Me and my son went this past weekend in Portland. I have to tell you I am impressed with the athletes. Everyone of them signed autographs. None of them complained. You couldn't get that from a NBA, MLB or NFL star. My son got autographs from the Vans BMX team and each of them asked him he he rode BMX. He told them that he raced and that he was an Intermediate. Every one of them told my son that they started out racing in the beginning. They all told him that they never made it past Intermediate. My son was so happy because he has been struggling the past few months. Now my son wants to ride dirt jumps. Thats my 2 cents.

I've had a bad attitude about the Dew tour just cause it's such a big pile of marketing.
That's cool to hear that you and your son had a positive experience actually being there.
It's also cool to hear about pros being responsible about being a role model and trying to inspire kids to ride, vs. acting like some tattoo'ed and pierced uber-extreme prima-donna. Some pros don't realize how part of their jobs include being a positive representative of their sponsor(s).

After picking on the X-Gaymes so bad in that other thread I thought I should post my observations of the Dew Tour. By the way, I only saw the street contest.

I agree on the "marketing" statement made above, but I felt that the coverage of the "sport" was a lot better with the Dew Tour than the X-Gaymes. They actually showed more than just 2 or 3 people and they showed multiple complete runs. You actually got a feel for the riders style and got to see how each of their styles differed. It wasn't the absolute best (lets go back to BS contests on Props) but much better than that X-mess.

How about the footage they showed of Mirra prior to his X-Games crash? No-handed 360 backflip.. ***?!?!

Brian

I like BMX on TV!!!...even bad coverage is still coverage...I like the DEW TOUR, way better than repeats of Mama's Family...

Yeah, I watch any bmx event that's on tv and am quite happy about it.
Anytime you have people that don't know anything about bmx controling what you see on your tv between runs then there's going to be lame and cheezy parts.
The bottom line is that I'm happy that the sport I've dedicated my life to has not only made it big, but has survived the initial "fad" and continues to draw the interest.
It really wasn't that long ago when it first blew up and we were nervously waiting for it to come crashing down.
It hasn't yet.
That's good for all of us no matter how you feel about Sal Masakela and Kennin Harkin.