Bryce Wettstein competes in Women's Skateboard Park Final at Dew Tour 2019 in Long Beach, Calif. Photo Credit: Dangaard

 

 

FREE TICKET RESERVATIONS ARE NOW OPEN FOR DEW TOUR SKATEBOARD COMPETITION TO BE HELD MAY 20-23, 2021 IN DES MOINES, IOWA

2021 Summer Dew Tour Takes Center Stage at the New Lauridsen Skatepark;

Fans Welcomed Daily at Event in Limited Capacity with Required Pre-Reservation

(Carlsbad, Calif. ) April 27, 2021 -- The annual summer Dew Tour skateboard competition and festival, to be held May 20-23, 2021 at the brand new Lauridsen Skatepark in Des Moines, Iowa, has opened its ticketing portal via the Dew Tour website DewTour.com.

 

Dew Tour, celebrating its 16th year and first in Des Moines, will include World Skate sanctioned men’s and women’s skateboarding Street and Park competitions, serving as the only U.S.-based global Olympic skateboard qualifying events for 2021. Skateboarding will make its debut at the Olympic Games this summer in Tokyo, which were rescheduled in 2020 for July 23 - August 8, 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

More than 300 of the world’s top male and female skateboarders will compete in individual Park and Street events for a chance to win the Dew Tour title, while earning valuable points toward their country’s Olympic skateboarding team. As in the past, Dew Tour competitors exemplify the best in each sport. Competition will take place at  Lauridsen Skatepark, an 88,000 square foot custom concrete skatepark built by renowned builders California Skateparks. 

TICKET DETAILS

Dew Tour has always been a free event open to the public. This year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the event will offer FREE tickets via the Dew Tour website.  To remain in compliance with state and local COVID guidelines, there will be dedicated sessions/time slots per day for entry, and only one reservation may be made per day, per person. No one may enter the venue without a free ticket. 

 

Reserving free tickets will allow fans onto the public skate courses as well as to first come, first served sectioned spectator viewing areas located on the grassy bank, which will be separated into six-person pods. The time slots will be enforced by colored wristbands as well as a team who will be working within the spectator areas.  Please visit DewTour.com for all rules around seating areas. 

 

Also included in fans’ ticket access is the Dew Tour Experience, a festival-style area that will be spread out throughout 2nd Avenue between Center Street and School Street in Des Moines. The Dew Tour Experience will offer a large, socially distanced and safe area for fans to enjoy fun and free event partner activations. 

 

Social distancing and masks will be required in all areas of the venue. In addition, a health questionnaire and COVID-19 release will be required by everyone entering the venue.

Dew Tour will be livestreamed in its entirety on DewTour.com, Facebook Live, YouTube and other major platforms for a total of 25+ hours of LIVE video.  Additionally, more than four hours of Dew Tour coverage will air on NBC and NBCSN this summer.

Stay updated at DewTour.com and on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube by following @DewTour.

 

About Dew Tour

Dew Tour is an innovative contest series and content platform that brings together the world’s best skateboarders, snowboarders, skiers, artists, brands and fans in a celebration of creativity and style.  

 

In 2016, the Adventure Sports Network (ASN), a part of Accelerate360’s media portfolio, became the official strategic partner to lead content production, execution and event staging for the Dew Tour. Working in close collaboration with ASN’s core action sports media brands and in partnership with DEW®, Dew Tour continues to progress events and content, bringing millions of action sports fans engaging stories and experiences across digital and broadcast mediums. In addition to Dewtour.com and ASN’s digital network, Dew Tour’s summer and winter events are telecast on NBC.

Via VOA Connect

Meet Bombette Martin, a 14-year old skateboarder. Learn how she went from a spectator to one of the top female skateboarders, looking to skate her way to the Olympics in Tokyo.  

Bombette just took 1st place in the UK Championships and will be competing at Olympic Qualifiers starting in May!

If you don't follow Haley Isaak on YouTube yet - you should. One of her recent videos taps into what she feels like being a female skater at the skatepark. 

