Although many of the pros were still getting into town, the ams kicked off the Portland skate action in high gear with Thursdays heated Free Flow Tour Finals. Bringing together 16 of the countrys top ams including Michigans Dustin Blauvelt, Californias David Loy and New Jerseys Nick Merlino, to say that the competition was tough was truly an understatement; this was definitely a fitting Final for one of the hottest amateur contest events of the summer. Taking to the Dew Tours pro park course, what ensued during the hour-long Finals was nothing short of madness and surely set the tempo for what to expect the rest of the weekend.

Heat 1 started off with Taylor Smith and KeChaud Johnson dominating the course with sick tricks, including krooks to boardslide fakies and huge gap to 50-50s that set the bar for what it would take to advance into the Semifinals. The temperature continued to rise in Heat 2 with Dustin Blauvelts clean kickflip FS boardslides and Frank Castarettes textbook BS lipslides that made you wonder why these kids havent turned pro already. And although Blauvelt took a hard slam off the rail with only two and a half minutes left, his solid lines and clear determination put him over the top with the judges and sent him on to the Semis.

Next up in Heat 3 were David Loy and 11-year-old Utah standout Tyson Bowerbank. If you thought Heats 1 and 2 were where it was at, then you missed Loys 270 to boardslides and FS tailslides to fakie and Tysons clean BS 5-0s and amazing FS airs on the quarterpipe. And Heat 4 was just icing on the cake with Nick Merlinos amazing FS nosebluntslides and Caleb Coles lofty FS airs to revert and absolute smooth flow.

As the Semis began, more insanity was doled out by the groms including Taylor Smiths huge ollie transfers, KeChaud Johnsons KF indy grabs over the gap, and Tyson Bowerbank even busting a 360 air that could have given Nyjah a run for his money. As the final seconds of the Semis wound down, the four skaters that would advance to the Finals were Taylor Smith, Dustin Blauvelt, David Loy and Nick Merlino.

With electricity filling the air and only four of the best ams left standing, the final round began. And although Smith, Blauvelt and Merlino all had good lines, in the end it was all about Orange, Californias David Loy. Pulling steezy lein airs to tail on the quarter, millions of kickflip boardslides, wallieing to flat with a 10 foot drop off the hubba, and even busting a HUGE FS gap transfer off the quarter in the final seconds, Loy was truly untouchable the entire time and was crowned 2006 Free Flow Tour champ. Earning a wildcard spot in the PlayStation® Pro in Orlando, Loy will now compete against some of the biggest names in skateboarding and is truly on his way to going from Flow to Pro.

Congrats David!

To read about the Free Flow Tour BMXFinals click here.