Photograffitt
GUATEMALA
The terrorists are at work. You dan hear
and see the results of this But this isn't
the kind of commid terrorism that you she
on the news about Central America. It's
more radical. intense, definitely bordering
on craziness. It's vertical skateboarding at
the Good Times Skatebbard Parkin
Guatemala City Guatemala. This
skatepark has excellent runs that werel
carefully built ad that you dan ride the
whole park without getting off your board.
The contest, the International
Skateboard Contest of Guatemala had
beed planhed for a long time, Lew down
from the US to compete. I knew that this,
lone was doing to be the most intense
ever, Moves land map bad greatly
lincreased. The countries represented
ware Guatemala, Honduras, Germany I
land the Uls
Although we thank Cerveza Gallo, al
huge Guatemalan beer company. fora,
grand that they poured out for publicity for
the contest, this really wasn't needed
Ultra-modern movies and sorbe,new.
Impvas were more than enough to get a
crowd. Some of these moyes were
extended handplants, frontside footplants.
rock 'n' rolls 360s, committed backside
land frontside airs, fakie hang-ups, switch
stance airs, lip slides, airs, to fakies, and
180°lacid drops. Most of these moves
were pulled off and above an 11-foot
Thalfpipe WITHOUT PLATFORMS!!! This
raised some hair in the spectator area.
Standouts were pretty visible in the
contest. The thing the judges spon
realized was that they were going to
sweat it out because all of the skaters
were skating in their own individual way,
with their own style and moves. This
made the contest extremely hard to judge
Carlos Lanza, representing Honduras,
Thad unmatched flowing smoothness in his
runs. If the concrete had been painted
bibeдarlyone would think he was surfing
the park with his lines. Bernard Haidacher
(Germany) had a hew bag of tricks. He
did all of the standards and some of his
Town His skate philosophy was either rip it
to the limit or nothing. He landed 180
acid drops on the very BOTTOM of the
bowl. The cracks in the bowl were
probably helped along with this move.
Scott Edwards (US) consistently
thrashed the park with a rare combination
of radical tricks and good control. Scott's
skating especially drew cheers from the
ladies. Franz Haidacher (Germany) had
good lines which mixed tricks like olje
rollouts and radical aerials into fakies with
a smooth and precise style.
A sunny day, a great crowd, and insand
skaters pulled the plug to the contest. A
few hours later, after the event was ever,
spectators had witnessed the best skating
in the park to date. This contest was
filmed and shown on the finest sports
program on Guatemalan television. The
top three places were: Franz Haidacher
(Germany), third: Bernard Haidacher
(Germany), second; and Scott Edwards
(U.S.), first. The judges did a commenda-
ble job and deserved high praise. The
highest score given on a scale from 1 to
100, was 80. This was because the
judges, like all hardcore skaters, do hot
believe at all in perfection. They know that
perfect does not exist. You can always
PUSH IT FARTHER! This is what keeps
progress moving.
Well it's not over yet. We are in the
final stages of getting national U.S.
coverage of this contest. This contest will
be held every six months from how on.
We welcome any other thrashers to
participate. If interested, please write to:
Scott Edwards, 1919 Bethel Road,
Simpsonville, SC 29681. We'll keep in
touch, well thrash, we'll see you.
Photos and Story John Carpenter
MARYLAND
Skating has really been picking up in
our area lately. Just two weeks ago, the
owner of the famous Annandale ramp in
Virginia had a skate barbecue. There was
quite a turnout. The Toke Team was there
of course, as well as many blown away
spectators. All enjoyed endless hot dogs,
steaks, and keg beer while listening to
blaring tapes of local bands like Double
O, Void, Minor Threat, Artificial Peace,
Iron Cross, and The Bad Brains, just to
name a few. Aside from the countless-
ramps that have been relayered, the Toke
Team has been invading Crofton
Skatepark in Crofton, MD, The park.
features a kidney (9), a reservoir (verticle),
and a huge capsule pool with massive
verticle, in the deep end. The Varitlex
Team was there on tour once and didn't
even ridelit bedause they thought, the
surface was top rough no excuse.
Everyone on the East Coast Toke, Team.
shreds the pool.
We will keep you posted on any new
developments in the area besides 10' wall
jumps and stair jumps with 11 stairs. (The
mall jump is the sickest-it takes heavy
speed to clear them stairs and a rail grab
is mandatory.)
Later Skaters Toke Team.
Washington, D.C
TENNESSEE
We got these pictures (and others too
hot for the mail) back so I thought you
might want to see this ramp for yourself.
One picture is a view of the ramp, another
is some backside air, and the last one is a
frontside-roll-in, caught in mid-air-with-
Bunz looking on in crippleness. He is a
skater,extraordinaire-look for his
comeback this summer. Still another
halfpipe has gone up in Oak Ridge. This
area is turning skate crazy. I also just got
back an 8mm film of Joe's ramp,
Batmite
K-Town, TN