Sports

Dundalk Star Wins Dew Tour Event in O.C.

Local legend Bucky Lasek is competing against Olympic snowboarding gold medalist this weekend.

The annual summer Dew Tour arrived at Ocean City Thursday, returning a Dundalk star to Maryland for a big weekend competition. Thirty-eight-year-old Bucky Lasek turned the homecoming into a celebration Sunday.

Lasek, a professional skateboarder for two decades, claiming six Summer X Games gold medals and 13 overall since 1999, won the skaetboard vert title on his last run. He finished ahead of Pierre-Luc Gagnon and Shaun White, the Olympic snowboarding champion.

"Oh man, I'm speechless righ now," Lasek said afterwards, according to a post on the Dew Tour website. "I guess I just like the pressure. I need something to push me and Pierre killed it. Shaun was ripping. Pedro was on fire. Adam, I've never seen him skate that good. And it was just go time. I think I just used that and I went off their momentum. 

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The Dew Tour, in its seventh year, kicked off its 2011 season in Ocean City, and according to the Baltimore Sun, Lasek won in front of the largest crowd in Dew Tour history at a vert bowl final.

The Pantech Open took place on the south end of the beach near the Ocean City pier, started Thursday with skateboard and BMX vert and bowl qualifying rounds.

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Lasek finished last year ranked fourth in the Dew Tour skate vert standings behind Gagnon, Andy Macdonald and White.

“I think it’s great that there’s a bowl contest coming to the Dew Tour, especially that it’s in Ocean City, since I’m from Baltimore,” Lasek told Ocean City Today before the event. “That they’re building a big bowl on the beach, it’s going to be insane. I think everyone’s excited for the first stop of the tour. They know what Ocean City has to offer and they’re excited.”

Afterwards, Lasek will return to California, specifically Los Angeles, for the 2011 X Games, July 28-31. He now lives near San Diego.

In an interview with the Baltimore Sun last week, Lasek, who used to skate while on family vacations to Ocean City, recalled a mini ramp off German Hill Road as one of his favorite spots to skateboard growing up.

Lasek told the Sun that he looked forward to returning to Maryland to compete again.

"I've been competing for so long. Now I just get to be in front of my friends again," Lasek said. "The good thing about doing it at home is, win or lose, you have a good time."


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