This summer Mt Dew had an amature contest series called the “Dew Tour Free Flow” that consisted of 14 local contests around the US, one being located in the cities in Hopkins, MN at the 3rd Lair Overpass Skatepark. The winners of these local contests around the US, flew out (all expenses paid) to Orlando to compete in the finals at the actual Dew Tour event. The winner of the finals rides in the actual professional televised event that same weekend. I won our local contest in Hopkins (with a super close finish next to my good friend AJ Haines) and flew out to Orlando to compete in the finals. Quite a bit of my family flew out, so I definitely had quite a crowd of support behind my back, including a crazy yelling uncle Mike 😉 We arrived at the event the first night with all the free Mt. Dew and Slim Jims you could ever imagine. The next morning I was told if I get up and get to the arena by 5AM with a few other riders, we would be able to practice on the course for a bit because the news station would be there to interview some of the riders. I decided to go for it, met some nice guys, and to make a long story short, we had to ride in the parking lot cause something wasn’t planned right and the cameras couldn’t get into the arena. Anyways, that afternoon we all got to practice for a few hours. The ramps were HUGE! It was so fun to ride big ramps again, we have nothing like this in MN. So the next day was the contest… I rode great and made it into the top 5 final riders. We each had our own 1 minute run, and I was super happy with how I rode. I was one of the only ones to not step a foot down, fall, etc and I did everything I was hoping to do (frontflip, truckdriver spine, 3whip spine, flair, double whip quarter, 360 double whip, etc). When the results came in, I ended up in 2nd place. I was super excited about this because seriously every rider out there was so good, and very competitive. I thought it was a great contest, and I also got to see and meet people that I don’t get to see that often. Special thanks to my family, Mark from the Lair, and all the other riders out there. It was an incredible experience, and I may have to try to qualify for some of the pro events next season…