GrindTV NEWSWIRE via Metal Mulisha. Irvine, Calif. (September 20, 2010) - Just one week after winning the Red Bull XRAY in Australia, Metal Mulisha's Taka Higashino impressed the Salt Lake City crowd by winning the first Dew Tour competition of his career.

Taka consistently landed the best scores of the night against some of the sport's biggest names - including Mulisha teammates Jeremy "Twitch" Stenberg and Ronnie Faisst - who all represented the Metal Mulisha in the semifinals.

Featuring a head-to-head, four-round format where the rider with a better score advanced to the next round, the semifinals came down to a battle between Taka and Twitch on one side and Faisst against Mike Mason on another. Taka achieved full extension on all of his maneuvers to eliminate Twitch, then treated fans to a few extra tricks after time had expired. Meanwhile, Faisst fell to Mason, who landed a lazy boy backflip and backflip heel clicker put him into the finals.


In the final, Mason held strong with a Superman flip and backflip heel clicker for a clean, consistent run that earned him an 86.50. However, Taka couldn't be denied, posting an 89.00, thanks to a double grab indy, stripper flip and double grab backflip combination.

"This has been an awesome two weeks, I'm so happy to win for Mulisha at home in the USA," said Taka. "It was great to compete against Twitch in the semis, although I wish we could have faced each other in the finals. We'll be celebrating this one for a long time."