Dew Tour: Going Big with Jamie Bestwick

As I took in all the action at the Dew Tour’s skate vert finals earlier today, I looked to my left, and who did I see standing next to me? Only the best BMX vert rider EVER, Jamie Bestwick, who just won his 8th straight Dew Tour BMX vert competition yesterday. One thing I learned early on as a reporter – carry your recorder with you at all times. Here’s the quickie Q&A:

You’re the only athlete to ever win four straight gold medals at the X Games, you’ve won eight straight events on the Dew Tour, and you’re not exactly the youngest guy out there, how are you doing this?!

You know, I enjoy riding my bike. When I’m home, I put a lot of time and effort in making my tricks the best they can be, and when I come to the Dew Tour, all that hard work seems to pay off. I definitely try to go the biggest out of everybody, and put a great ride in and just make it exciting for the fans, and it’s gotten me some great results, and cemented my name in Dew Tour history.

At this point, you’ve been doing this for a long time, how do you continue to progress and push yourself?

Well, you know, I’m going up against the nine best riders in the world in every final. There’s always new tricks being thrown out, there’s always some new way of riding…that motivates me to push my own limits, try to go a little bit bigger, a little bit higher, and come up with some new tricks of my own. So being around other great riders inspires you to do great things.

Obviously the X Games is the big event, but how important is the Dew Tour to you in the whole scheme of things?

It’s really important. It’s important to both the athletes who are competing here this weekend and to the next generation of riders who are coming up on the Free Flow Tour. It legitimizes our sport. It’s a five stop series, it culminates in an overall champion, and having an overall championship is very important to a lot of the riders. It’s something to put on their resume. So it’s a big deal. That’s why we’ve got guys like Shaun White out here today, you know? If it wasn’t a big deal, they wouldn’t come.

What do you think of the fans here in Portland and the support in this city for action sports?

You know, Portland and action sports go hand-in-hand. You’ve got a great amount of skate parks all around Portland, and you’ve got a great scene out here with the skate scene and the bmx scene both being huge in Portland, and being a bike-friendly city. Portland is one of the best stops on the tour, and I know a lot of the athletes appreciate how the fans treat them, and how they react when they lay down some great riding.