The world elite of skateboarding descends on the Midwest! Monster Energy congratulates Brazilian team rider Luiz Francisco on taking second place in the Men’s Skateboard Park final on July 30, 2022. In the night session at Lauridsen Skatepark in Des Moines, Iowa, the 22-year-old from São Paulo rose to the podium with a perfect run in America’s largest outdoor skatepark.
In Friday’s Men’s Skateboard Street final, 29-year-old Kelvin Hoefler from São Paulo, Brazil, secured a podium spot by taking third place against the world elite in a down-to-the-wire contest.
For the second consecutive year, the summer edition of Dew Tour was contested at Lauridsen Skatepark in downtown Des Moines. Built and designed by expert park builders California Skateparks, the competition-grade facility is the largest of its kind in the United States. Spanning 88,000 square feet in size, the concrete outdoor park – operated as a free public park – offers a technical street course as well as a vertical bowl section.
On two action-packed days, more than 40 male and female professional skateboarders and adaptive athletes from across the globe descended on the Midwestern city to compete in Street and Park disciplines from July 29-30,2022. The skateboard contest and festival were open to the public free of charge and broadcast live via web stream across various platforms. The schedule also included the Battle of the Shops contest, featuring skate teams from regional skate shops in a Street competition.
Here’s how the action unfolded for team Monster Energy in Des Moines this weekend:
Men’s Skateboard Park: Monster Energy‘s Luiz Francisco Takes Second Place
The level of progression was on full display in the Men’s Skateboard Park final on Saturday night. The California Skateparks-designed bowl course featured an array of pools, vertical extensions, wallrides, banks, and a centerpiece volcano for creative lines.
The roster of twelve finalists, including several X Games gold medalists and World Cup winners, hailed from three countries: Australia, Brazil, and the United States. Monster Energy‘s Luiz Francisco came to Dew Tour 2022 fresh off claiming the bronze medal at X Games 2022 in Vista the previous weekend.
On Run 1 of the final, the 22-year-old from São Paulo, Brazilian, put down a perfect routine stacked with his signature selection of technical tricks: frontside lipslide the deep end, huge frontside boneless off the flat bank, varial kickflip Indy, hardflip body varial Indy over the hip, frontside feeble grind the extension, kickflip melon over the corner, Indy nosebone, kickflip backside 50-50 pull-in over the center ledge, and frontside blunt earned Francisco 86.33 points and second place.
Also putting on a strong performance in the final, Monster Energy’s Kieran Woolley looked like a lock-in for a podium spot. On the strength of a perfect first run, the 18-year-old from Minnamurra, Australia, held down third place for the majority of the final session.
A perfect routine including backside boneless off the extension box above the bank, frontside nosegrind the vert extension, frontside Smith grind the deep end, frontside boneless the bank, giant backside 540 nosegrab, kickflip Indy over the hip, backside Smith grind the bowl corner, alley-oop frontside 50-50, backside air to disaster, backside wall bash the centerpiece, and Miller flip earned Woolley a strong 84.00-points score. But when the action moved to final attempts of the night, Woolley found himself leapfrogged by Keegan Palmer sliding into third place on Run 3.
Nevertheless, Woolley is currently emerging as an unstoppable force in park skating after claiming the gold medal in Skatepark Park at X Games 2022 the previous weekend and winning the bowl contest at the Copenhagen Open this summer. Keep an eye on this kid!
Men’s Skateboard Street: Monster Energy‘s Kelvin Hoefler Clinches Third Place
The Men’s Skateboard Street final on Friday night featured twelve of the world’s best street skateboarders, representing five countries: Australia, Brazil, France, Japan, and the United States. The field included Olympic Street Skateboarding gold medalist Yuto Horigome as well as Monster Energy‘s Hoefler as the silver medalist from the Tokyo 2020 games.
The rivalry was alive and well during the final session, judged on the highest scoring 45-second run out of three. But as the battle heated up, Monster Energy‘s Kelvin Hoefler was having difficulty stringing together a flawless run, while Japan’s Horigome and Portugal’s Gustavo Ribeiro dueled for the top spot.
Ultimately, Hoefler posted his strongest run on the final attempt of the weekend, thereby using his last chance to rise to the podium. In his last run, Hoefler landed fakie ollie switch frontside bluntslide the rail, 360 kickflip the bump, kickflip backside lipslide the rail, frontside tailslide to fakie the gap ledge, Caballerial frontside boardslide fakie the rail, kickflip frontside lipslide fakie the bump to rail, Half Cab nosegrind 180 the Hubba, and Caballerial backside tailslide fakie the rail for 86.00 points and third place.
Kelvin Hoefler represented Brazil and earned the silver medal in Men’s Skateboard Street at the Tokyo Olympics. He owns five X Games medals, including two gold. Hoefler has taken first place in high-profile competitions such as Dew Tour, Street League Skateboarding, and in 2017 was included in the Guinness Book of World Records for “most wins of the World Cup Skateboarding men’s street world rankings”.
For more on Luiz Francisco, Kelvin Hoefler, Kieran Woolley, and the Monster Energy skateboarding team visit http://www.monsterenergy.com. Follow Monster Energy on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok for exclusive updates as the action sports season continues.
