"The Airwave is such a fun event and the tickets go so quickly," U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association VP-Events Annette Royle said. "Each of the previous five Airwaves has been a sellout and between the poolside bleacher seats and the seats on the lawn, we expect another capacity crowd at the sports park."

“We’re used to standing room only crowds” DockDogs President, Shadd Field, said. “Big Air has always been one of the most popular events of ESPNs Great Outdoor Games, our National Championship.” At this year’s event, ESPN had to close the Big Air venue when crowds exceeded capacity, so thousands watched on Jumbo-Trons from other venues in the area. Indeed, The Wall Street Journal confirmed their popularity last year by reporting that Big Air Dogs beat the X-Games in television ratings.

DockDogs will be performing a demonstration event during a “half-time break. Terry Casey the Final Round of the 2003 GO Games in Reno. The drama was enough to land their effort among the top plays of the week on ESPNs Sports Center. “I can’t believe this is happening,” said Casey when Little Morgan’s final jump ended eleven inches short of Casey’s Gold Medal jump. Skeeter is a consistent jumper of over 21 feet and is often in the DockDogs Elite category of over 23 feet – only one of five dogs to achieve such an incredible distance.

Tom Dropik and Tucker are the “old men” of the sport having qualified three consecutive years for the Games. That’s no small feat to qualify against hundreds of would be competitors nationwide. This is especially true when you consider Tucker’s age and that he began his career jumping just over 16 feet. It takes averages over twenty feet to be considered World Class these days, and Tucker has been jumping over twenty two feet in competition. This and Tom’s love of the sport and helping others to improve their dog’s performance is why Tom is considered one of the top Big Air Trainers in the country.

The demonstration being planned will have Skeeter and Tucker jumping for distance, and a significant portion of the show will be to show people some training techniques that they can use to start their own Big Air Dogs. Shadd Field, President of DockDogs, and often referred to as the “Godfather of Big Air,” likes to say that “anybody with a dog and ball can participate. This is a fun sport that the dog’s love – they go crazy for it, and it is one that anybody can participate in.” Field will be on hand as the announcer and plans to interact with the crowd as much as possible. “While we use a very sophisticated digital measuring system, we can always use good manual judges, and I think once you get past 12 years old the eyes must get old because kids can do a pretty decent job of judging the dogs.”

You can find more information on DockDogs Big Air competitions at www.DockDogs.com. Information on the U.S. Ski Team and the Airwave event can be found at www.usskiteam.com. The Airwave VI competition and DockDogs demonstration will be held at Utah Olympic Park Aug. 23; tickets are priced at $11 and $14 and available through www.smithtix.com. Both the event and the demonstration will be aired on ESPN.