greeted by a beautiful day. Behind
me in the bay was the Mono
Rock Ominus gigantic and down
right pretty dam big. I mean if fifty
tall guys stood on each other's
shoulders, they wouldn't reach
halfway to the top. Geez
area.
OK so much for the scenery
aspect. Finally getting to the issue
at hand, I scoped out the contest
I walked through a maze of
riders seated up and down the
road, fine tuning their instruments
of battle New wheels, new trucks
new bearings. Old equipment was
quickly swept away by young
future compettors. I made my
way over to the registration table
to see just who was going to show
up for this race. I approached with
catlike caution because won't
sure what the local types were
like and what do my bespec-
tacled eyes see? Not one, not two.
but three glamour betties. Nice. I
tried to think up a couple of good
scam lines but eventually decided
against it and decided to leave
them dry of the pleasure. So just
picked their brains for the infor-
mation Iso desired for an affective
article. The accumulated informa-
tion that there were 12 riders in the
amateur division and 6 riders in
the Pros
The amateurs competed first
The riders chose amongst them
selves who they would compete
20
against. The competitors were
allowed one run on each lone in
the qualifying round, with the
fastest of the two runs determining
their position in the seeding for
the finals. The rules were in very
good taste and most logical
Safety equipment was required
during practice and during actual
competition, with a warning on
the first offense and eventual
disqualification with continued
infractions. But it seemed all the
riders abided by this rule. The
starting box rule consisted of keep-
ing the skateboard and both foot
inside the box Plus the racer could
push as far as he/she desired
because there wasn't a stop push-
ing line. The penalty for
hitting a
cone with the board or foot was
10 (one tenth of a second added
on to the time. A racer could
knock down three cones without
being disqualified for the run. But,
if he/she knocked down four.
SNAP, that's it buddy. The run is
DQd. Now it a racer disqualifies a
run in the finals helshe will be
assessed a one second penalty.
So if you disqualify your first run in
the finals you'd have to beat your
opponent by 1001 seconds to
hang in there. At the finish line the
rider had to have both feet on the
board and both trucks had to
cross the timing tape. If not DQ'd
pal
Amateur poolmaster. Bob Serain, brought his style and determination to Morro Bay
Left to right, Dave Baker, Rick Howell and John Hutson. The men to beat in the heated
compon
The seeding for the finals went
like this. The number one qualifier
vs. the number sideenth, number
two vs fifteenth etcetera, etcetera
and so on. The first and second
qualifiers were placed at opposite
ends of the bracket. Now in the
finals both runs were counted and
the racer with the lowest total
times of the two runs will advance.
So much for the technicalities
right? Right. In the ranks of the
amateurs was the only female
competitor of the event, Corol
Ellott put up a pretty stiff showing
against some of the guys with her
best time at 25.11, and an overall
time in the finals of 50.27. Not bad
at all I asked her how she felt
being the only female rider in the
race and she said, "There should
be more girls because it's kinda
tough to race against guys. If girls
raced against girls thore would be
a more at ease feeling in the
competition"
Early in the competition, David
Baker proved that he was definitely
the one to beat. He had the line.
He had the speed. He had the
motion. Although he was quick to
show his stuff, one couldn't deny
the fact that taking it all would not
be easy because there was some
stiff competition Gary Rutt and
Rick Howell proved to be the final
walls to the top spot The qualifying
runs proved to be quite exciting
Potatoe and Barry Fields had
some good head to head runs
with Potatoe Head executing
some of the best WHOOPTER
moves I have ever seen in a run
off situation. He always got up and
brushed it off in all modesty claim-
ing it as a contemporary move for
the 80's. Roger Schumann saw the
fier in his town for the last year's
race but couldn't make it. But
when he saw it this year, he came
a determined skater. His times
might not have been enough to
hit the top spots, but still the spirit
of competition was overpresent
Skating to the best of his abilities
sticking it out. The true skater with
the heart to skate. At about this
time, clouds seemed to accumu
late overhead and the crowd also
accumulated, making the skaters
oblivious to the unclear skies. Bob
Serafin proved to be an effective
challenger in the sialom as well as
in the bowls. I saw John Hutson
coaching Bob, and after a few
suggested equipment alterations,
he fared pretty well considering
his competition slalom experience.
