Bucky Lasek is the reigning champ of Skate Vert, with two Dew Cups to show for his work on the 2005 and 2006 AST Dew Tours, but the competition is actually much more open than that fact might suggest: Lasek won just two of the five events on last years tour, with Bob Burnquist, Shaun White, and Sandro Dias also claiming the number one spot along the way.

Andy Macdonald, Jean Postec, Anthony Furlong, Tas Pappas, Rune Glifberg, Neal Hendrix, and Max Dufour all kept their names in the top ten for the overall standings in 2006, and have each been very busy ever since. Jean Postec and Sandro Dias both have 900s to throw into their runs this year, and Shaun White is sure to be back at it with his 1080 quest. In case you missed Pierre-Luc Gagnon while he was out with injuries for some of last years events, rest assured hell be back in action at the top of the heap too.

Everyones got a few new tricks out there that theyre antsy to put into a run, says Bucky Lasek, sizing up his competition after skating with most of the gang in California over the last several months. Its basically going to come down to continuing to push things bigger and bigger, on top of how technical everything is getting. Its going to be really hard to make a clean run, and that will make it even more exciting for everybody.

To help propel such aspirations and give new dimension to the Skate Vert contests, Dew Tour course designers have tricked out this years contest ramps with huge roll-ins, bowled-out corners, big channel gaps, and other fun elements reflecting insane recent innovations in skatepark design. These changes are sure to appeal to guys like Bob Burnquist (recently named Best Vert Skater at the 9th Annual TransWorld SKATEboarding Awards for his never-ending mission to build and skate bigger and better vert challenges) and Rune Glifberg (winner of this months Quiksilver Bowlriders contest in Malmo, Sweden and last months Vans Pro-Tec Pool Party).

Having more stuff on the ramp opens up the possibilities for what you can do on a skateboard, says Lasek. Its going to create a better atmosphere for us, make it a lot more fun, and make our skating a lot more diverse. Its always fun to see how different skaters are going to interpret and make use of each part of a new ramp.