obviously placing a huge emphasis on the fan experience, but what about safety? What does the Dew Tour do during outdoor summer events to make sure that spectators are guarded against sunburn and dehydration?
CP: We work closely with each of the venues that host our events to make sure that water is available to all fans at each of the concessions set up throughout the entire venue, in addition to the sunscreen that is sold at each of the Dew Tour merchandise stands.
PB: Is there medical staff on hand at each event prepared to handle spectator problems that arise from the heat?
CP: We work closely with each venue’s local medical team prior to the event to make sure they have appropriate standards and procedures in place, along with daily meetings during the event to ensure that our fans can experience the Dew Tour in a safe environment. These local medical teams are equipped to handle any medical incident should it arise.
PB: Speaking of safety, who are the folks charged with handling the bumps and bruises of the participants during events?
CP: For the athletes, the Dew Tour has medical staff onsite at all five events, headed up by Executive Medical Director Rick Barr and his team from Winning Medicine International (WMI). WMI has been with the tour since its inception and has worked with the highest-level action sports events for the past 10 years with unequivocal backing from the athletes. With an average of 30 athlete medics onsite at each event, they are the same group from event to event.
PB: In addition to the PowerBar product that is provided to the athletes, what do you guys do to ensure adequate nutrition and hydration at Dew Tour events?
CP: Mountain Dew has been our tour title sponsor since the Dew Tour inception. Their sponsorship allows us to keep our competition venues stocked with water and fresh fruit for the athletes during practice, prelims, and finals. We also have an athlete lounge at all five stops; it's a place for athletes to recharge after riding. The athlete lounge is stocked with water and catered with food, along with video games, ping pong table, Wendy's
® Frosty™ machine — and the list goes on!
To learn more about the 2010 Dew Tour, including schedules, news, and ticket information, visit www.allisports.com.
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