Frank Blood, H.S. veteran, made one helluva showing at this first Rusty Harris Series contest. Here he
is seen puffing past one of the cones, eyeing his line, on his way to winning the banked slalom.
-Friedman photo.
nate dual mishap. Still, he was present
and took a token run for participatory
points.
Judging for this event were Pete
Drotliff, Wally Hollyday (pool builder
extraordinaire), Pete Gonzales (Pomona
skatepark overseer), and H.S. veterans
Chris Strople and Frank Blood.
The crowd grew by leaps and
bounds as the heat in the pool in-
creased from fireball run after fireball
run.
After all of the dust settled, the
twelve skaters who had made the final
cut were Folmer, Smith, Lamar,
Mountain, Hawk, Hosol, McGill, Malba,
Miller, Kasal, Gator, and on top was
Bill Ruff. That's eight Pros and four
Ams.
Thus wraps up the first day of com-
petition.
18
THE PARTY
That night near the park, there was a
party in which the top-billed entertain-
ment was THE WILD ONES. This
band's somewhat unique haunting
sounds from hell came from wildman
Steve Alba's reverberated, wired
backwards guitar work on the "Silver-
tone." Craig Rowe, ex-G&S team
member and H.S. veteran, was the
vocalizer. This band has potential and
already sports a heavy cult teen-girl
following.
The party was one of the biggest
events in skateboard history. Mike
Smith, Kiwi, Potato Head, Jay Smith,
Malba, Fausto, Ted, about 150 females,
ages 15-19, some hardcore punk and
rockabilly types along with assorted
spatterings of prepsters, jocks, grease
hippies and curiosity seekers, were the
contents of the attendance. The last to
arrive (and certainly uninvited) were
the township's finest. They only came
to usher everyone out after reports of
bottles flying through windows of
neighboring houses.
THE THIRD DAY
Surviving the massive alter-innuen-
dos of the previous night was easy for
most, extremely difficult for some and
downright impossible for others.
It seemed that almost everybody
made it. That is, except for Mike
Folmer. Mike seemed to have fallen ill,
with the flu. He forfeited his spot in the
finals, yielding to Steve Steadham
(who reportedly is the newest recruit of
the Powell/Peralta pool commando
squad).
The day's first event was the longest
carve. Thirteen rough & ready
skatedogs entered this event. Some
young. Some older H.S. veteran types.
The way this event was judged was
by two markers set 2' below the coping
and about 10' apart. These were the
Indicators for either a goffy-foot or
regular foot approach. On the outside
of those were the movable marks that,
If both were cleared (Indicator and
farthest outlying mark), it would
constitute a complete carve and would
make the rider eligible to go on to the
next distance. Each rider was given
two attempts at each distance. They
would, If successful, continue. If not,
then....
After five distances, the first riders
began to fall out. The remaining
skaters were getting farther and farther
back and taking bigger and stronger
pushes in order to cover the distance
that was required.
The contingency finally whittled
down to two lone warriors of the
coping to battle it out head to head.
Steve Steadham and Frank Blood.
Both went on to clear additional marks
until Blood, who had been making the
grade by riding frontside this whole
time, slammed heavily on his back
while almost clearing a first attempt at
a new mark.
The super-involved crowd winced
and sighed in unison as Frank, laid out
on the pool floor, searched for his
breath.
Contest promoters Frank Hawk and
Don Hoffman leaned over the edge of
the pool and asked Frank if he was
going to continue. Frank slowly stood
up, raised his fist and said, "YEAH!!"
The crowd roared at Frank's gonzo-
ness and raw determination as
Steadham took his next run and
cleared.
It is at times like this that endurance,
guts, Insanity, determination, self-
abuse and loss of common sense
come into play. These are the "make or
break" situations that, when overcome,
show extreme prowess in one definitely
particular aspect.
The distance was now 32 feet. The
farthest distance ever. Frank went, not
quite making it on his first attempt. The
slam was taking its toll.
Steve went, barely making it and
pulling it off. Everyone in the park fell
silent as Frank paused before taking
his deciding run. He then pushed off,
dropped in, crossed the bottom of the
pool and up the wall. The crowd roared
as if to help him gain that extra
distance that was required to make it.
He didn't quite make it, missing by a
narrow margin, and that means that
Steve Steadham is the undisputed
champ of the longest carve (for now
anyway).
Next was the sialom finals. The
crowd lined the fence as the finals
commenced. Top dog and the man to
beat here was (again) Frank Blood.
This "shows to go you" that even
though you may be somewhat out of
circulation for a period of time, it
doesn't mean that you have to be
written off completely. Once aggro,
always aggro.
Early off, Frank established a time of
11 seconds flat. After that, nobody
could touch him. Second place went to
(above) G&S Pro Billy Ruff wrangles a frontside corner air during the
finals, making an excellent showing of gut determination. (below left)
Placing a well deserved sixth place, Lance Mountain wasn't one to go
down without a fantastic struggle. Here he blasts an Indy air in the
round bowl. (below) Amateur Chris Miller is going to be one to watch out
for in the contests to come in this Series. His fast lines and bio airs
showed that he shouldn't be ignored.-G. E. Friedman photos.
By
19