In April, Alli Sports announced plans for an overhaul of the Dew Tour series, consolidating the former six Dew Tour and Winter Dew Tour events into a three-stop tour that focused on terrains: Beach, City and Mountain. In past years, the Dew Tour would have been in full swing by mid-July, but with these new changes, the first Dew Tour event of the year doesn't start until mid-August.
That event, the "Beach" event, returns to Ocean City, Md. for a second year, and features Skateboarding, BMX and Surf along with multiple music performances. Concerning BMX and Skateboarding, the Dew Tour has also added a new discipline to their lineup: Mega 2.0.
Mega 2.0 is basically a scaled down version of the traditional MegaRamp, featuring a 30-foot jump gap and 18-foot quarterpipe. According to the Dew Tour, "Mega 2.0 ramp provide athletes the same opportunity for dynamic tricks as the larger specs of MegaRamp -- but it is a more technical ramp that allows them to showcase street-inspired tricks as well." Similar in scope to the Mini Mega event of X Games Asia, Mega 2.0 will descend on Ocean City the weekend of Aug. 16-19 with a list of invited BMX athletes that includes Vince Byron, Austin Coleman, James Foster, Chad Kagy, Steve McCann, Anthony Napolitan, Kevin Robinson, Colton Satterfield, Morgan Wade and Zack Warden.
In addition to Mega 2.0, BMX Park and Vert returns to Ocean City with a few slight changes. In years past, the first Dew Tour event of the year was coined an "Open," allowing all pro riders to compete in contention for a slot on the year's tour. This year, the open qualifiers have been eliminated and replaced with a list of invited riders for Park (30 riders) and Vert (12 riders). For a full list of invited riders, please consult the Dew Tour website.
In October, the Dew Tour returns with the Toyota City Championships in San Francisco, Calif. BMX disciplines for the City stop have not yet been announced.
In years past, the four-stop Dew Tour circuit, in addition to X Games, had become the core of the U.S. BMX competition season. This year, with X Games already finished and Dew Tour's format change, the U.S. competition season is perhaps the smallest it has been since the launch of the Dew Tour in 2005.
"That's just how it is: You see the contest scene come up and down. Remember the Triple Crown? The ASA events? The Dew Tour's one of the best things ever to happen to action sports and it's certainly been the best thing that's ever happened to me, but I don't think it's the end of the world that it's scaling back now," Dew Tour BMX Park pro Mike Spinner told ESPN.com in April.
Spinner will compete at the Dew Tour Pantech Championships in Ocean City, Md., but has spent the majority of the year focusing on his YouTube Network A show "The Program" instead of competitions.
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