Most of us have experienced a lot of what she talks about. Just remember - everyone starts somewhere and you have just as much right to be at the park skating as the boys do - don't let a weird vibe or comments push you away.

Just skate. 😀

The top 20 advance to the semi-finals.

Women's Park

1    Bryce Wettstein
2    Jordyn Barratt
3    Nicole Hause
4    Ruby Lilley
5    Minna Stess
6    Grace Marhoefer
7    Kody Tamanaha
8    Arianna Carmona
9    Jordan Santana
10    Lillian Erickson
11    Lady Meek
12    Carlin Makibbin
13    Autumn Tust
14    Shiloh Thornton
15    Tuli Lam
16    Nicole Noller
17    Elle Warne
18    Olivia Torres
19    Jessie Frietze-Armenta
20    Sophia Davies
21    Di'orr Greenwood
22    Kailey Orellana

 The top 20 advance to the semi-finals.

 Women's Street

1    Poe Pinson
2    Mariah Duran
3    Samarria Brevard
4    Meagan Guy
5    Jordan Pascale
6    Kendra Long
7    Christiana Smith
8    Paige Heyn
9    Jamie Kutcher
10    Celina Meehan
11    Shiloh Thornton
12    Jaelyn Sedeno
13    Kay Hensley
14    Emma Fischbeck
15    Briel Weingartner
16    Lillian Erickson
17    Alyssa Hanson
18    Mathilda Kotsonis

The 2021 USA Skateboarding National Championships presented by Toyota, will award Olympic Qualifying points to 32 American skateboarders (8 finalists in each discipline) and crown four national champions next month! 

After receiving hundreds of entries from all over the country, here are your semifinalists in Men's and Women's Park Skateboarding. 

These skaters' :45 Semifinals video submissions are due April 26, and the Finalists will be announced on Wednesday, April 28. 

The Park Finals will take place LIVE at California Skateparks TF on May 8 & 9

Visit USASkateboarding.com for the full Finals details!

 

 Photos via British Vogue shot by Craig McDean 

Great to see this spread in the May 2021 issue of British Vogue featuring skateboarders Briana King and Stephanie Wise, along with model Julia Nobis - shot at Venice Beach & skatepark. 

Photos Craig McDean

Margie’s story is an incredible one. From starting out skating around the densely packed streets of Cebu city in the Philippines aged just 12, she has enjoyed a stratospheric rise and in so doing she has raised the profile of skate culture not just in her home country but the entire region. Contest victories at the Asian and Southeast Asian games in 2018 and 2019 respectively turned Margie into something of a national hero- even as Cebu’s only skatepark, ‘Concave’, was closing down. Forced to practice at the picturesque but limited terrain underneath the Pahara bridge in neighboring Mandaue, 

Margie’s ability to work on new moves was then further curtailed by the 2020 global pandemic which forced many Asian cities into total lockdowns. Her solution was to build a small private training facility where she could dial in her technique with a view to setting the global women’s contest circuit alight. 

The plan is to use her new profile in a country which idolizes sporting heroes to create a permanent indoor public skatepark in order to nourish that groundswell of interest in skating which her success has helped create. All this, it might be added, before even her 21st birthday. To celebrate that occasion, Margie allowed Red Bull to swing by and check out her training facility, where they took the opportunity to catch up with her about the twists and turns of her life story right up to this very unusual juncture in time. 

Go Margie!

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Women's Park & Women's Street Podium at the UK National Championships... Big congrats to all the ladies for skating their hearts out - awesome to see!

Watch the complete replay above!

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 USA National Team member for Women's Park Skateboarding, Jordyn Barratt, showed off the new Team USA Olympic Closing Ceremony uniform designed by Ralph Lauren.  Jordyn also appeared on the TODAY Show modeling the new RL uniforms along with USA teammate Heimana Reyonolds.

USA National Team member for Women's Street Skateboarding, Alexis Sablone, appeared on The Today Show showing hosts Hoda and Jenna how to skateboard. These ladies had no skateboard skills, yet Alexis has the ladies up and skating pretty quickly!

USA National Team member for Women's Park Skateboarding, Brighton Zeuner, was featured in an extensive article on Elite Daily - read it all HERE

Last but not least, USA Team Member for Women's Park, Jordan Santana, was featured in a HUGE article in the Sunday edition of the Houston Chronicle! See more from this article HERE

For the first time in Olympic history, skateboarding will make its debut at the 2020 (now 2021) Tokyo Olympic Games with the addition of Men’s and Women's Park and Street Skateboarding disciplines. With the support of Toyota and sponsors Nike SB, Jessup Griptape, ProTec Helmets, USA Skateboarding (USAS) introduces the 2021 USA Skateboarding National Team. 

Vista, Calif. (April 14, 2021) — Together with Toyota and sponsors Nike SB, Tech Deck, Jessup Griptape and ProTec Helmets, USA Skateboarding—the U.S. governing body for skateboarding—announced the 22 members of the 2021 USA Skateboarding National Team. The national team skateboarders qualified based on performance in international-level and national championships events during the Olympic Skateboarding qualifying process that began in 2019. The national team will receive resources and support from the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) and USA Skateboarding on their journey to qualify for the Tokyo Games — the official Olympic Skateboarding team will be named in July following the conclusion of the qualification process. 

“The national team announcements are one of our most fun events of the year,” said Josh Friedberg, CEO, USA Skateboarding. “The chance to gather as a team to celebrate all of our skaters’ accomplishments is especially meaningful this year as they gear up for the most important stretch of Olympic Qualifying ahead of skateboarding’s Olympic debut in Tokyo this July.” 

 Dedra DeLilli, group manager, sponsorship, integration, & auto shows, Toyota Motor North America said: “As a proud partner of USA Skateboarding, we excitedly congratulate all the athletes who were named to the 2021 USA Skateboarding National Team, including our own Team Toyota athlete, Jordyn Barratt. We wish them all the best of luck at the remaining Olympic qualifying events and look forward to their continued success in their journey to the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.” 

The skaters named to the 2021 USA Skateboarding National Team include: 

Women’s Park 

Arianna Carmona (Buena Park, CA) ,  Brighton Zeuner (Encinitas, CA) ,  Bryce Wettstein (Encinitas, CA),  Jordan Santana (Houston, TX),  Jordyn Barratt (Haleiwa, HI),  Minna Stess (Petaluma, CA)

Women’s Street 

Alana Smith (Mesa, AZ),  Alexis Sablone (Old Saybrook, CT), Mariah Duran (Albuquerque, NM), Samarria Brevard (Riverside, CA)

Men’s Park 

Alex Sorgente (Lake Worth, FL),  Cory Juneau (San Diego, CA), Heimana Reynolds (Honolulu, HI), Jagger Eaton (Mesa, AZ), Tom Schaar (Malibu, CA) , Tristan Rennie (Rialto, CA),

 Men’s Street 

Dashawn Jordan (Chandler, AZ), Jake Ilardi (Osprey, FL), Jamie Foy (Deerfield Beach, FL),  Louie Lopez (Hawthorne, CA),  Maurio McCoy (Reading, PA),  Nyjah Huston (Laguna Beach, CA), 

 Skateboarders will have the opportunity to qualify for the Olympics based on their results in World Skate sanctioned events during two seasons of Olympic qualifying. The first season began in 2019, qualifying was put on pause in 2020, and resumes again with the 2021 USA Skateboarding National Championships presented by Toyota — May 6-9, 2021.

In case you missed this when it aired on NBC...

 This special takes you through USA Skateboarding's journey to the Tokyo Olympics - from the pandemic that shut the world down, to the announcement that the 2021 Olympics will happen!

July 25—the day skateboarding was set to make its NBC primetime debut on the biggest stage in sport—the Tokyo Olympic Games. But 2020 had other plans. Skateboarding is more than any single competition—it’s our lives and a way to change the world. Skateboarders embody an incredible, unwavering ability to adapt and persevere—it's in our DNA. And this time it’s no different.

 00:00​ - Segment 1 Program Tease / Show Open History of Skateboarding Olympic Event Overview  

05:42​ - Segment 2 - 2019 National Team Announcement 2019 - Olympic Qualifying Event Recaps Jordyn Barratt Feature 

 12:14​ - Segment 3 Park Skateboarding Overview Heimana Reynolds Feature Bryce Wettstein Feature 

 18:36​ - Segment 4 Street Skateboarding Overview Mariah Duran Feature Nyjah Huston Feature 25:06​ - Segment 5 2019 National Championships / Adaptive Skateboarding 2020 National Team Announcement Oi STU Brazil Season Two Qualifying Cancellations Begin 

 32:36​ - Segment 6 Pandemic / Olympics Postponed Social Justice Feature Samarria Brevard / Dr. Neftalie Williams  

39:45​ - Segment 7 Olympic Qualifying On Pause / Skateboarding Flourishes 2020 Team Activity Recap Olympic Inclusion Benefits / Close / Credits

WATCH THE VIDEO FOR GREAT INFO ON SUBMITTING YOUR VIDEO!

If you haven't already - make sure you read the COMPLETE instructions below on how to post and submit your video! 

** Helmets are required in both street and park submissions if you are under 18!

#1 Join USA Skateboarding - via its new membership program!!

The national championships are free to enter this year, however you have to be a member of USA Skateboarding to participate. Memberships are $49 for minors and $79 for adults. You can begin your registration process by purchasing your membership here.

All USA Skateboarding athlete memberships purchased before April 15th, 2021 include:

Free entry into one discipline of the 2021 USA Skateboarding National Championships presented by Toyota, a $49 value

A $25 gift card to the USA Skateboarding online shop

A background check (required for membership if you're 18 or over), a $30 pass-through expense

After you complete your purchase you'll be sent an email with instructions on how to complete the registration process and claim your National Championships entry.

After you've completed your registration then:

1. Post your run to social media and tag #usaskateboarding #usasbnc – must be publicly viewable, non-private profile

2. Complete your registration by submitting the link to your run – form will be provided by USA Skateboarding once your membership information is verified

Stay tuned for the judging of the open qualifying rounds beginning April 16 – good luck!

 SCHEDULE

Apr 9 – Apr 15: Open Qualifying Video Submissions

Apr 16 – Apr 18: Open Qualifying Judging

Apr 19 – Apr 22: 36 Quarterfinalists Announced, Quarterfinals VIdeo Submissions

Apr 23: Quarterfinals Judging

Apr 24 – April 26: 20 Semifinalists Announced, Semifinals Video Submissions

Apr 27: Semifinals Judging

Apr 28: 8 Finalists Announced, 8 days prior to Finals events

May 6 – May 7: Street Finals, In-person, The Berrics – Los Angeles, California

May 8 – May 9: Park Finals, In-person, CA | TF – Vista, California

Watch closely, and you'll see a badass clip of a then eight-year-old Minna Stess (who is currently on the USA National Team for Women's Park Skateboarding) dropping into the Mega Ramp in this just-released commercial for Telenet titled "Ready for Tomorrow."

 Go Minna!

We always love seeing Lizzie Armanto in videos but it's even more special when we get to see our own Girl is NOT a 4 Letter Word team rider, Quinne Daniels, playing Lizzie as a child!

Taka Higashino, Clayton Vila, and Lizzie Armanto don't seem all that similar at first glance. Sure, they are professional athletes on the Monster Energy roster, but in completely different places. However, they did share one thing when they were young: 

Where they grew up was not conductive to their dreams. 

This film follows these three as seven-year-old kids on all sides of the planet as they become infatuated with their action sport for the first time. The problem? Clayton lives on a tiny island with no ski mountains in sight, Taka is from Osaka, Japan where FMX is nowhere near a commonality, and Lizzie lives in a society where seeing a girl at the skatepark was considered cute at-best. But none of them seemed to even noticed - they were completely obsessed. And in time, they started to show real talent. 

