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Neil Hendrix surprises crowd with Kick Flip Indie Jared Souney © 2006 Lat34

Shaun White Wins Skateboard Vert at the Right Guard Open

Jul 15 2006 / Denver

With twelve of the best vert skaters in the world advancing into the Dew Tour Finals from Friday’s Vert Prelims, a nail biting scene was set to see who would be crowned king in Denver. PLG, Bucky, Bob, Shaun, Sandro, Andy and Postec were in the top positions after yesterday’s intense competition and looked seriously fired up for today’s Finals. 

The big news of the day: Shaun White, winner of the 2005 Louisville stop of the Dew Tour in vert, launched a couple of 720s here in Denver to secure a first place finish over the likes of Bucky, Bob and Andy. The Flying Tomato started off this year’s Dew Tour in Louisville with a hurt ankle from street skating which kept him from placing in the Finals. But it appears he’s recovered now because today he looked perfectly healthy, rested and pumped.

Skaters had two 45-second runs to leave their mark so they needed to nail every trick and do them big to have a chance at the win. At the end of Round 1 the top five positions were filled by Shaun White, Bucky Lasek, PLG, Jean Postec, and Neal Hendrix in that order. And in one of the biggest upsets of the day, Bob Burnquist ended up in last place after some problems with his first run and confusion about the starting time of his second run. On the upside, he did a stylish one-footed backside smith grind that got the other riders amped.


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Skate Vert Finals - 2006 Dew Tour - Denver
Check out Bucky Lasek, Shaun White and the other skateboarders in the skate vert finals at the Denver stop of the 2006 Dew Tour.
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Skate Vert Finals. Runs by Andy MacDonald, Sando Dias and Shaun White's winning run.
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When the dust settled a genuinely stoked Shaun White took first place. Afterward, White thanked all the other skaters saying that he couldn’t believe he had beaten out such an all-star lineup of talent. He said, “It was crazy. I’m so pumped. I feel like a skateboarder now. I mean, there were some big names up there: Bob, Bucky… I don’t know, I’m tripping right now.”

Sandro Dias kicked it into second place with the run of his life in Round 2 after bailing on a frontside indy air during his first run. He threw several 540 variations including a 540 to tail tap, something no one else on the Tour has even considered doing.

Bucky Lasek picked up third place with two very solid runs. There were big expectations for Bucky, the overall winner of the 2005 Dew Tour vert skating title. He nailed frontside rodeo 540s over the channel, McTwists, switch inverts, and a nollie flip blindside over the channel that had everyone going wild.

Congratulations to all the skaters. Everyone put on an amazing show. But, a special congrats out to Shaun. I don’t think we had any doubt you were a skater, but if there was, there’s no question now.