WADE MARTIN.

Wade Martin is, in a sense, bilingual. The 35-year-old general manager at the Dew Action Sports Tour speaks business (client meetings, Blackberry, Bluetooth, sponsorship deals) as well as extreme sports ("bar hop," "kick flip," "nac nac" and "stalefish"). Fluent in these two disparate languages, Martin is arguably the leading proponent of action sports in the U.S. He is both cutting-edge and fuddy-duddy, depending on his audience.

"My son and the kids in the neighborhood ask me about the Dew Tour and the athletes, but at the events I'm just another adult who doesn't mesh with the core crowd," he said. "So I'm the coolest dad in Hinsdale, Ill., and the biggest dork on-site at our events."

Actions sports continues to sizzle as a hot property. More than 40% of poll respondents at this year's World Congress of Sports in March said it is the best sports platform to reach the coveted 12-24-year-old demographic, outdistancing the NFL and NBA. Corporate partners of the Aurora, Ill.-based Dew Tour (owned by NBC Universal and Live Nation) would agree. As the tour's premier title sponsor, Pepsi continues to ingrain its Mountain Dew brand with young audiences. Meanwhile, Panasonic, Gillette's Right Guard Xtreme, Vans, Toyota and Sony PlayStation all return from the inaugural 2005 Dew Tour as individual title sponsors at the five-city event, running June through October. Newcomers MasterCard and ConAgra Foods' Slim Jim join associate-level partners Oxy, Pacific Cycle and Just Born Peanut Chews for the adventure.

The degree of difficulty to make this work? About as high as that of an inverted 720 (a 720-degree rotational flip) on a skateboard performed upside down. Martin and his staff of 15 oversee tour sales, marketing, business development and operations at each venue, and are directly responsible for tour and competition management, athlete relations and event design. On-site, some 200 people work on the tour who ultimately fall under the gm's scope of responsibility.

Kevin Monaghan, vp-business development, NBC Sports, New York, credits Martin with "methodical preparation, keen attention to detail and extraordinary strategic vision." Said Monaghan: "Launching a new tour and sports league is a daunting task, but Wade has quickly earned the admiration of the athletes, sponsors, fans and our NBC Universal management." More than 232,000 people attended the five events in 2005. They came not just to see the exploits of such extreme sports stars as Shaun White, Ryan Sheckler, Dave Mirra, Paul Rodriguez, Jamie Bestwick and Travis Pastrana, but also to demonstrate their allegiance to the Dew Tour's music, art and fashion scene, which might be the 21st century's first answer to the Woodstock generation.

Although the attendance was about half of what promoters initially predicted, it was significant enough, said Doug Frisbie, manager of corporate events at Toyota Motor Sales USA, Torrance, Calif. "[Martin's] convincing companies it's cool to be associated with the Dew Tour, and he's convincing the core action sports demographic there are times it's cool to be mainstream," said Frisbie.

Martin has plenty of leadership experience to draw on, dating back to his college days when he was captain of the tennis team at Michigan State University. In 1996, he handled pro tennis events at sports marketing firm Advantage International, "stumbling" into extreme sports in helping to launch the agency's emerging sports division. In 1998, he began overseeing a burgeoning action sports unit at Octagon that included co-ownership of the Gravity Games, created that year to compete with ESPN's X Games, launched in 1995.

"This is not what I envisioned my career would be when I was in school," said Martin. "But I have enjoyed the ride of the action sports from their infancy to where they are now."

NBC began telecasting and facilitating growth of the Gravity Games in 1999. But as its deal was expiring in late 2003, the network sought to create its own extreme property. Outdoor Life Network purchased the Gravity Games in January 2004, by which time Martin had moved to NBC Sports to become general manager of action sports. He was instrumental in seeing the concept morph into a multi-city tour (versus a one-stop event) in which athletes in skateboarding, BMX and freestyle motocross would accumulate points to earn prizes and money.

NBC knew that such a concept would best be served by joining with a pro-active title sponsor. In March, that led Martin and his team to John Galloway, vp-sports, media and interactive at Pepsi Cola North America. Given Mountain Dew's alignment with action sports since the mid-1990s, Galloway saw that the tour could be a vibrant way to reach the brand's target audience and keep them engrossed as fans and consumers. A four-year deal, estimated at more than $14 million, was signed in July.

Martin's perseverance helped overcome a few big hurdles, said Galloway. "There were several versions of a potential Dew Action Tour logo [being looked at by executives], and it finally came to a point where we needed a decision because other plans were dependent on it," he recalled. "I met Wade one morning and he handed me a Dew Action Tour business card which had on it the logo he and I liked. When I showed the card to my boss he said, 'That works,' and we were on our way."

With its growing stable of corporate sponsors, the Dew Tour is also well on its way. It now has more than $40 million invested in it, according to analysts. But Galloway still sees additional room for growth, with expansion being considered beyond the current cities of Louisville, Ky., Denver, Portland, Ore., San Jose, Calif., and Orlando, Fla. "Wade and I know we have to keep the property authentic to the core fans and athletes," said Galloway, "but taking it mainstream will sell product and generate more consumers for all the sponsors."

The extreme sports events have allowed Martin to go to the mountaintop--or in this case the skateboard ramp tabletop--and witness the marketing promised land. "It used to be that parents would take their kids to the ballpark," he said. "With the Dew Action Tour, the kids are taking their parents."

If I weren't doing this job, I'd be… In real estate development, or coaching a college tennis team.

Dumbest business decision: Not using the Dew Tour concept earlier with the Gravity Games, instead of using the X Games as a model.

Ideal tie-in partner: It'll sound pandering, but Mountain Dew.

PHOTO (COLOR): How's the air? BMX star Ryan Nyquist gains altitude at a stop of the Dew Tour.

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By Barry Janoff

PHOTO BY Jeff Sciortino