This short story is a call to action to anyone who notices talent and determination at an early age. Whether you just give them some props at the local skatepark, or you risk it all shipping your kid off to a program, to pursue their dreams, your support and encouragement is paramount to a child turning young talent into world-class athletic success. 

 Monsters are hiding everywhere. Help us find them.  

Leticia Bufoni held the #1 rank in Women’s Street Skateboarder by World Cup Skate for four years (2010 - 2013) and appeared in the Guinness Book of World Records for  “Most Wins in World Cup Skateboarding.”   ©Kenji Haruta

Five time X Games Gold Medallist and SLS Super Crown champion Leticia Bufoni will be representing her home country Brazil in the upcoming Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.

Left: Park course & Right: Street course. *Course design may be subject to change ©California Skateparks

Press Release via World Skate: The Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Tokyo 2020) today unveiled the designs of the courses for skateboarding events, which will be featured at the Tokyo 2020 Games for the first time in Olympic history. Construction of the courses, which will be located in Ariake Urban Sports Park in the stunning waterfront area close to the Olympic Village, will be completed in early May.

There will be two types of skateboarding event at the Tokyo 2020 Games: "Street", in which skateboarders compete on a course that resembles a city street, and "Park", in which they compete on a hollowed-out course featuring a series of complicated curves. The judges will evaluate the difficulty, height and speed of the tricks, including jumps and body rotations, performed by the skateboarders while in mid-air.

Park course. *Course design may be subject to change ©California Skateparks

The Tokyo 2020 skateboarding courses are a culmination of the designs and experiences derived from a number of world championships. Each course will be about 1.5 - to 2 times the size of a standard competition course, allowing full use during each athlete's time on standby. Both the "Street" and "Park" courses have been designed with equality in mind, supporting a smooth skate for competitors of any stance (regular or goofy) and any gender.

The design of the Tokyo 2020 skateboarding courses was overseen by Mr. Joe Ciaglia and the construction by Mr. Bill Minadeo.

Mr. Ciaglia commented, “The design for the Skateboarding Street and Park Courses at the Tokyo 2020 Games is intended to far exceed anything that has ever been built for professional skateboarding competition. Each of the custom concrete courses was meticulously designed to give skateboard athletes the ability to maximize their own creativity, flow, speed, amplitude, technicality, and variety. The layout of the skate features is also driven by the Olympic competition format and the goal of providing skateboard athletes from all over the world the terrain necessary to achieve their own personal best and to help advance skateboarding into the future.”

Tokyo 2020 Games Skateboarding Competition Schedule

・ Sunday 25 and Monday 26 July 2021 - Street (men’s, women’s)

・ Wednesday 4 and Thursday 5 August 2021 - Park (men’s, women’s)

Street course. *Course design may be subject to change ©California Skateparks

NISHIKAWA Takashi - director of Tokyo 2020 Japan Skateboarding Team

Park course: The course is one size larger and more complicated than the existing international competitions. Air at a height of 2.95m in the deep zone is one of the highlights of the contest. There is also no doubt that the compound sections (round and volcano) located in the course centre will increase the difficulty of the course and will have a significant impact on the skateboard's scoring in terms of difficulty, height, speed and style depending on how it is used. Particularly, how to use a particularly large volcano? Use it as a hip or jump over it? It's a section that will excite both the skaters and the spectators on how to use it. It is possible to show unique tricks with the section with round rails on the flat bank and the square rails on the rounded part. Since the course is particularly wide, such as the various hip sections (where the banks overlap diagonally), the key point is to increase the difficulty and slide through the complex sections at high speed.

Street course: Compared to existing domestic and international contests, the point is how to leverage the sections arranged symmetrically on the left and right, with tall rails, long rails, and ledges with different lengths and heights. There is plenty of flat space when entering the section, and the course is designed to be very easy to start skating. In the first half run of the contest, the point is how fast the skateboarder can slide through the entire section and put in a lot of tricks. The main section in the centre also has tall square rails, round rails, rails from the pop-out bank, etc., and in the best tricks in the latter half of the contest, how to make difficult tricks here will be a key point.

