THE RANCH
1981
Mike Smith
SPRING NATIONALS
SSE
Working all the angles,
Mike Smith outlasted the
competition and took first
Backside olie over the entry.
THRMER
A heavy veteran at only 15, Micke Alba, frontside air
R
ION NOW
TRACKER
Rancho Mediterranea Skatepark
(The Ranch) is located in Colton,
CA near San Bernardino about
45 minutes east of LA Driving
through the dry, parched San
Bernardino Mountains one would
think that rain w scarce in this
area of dry lakebeds and high
chapanal Weill as luck would
have it the contest, which promoter
Gil Losi has scheduled for Friday
and Saturday had to be
concluded on Easter Sunday due
to heavy rains on Saturday.
Gil Losi
It was to many of the skater's
advantages to have the contest
during Easter week, no school
meant that the time could be
used to wire lines and learn tricks
Qualifying began at 7:00 PM
Friday night with the Amateur
program on tap first, the cut was
to 1 16. Getting used to the pool
during daylight hours was tricky
enough, but to take qualifying runs
at night was even more difficult
partially due to the poor lighting
A total of 32 amateurs entered
the event, Todd Joseph, a hot
skater
from
Arizona, took t the 1
lead
in the first heat and stayed in front
until the fourth heat when another
out-of-state ripper put on a strong
run to take the lead John Tex
Gibson again was the man to
beat. Bob Serafin and Tony Hawk
had ripping runs as c did Paul Molina
and Mark Rogowski Lance
Mountain did not put on his usual
show of heavy bionics due to a
sight injury that he suffered in
practice, regardless, he still
managed to qualify easily. The
amateur getting the most crowd
response was Christian Hosol his
intense runs got the crowd to their
feet hooting and screaming for his
fine routine, he placed a close
second to Tex. The top stood at
Gibson Hosoi Serafin Mountain
Joseph, Molina, Hawk and
Rogowski, along with eight other
skaters who would round out the
top sideen and would compete in
the head to head final
Next up were the Pros, with Brad
Bowman first in the order and
having a good run with board
slides and smooth airs Duane
Peters was next up and performed
his amazing bag of original tricks
DP's run lead the heat with Mike
McGill right behind him. Mike
coming back from a wrist injury.
had an unreal routine using th
g the
whole pool to his advantage. Heat
2 was outstanding Neil Blender
being the crowd favorite, he
blazed fully stalled inverts -
and
attempted a rod channel air into
a board slide. Heat 3 saw Steve
Alba fully commited to edge play
rousing the crowd to chants of
SA SASA Next up was Mike
Smith, his run was the most versatile
of the evening controlled footwork
Phon
Hello operator, Bert Lamar collect to...
and lofty aerials set the tone of his
routine, leaving no doubt that he
was a contender for the cash
Heat 4 had Ray Bones Rodriguez
shredding smooth and stylish lines
working the whole pool like a well
seasoned veteran of many pool
wars Steve Olson returned to
action and secured a spot in the
finals. Bulky's run wrapped up the
qualifying the top 12 being Peters
McGil, Lomar, Blender, Zegfried
Grisham, M. Alba Smith, Roy Bones
"