OCEAN CITY -- The tone set in the first two minutes of the Dew Tour's official opening at its Boardwalk entrance Thursday is one athletes, organizers and Ocean City officials hope will endure through the weekend.
Hundreds of eager fans, some of whom had waited for more than two hours for the doors to open, stormed through the entrance and onto the sand toward Festival Village in the moments immediately following the cutting of a lime green ribbon.
BJ Carretta, group director of marketing and events for Alli Sports, told Ocean City Mayor Rick Meehan that the amount of people waiting to get in was the largest of any he's seen on the opening morning of a Dew Tour event.
The controlled chaos at the beginning of the event meshed with Shaun White's first impression of the town, which was made while he ate dinner while people watched Wednesday night.
"I was just blown away," said White, who said he liked the energy and how many people were running around town near the Dew Tour stadium.
White is fresh off of an ESPY win for Action Sports Athlete of the Year, and is in town to compete in the skate vert competition.
Laura Caruso and Erika Szumel, both 15, were among the crowd waiting to enter hours before the ribbon cutting. They vacation in Ocean City, and had decided to come for the tour to see what its first time in town would be like. Also, they were on the lookout for White.
"I don't know, I might ask him to marry me," Caruso said.
The crowd is expected to grow throughout the weekend. Tickets are already sold out for the events taking place today and Saturday.
"This is unbelievably positive for us, to start on this note," Carretta said of the early crowd. "Being here set up on the beach is completely different from anything we've done before, and this location helps us foster a great environment for our first skate bowl and surfing competitions."
Festival Village is comprised of more than 20 booths and is free to all for the entirety of the weekend. The booth sponsors, interactive activities and free samples are eclectic, to say the least. Attendees can sample various Mountain Dew flavors before heading to the J.C. Penney or Woodward Camps booths, where they can pad up and skate a miniature vert ramp or skate park.
After that, they can hit the Paul Mitchell booth and get a $15 haircut, with the funds donated to the Ocean City Skate Bowl.
Steve Reilly, a 14-year-old from Prince Frederick, Md., came to town specifically for the Dew Tour and looks forward mostly to the inaugural skate bowl competition. He tried out the J.C. Penney vert, something he said he wasn't expecting to see at the village.
"It's pretty sweet," he said during a brief break in his session.
Councilwoman Mary Knight and her daughter, 22-year-old Frankie, walked around the festival after the ribbon cutting. Frankie Knight took the Paul Mitchell representatives up on their low-priced haircut offer. Meehan said he was considering stopping in and getting a little color put in his hair sometime this weekend as well.
"I mean, this is all about fun," said Meehan, adding that the Pantech Open would most likely be the most exciting event of the summer.
Athletes will also sign autographs in and near the village at random times throughout the weekend.
Skateboarder Bob Burnquist and BMXer Jamie Bestwick will supplement the Toyota booth's many interactive activities with autograph sessions Saturday at noon and 5:30 p.m., respectively.
410-213-9442, ext. 14
smuska@dmg.gannett.com
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment