Chaz Ortiz wins Dew Tour Salt Lake City!
Chaz Ortiz has been on quite a streak ever since winning the Free Flow Tour amateur championships in 2007. He came into Salt Lake City for the Toyota Challenge this weekend in third place behind Paul Rodriguez and Ryan Sheckler, and can now boast of having occupied every step of the Dew Tour podium in 2008.
The 14 year-old Dew Tour rookie opened the 2008 AST Dew Tour with a 3rd place finish in Baltimore, then followed it up with a 2nd place finish in Cleveland. Nowhere to go but up, Ortiz claimed is first big Dew Tour win here in Salt Lake City, edging out 2005, 2006, and 2007 Dew Cup champ Ryan Sheckler. You heard that right: Chaz Ortiz just won his first pro contest.
“I guess today was my day,” says Ortiz. Although Sheckler is frequently a crowd favorite on the Dew Tour, skate fans have embraced young Chaz. Skating in front of a capacity crowd inside the Energy Solutions Arena, he put down two of the best runs of his life and dominated the 6-man Finals jam session. “It definitely hypes me up, to hear all the screaming fans and to know that even the guys I’m skating against have my back. It makes me want to skate even harder.”
Nollie big spin to backside lipslide. Kickflip to frontside boardslide. A big backside kickflip transfer over a hip, just after Sheckler fell on the same trick, for dramatic emphasis. Kickflip to frontside bluntslide. Kickflip to backside lipslide. Backside tailslide to big spin out. And the clincher: Ortiz stuck a kickflip to frontside boardslide to kickflip out, one of the craziest combos ever seen in Dew Tour competition.
“This course really fits me,” says Ortiz. “In practice I was practicing all the tricks I wanted to get in the jam, not just practicing the tricks for my run, because I knew I needed to be able to hang through to the end.”
Ortiz’ jam session score 95.25 destroyed the competition (Sheckler scored just 88.50, third place finisher Ramos scored 88.00), and the crowd went wild. Get ready to hear more from Chaz Ortiz. He’s working on a video part for a new film with Paul Rodriguez, and is prominently featured in the trailer for the new Zoo York video “State of Mind,” due out in 2009.
Sheckler now leads Ortiz by just 8 points in the overall standings as the race for the Dew Cup heads into the 5th and final stop next month in Orlando for the PlayStation Pro. Another 7 points now separate Ortiz and Paul Rodriguez, making for the tightest competition in Dew Tour history.
“I’m just going to be skating hard, practicing some new tricks, and hoping for another good result,” says Ortiz.
