I can’t say that I was a skateboarder or a biker as a kid (I left that to my friend Chip Cowan), but I did attend the Dew Tour’s 2007 stop here in Baltimore and got a chance to meet with fellow Dundalkian Bucky Lasek. But it’s not really about what I like (and I really didn’t understand much about the scoring or the rules but I did get to see the Tomato Kid, Shawn White from the Olympics, go wildly up and down the ramps on the southside of our football stadium). The sad news for locals who love the X Games and the bike and skate action sports: the Dew Tour will not be coming back to Baltimore this summer.
As someone who lives downtown and sees the daily plight of the downtown business community with how many millions of live bodies the Orioles have sucked out of downtown on summer nights, it was awesome seeing the drawing power of the Dew Tour. The Baltimore Sun said 52,000 people attended last year. And they came early, stayed late and hung around downtown. Trust me, it was a big boon to the city. And now it’s gone as the Tour as opted to move most of their events into arenas instead of stadium parking lots.
The setup and the lugging in of dirt, ramps, stages and temporary bleachers must’ve been a cost drain.
But it’s a big loss for the city and the young folks who live, eat and breathe Bucky Lasek and Tony Hawk.
