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Billy Ruff chewing before spewing.
DALLAS RAMP
EVENT
Well, skate fans, here it is, the last
event of the year (in Texas, that is).
What a year it's been. This is the third
series, and the seventh or eighth
(possibly 10th or 12th) event that I've
put on or have been involved with this
year.
Friday was hectic as all "day before
contests are. Renting the P.A., picking
up trophies and picking up people at
the airport, all ran me ragged. Things
started to settle down in the evening so
I went to the ramp to watch the
practice session that had been going
on all day as more and more skaters
arrived in town. Everything was fine
until I remembered that I had to pick up
Billy Ruff and Micke Alba at the airport
on a "Red Eye" flight.
After picking them up and waiting for
their luggage (which, of course, took
forever), we went back to the ramp and
found around 20 skaters still blazing,
but there were no cars. I was elected
(forced?) to shuttle the skaters to the
motel where they were staying. The
motel was the Value-Inn, but now
renamed the Thrash-Inn for obvious
reasons. I dumped off my passengers
and went with Billy and Micke to Jack-
in-the-Box (what a mistake). After a
hearty meal of crud burgers and sloppy
tacos, Billy showed us that he could
still please a crowd by puking his taco
onto the tile floor.
Moving right along into Saturday, the
contest went along as smoothly as
could be expected with the event
starting the typical two or three hours
late. The only thing that put the contest
in jeopardy was the fact that I was
M.C.-ing the event. Despite that, the
skating was UNREAL and even
beyond my expectations. The
closeness of some of the results
probably couldn't even be measured
with modern means.
At the judging position, I put Micke
and Billy at the helm. They seemed to
enjoy their duties more and more as
the day progressed. But later, I found
out that they were being smuggled
beer in their Big Gulp cups.
Micke Alba turned more than himself upside down during his stay in the
Big State
One of the finest and most widely used ramps in Texas
Local talent shows local talent.
THER
Local Craig Johnson pushes a footplant to extremes during heated competition.
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