AST Dew Tour to launch fourth season

The AST Dew Tour, formerly known as the Dew Action Sports Tour, beings its fourth season Thursday in Baltimore.

And for the fourth season, the tour will visit five cities but not Los Angeles.

Wade Martin, general manager, prefers smaller markets where communities fully embrace the events, and the strategy has worked.

The season-opening Panasonic Open moved to Baltimore last season and drew 55,000 spectators. A larger crowd is expected for a skateboarding-bicycle motocross-freestyle motocross extravaganza that runs through Sunday.

Other cities are Cleveland; Portland, Ore.; Salt Lake City and Orlando, Fla.

But while the number of tour stops has not increased, growth is apparent from within the Dew Tour. MTV has partnered with NBC and now co-owns the tour, so programming, Martin says, will double and broaden in scope.

Nike 6.0, which sponsors many of the top rising action sports stars, has become a partner for the summer and winter versions of the AST.

The launch of the Winter Dew Tour is December and will showcase the world’s top men and women in snowboarding and free skiing.

Sites have not been announced, but a California resort, probably in the Lake Tahoe area, probably will land a stop.

Meanwhile, the race for Dew Cups – each worth $75,000 – is at hand for athletes in six disciplines: skateboard vert and park; BMX vert, park and dirt, and freestyle motocross, or FMX.

Ryan Sheckler, star of MTV’s “Life of Ryan” reality show and the hottest property in action sports, is expected to dominate skateboard park, despite being pulled this way and that by his many sponsors.

“With all his new-found fame, his TV show, all of these commercials and just the attention on the kid, he’s sort of become a target,” said Paul Zitzer, a pro skateboarder-turned-announcer.

“He’s coming into this season with a whole lot of pressure. But I have never seen anyone deal with it as well as Ryan Sheckler.”

Sheckler, 18 and proud buyer of a new home in San Clemente, won the previous three park competitions. His primary competition will come from Greg Lutzka of Mission Viejo.

Shaun White, who won the Dew Cup in skateboarding vert last year, is not in Baltimore and will compete sparingly as he prepares for his 2010 quest to win a second Olympic gold medal in snowboarding.

With White seemingly out of the Dew Cup running, the race figures to be close between Bucky Lasek and Pierre-Luc Gagnon, from Encinitas and Carlsbad, respectively.

In BMX vert, the question remains as to whether Jamie Bestwick, who turns 37 next month, can continue to out-spin, twist and flip the younger generation.

Bestwick, a transplant from England now living in State College, Pa., has won all three Dew Cups – and 11 of 15 competitions – and expects challenges from Chad Kagy and up-and-comers Steve McCann and Zack Warden.

In BMX park, Daniel Dhers, a Venezuelan, is gunning for a third consecutive Dew Cup but is no lock with riders such as Ryan Guettler, Dennis Enarson and Mike Spinner in the mix.

Spinner won last year’s trick-of-the-year contest by pulling off the first 1080 in competition. He also landed the first 360 triple tailwhip, which entails a dizzying full airborne rotation while spinning his bike three times.

In BMX dirt, Ryan Nyquist will try to defend his lone title, while FMX, which was won by Temecula’s Nate Adams last year, has been pared down to three events because of what Martin describes as a lack of progression.

“The tricks may have been progressing,” Martin said. “But I’m not sure from a competitive aspect the sport was progressing at the same rate that skateboarding and BMX were.”

 pete.thomas@latimes.com