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208 16th Ocean City MD 21842
WHO: Jeff Grosso, 15, Born: Eagle Rock,
California, now living in Arcadia, California.
FAVORITE TERRAIN: Ramps, I have a lot of
fun on ramps, I like to street skate, Lance's ramp
is fun. Eric's (Nash) is fun but it's kinky.
FAVORITE CASL: Palmdale, I really wanted that
one bad. I got third in that one but I was all happy.
I got pictures in magazines.
WHY: Because it's fun.
WHERE: Maybe I'll go pro in about a year.
HOW: My mom got me into skateboarding. My mom said, "Well, I'm going
sking so you should go skateboarding with this kid, her boyfriend's kid. That
was when I lived in Las Vegas for a year. I didn't know about it and she goes,
"Go skate," and I got all stoked on it and I just started skating. I got a board
for my birthday, later, when I moved back here I asked her for one. Then
everyone started pushing me to enter contests. The first one I entered I got
first... Whittier ASPO.
WHAT: They shouldn't have so many contests, you know, Upland Del Mar,
Upland, Del Mar, it gets boring after awhile. CASL should try to go up North
more. Streetstyle contest, more ramps and street stuff in contests. Instead
of just freestyle and Upland and Del Mar. It would be a lot more fun. If they
want to get skateboarding all big like the Olympics or something they should
just do freestyle, but that would be no fun to me. People can handle that
more, I guess, 'cause it's not all burly like vertical. Some people understand
but others get all lost. Most people think "Doesn't that hurt." They just want
to know if it hurts or not, they go "Eeeeuuuughh! look at him," but they don't
understand what we're doing-Just Skatel
WHO: Kevin Staab, 17, Home: Scottsdale, Az.
WHAT: I skate ramps, but I skate everything.
street,banks, occasional freestyle, mostly ramps.
CASL: Palmdale was neat; it was different. It was
the first ramp contest I've ever been in.
WHY: Because I like it. It's fun. I've been doing
it all my life, well, about 7 years.
WHEN: I started riding old boards that my dad
used to bring home. One day he took me over to
Carlsbad and I really liked it a lot and just kept
doing it. I've been doing it ever since, I'm pretty
sure I saw Jay Adams that day at Carlsbad.
I could barely do kickturns and here these guys
were flying out of the bowl. I was amazed.
WHERE: I haven't really put much thought into turning Pro. The way I look
at turning Pro is, if I were offered a model or something, other than that, there
are a lot more amateur contests. I just want to keep skating-that's all I can
say-I don't care what happens as long as I'm out there having fun.
HOW: I think this liability junk with ramps is a joke. It's happening with me
right now with our ramp. We have it at this guy's house and his dad's a doctor
and we can't skate right now because the liability is so bad. We have to move
it and this happens all over the place and what can you do about it. You can't
get around. You just have to find some parents that are cool and supportive
of skating and will just let you skate. They don't care, they just trust you.
ON TRAVELLING: It all depends on the mood my parents are in. Conning
them into letting me come out here. They do a lot for me. If it wasn't for them
I wouldn't be doing this; also, my sponsors help me out a lot.
WHO: John Lucero, 18, Born: Downey,
California. Lives: La Mirada.
FAVORITE CASL EVENT: My favorite contest
was the only one I ever won. It was in Skate
City's clover.
FAVORITE TERRAIN: Banks, streets, that's what
I've always skated. I love vertical too, but I can't
get enough of it. Right now the only places left
are Del Mar which I like a lot and Upland. I've
been skatin' Upland once a week. At my school I
skate every curb around. I street skate every day.
I drive to school and I bring my street board.
WHY:There's nothing better than skateboarding.
WHEN: When I was in 6th grade. The first park I went to was Concrete Wave.
I've been skating parks since the second year they've been open.
WHERE: I'm going to turn pro, I was thinking maybe the Turkey Shoot or the
next contest after that.
FAVORITE SKATER: Lance Mountain and Alan Losi, Lance and I were both
Whittier locals since the park opened and Lance was the best guy there.
Alan is one of my favorite skaters too. He's definitely underrated.
WHAT: I'd like to see skateboarding get a lot bigger which will be kinda hard
since it keeps getting harder and little kids can't look at the pro's now and
say "Till be as good as him in a couple of years," like a kid could a long time
ago. That's why a lot of little kids are getting out of it. When I started skating
I could look at the pro's doing frontside grinds and frontside airs and that was
no big thing. You could think, "Well, maybe in a year I could be doing that."
You start now and it could take you five years. But...everybody's just gotta
keep skating. If you're having fun just keep skating.
SKATE
ROCK!
ALABAMA SKATE ROCK
"The UPstairs" August 27th
Ring, Ring....Ring, Ring...
"Hello, who the hell is this? don't
you know what time it is?" I yelled, try
ing to make the caller feel guilty for
waking me up at 6 a.m.
