Video set-up at St. Pete.
Neil Blender twisting a plant at the Pete Jam
disrespect and all kinds of bad habits. To top it even more, the cop who
escorted them out the door was the poorest excuse for an officer of the law
this reporter has seen. This guy said that he likes to kick people's ass in
hard" and he wanted an excuse to do so. To protect and serve? I think not.
Well, shine this place-the motel is more fun anyways. There is no place
like home.
More video sessioning til dawn. Maybe this is what Las Vegas is like.
DAY SEVEN
Serious skating today, I sure hope that the previous six days of
activities don't hinder their performances. The cut went fairly smooth,
except for the fact that the AMS were out to 14 instead of B. Tomorrow will
be longer because of this. Baucom makes his appearance with broken
arm. Does this mean he can't go swimming?
The pro cut had more ties in it than a broken shoelace. Something like
a two way the for 1st, three way for 3rd, two way for 6th. Scoring was too
close, like 3 or 4 points difference between 1st and 8th. At least the guys
who didn't make the cut can relax tonite because there is no tomorrow
for them.
We are starting to suffer from the budget. Low budget beer-Dixie?
Blondie gets everyone going after drinking 12 or 13 white russians. Seems
she wanted to leave for Texas at 3 am. So while she was about to start
her car Bill Ruff asks if he can check her oil. During the process he
disconnects key wiring, rendering her car dead. The suggestion is made
for her to try it later (like when she sobers up maybe?) Her keys are then
secured and properly hidden from her grasp. After finally getting them
back, Losi takes them from her and won't give them back till she got the
manager to call the police. As the sun came up, she finally realized that
she didn't want to go after all. Time to go to sleep.
DAY EIGHT
The day of the late sleepers," sounds like the name of a movie, well,
maybe not.
Today was the finals. The AMS were up first and the results went
something like this: 1st place went to Craig Johnson (I guess voodoo really
does work). No, really, this guy was skatin' strong and hard. Like his life
depended on it or something. 2nd was Kevin Staab with smooth and
consistent runs. In 3rd spot was Jeff Jones-this guy tweeks every trick in
the book. "Hey Jeff, maybe you should have taken your second run against
Johnson." The rest of the field ended up like so: 4th, Bob Reeves; 5th, Eric
Nash; 6th, Jeff Grosso; 7th, Jim Murphy; 8th, Marty Ramos.
The Pro event finally got underway at about 10:30 p.m., almost
bedtime for some of these skaters. Taking first with the standard bionics
was again 'Little Stevie Wonder. Capturing second place was the 'Love
Boy Hosoi. His lien airs were so high they almost scared me. 3rd spot went
to Blender in typical Blender style. The rest of the placing was as follows:
4th, Bill Ruff; 5th, Mike McGill; 6th, Tony Hawk; 7th, Jeff Phillips (making
his rookie debut as a pro); 8th, Lester Kasai; 9th, John Gibson and 10th,
Alan Losi. The contest was over so late that when we got back to the motel
some people actually wanted to go to sleep. Not us, let's watch more
videos. Tonight everybody is happy. Happy that the contest is over, happy
that some betties have arrived, happy that tomorrow we leave (but, not
before we watch the sun come up again).
DAY NINE
After saying goodbye to friends we've met in JAX. The task at hand is
to pick up the pieces and head for St. Petersburg for a contest/session put
on by the Manatee Man himself, Paul Schmitt.
After the usual dragging and slowness of tired skaters we finally were
packed to caravan with Schmitt for the 200 mile drive south.
Schmitt's VW Bus didn't make it more than a half mile before his rear
axde snapped. Hours later, Schmitt rents a car and everyone piles in to
attempt leaving again. There's so much weight in the car that the exhaust
pipe is sparking down the freeway.
Being that we're in Florida we have to be good tourists so we stop on
the way at an 'Alligator Farm. This place was the poorest excuse for a zoo
there could be. The animals stunk so bad and they looked so sick that it
was more like a torture chamber.
A couple of hours later we arrive at Schmitt's house and take a large
dip in the pool. Laundry is 1st on the agenda tonite. That thing was worked
all nite long.
DAY TEN
Schmitt gets us up too early but at least makes up for it by serving us
some flap-jacks. Almost like mom used to make. After loading up we head
out to the ramp and contest. On the way we stop at "Bro' Bowl." This is an
actual public skatepark, complete with moguls in all the wrong places.
Schmitt reminds us that we have a contest to go to, so we split. The
St. Pete ramp is unreal-24' wide with channel and real coping on one
side. After a little sessioning we hit the beach, look at all the fat girls.
Enough of this-let's get out of here.
Back at the ramp the contest plans were changed to a no entry
fee/session type of event.
Most of the Pros that were at Kona came down. Everyone was too
burnt out from the week in Kona to deal with another structured contest.
This no pressure sessionin' works so much better than the head to
head system and besides it doesn't take as long.
When the results were announced and Tony Hawk was proclaimed
the winner, Blender began screaming that it was a fixed contest and Tony
didn't win, (Maybe Neil was mad because he got 9th). Tony must've felt
guy for winning because he gave us $20.00 out of his $75.00 prize
money to buy the beverage of our choice, what choice?
Ar the stop for beverages and gas I almost thought the trip was over,
when I noticed my car was on fire, or was it? As soon as the smoke hit me,
the ruling was that it was only a smoke bomb a la Blender.
