Las Vegas Weekly

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If watching an adventure sounds more your speed than participating in one, consider this weekend your wildest expedition. The Dew Tour, a traveling action sports competition that features skate vert and skate park and BMX vert, park and dirt events, rolls into town October 14-17 for its annual championships. Folks like Bucky Lasek, Ryan Sheckler, Paul Rodriguez, 16-year-old Brett Banasiewicz and Olympic wunderkind Shaun White (he’s also freakishly skilled on a skateboard) will compete at the Joint inside the Hard Rock Hotel and on a ramp constructed on top of the pool. Beyond the athleticism on display, the Dew Tour also brings with it a festival village and concerts by N.E.R.D. October 15 and Wavves October 17, both at the Joint.

For a local look, Weekly sat down with motocross legend Carey Hart to talk about action sports in Vegas and this weekend’s best whip trick contest.

How big a deal is it having the Dew Tour Championships in Vegas?

On a lot of levels—not only for me, but for the athletes—it’s a big deal to be able to bring it to Vegas, because there isn’t a whole lot of action sports events that go down in Vegas. For me to be able to have something go down in my hometown, it’s pretty exciting. Over the course of my career, I’m lucky if there was one event a year I was able to get involved with. … I know from the athletes’ standpoint, they’re excited too because typically this is a very Middle America type of event—you know, basketball stadium parking lots or whatever the dynamic may be. So to be able to come to a high-profile place like the Hard Rock Hotel and kind of get the glitz and the glam and the celebrity status of it, it’s exciting.

You’re hosting a special, one-trick motocross competition. What’s the deal with that?

It’s the best whip contest. Every sport has its trick—in snowboarding it’s a method, skateboarding it’s a backside air—for motocross, it’s how flat and how sideways you can get your motorcycle. It’s a really fun and free-flowing event, and the guy who throws it upside down the best wins.

How are action sports doing in Vegas?

I think it’s on the rise, to be honest. Motocross racing, which is what freestyle motocross kind of stems from ... it might not be as big because the economy’s tough and people may not be able to go out and buy motorcycles like they used to, but we’ve got a pretty solid motocross riding scene here. Luckily enough, Las Vegas has gotten behind building a lot of public skateparks, which is great. In the course of the next 10, 15 years I think you’ll start seeing some really solid guys making that switch to the pro levels coming out of Las Vegas.