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condon
"They'll have to move me."
"Well, maybe they can sleep on the
"That's better, but what do we do with
floor."
them now?"
"Feed 'em I guess,
The duo stood there smiling.
We had to wait a bit before we could be
seated. So we hung out at the bar. We
ordered up two mixed drinks and two soft
drinks. Gnit began to explain the wet bar
system to Micke and Christian.
...now all those bottles over there, those
are the well drinks. That lady on the other
end of the bar with the red blouse and red
nose, she's a bar lush..."
I turned to Christian. "From now on I'm
gonna call you Christ for short.
Christian sucked on the straw as the
liquid reached the bottom of the glass and
then gurgled. "Whatever," he said.
"Burrruphtbkrapl
The plates were empty in front of us; it
was all in our stomachs,
Next to my plate were three empty
Margarita glasses, next to Grit's were two
and one beer bottle. His eyes were red. It
had been a long day for Mr. Pique, too
much excitement. I could tell he was
having a good time.
Between the four of us, we probably
consumed ten pounds of beans. I know
what that stuff does to me and I made
plans for later in the evening.
t
Then Gnit said in a loud voice, "I can
take on any man in this room!" and
slammed his fist on the table rattling the
silverware. The capacity filled dining room
fell silent until a deep voice from the other
side of the room said, "Shut up you drunk
Indian!"
Longitude
West
unk
C
Ell
45
NETH
Gnit thought he was Superman and
began to climb on the table trying to breach
a partition which divided the room. The
three of us had to hold him back. I grabbed
Gnit's wallet and pulled out three twenty
dollar bills and paid the tab.
Come on Gnit, we're going now 45
On the way back to the room Gnit kept
screaming, can take any man in this carl,
Midgets included!!
I turned to Micke, "Will you shut him up?
"No way."
We three Gnif on his bed, took off his
shoes and tucked him in. Christ turned the
TV on. The movie "The Warriors" was
about to begin,
"I can take any man in this bed!!" Gnit
squalled, a loud report came from beneath
his blankets, "Excuse me."
The next morning a haze hovered in the
room. A haze to which I contributed to
heavily. The scent of methane stung my
nose.
"I can whip any man in my dreams
came the muffled grunt from the next bed
over.
Outside the sound of rain hitting the F
pavement led me to believe there would be
a lack of activities today.)
Berlin
the Burbank airport at six p.m. Fantastic,
that means that he's finished printing the
March issue and is bringing down advance
copies hot-off-the-press for this event.
Standing on top of the ramp provided an 45
dithered about the surface. Micke Alba
was hauling ass all over the place. On one
particular run, he rolled in through the
channel, hit the facing wall at the right
corner of the 9% ft. section, bursted into a
high frontside air and landed on the 7 ft.
Csection. Down across the bottom he
rushed, maintaining enough speed to carry
him up to the lip of the 12 ft. section Into a
quick handplant, down again and carved
backside (grinding) across the 9% ft
section and then popped a four foot
excellent vantage point as the riders
UNG
A
From what I've seen of all the riders
today, it seemed to look like the ones Urr.1
ripping most were Micke, Neil, Steve
Caballero, Christ Hosoi, and Billy. They
were utilizing nearly all of the ramp,
inspecting as many lines as possible.
Ripping just the same, but in Belg
limited capacity was Tony Hawk He
seemed to be taking the approach of
breaking the ramp down by section and
getting each wired individually. It seemed
as though, probably due to his small frame,
he had to pump extra hard, more than the
larger riders, to get optimum speed. The
hinderance mainly being the distance
between the walls, as well as wind factor,
which on occasion would blast right
through the ramp, making airs difficult and
44 somewhat precarious for all of the riders.
Once there, Keith informs us that TED
(THRASHER editor) had called from San
Francisco and wanted to pick him up from
Christ got up and looked out the window.
"No way am I going to skate today."
BWe were both wrong. Within two hours,
the rain had ceased and everything was
drying up quickly.
At the ramp already this Saturday
morning were many of the pros. The ramp
was being pounded straight with full
mock-assault intensity,
One of Tony's moves was outrageous-a
one footed backside channel air. It was so
intense.
43
of Greenwich 0° Longitude
120°
One of the more outrageous of the new moves
unveiled at this contest. The one-footed nose
grab backside air over the channel seems
effortless here for Tony Hawk.-Friedman
sequence
Below: A fine example of Dr. Adrian's handy
work.
SOVIET
A multitude of variations of air were
executed over the channel, from Micke's
high backsiders to Lance's channel plants,
from Mike McGill's mute airs to Caballero's
bone airs and to Bill Ruff's frigid-aires
Down at ground level, I could see Gnit
buzzing around acting important. Then a
van and two trucks pulled up. One of the
trucks had a cherry picker elevation crane
mounted on it. On the doors were the bold
letters H.B.O. I closed in to get a fine on
what was up. What is H.B.O., Homeboys"
Organization?
