But unlike other 9-year-olds checking out the skateboarding and BMX competition in Ocean City, Evan wasn't a spectator. He was there as a competitor.
He was a finalist in the Free Flow Tour, the official amateur event for Dew Tour. He and eight other young skaters won regional competitions that gave them a shot at skating the Dew Tour's giant vert ramp. Whichever amateur left with the best scores would automatically win a spot in the official semifinal against the pros.
The Free Flow Tour was just one part of the bustling first day of the 2012 Pantech Beach Championships, the first of three stops on the nationally televised Dew Tour. This is Ocean City's second year hosting the event.
Last year's Dew Tour attendance was about 70,000 people, the largest crowd in Dew Tour history. Part of that came from a significant walk-up audience.
"We're certainly hoping to top it this year," said Chris Prybylo, vice president of events with Dew Tour promoter Alli Sports, and the man in charge of this event.
Workers were putting on finishing touches even moments before the event officially opened to the public: Electricians were laying tape over loose wires, vendors were hanging their hats and shirts, vending machines were forklifted into place.
Security guards in neon yellow T-shirts held back the palpitating crowd waiting to burst across the beach. The line stretched from the Dorchester Street entrance down the Boardwalk to Wicomico Street.
The first people in line were Dew Tour fanatics Cynthia Hamidi and Chelsea McLane, both 16. Hamidi said she was from Morocco, while McLane said she was an Ocean City local.
The girls arrived at 7:30 a.m. to secure their plum spot at the front of the line, with a goal of seeing pro skateboarders. "You gotta be in the front of the line to see everything," McLane said.
When security gave the word, hundreds of people in line scuttled across sand still lumpy from the deep treads left behind by heavy equipment used to build the venue -- toward the skate bowl grandstand.
Pro skateboarder Bob Burnquist, 35, said Ocean City's skateboarding venue is as good as any he's ever seen.
"Well, I'll tell you, I've been all around the world and I've skated plenty of events," he said. "This is pretty up there on how cool the venue is. Obviously, being built on the beach – the ramp's on the sand. You're basically hanging out on the beach for the weekend. Come on, it doesn't get any better than that."
Burnquist also said he's digging the skate scene around the resort, with its many surf shops, skate shops and the venerable Ocean Bowl Skate Park.
"This is a traditional town, it's not just like any town. It's worth coming out. We're just happy to come support this scene," he said.
In the middle of the vendor village, called the Dew Tour Experience, a familiar sight stood out: local sand sculptor Randy Hofman, holding a shovel.
The Dew Tour hired Hofman, whose Biblically inspired sand sculptures are a landmark on the beach at Second Street, to create a sand sculpture of the Mountain Dew soda logo in a 20-by-20-foot space. At the same time doors opened to general admission, Hofman stood shoveling sand into a 5-foot-tall pile. He says it will be a work in progress throughout the weekend.
"They should drag me along to their other venues," he said with a laugh.
Back at the Free Flow final, it was a curious sight to see pint-sized skaters in helmets and pads zipping about the grandstand alongside Ocean City officials and sponsored pro skateboarders.
Free Flow is for competitors ages 21 and younger. At 9, Evan Doherty was the youngest.
His mom said Evan asked for a skateboard at age 3.
"I was like, 'are you crazy? That's dangerous!" said Patricia Doherty, 41.
She relented when he was 4-and-a-half, and "it was love at first push," she said. "It was what he wanted to do every day after preschool. He just got progressively better."
She has no problems being a "skate mom" who travels across the country to see how well Evan – already nicknamed "the Big E" in skate circles – can do.
"We believe in our son," she said. "We try to support his dreams as much as we can. This is important to him, so we're happy to do it. It's what he was meant to do, I think."
In June, she brought Evan from their home in Kansas City, Mo., to a qualifying event in Tampa, Fla. Evan's first-place win there guaranteed him a shot at the Free Flow final here.
In Ocean City, Evan eventually took second place in the vert ramp event. First place went to 16-year-old Zac Rose of Raymond, Me.
"These are the future pros," said Patricia Doherty. "This is their dream. They want to do what the big guys are doing."
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