Mark Rogowski was heavily favored in his home park. Here, the man from "Esco Viejo" twirls a
frontside air into a fakie, a move he introduced to the masses. A move like this is enough to wet
anybody's pants.
-Friedman sequence
eighty two. From Canada, to compete in
the freestyle were Kevin Harris and Chris
Guild, and competing in the slalom events
was top Canada slalom ace Claude
Reignier. From Ft. Collins, Colorado, there
was Joe Johnson. From Texas were Craig
Johnson and Jeff Phillips. Tom Groholski
from New Jersey, Bill Beauregard from
Florida, Gary Davis and Gary Boodt from
San Jose. Del Mar became the melting pot.
That night was the first joining of all the
competitors in their off-spotlight candid-
ness. In the dark corners of the parking lot,
unmentionable goings on was the protocol.
Certain "Pro-types" (names withheld) were
doing too good of a job of assuring
themselves of no-nonsense, "bad boy"
reputations. But hey, it's all part of the
game, just ask Mike Smith or Bob Serafin.
Saturday morning saw the slalom finals
and the pool qualifying. The freestylers
were taking a break today for their finals
tomorrow.
The banked slalom event was pretty
cool, especially when some of the riders
would "hair out" at the transitions. The
banked walls were pretty big, although not
so steep. In the Open Ams, the top four
were as follows: (1) Bill Swartzbaugh, (2)
Joe Johnson, (3) Barry Fields, and (4) Rick
Demontrand.
In the Pro-Am banked slalom, some said
that Steve Evans, top ranking slalom ace,
was going to take the cake easily. Such
was not the case when all the dust had
settled and the times were tallied. The top
four Pro-Am finishers were as follows: (1)
Brian Martin, (2) Steve Evans, (3) Neil
Blender, (4) Rick Howell.
As far as the tight slalom goes, there
was some excellent head-to-head compet-
ition going on. In the Open Ams, the
placing for first was an intense struggle
between Chris Robison and Barry Fields.
Also in this field of competitors was Shirley
McLelland, the only female to compete in
any of the slalom events. This woman is no
chicken, especially at the age of 29. She
put a lot of the seasoned young male
competitors to shame. The top six tight
slalom racers were:
1) Barry Fields
2) Chris Robison
3) Gregg Ducolon
4) Shirley McLelland
5) Chris Stagg
6) Bill Swartzbaugh
The Pro-Am tight slalom was another
story. Gone are the days of the Hesters,
Piercys, Skoldbergs and Hutsons (al-
though Hutson does skate once a year in
public, but nothing to do with slalom).
Today, the top names are Serafin, Howell,
Korten, Evans and Martin. They know that
the old names are just dust in the wind and
they are out to supercede the codgers'
names of the past. This is the sport of the
youth and there's usually no room for old
men. At least that was the case today. The
top six racers were:
1) Steve Evans
2) Brian Martin
3) Jim Korten
4) Bob Serafin
5) Rick Howell
6) Steve Steadham
Although not performing like this in competition, Primo and his girlfriend have their own little
synchronized routine down to near science.
The pool qualifying was next on the
agenda. First was the Open Ams. These
amateurs have really come a long way in
the last few months. The level of their
riding has risen to near Pro proportions.
They have now been exposed to the best
skating the world has to offer, and by
gaining this superior knowledge they will
further compel their abilities, because now
they are the future threat.
In the Pro-Ams, with the advent of the
highest and longest type of events, the
skaters were beginning to once again push
their abilities further than ever before
imagined. Neil Blender was blasting five
plus feet of air consistently along with
Lester Kasai and Tony Hawk. Billy Ruff,
the heavy favorite to win in his home pool,
was pulling the bio moves. Mark Rogowski,
another favorite to win here in what is also
his home park, was doing a good job of
insanely keeping on edge.
Allen Losi, Mike Folmer, Dave Andrecht
and Eric Grisham, some of the old farts
that tried to compete, performed decently.
Each qualified for the next day's competi-
tion.
The featured event today was the
highest air event. The way they judged
height was to have two judges looking
(from different angles) at a height stick for
the highest point reached by the board. It
wasn't the most accurate, but it was the
best that could be done. The winner of the
event was Billy Ruff at 5'3", Mark Rogowski
was second and Tony Hawk third.
By the time everything wrapped up for
the day, it was practically dark-thirty. In the
parking lot, circles of people grew around
the appropriate carrier cars (or holding
tanks). At one that I approached (with beer
drinking hand extended for gifts), Lowboy,
Gnit Pique and TRACKER Larry were
scheming the evening's rendezvous. The
plan was to congregate at some local club
dive called the "Stomach Over" (or
something similar). As we found out, "the
plan" turned out to be the formula for
disaster. It all started back at our motel
room at The Mellow Inn," Room 10. In tow
for the evening were Jeff Newtron (from
Texas), Mike Pust (a Calgerian),
Potatohead, Gnit F. Pique, and Ted. We
got into two cars, I went with Newtron while
17