holding anyone higher or lower than anyone
else. The informal practice bouts led to some
intense night jams. Four out of the five skater/
judges were right there on these informal prac-
tice sessions. Fifth judge Blackhart showed up
on the contest day favoring a weak knee joint
that had been stretched at a previous assem-
blage.
Three qualifying heats were set up and the
breakdown began at 12 noon. Two of the in-
vites, Lance Mountain and Tony Hawk, pulled
out of the event at the last minute, Lance suf-
fering from an illness and Tony with a lame
ankle. A third contestant, Billy Ruff, almost
succumbed to the same fate, sitting out during
Saturday's practice with severe stomach pains
due to a bad burrito from a certain San Fran-
cisco Mexicatessen. By Sunday morning
though, Billy was back in form and ready to
blaze.
Heat number one featured three skaters,
Sims model teammates Lester Kasai and Chris-
tian Hosoi and Micke Alba (Santa Cruz). Of
the three only Christian had skated the ramp
previous to this weekend. With bionic above
the lip tricks, including fakie airs that were
higher than most backsides, Christian was fa-
vored as one to take it all. Although he skated
up to expectations Hosoi suffered from one too
many bails which hurt his scores considerably.
Lester Kasai suffered from the same syndrome,
even though he recovered on two lip hang-ups,
in the same run.
Micke Alba gave it his all, actually, carving
the ramp at one point and throwing airs and
plants to and fro; but, again, had a few falls-
that damaged his standing with the judges.
Mike McGill, Rob Roskopp, Billy Ruff and
Mike Smith were next up in the second qualify-
ing heat. Of the four, Billy and Rob had cach
skated the ramp before, giving them perhaps a
slight edge on the other two. For Rob this was
his rookie contest as a Pro skater and nobody
doubted that he could pull it out. You can't
forget that McGill is a ramp owner himself;
that fact and Mike's rep as the most consistent
skater on the circuit put him up there as a
favorite.
Mike Smith, who hadn't been heard from in
recent months, showed up to shred a variety of
lip oriented moves; edgers, board slides and
contorted handplants were part of his reper-
toire. When the sawdust and wood chips settled
Al Lasi grinds across the bridge of a
during the night Ja
after this round, three of the four would claim
high enough scores to push them into the top
six and the Jam session. This round might have
gone four for four into the Jam but it was Billy
Ruff who was ousted, perhaps not quite fully
recovered from his bout with food poisoning
the day before.
Third, and final round of qualifying hosted
five skaters and looked to be a heavy weight
display of talent. Neil Blender, Tony Magnus-
son, Steve Caballero, Mark Rogowski and Al
Losi. Neil pretty much dominates anything he
skates, and not just because of his size. His
ability and power overwhelm the confines of
the terrain,
Tony Magnusson has been rated 'hot' for
quite some time now and has really been com-
ing on strong in the past year as a Pro; his ex-
perience on ramps in his homeland of Sweden
would help him here today.
Caballero? Well, everybody here would
have to say that he was the man to beat. Steve
this channel alle, Ma