EASTERN FRONT
Kona Pro-Am
Kona Skatepark-
Jacksonville, Florida
As Friday arrived many skaters
appeared to put in some heavy
practice. The weather was nice for
skating about 50 to 609 degrees
and sunny, with a weekend fore
cast of slightly warmer tempera-
fures. Although the pool was rela
Svely new to many of us, some of
the skaters wore si
showing good
ability to adapt to different terrain
Among the group were Mko
MCGIL
Monty t
Only Noider, Rodney
Mullen and Shawn Peddie.
As ripping practice sessions
went into the evening more skaters
showed up to watch and skate
Amough the half-pipe finish
accumulates moisture during the
night constant skating will keep it
dry
The contest was scheduled to
start Saturday at 12:00 noon with
freestyle. The program called for
six events: pool half pipe, freestyle.
banked slalom, bowl and vert, and
finally, downhill. The pool is an
eloven foot deep kidney with one
foot of vortical, its rod and
demanding The half-pipe is 11 feet
high with 1% feet of vertical by 16
foot wide, it has a fiberglass finish
mat makes it fast and durable. The
banked slalom course was un-
real a snake run with 4 to 81
fun foot
banks and a good slope. Many
skators showed up at 10:00 am for
the rider's meeting as well as to
get in some early practice s
Dan Murray took first in freestyle
with some modern moves. The
took tice sessions
next event, banked slalom, brought
out some old and new skators
among them, Shaun Jackson, a
long time competitor. A new face
was Buck Smith, who surprisingly
beat out Shaun and was right
behind the winner Kenny Heath
who is a local ripper in slalom and
downhill and holds the park record
for both events
Now, with everyone getting their
practice in the pool, the event was
about to start-with even more
competitors. Some of the hot
amateurs were Dan Murray, Billy
Beauregard, Robbie Weir, and
Chris Baucom. In addition, Pros
Alan Gelfand, Jim McCall and
Bruce Walker showed up. Shown
Peddie had an unfortunate foll
during practice and injured his hip
Finally, all practice w
ce was in and the
amateurs had put in their best
When t
n the l
sure was on and the e
ing The better of the two runs
The better of the crowd cheer
would decide the results-which
turned out to be: McGill, 29.50
Folmer, 28.50: Nolder. 27.00: Gel-
fond 25.50 and Cox, 25.00. The
panel consisted of three judges:
Jim McColl
Ramos and
Many
Doug Doane, using a scoring
system of 1-10. Concluding t the
day was a freestyle demo by
Rodney Mullen, who put on a
Apscome up
the pres
fabulous show with his endless
display of original tricks. And after
that the park owner, Mr. Ramos
invited all the Pros to a steak dinner
at the restaurant of their choice.
Despite the many fine steakhouses
in the area averyone picked Duff's
a pretty good smorgasbord
Sunday came soon with nice
weather and early practice ses
sions The day began with the
open downhill event, which was
also won by Kenny Heath Follow
ing a lunch break the half-pipe
event started with some ripping
sessions by the amateurs, most
notably, Bly Beauregard, floating
some high backside oilies, and
Nineteen year old Peggy Tamer comped against the guy in every event
Monty Noider continues to maintain his reputation as Fonda's top emalu
Wel travoled Pro Mke McGill and Mike Foimen continued her be in their home hort
KONA...
Robbie Weir, pulling off some
outrageous lay-back airs. Then the
Pros put in their runs, which were
even more rad and really blew
away some of the new spectators
The results were almost the same:
McGill with 29.00: Folmer with
28.00, Gelfand with 26.00 and
25.50
Nolder,
Finally, it was time for the last
event bowl and vert, which was
mostly local skaters. It was also the
main event in the 1977 USA Pro-Am
Championship, which was the first
East-West Pro Match-Up
This day ended with a freestyle
demo, this time by Jim McCall and
narrated by
Bruce
Wolker, topped
off by an awards ceremony. This
was the third contest this year at
Kona, with another one coming up
in February, and plans are now
being made for a Winchester-type
keyhole in March or April
Results
13 and under
John Thurman
2) John Sparks
3) Nathan Ray
-Mike Folmer-
Freestyle Sponsored
1) Dan Murray
2) Peggy Turner
3) Kenny Heath
Slalom (Open)
1) Kenny Heath
2) Shaun Jackson
3) Buck Smith
4) Doug Doane
Downhill Sponsored
(Open)
Kenny Heath
13 and under
1) Buck Smith
2) John Thurman
3) Kindra Owens
Half Pipe Sponsored
1) Robie Weir, John Hodges
(the)
2) Billy Beauregard
13 and under
1) Buck Smith
2) John Thurman
3) Kindre Owens
14-16
1) Tommy Redcay
2) Ray Showalter
3) Scott Lossiter
17 and over
Anthony Boyer
2) Steve Gump
3) Dale Key. DJ. Braddock
(tie)
Pool Sponsored
1) Dan Murray
2) Peggy Turner
3) Kenny Heath
13 and under
1 Buck Smith
2) John Thurman
3) Matt Rames
14-16 Age Group
1) Tommy Redcay
2) Ray Showalter
3) Bryan Cox
Bowl And Vertical
1) Kenny Heath
2) Peggy Turner
13 and under
1) Buck Smith
2) Matt Rimes
3) John Thurman
Pro-Overall
1) Mike McGil
2) Mike Folmer
3) Monty Nolder
2) Shaun Jackson
3) Mike Folmer
4) Alan Gelfand
4) Peggy Turmer
5) Mike Cox
TRAVELS WITH B.B.
During his Easter tour Brad Bowman stopped at Casey's Ramp
and flashed his usual form
Texan ripster Andrew Lopez doing a Texas size takie olie San Antonio
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