Lets go back, way back to 1987. We are on the shore of the Chesapeake Bay it is October, Halloween to be exact, it is cold and this is not a resort town. This is kind of burnt out old town in area somewhat depressed after the closure of the steel mills and other heavy industry that used to financially anchor this area. We are east of Baltimore at the Hell Ramp. A formidable ramp that was about 24 feet wide and had 9 foot transitions and 3 feet of vert. The surface was metal which felt much harder in the cold air. The event was a Halloween contest and we would a 15 year old or so Bucky Lasek competing against all sorts of hardened veteran vert skateboarders from the mid Atlantic region in a fierce competition for the measly prize purse of a few hundred bucks. Such was the life of a vert skater in the late 80’s. Vert was king but about meet a quick demise with the turn of the decade. Not too mention pretty much all of skateboarding died in 1990. You still get a lot of old dudes saying “I used to skate in the 80’s” Well, Bucky did not quit, he kept skating; street, ramps whatever. In the mid 90’s he would drive to Spunk skates in PA, Cheap Skates in PA, wherever. The X Games came around, skating came back and it was game on again. Bucky never quit, you don’t quit when you are a skater. You quit when you are following the trends or “grow up”.
Fast forward 21 years to June 21, 2008 and Bucky is on the deck of the vert ramp at the Dew Tour in his hometown of Baltimore, Maryland. His family was there, Bucky told he has “hundreds” of relatives in Baltimore and of course friends and pretty much the rest of the packed crowd were rooting for him to win. It was kind of weird actually to think a vert skater can still go strong after twenty years and actually be one of the top 5 vert skaters still. Ant way, the crowd was pumped to see the hometown hero win. Even though Bucky lives in So Cal he is fiercely proud of his MD roots. Give him a Yuengling in So Cal and you got a friend. He is always sporting Orioles Garb, he is not a dude that moved away and forgot his hometown.
The only real thing standing in his way of a victory at the Panasonic Open stop of the Dew Tour was PLG. Sure, Bob, Andy Mac or Sandro could have won but PLG has been on fire. Bucky fell on his first run and PLG stuck his so PLG was on top. All the other skaters either fell or did not have totally on performances. PLG had a score of 93.5, a good score, hard to beat. In run #2 PLG fell on a 720 I think. Bucky stuck his run
and bested PLG by 0.25 points. He barely beat him out. The crowd went wild. PLG failed to best him in run #3 and there you go, Bucky won the Dew Tour in Baltimore, 20 years from his humble beginnings. I asked him “did you ever imagine this while you were skating the Hell ramp 20 years ago” He said “no way”
Maryland in the summer is a beautiful spot and full of history. Here is the train station in Point Of Rocks, MD. On set of tracks goes to DC, the other to Baltimore, where the Dew Tour is
The Potomac river forms the border between Maryland and Virginia. If you think about it you can almost here the shots of the civil war
Andy Mac and the view from the media/friends and family pit
Andy Mac signing autographs. When asked if the ramps change at all on the Dew Tour he replied “it is pretty the same as last year and the year before” he said the change…I answered “little things like extensions and stuff” he said “you got it” and went to practice
At first I was all stoked to get a photo of Bucky with Camden Yards (home of the Orioles) but then I realized the stadium in the background is where the Raven play not the Orioles. Ah well it is still a Baltimore sports team so f-it
Neal Hendrix, along with Bucky where there oldest guys competing at 35 years old each. When I was 18 I could not even imagine skating well at thirty, let alone being pro at 35
Bucky with a heelflip to fakie, right before I got kicked off the vert ramp so Pat Parnell could tape some tv stuff. I can curse tv for the fact that I was kicked off the ramp during practice, when I usually get to shoot practice but no doubt I will watch it on tv my self in the next week or two
Adam Taylor was the youngest kid in the event at 18. Lets see when Adam was born in 1990 Bucky was 18 or so, skating was dead and he was probably wondering what the hell to do with his life. Adam got 5th so good for him
Sandro Dias can always win these events, a few falls said otherwise today. You can’t fall and win the Dew Tour you have to make your run and do lot’s of crazy flips and spins
Alley oop frontside air. I heard that June 21, 2008 was Bucky Lasek Day in Baltimore. That is not confirmed though
PLG came really close to beating Bucky, a mere 1/4 of a point separated them
PLG flips out well above ground level
Andy Mac does a 720 in his first run. In his second run he fell hard doing a 720 and asked Dave Duncan to “not call out his tricks before he does them”
Bob Burnquist is always exciting to watch, here is an invert to 540. Bot got 3rd place
Rob Loriface, or Kid Rock, performs frontside 540 right before he was knocked out, literally and figuratively knocked out
Bob Burnquist - back lip
Bucky Lasek - fakie to fakie, off axis 540
Bucky again - boneless one to 540 rodeo.
Moments later here is Bucky right after his winning run, of which the boneless 540 was part of. He was acknowledging the crowds approval. with that moment of victory, we will end the coverage of skateboarding events at the 1st stop of the 2008 Dew Tour
Results
1 Bucky Lasek
2 PLG
3 Bob Burnquist
4 Andy Mac
5 Adam Taylor
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