MAR
DEL
G&S
Solande
16
NFLEX
CRU
NFLEX
INCOMPLETE
THOUGHTS...
It will probably be a long time before someone will beat Tony Hawk in Del Mar. The local boy knows every inch of the pool and every speedline by heart.
Here he is flying an upside down, backside air towards camera jockey Glen Friedman.
after all, it's Del Mar. What
else could you expect. Subject
yourself to five months of solid
rain. Then transplant yourself to
Del Mar, where the climate can
only be matched somewhere
in the middle of the
Mediterranean. It would, for
sure, fry any man's brains out
in less than a matter of hours.
Things were looking good.
Doctor Rick said that this
kind of weather would be great
Keith Butterfield shows excellent form on this variation of the kickflip
for my arthritic tendencies. How can one
help but be stoked after hearing news like
that?
Gnit Pique, the amiable 'WOP," was
again to trail the THRASHER Staff Travel-
ing Co. Will there ever be an end to torture?
And when keys were drawn for rooming as-
signments, in # 259, Gnit and THRASHER
were roomed once again. In capital letters,
this spelled an interesting weekend and
more than likely, trouble.
The 'Skate Ranch' skatepark was to host
the 1983 Del Mar Spring Nationals on the
1st and 2nd of April, Easter weekend.
Another Pro/Am, including pool and frees-
tyle events. On this weekend, much of the
world was getting ready to observe the an-
niversary of the rebirth of their savior.
On the other hand, a large contingency
of young individuals were breathing a bit
nervously on the Skate Ranch property.
They were preparing to be more radical
and aggressive than anyone else in the
world this weekend. They were going to
compete in the most radical activity known.
April Fools day was the first day of com-
petition for this two day marathon event.
The amateur events yielded such large
turnouts that they took up a major part of
the day. It was definitely a good sign to see
a massive response to competition
There is definitely a new breed of ska-
ter coming up through the ranks once
again.
A lot of promise was evident during the
amateur proceedings. In the freestyle, the
likes of Keith Butterfield, and two hot
Chicano skaters from San Jose, Ray and
Anthony, were proving to be heavy threats.
Gary Scott Davis lurched around the
banked freestyle area, pulling radical
moves on each inch of bank, on, above,
and across the lip.
One new face on the freestyle scene is a
female radster by the name of Leslie Anne
Miller. She's only been doing freestyle
around 3 months and already has a fine
quiver of tricks. She even obliged to posing
for our photographer for some T-shirt
shots.
As far as the pool amateurs
were concerned, there seems to
be some intense energy brewing
that is about to blow. Owen
Nieder, a radical skater from San
Diego County was sporting a
nicely shaped Mohawk. In the
pool he was getting. crazy.
Very impressive.And as always,
Chris Miller, John Park, Kevin
Staab, and Steve Steadham
headed off the amateurs in full
thrashing tradition.
Steadham, an ex-Whittier local, has
relocated to Del Mar after Skate City's
demise to continue skating park terrain.
It seems that skaters were travelling
from all over the place to come to this
contest. Chris Cook, a Daly City, Ca.
local took the train all the way down to com-
pete in the amateurs. He ripped pretty well
considering he hasn't really had a decent
pool to skate since Winchester closed it's
doors a few years back.
In the Pro-freestyle this weekend, there
were to be a few surprises. The Swedes
were out in full force: Per Welinder, Per
Holknekt, and Tony Magnusson. From
Canada, Kevin Harris came to battle it out.
Rodney Mullen was there, as was Primo
Desiderio. Even Stacy Peralta and 'The
Jer' Valdez, made special appearances.
The Jer' had one of the most unusual and
entertaining routines of the weekend. He
started out doing a backflip onto his board.
Definitely a high pressure move. His garish
grace and poise showed that he is one of
the most agile skaters out there. He even
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