140°
was going on. There were girls and there
were tunes. Lots of skateboards, too. In
fact, during the final incident of the
evening, several skaters, including the
likes of Alan Losi, Lance Mountain, Steve
Caballero, Bill Ruff, Steve Steadham, and
a few others did a gang pile-up onto some
chick with long blonde hair and glitter on
her face who kept screaming, "I AM NOT A
HIPPY!
Then everybody figured that the party
should end.
On the way back to the car, someone
called to me from the shadows. I told my
ride I'd be there and sought the source of
the voice.
"Whadaya want, I said, "who are you?"
"It doesn't matter," the voice came back
in a soft spoken tone. "There's something
you need to know."
Intrigued, I still couldn't see who I was
talking to, "Come out where I can see you
and tell me what I need to know."
"Who I am doesn't matter much. It's
what I'm gonna tell you that matters,
Speak up, Holmes
JWell, I happen to know of this lady who
doesn't dig the magazine."
Does she skate?"
Once in close, things became clear. Gnit
was really excited now, and rightly so
since he had succeeded in getting Keith
Stephenson to having H.B.O. cover the
contest. H.B.O., 1 found out, stands for
Home Box Office, a type of pay cable tv.
network. At this point, I thought that the
H.B.O. men had made a big mistake. The
contest is tomorrow. But I overheard Gnit
talking to Phil Lanman, a representative for
Mr. H.B.O. himself. What they were doing
was taking a dry run and getting all.
preorganized for tomorrow's gig. Now that
made sense. While they set up, splicing
this and that, getting their camera angles
all pre-designated, I noticed Billy Ruff over
at the other side of the ramp. He was taking
a much needed break. I approached him
as he finished one bottle and was reaching
into a bag removing another Miller, Beside
Bill sat Adrian. I can't find any liquor stores
that sell Schnapps," he said: Comic
Looking up, caught Neil Blender,
balling from a roll-in from the corner of the
9% ft. wall onto the 7% ft. wall. He then ran
around in circles on the flat bottom,
screaming again. "How's Neil doin'? Isaid.
"I don't know about Nell, Adrian said
"This morning I caught him making
oatmeal in the sink."
"You're kidding
Madman Mark Rogowski rolled onto the
"Uh, no. I don't think so."
"Then she doesn't matter a bit, it doesn't
even matter who she is. Hey, I gotta go. I
turned and ran to Adrian's truck, and yelled
back at the informer, "Thanks for the info!"
The editor was waiting, "What's that all
about?" he asked.
"Your basic garbage, nothing to worry
about. Let's go, I wanna crash.
It was about 2 am. when Christ and
Micke showed up giggling. They were
harbingers of MacDonalds food. I told,
them to shut up. They told me it was
raining. Minutes later, we were all out for
the night.
K The phone rang. It was five hours later.
ke
It rang again. I looked over and Gnit's bed
was empty. "Hello." It was Gnit. "Where are
you?"
ramp and bailed on a failed trick attempt.
Skidding down the transition, he jolted for
an instant, then continued to a halt. When
he rose, spots of blood began to appear on "At the ramp."
his shadow. He had ripped his ass open ons raining here.
the protruding head of a nail. He began to
bleed heavily and searched for medical
assistance. Luckily the men from H.B.O.
had a first aid kit. Adrian grabbed the kit
and played doctor.
Since Burbank airport is about an hour...
away from the ramp, we had to leave to.
pick up the editor.
Later that evening, while we reviewed
the bio new issue, our friend Adrian
knocked at our door wanting to know if we
wanted to go lose our minds at a local's
party. Gnit declined, as he was still looking
for his mind from last night, Plus he was
going to wait for the dynamic duo, Micke
and Christ, to return from their sojourn to
Upland where they went to a highschool
party to pick up on some girls./
ny
Hal
4
East of 10° Greenwich
We arrived at the party where everything
"So?"
"You woke me up.
"If anybody calls tell them if it stops
raining by noon, the contest will go off at
one. If not, I'll postpone it til next weekend.
Later. I hung up and went back to
sleep. It was 7 a.m. About an hour later
there was a knock at the door. One of the
midgets let the editor in
"Rise and shine!" he said.
"Shine the rise!" I told him.
"It's raining outside, he said, opening
the curtains and letting in an intense glare
that filled the room.
Three groans hit the atmosphere 5
simultaneously.
70°
Wake me when it's over. Micke Str
mumbled,
The editor left. The phone rang. It was.
4The
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