The 2007 Dew Tour gets under way next week in Baltimore, MD. You already know the riding is going to be crazy, but we gave Dennis McCoy, the organizer for the BMX events, a call to see what was new on the courses. His response: jam format, huge vert ramps, and dirt designs courtesy of Fuzzy Hall. Read on.

Who designs the park courses this year? Are they all finalized?
Primarily it was myself and Charlie Wilkins, the guy who designs for skate. All of the riders have some input if they want to volunteer it. I’m all-ears for ideas in general, but the reality of it is that we have a limited amount of inventory [i.e. ramps]. Last year they built some new pieces; this year there was a little less in the budget for new pieces on Park because of the changes happening to Vert. So you pretty much have to try to make the course different each time with the same ingredients. That’s really easy for the first two stops, because the course is for both bike and skate combined. [The first two courses] will basically be twice the size of courses that we’re used to.

The only two course designs [for 2007] that are set right now are the first two, and the initial design of the Portland course will be done before Baltimore happens. We have a group of athletes that we send the course designs out to, but basically the feedback has been people not responding because they liked it, or who knows why they didn’t respond? Or it’s people contacting back saying, “Looks great.” Nobody’s really had any negative feedback as far as the first two designs, so we kind of take what works from those designs and try to incorporate it into the next one. In the case of Portland and Orlando, those venues haven’t changed, so you know what you could fit into the space in the prior years. You find that happy medium of mixing it up so it’s not the same, and using a little bit of what already worked.

What are the vert changes?
The first two stops are where you’re going to see the most changes on Vert, and that’s because they are outdoor venues and there is the space. The skateboarders had kind of been lobbying to have the ramp different at each stop, and there may be a couple of bike guys that feel that way as well. Most of the bike guys didn’t really want anything significant in the way of changes. You’re really limited to what you can fit in those arenas width-wise; there’s not a lot of room to get creative. Nevertheless, there’s going to be changes at the first two stops and some minor ones at the other stops, with the idea being that the ramp isn’t set up the same each time. That will be good for a spectator standpoint, I think, because sometimes the contests blend one into another. If it wasn’t for the logo on the ramp saying what city you were in, you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. But the ironic thing I find is the larger trannys. I rode roughly that size of ramp in Shanghai and you can go huge on it and ride it just fine, but I find it ironic because there was so much discussion last year about, “Have ramps gotten too big,” and “How are we going to draw more kids into riding vert if the ramps at the contests are so much bigger than what they session a regular basis?” And here we go making it a foot-and-a-half taller again [laughs]. I can’t help but laugh. I mean, I’ve ridden it so I know I won’t have any problems with it, but there’s a part of you that thinks we’re not gaining a lot by going bigger on the size of the ramps. We’ll probably go higher, but it will be relative to the size of the ramp you’re taking off from, so it won’t necessarily look any bigger.

Any big changes for Dirt this year?
I know from talking to Fuzzy that he wanted to mix things up some, and seeing the designs for the fist stop, you’ll have a couple of different options. And there are still plenty of stops to go. You’re not going to see anything too dramatic again because there’s a fixed amount of time to build the stuff and a fixed amount of dirt that they have to work with. But the idea is to make the most of each one and try to make them different.

How are things going with running the events? Any new challenges?
There are always new challenges. I suppose compared to year one things seem under control, if you want to call it that, but year one actually… Just from the experience of running so many Gravity Games and Triple Crowns, there weren’t any big surprises with year one, either. If anything, with the changes to the vert ramp, it made things in terms of scheduling a little trickier because usually most of the vert guys didn’t want a ton of practice, so the skaters got more than we did. I don’t think that’s going to be the case this year with new ramps to get used to. But those are just minor details and we’re working out little scheduling conflicts. And we’re changing to a jam-format for the Park final, so it will be interesting to see how that turns out. It’s just for Park and just for finals, so it really requires the guy who wins the event to be able to ride both styles of riding. They could be the best jam format rider in the world, but if they can’t put a solid single run together then they won’t see the finals anyway.

Did X Games dropping Dirt affect Dew Tour at all?
I don’t think it had any impact at all. Dew Tour has been dedicated to BMX since the beginning. Each year I still make a push to involve flatland in one way, shape, or form, but it gets tough when we have half of the Dew Tour events. There are three bike events and three-total between skateboarding and motocross. I think they are really surprised with the support from the BMX industry. I mean, we had 80 riders signed up for 50 spots [for the first stop] in just a few days, and all the top guys come to the events and everyone gives it 100% every time. I think they’re really pleased with how things have gone on the bike riding side of it.