Obviously I'm a bit biased -- I'm working for both Banquet and the Dew Tour website -- but I have to say I'm stoked to be involved with the Free Flow Tour, the Dew Tour's amateur contest series. The skate park and vert Finals went down here in Orlando over the last two days, with the winners earning wild card entry into the PlayStation Pro Prelims.

Ben Hatchell won the Free Flow vert contest with a run that included three 540s, a body varial, and a huge kickflip indy that had a lot of people rethinking that term "amateur." Hatchell also won the am vert event at X Games this summer, and has been making the podium at Tampa Am for the last few years. Hatchell's a great kid and a great all-around skater – I first saw him tearing up the old kidney bowl at Vans Skatepark in Woodbridge (RIP) when he was a 12 year-old twerp holding his own in the deep end with dudes three and four times his age. And get this: He rips at street, too: He also qualified for the Free Flow Skate Park Finals, and made it all the way to the last round of jam sessions to end up in 4th place. Hatchell was beat after all that skating in both contests, but still managed to hold his own in the pro Prelims. That he missed the top-ten cut for the Finals is less important than the fact that he came in ahead of Rune Glifberg, Neal Hendrix, and Chris Gentry. It's rad to see a younger generation come coming in to shake up vert skateboarding, and I expect we'll be hearing much more from Ben Hatchell. Quick: How many skaters can you name currently competing in pool, park, street, and vert contests? Yeah, I thought so.

Here's the real news to come out of this year's Free Flow Tour: Chaz Ortiz. Remember last year when Nyjah Huston blew up and everybody was going nuts about the 11-year old ripper with crazy style and legit skills? Well, Chaz Ortiz is 13, every bit the teenage ladykiller Nyjah is (the Sheckler Shriekers have already adopted him), and knocking them dead this year. He won the King of the Groms contest last year at 3rd Lair and we've been watching him for a while here at Grom Watch. Now he seems ready to bust out: He won the Free Flow Tour Finals yesterday, and a few hours later put down a perfect run in the pro Prelims. At the end of the first heat, he was in 2nd place behind Greg Lutzka. Rain delays pushed heat two to today and I imagine he might get bumped down by the likes of Ryan Sheckler, Austen Seaholm, and Rodolfo Ramos, but this is a fact: Chaz Ortiz will be skating in the PlayStation Pro Finals. I'm calling it now: He'll be on the podium for Finals.

A star is born. Here's some footage of him winning the Free Flow qualifier in Chicago: