Just Dew it — extreme sports tours on the rise

The X Games are well known in the extreme sporting world; the Action Sports Tour Dew Tour is not so well known — yet.

One reason is the X Games are well established, having been on air now for 13 years. The Dew Tour is in its third season. Still, the Dew events are among the most-watched events aired on worldwide TV. An average of 38 million viewers turned into NBC and USA for last year's coverage.

Aside from that, the events are nearly identical, and the athletes, a good share of them anyway, compete in both.

The difference, as B.J. Carretta, national marketing/communications director, says, "The X Games are by invitation only. The Dew Tour is open competition.

"Also, the X Games are a held once a year. After the event, there was nowhere for the athletes to continue to compete. That's one reason the Dew Tour was started."

The tour will make a stop here in Salt Lake City this week and will spotlight six events — BMX Dirt, BMX Park, BMX Vert, Skateboard Park, Skateboard Vert and the only motorized event on tour, the FMX event.

Competition begins today and ends on Sunday. Events will be headquartered at the EnergySolutions Arena. Tickets are available through TicketMaster.

It took two years of hard negotiations to lure the tour to Utah, said Jeff Robbins, president of the Utah Sports Commission.

The Salt Lake stop will be the fourth of five. The first three were held in Baltimore, Cleveland and Portland. The final event will be in mid-October in Orlando.

It is expected 150 of the top athletes in skateboarding, BMX biking and freestyle motocross will compete in the four days of competition.

The events, as reported by Dew Tours, include the following:

SKATEBOARDING: Skateboarding's modern history dates back to the 1960s when it was coined "sidewalk surfing." While skateboarding initially benefitted from a symbiotic relationship with surfing, it quickly transcended the subcategory of surfing and became something completely its own.

The park course will allow skaters to showcase their technical skills as well as their ability to "go big" by maneuvering over, onto and through the aspects of the course. The combination of ledges and rails with larger park obstacles will bring out myriad lines and tricks, which is what judges look for. Skaters impress judges with their creativity, amplitude and use of the course.