Baltimore?s reputation as a city rich with skateboarding tradition should only increase this weekend, as the 2008 Free Flow Tour makes a stop for the first time at Charm City Skatepark.
The Free Flow Tour is the official amateur series of the AST Dew Tour, which hosts the Panasonic Open for professional skate and BMX athletes June 19 to 22 in Baltimore.
“Baltimore skaters are pretty good at all styles, so the Free Flow Tour and the Dew Tour are perfect for us,” said Jason Chapman, owner of Charm City Skatepark.
About 55,000 people attended the Dew Tour?s stop in Baltimore last summer, so Dew Tour officials thought it would be only natural to bring the Free Flow Tour to Charm City this year.
Chapman expects both events to help generate business and increase interest in skateboarding and BMX among younger fans.
“Last year, we saw a lot of people leave the Dew Tour and come right over here,” Chapman said.
The two-day Free Flow Tour will include 29 skate competitions and 20 BMX competitions. Registration for the event is $15 and opens at 10 a.m. Saturday and Sunday. Baltimore is one of 49 stops on the Free Flow Tour throughout the summer.
“Whoever wins in Baltimore will get the opportunity to go to [the professional Dew Tour event in] Salt Lake City, Utah, and if they win there, they earn a chance to compete in [the Dew Tour finals] in Orlando,” Fla., said Chris Prybylo, vice president of events for AST, the Illinois-based company that runs the Dew Tour.
Baltimore is home to about 6,500 skateboarders, said Stephanie Murdock, founder of Skatepark of Baltimore, a nonprofit focused on building a public concrete park in Baltimore City. Murdock and Skatepark of Baltimore will be fundraising during both the Free Flow and Dew Tour.
Murdock has visions of collecting enough money and support for a $1 million, 35,000-square-foot park in Baltimore.
“If the city doesn?t have a skate park, the whole city becomes a skate park,” Murdock said.
