LAKEWOOD
HALF-PIPE
PRO/AM
Why didn't I enter this contest?
Burt LaMar was heard asking him-
self this very question more than
once, and he may not have been
the only Pro skater to show up at
Lakewood on December 7th to
wonder why The Lakewood i Half-
Pipe contest had none of the hype
or anticipation connected with
"The Series: rain clouds hovered
around the whole weekend and
many of the Pros just needed some
time out from what seemed like a
summer of back-to-back Gold
Cup competitions Just the same
Lakewood turned out to be one of
those on-any-given-day situations
where the highest scoring qualifier
wasn't necessarily the winner and
where the outcome was in ques-
Son till the very last run
There was a distinct cold weather
factor. The rains that preceded the
Sunday event set the stage for a
crisp and clear contest day. Tem
peratures were so chilly that even
the usual contingency of groupies
and girlfriends weren't wearing
shorts. The primary distinction of
this contest, though, was the me
thod of judging and competing
Mike Smith continued his assault on
the Pro ranks, full extension hand plant
Steady and consistent routines helped
Steve Caballero take the top spot at
Lakewood, frontside hand plant
Qualifying was still deter
mined by those skaters receiving
the highest scores in their desig
nated heats. But the finalists then
competed against each other
head to head in what is known as
round-robin. The number one
qualifier competes against the last
one to make the cut, the second
against the second to the last, and
so on. This system, unarguably.
turned out to be confusing to most
of the spectators, not to mention
many of the skoters. In fact, towards
the very end Stevie Caballero
looked around and asked "s this
the final? It's kind of...way
different
The d
The day started off as usual with
amateur competition. What was
UNusual was the girls participated
in the same segment, so the crowd
got to see Sue Smith and Carabeth
Burnside skating with "The Boys"
The stars of the event, though
turned out to be Mike Hirsch, Billy
OFF-
SEASON
COMPETITION
HEATS UP
IN L.A.
Ruft Lance Mountain, Christian
Hosoi Pat Ngoho, Bob Serafin and
John Gibson Christian got lots of
air-time with his lofty backsides
and Pat showed off his steadily
improving skating with a powerful
physical style. But the final duke-out
was between Serafin and
Gibson, who both spent a consid
erable amount of time in the deep
end of the half-pipe. Finally, Tex
emerged the winner, impressing
the judges with his speed and olie
airs
After a rather short pro-practice
it was time for the main event
Divided into three heats, each
skater was given two runs with the
e to be thrown out Skot
lower score fr
ing a half-pipe is different, though
due to lack of coping. There are
different kinds of tricks with lots of
roll-ins and roll-outs A And there
were a lot of bails in that c
deep
end. Eventually, the amount of
time spent practicing may have
made a big difference. The first
heat contributed three finalists with
Gino Tocchi, at the top of the order,
missing the eight-cut Surprisingly.
Eddie Elguera didn't advance. →→
Kevin Moore returned to the competition
scene at Lakewood and mmediately blew
minds with avant garde moves, layback o
all
despite working the whole pipe
and skating powerfully. True, he
bailed, but so did practically
everyone in the second heat, Ray
Bones, Eric Grisham and Jay Smith
missed out. Grisham went
n went all
out, but took a really hard f
I fall on
his first run k e final short heat
(only four pall but David
Andrecht advanced, leading this
observer to the conclusion that the
judges were watching a different
contest. The "Raver skated
aggressively, diving right into the
deep end and providing the crowd
with some real excitement
With a high score of 85.00 Duane
Peters headed the list of top eight
finalists, followed by Micke Alba
Kevin Moore, Allen Losi Mike Smith,
Steve Hirsch, Stevie Caballero and
Steve Alba, who edged in with an
83.33 (helped along by refraining
from a ball on his other r
time for head to ame
which provided for some intriguing
confrontations. For e
For example, the
first shoot-out pitted Santa Cruz
teams
members and compadres
Duane R
Peters and Steve Alba
against each other, with
another
matching
ing Steve Hirsch and Allen
Losi from Varflex. Later, brothers
Steve and Micke had to
skate
against each other and ended
up identical sco
scores necess
fating another pair of runs! This was
too much for Mrs. Anarchy i
chy (Mom
Alba). She just rooted hard for both
type of
of competition brings up
very interesting possibilities. It would
seem to provide a keener sense of
rivalry for the actual participants, in
addition giving them a more con-
crete scheme for strategy. Rather
than simply competing against an
ideal score, you actually know
what (who) you're against
The skating got more and more
intense. Kevin Moore came out of
hibernation to show that actually
he has been out shredding. He
displayed a smooth flowing style
which looks almost effortless. Allen
Losi showed himself to be one of
the fastest advancing of the
younger skaters with his quick and
glossy style, but fell twice on one of
his n
is runs. Although Steve Hirsch had
a few balls he proved himself to
be one of the few competitors of
the day to really work the whole
pipe aggressively. Steve Alba (aka
my was his us
powerful self
away as he skated, laugh-
ing when he'd beef a very wide
emotional range. Eventually, t
came down to D Duane P Peters t
ing gainst Mike Smith Earlier, when
skat
plan of attack,
queried about his plan of a
the highly motivated DP. just stared
ahead and a
There's
not end announced
e
chanceme-i got to take my
And he did, covering
the extremities of the pipe, but
practically beating himself with
two bails. When Duane competed
against Stevie he took his chances
and balled twice again. All in
all Duane shredded the entire
area Micke Alba did too, skimming
all over the place at high speed
gine
but unfortunately was hampered
by his ability to ma
o make his skating
look easy. He was able to overtake
Kevin Moore, but fell twice in his
match against Stevie. Some might
agree with Scott Foss's observation
think they're trying to wear
everybody out
The David Andrecht ar show once again proved to be a favorite of the fans
Fast and furious Duane Peters
A perennial threat at every contest, Micke Alba night time air