Two time AST/Dew BMX Park Champ Daniel Dhers came into Orlando with four straight wins on the ’08 Dew tour. Having already earned enough points to take the overall title, Dhers was looking to come away with an undefeated season.
Although Dhers has dominated in ’08, nothing is given when challenged by riders like Dave Mirra, Ryan Nyquist, Allan Cooke, Mike Spinner, Rob Darden and Austin Coleman. The showdown at the Playstation Pro was on.
Although it was a bit breezy, the park was protected by the stadium-style grandstands that surrounded it. The park featured a spine ramp, a couple of different sized box jumps with hips, a hitching post, a few quarterpipes of varying size, sub ramps and wall rides. The park was multi-tiered and expansive, allowing riders to flow through their runs seamlessly.
Rob Darden impressed the crowd and the judges with his smooth, fast style of riding. He attacks the ramps like a BMX racer and leaves nothing untouched. Darden really covers the whole park in his runs. It’s amazing how much he crams into the short 45 seconds. He busted out a sick fufanu on the hitch and a 270 double barspin up the double box and huge 720’s.
What can be said about Dave Mirra? The crowd loves Dave’s high-flying antics and insane technical jumping style.
He’s one of the few riders who really implements the vert influence into the park course—pulling huge no-handed 540’s, ten feet out. Dave also has the coolest trick out there with his air-traffic controller, which is a no-handed backflip 360…insanity!!!
Mike Spinner, Allen Cooke and Drew Bezanson all posted incredible runs. Spinner lives up to his name spinning and whipping everything in existence. Cooke always goes big and pulled a nothing seat grab over the hitch. Drew Bezanson got the tech trick of the day with his 360-tailtap to whip over the hitching post.
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Another rider that throws the vert style into his Park run is Austin Coleman. Coleman’s no-handed frontflips over the hip is definitely a cheek-squeezer and his flairs are done at high altitude. Austin rides super aggressive and pulling tricks like a no-handed 720 over the spine proves it.
And then there’s Ryan Nyquist…This dude is buggin’ out! Gnarly 720 barspins, flairs, truckdrivers, barspin-this to barspin-that—there are no words for what he does to the Park course. He put down a smooth first run, but his second run stole the show.
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He one-upped himself big-time by starting off with a 720 over the hitch and continued with his insanity—a backflip over the spine, a 720 barspin over the long box jump and a huge 540 double barspin over the 10-ft. quarterpipe. Nyquist threw down the gauntlet and everyone knew it.
Only one rider remained, the undefeated Daniel Dhers. Dhers throws so many tricks into his runs, it’s hard to follow. He busted double whips over the gap, huge 720’s and no-footed can-can to tailwhips over the spine. He pulled his first flair whip in competition but landed low on a 540 and bobbled a bit, throwing him off his run. It was obvious at this point that Nyquist had taken the win.
Don’t feel too bad for Dhers, he still took second and secured the overall win and the Dew Cup. Both Ryan Nyquist (1st) and Austin Coleman (2nd) step on the Dew podium for the first time in ’08.
Nyquist said, “I upset Daniel’s streak, but it’s competition, you know. I didn’t want to make the judges give it to him, but I kind of feel bad in the end from taking it from him. I didn’t know what my score was going to be, but I knew that was pretty much everything I could possibly do.”
Ryan Nyquist in top form is something you don’t want to miss. Congrats to him for pulling out the win.
—Chris Eudaley
Results
1. Ryan Nyquist
2. Daniel Dhers
3. Austin Coleman
4. Rob Darden
5. Dave Mirra
6. Garrett Reynolds
7. Drew Bezanson
8. Allan Cooke
9. Mike Spinner
10. Craig Mast