As the finals narrowed down to
the last three riders, David Baker,
Gary Flutt and Rick Howell, the
crowd urged them on more and
more, causing the times to
decrease considerably. Gary Fluitf
came through with the fastest
time in the finals at 19.35 But his
accumulated score was only
good enough to land him in the
third place spot. Rick Howell took
the second place honors and the
top spot went to David Baker
As the practice session went on
for the open class division and Pro
combined, the course was
changed a bit. While this went on 1
took the liberty to trip around, do
facial impersonations of some of
my favorite people and talk to
some of the people on the scene
On hand were some notables
Rich Novak, the N in NHS, Eric and
Fausto, the body and soul (or
should I say the Starsky and Hutch)
of INDEPENDENT TRUCKS Rich Rose
fotoman ala high calibre and
can you believe It Mike Rector.
the insides of the outside gear.
In the Open/Pro race qualifica-
tion runs just about everyone from
the amateur class re-entered.
making it quite a large field of
John Hutson, is he ready for prime time?
-Team
Jack Smith, without whom this would not be
possible
competition. All of the same rules
were applied here. With the
change in course structure, some
of the riders needed to accustom-
ize themselves with the run. Those
who didn't paid dearly with a few
body to street moves that they
probably didn't plan on doing Al
in all the qualifying runs were very
exciting. The seeding of the semi-
finals consisted of eight riders
They paired off as follows: Barry
Fields vs. John Hutson, Tim Plumarta
vs Cliff Coleman, Paul Dunn vs
Rick Howell and David Baker vs
Chris Pettyjohn. A humorous note
in the semi-finals was when, on
one of the runs, John Hutson was
a couple of cones ahead of Barry
Fields, Barry screamed (now, this
will crack you up). "JOHN SLOW
DOWN That just busts me up. Oh
yeah, and when Baker and Petty-
john were dueling it out. Chris lost
his line and smashed out three or
four cones in a row and so this old
lady in a lawnchair next to me
shrieks "Oh my God" like he was
gonna die or something That is
just a sample of some of t
goings-on at the semi-finals. Never
a dull moment you know
The next step narrowed the field
down to four riders Hutson vs
Plumarta and Howell vs. Baker. Tim
succumbed to the veteran Hutson
and David and Rick battled it out
with David not being quite the
successor. So this left Tim and
David to duke it out for second
the
and third and John and Rick to
hash it for the top spot. The tension
built. The guy next to me started to
fidget about intensely and smoked
ac
a cigarette a minute
On
Tim and Dave's first run. Tim
lost by a few cones and as they
came by on their way back to the
top Tim said. The sun was in my
eyes I figured right away that this
was a cheap excuse because the
sky was pretty densely overcast.
asked David Baker if he thought
the race was fun and he turned
and said, yeah (great conversa-
fionalist). As it turned out the head
to head competition was fierce.
Hutson beat Howell for first place
in the Pro Div. with a time of 38.55
overall combined from both runs
Hutson and Plumarta in a close race through staggered cones
And since Howell registered as an
Open Class rider he took first in
that class with his overall combined
time for the final two runs at 4111
Second place for the Pros went to
David Baker (c.1.40.79), leaving Tim
Plumata not quite hitting it at
44.15 for third Second and third in
the Open Class went to Bany
Fields (c.146.92) and Coedman
Bear (c.148.32)
It was a long and eventful day
and I still had a long drive ahead
of me. On our way back up, my
illustrious driver almost ceased my
existence on this earth by passing
a car near the top of a blind hill
and nearly kissing a passing tour
bus. Pretty close. This time I was the
one to request a pitstop right
away. When I finally got to the
front of my humble abode I was
horrified to see that my front door
had gotten into a serious fight with
a chainsaw or something similar
The Thugs Fortunately, one of my
roommates had surprised the
culprits minutes after their entry
and scared them away by telling
them that I lived there. The Mono
of this story is IT IS ALWAYS GOOD
TO KNOW THE RIGHT PEOPLE
MOrizen Foche
COMPETITORS
PRO
David Baker
Cif Coleman
Chris Pettyjohn
John Hutson
Tim Plumarta
Paul Dunn
AM
Brent Mathias
David Baker
Barry Fields
Roger Schumann
Carol Elliott
Bob Serafin
Rich Howell
Gary Flutt
Coedmon Bear
Tony Farley
Ken Bailey
Gerry (Potatoe) Hurtado