I was able to hang out with these groms and their families at one of the Dew Tour stops, and see what’s up with the event. In a nut shell, some of the higher ups in the Dew Tour were concerned about the slow death of vert skateboarding. While vert skating is fun to watch, most skaters wouldn’t know where to find a full sized vert ramp to try it out. In fact, where I live on the west coast, I either have to drive 8 hours north or 6 hours south to find a vert ramp!
And so, enter the Dew Tour Grom Skate Jam. Six families pulled together with young skaters who can rip up a vert ramp. Baely Ellis, Mitch Brusco, Chris Powell, and Gregory DeHart are all from Washington state, while Dylan Oliver comes from Kentucky and Zachary Krouth flew in from New York.
Zachary Krouth is the youngest skater on the team. He started skating at two and a half years old, and dropped into his first 12.5’ ramp at age 5. Steve, his dad, says Zach just walked up to the edge and dropped in, without any fear! I asked Zach how he got so good, and he said, “I practice my tricks over and over until I get them, and my brother and the kids at my home skate park help me learn new stuff.” Read more about Zach on Zach’s Action Profile.
Chris Powell is another one of the groms, who got interested in skateboarding because of his brother getting one of the Tony Hawk games a few years ago! After playing the game, he got interested in seeing what riding a board would be like in the real world. One short year of serious skating later, And Chris is demo riding for the Dew Action Sports Tour! When asked how he got so good, Chris said, “Well, it's good to meet lots of other skaters and get good advice. When I meet different people, I try to learn from them the things they're good at. Also, don't get frustrated! Most tricks take a lot of practice to learn. If you feel yourself getting really frustrated, move on to another trick for a little while. Skating a LOT is the most important thing. Do stuff you love!” Read more about Chris Powell and see photos on the Powell Family Website.
One of the veterans of the pack is Mitchie Brusco, who got his first sponsorship before he was five years old. Now he’s 10, and just got sponsored by Almost. Yeah, that’s THE Almost – Rodney Mullen’s pro skateboarding brand! Mitch’s mom told me about being at the Denver stop of the Dew Tour, and how when the kids were coming off the ramp, they would come by her side and she would tell them good job. After a little while, they stopped coming off her side of the ramp, and she looked across and noticed Bucky Lasek giving the kids high fives, encouraging them and giving them advice on the other side! I watched Bucky Lasek giving two of the groms some advice on getting more air, and Bob Burnquist was giving the kids high fives, and laughing with them, encouraging them, and giving them tips as well. Andy Macdonald has been helping the kids out as well – it’s hard not to love these guys! Mitchie has his own homepage as well – littletricky.com.
So where does something like this go from here? Well, the rumor is that these guys are in line for the 2012 Olympics! There’s nothing official, but they are the right age now to build them into the young athletes that we see in Olympic sports – and it looks like skateboarding is rolling towards becoming an Olympic sport (read Olympic Skateboarding in 2008? for more info). Of course, there’s a lot of debate and opinions about whether or not this should happen, but if it does, these little guys might be the ones we see representing the USA. Zazhary Krouth, at the ripe old age of 7, already says that he would love to train in skateboarding at Woodward and go to the Olympics. I certainly don’t remember knowing what I wanted when I was that young, but these kids are focused!
At least for the moment! I mean, they ARE kids. Here’s to this incredible pack of groms - but here’s also to this remarkable pack of parents who seem to be strongly encouraging, and yet not shoving their children, into skating with everything they have within them. Throughout this event and meeting these kids with their parents, I was watching for reality-show-worthy moments where crazed parents shove their kids down ramps, screaming and gnashing their teeth. I saw none of that – just little groms having fun, pushing themselves, with encouraging, happy parents proud of what their kids are doing. It’s great to see.