In the short drive back to Schmitt's we consumed almost all of Tony's
beverages. Too many guzzlers in my car. The locals take us to some cool
banks at some shopping center-heavy sessioning with tile breaking off
everywhere. skating can build up a big hunger, so we zoomed to the local
pizza joint. We ran up at least a $50.00 tab and joked about walking the
check. To our surprise, one of the guys that works there tears up our check
and tells the owner that we paid. No way! We got out of there in a hurry.
Back at Schmitt's I guess everyone had it in their mind to unwind
completely. It started with a smoke bomb in the bathroom and led to the
Jello sessioning and to top it off everything that wasn't nailed down hit the
fan (ceiling fan that is). Lucky for us Schmitt was upstairs fast asleep and
didn't witness these activities.
DAY ELEVEN
Today we are starting the actual tour and what a drive! To begin with,
all the way to Atlanta, and to make it worse we had to go by Gerb's house
to pick up Stevie's and Lance's baggage. With stomachs growing too loud
McDonalds seemed like a good enuf place to shovel something down.
Some old lady asks Steve if he put gasoline in his hair to get it that
color and some old geezer asks Gerald if he's from Africa.
Lance puts a lizard in the little box for Jerry's Kid and Craig throws one
on the grill, tasty. After 12 hours we pull into Atlanta and stay at Robbie's
house.
Gerald is so broke we pay him to eat the dog's food. I guess a Goat
Man will do anything for $$. It must be abuse Gerald day when he falls
asleep Steve puts shaving cream in his hand and tickles his nose.
Poor Gerald.
DAY TWELVE
We go to Ken Gray's Ranch Ramp Il today. This ramp is big but not
quite finished. 28' wide with channel plus a house on the rollout complete
with stereo and pictures on the wall.
This is our 1st stop with no pressure-just skate and have fun, fun,
fun. Steve and Lance can't make up their minds about the rest of the tour
and end up bailing out back to Cal. (Sorry guys, you're going to miss lots
of fun).
Murph has a good time today. On a backside ollie bail his board
chases him and bounces into his head-8 stitches isn't that many is it?
DAY THIRTEEN
A mere 200 miles to go today to Greenville, S.C. No problem, it's like
driving to the grocery store. Our contact here is Joe Polevy, so we go to
his house upon arrival and take a dip in his pool. Ah! relief.
The 1st ramp we hit is John Brissie's. This ramp has seen better days,
but it was rideable.
Someone comes out of the house and says there's skating on TV so
we check it out and it's P.M. Magazine with 'Scott Edwards, the 'No. 1
Amateur Skateboarder' being interviewed? Then we realize he's the one
who called us in to see this. "
Scott asks us to skate his ramp so we (kiddingly) tell him, "Only if you
feed us." "Sure let's go." Lead on to the ramp. We skate and eat.
DAY FOURTEEN
Has it been 2 weeks already? Another reasonably short drive today,
only 4% hours to Knoxville, Tenn. Joe Bowers has the ramp here. When
we arrive there's quite a session in progress. A couple of betties, Velvet
and Christy hangin', some shade, a cold brew, what more could a guy
ask for?
An invitation is given to us to spend the night at Christy House's-
house. We gladly accept. The Hondo bud is happenin' along with mega
beers... What hospitality-let's stay here awhile.
DAY FIFTEEN
Christy makes breakfast today. Yea food!!! She's too nice. The
Charcoal Bowl is the first skate spot today. It is extremely rippable for a
backyard pool. It comes complete with a burnt out house. Some of the
locals shred this pool. Next stop is back at Joe Bower's. It seems that the
road is beginning to take its toll. The sessioning is getting a little less
intense, on our part anyways.
Back at Joe's the partying seems to be fairly tame so I find my way to
the basement to try and get some much needed sack time. Try is right. The
party only started tame. It soon escalated into wild with the help of mass
amounts of $1.99 a six, World's Fair beer. Can't be beat or can it?
The evening reached its peak when Gibson and Johnson decided to
take a fight. Our host, Christy, didn't understand and freaked, so she threw
them out of the house-that was a mistake. They went out to the car,
popped in an Adolescent tape and began to sing along at the top of their
lungs. All at 3:30 in the morning.
Christy was out there pleading with them to come back in.
KONA/VARIFLEX
SUMMER NATIONALS
RESULTS
JULY 14, 1983
POOL
13 & UNDER
Donny Griffin
14 & 16
Randy Barfield
Scott Smolenski
Gene Foresi
SPONSORED
Chris Miller
John Lucero
Eric Nash
BOWL
SPONSORED
Kevin Staab
Jeff Jones
Bob Reeves.
$80 Eric Nash
$ 40 Jeff Grosso
17 & OVER
Tim Lizman
$ 30
Tom Davenport
$ 15
Kevin Brown
Sam Myhre
$ 30
Kevin Lambert
$ 30
Donny Myhre
$ 15
Barry Floyd
$ 15
Bob Beebe
JULY 15 AND 16, 1983
SPONSORED HALF PIPE
$ 30
Craig Johnson
$200
$ 15
$100
$ 50
$ 30
$ 20
$ 20
$10 Jimmy Murphy
$ 10
Marty Ramos
$10
PRO HALF PIPE
$ 30
Steve Caballero
$500
$ 15
Christian Hosoi
$300
Neil Blender
$200
Bill Ruff
$150
Mike McGill
$100
Brad Bernhardt
$ 30
Tony Hawk
$ 75
Gregg Erdman
$ 15
Jeff Phillips
$ 50
Ricky Goodman
Lester Kasai
$ 50
John Gibson
$ 50
13 & UNDER
Donny Griffin
Kevin Lambert
Barry Flord
FREESTYLE
13 & UNDER
Jason Mielenkowski
That's Lance Mountain in mid-channel plant if you didn't recognize him