LAGUNA SECA
Anatomy of a cover shot. Hut breaks his luck, Hickey pulls away and Thrasher photog Reg Caselli captures it on film. Photo by T. Piumarta
MAXIMUM DOWNHILL
A Report by MOrizon FOche
You'll never guess what hap
pened to me the other day. Yup,
that's right, THRASHER MAG called
on me once again to cover yet
another contest. I guess their other
journalist is still in the hospital with
that leprosy. The Deja vu continued
when it came down to the ride
situation. I copped the same
capitalists. Now do I have the luck
or what?
So after being lectured once
again on the wills and ways of
capitalism I was extremely anxious
once we arived at Laguna Seca
to pursue another mode of enter-
fainment. It was Saturday, the
eleventh day in July, the day
allowed for practice runs on the
downhill stretch affectionately
called tum #4. I decided to famil
larize myself with the racers and
the terrain. After intense scrutinizing
I came to the conclusion that the
terrain consisted mainly of dirt with
bushes and trees growing out of it
in the appropriate places. Also to
my astonishment I discovered the
existence of the smallest Ittle
grasshoppers I had ever seen in
all my born days. I caught one of
the buggers and examined it
closely. If was loss than half the
size of my thumbnail. I marveled
at its miniature structure and
complexity. Then I squished it in
my hand and wiped it on my
Jeans
At that same moment I heard
the sound of violently spinning
wheels coming down the track
behind me. It was Roger Hickey.
the Kid with No Respect, testing
out the track's surface for contour
and proposed rideability. On his
way back up the hill he stopped
to chat for a second or two. I
asked him how he thought he was
going to do in the race. Now I
forgot to write it down but fim
pretty e dam sure he said something
to the effect of now let me see if I
got this straight, he was pretty
nervous, no wait. Everybody else
was nervous, no, as a matter of
fact Roger did look pretty nervous.
That's right, he was nervous be-
cause he had not skated in that
many downhill contests and also
he was up against the notorious
don't know if I should really say
notorious) John Hutson, the winn
ingest skateboarder in the history
of the sport don't know if I should
really say sport. But I informed
Roger that I had heard that he
was sone
of the heavily favored
and had a really good chance of
winning, not to mention the fact
that I had the equivalent of four
paychecks riding on him to win.
He told me that he wasn't surprised.
No wonder they call him the Kid
with No Respect
There was one case of psyching
(as I call it) that I noticed on this
day. While many of the serious
skaters were trying to get the
place wired, John Hutson was
nowhere to be seen. A heavy
burden on the consciousness of
the other skaters. This says that
Fully Committed, Byron Miler using ski racing instincts during a head down approech into turn 4.
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