This should help get you through the work/school week - Nora's "Rendezvous" OJ Wheels part. Not sure how we missed this drop, but it's here now and it's a good one!

 Enjoy!

Photo of Lucy Adams by John Cyrus

Vague Magazine  has released a video documentary by Andy Evans with one of the raddest UK female skaters around,  Lucy Adams. 

Lucy has killed it for as long as we can remember and has been and still is a huge inspiration in the UK scene. 

Vague Magazine also  interviewed Lucy and Andy on the making of this brilliant piece which you can read in full via the link below. They discuss the filming process, Lucy's favorites, her family, stand out moments while filming this documentary and much more! 

The video was filmed over two years between 2018 - 2020 in and around West Sussex with archival footage used from 2000 onwards. It features interviews with Lucy's Mum Wendy, Lucy's wife Emily, Lovenskate's Stuart Smith, Lucy's bestie Lex Kembery and the OG Crawley hero Trev Wedd. Big up to Andy Evans' for putting this all together too! 

 Filmed & Edited by: Andy Evans Cover Photo: John Cyruss Supported by: Lovenskate, CHPO Brand & Thunder Trucks.

 Watch the awesome video above, and then read the Lucy Adams - A Metre of Air Interview HERE

We're featured on VENICE PAPARAZZI this week!  They did a rad interview with GN4LW founder and '70s pro skater, Cindy Whitehead, about the OG days of skateboarding and what Girl is NOT a 4 Letter Word's mission is today.

We appreciate all the love and support and hope you will jump on over to their site and check out the full interview HERE. 

💗 Spoiler alert!  More OG skate photos on the Venice Paparazzi site! 💗

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Amelia announced on Instagram just hours ago that her Amelia Brodka Pro Model is dropping with Arbor Skateboards! And you can catch her in the new Arbor ad in this months issue of Thrasher Magazine as well! 

This is huge news and so well deserved 👏👏👏

Big congrats Amelia!!

Beatrice Domond's effortless style and cool intensity has made her one of skateboarding most interesting figures. As the first female signed to Supreme, Beatrice is breaking ground, then paving the way for a generation of skateboarders behind her.

Check out this new video of Beatrice from Stance

 Get ready because this coming weekend (Saturday, April 3rd) is a local contest (if you live near Los Angeles/Ventura/Santa Barbara County) you don't want to miss this chance to finally get out and compete.

It's the Santa Paula Slamna - a street contest for guys and girls taking place at the Santa Paula Skatepark.It should be a great day to get out and skate with friends and win some fun prizes from the sponsors listed on the flyer.

DETAILS:

Santa Paula Skatepark, 110 S. 10th street, Santa Paula, CA

Saturday, April 3rd from 11 AM - 2 PM

 ** $5 donation or volunteer to set up or clean up duty**

 

A note from GN4LW:  PLEASE REMEMBER TO SOCIAL DISTANCE AND WEAR A MASK

Nice to see Nora in involved in this project and launch from Adidas! When pro athletes lend their time and name to help the environment, we are all for it.

Adidas Originals is ushering in a new era of the Stan Smith by using sustainable materials on its new releases to help reduce plastic waste.

Adidas has also launched a new video campaign as well. The film features some of its most notable collaborators including Kermit the Frog, skaters Na-Kel Smith and Nora Vasconcellos, digital architect Iddris Sandu, actress Yara Shahidi, as well as Stan Smith himself.

Today, the Three Stripes unveiled a collection of Stan Smith styles inspired by some of Disney, Marvel, Pixar, Star Wars’ iconic characters like Kermit the Frog, Wall-E, Yoda and others. The shoe features a Primegreen upper that’s constructed with repurposed materials along with a recycled rubber outsole underneath. Each pair is equipped with references to the specific characters including various graphics and embossed details throughout the shoe.

Disney’s collaborative Adidas Stan Smith sneakers will be released exclusively at Adidas.com/stansmith and at select Adidas stores on March 29 followed by a wider release on April 1.