"Hey, this is Steve Hobbie-I'm
leaving for Joe Bowers' contest in Oak
Ridge so I won't make the skate rock
gathering tonight."
"Good luck, Bug Man."
Click....
Dozing back off, I thought to myself,
"take the phone off the hook. Two
hours or so later, I soon realized,
thinking about it was as far as I got.
Ring... Ring...Once more.
"Hello, who the hell is this? Don't
you know what time it is?"
"What's your problem, Mr. Polite-
ness? This is Mark Eddings from
B'ham. Is the show still on?"
Left to right: Max of Max's Language; the Ditch, and Suburban Nightmare. Polly Pattishall photos.
ass, so this is fair warning," explained
the officer friendly, while his partner
encouraged some guy to extinguish
his illicit smoking material in respect
for the law.
With the departure of the police, I
headed backstage to find some suds,
since I didn't plan on spending my
hard earned green. Ah yes, the fridge
in the dressing room was filled to the
max. Needless to say, I helped myself
then, and the rest of the night. Hang-
ing out for awhile scamming the split
tails, I shot the breeze with skaters in
the bands and was first in line upon
emcee Bill's return from the candy
store.
Out in the audience, everyone who
is someone in the north Alabama
skate community was in attendance
(except for Steve Hobbie, who was
"Does Chatty Cathy have a plastic representing his constituents at Joe's
pussy?
contest). Greg Hodges, the pioneer of
this area, was working the door, Mark
and gang were up from B'ham, Tyler
Ledbetter was over from Athens,
etc....oh, the betties were in abun-
dance too.
"Who's Chatty Cathy?"
"Never mind," I concluded.
"I heard it's gonna be called 'Ala-
bama Skate Rock' and it might be in
the Mag?" inquired Eddings.
"Yea, we'll see, I mumbled, want-
ing to return to the restful state of
sleep.
"We're leaving at four."
"So, why did you call me now?"
"To wake you up"...Click!
Later on, after a few vitamins, a few
sticks, and a solo street session, it
was onto the other side of town for the
show.
Arriving ahead of schedule at "The
Upstairs there were a couple of
pubes curb grinding, out front. Through
the door and up the stairs, I was met
by a burly-looking security force,
passing out funny papers to early ar-
riving betties trying to gain backstage
admissions.
The hall had been cleared, no ta-
bles, no chairs, just trash cans. "They
must really be expecting the place to
get thrashed." I pondered silently to
myself, as 'Suburban Nightmare' fook
a sound check. Street Dog, Bill Drano,
and the band were ready. Loud and
fast!
"Well, well, look who's here!" an
anonymous voice greeted the local
boys in blue."
"What's the problem," someone
spoke up, in a tone that let the patrol-
men know it wasn't their turf.
"It's like this, we don't care about
the skateboarding in the street, the
loud music or the weed. We just don't
want anyone changing the letters on
the sign at the boutique next door.
That little old lady has been on my
Trapping a hot blonde exiting the
john, "Hey baby, you know what winks
and screws like a tiger?"
"No, but I'm sure you'll tell me,"re-
plied blondie,not too impressed with
my opening line. I cut my most seduc-
tive wink ever.
"I don't like cats," she responded
and proceeded to mingle back into the
crowd despite my pleas that I'm a real
nice guy. WELL, since I'm here...
"Returning from nature's calling. I
was searching for the blonde that
didn't like cats, as 'Suburban Night-
mare' took the stage. The bodies
started flailing as S.Ñ. Switched into
highgear.
As usual, it never fails that an ag-
gression session gets out of hand.
Slithering my way through the full con-
tact crowd, I happen to witness this
mean looking chick supply lil' Tommy
Kikle with a swift kick in the balls.
Clutching his jewels in a bent over
position for a moment, Tom then grab
bed the lady wrestler freak around the
neck and delivered a quick right jab to
the nose. The blow immediately sent
blood flowing.
"That's my boy" (now I don't usually
encourage skate brethren to inflict
harm upon the opposite sex, but this
was becoming interesting. Consider
ing the fact this chick was twice as big
as Tom. Probably could have
kicked my ass, too).
By this time, her boyfriend or what-
ever, was attempting to take charge of
the situation. Standing his ground,
Tom slapped a bud bottle against the
wall to obtain slicing material, while re-
enforcements stood by with decks in
hand like hungry Marines. Alerted
bouncers arrived at the scene as the
band raged on, oblivious to the graph
ic violence going down.
This Jesus looking jerk says I'm
leaving with him, goddamit I'm not
leaving." Tom screamed to the bounc-
ers (who just happen to be skaters
themselves), caressing the weapon
with ultimate precision. The burly sec-
urity force lived up to their description,
escorting the amazon duo down the
stairs. The response from the crowd
was, to say the least, overwhelming.
Suburban Nightmare' continued to
grind, putting the crowd through their
paces...
re-appearance. Grabbing the mike
after The Ditch' left the stage, O.F.
addressed the audience, "OK, I know
you people know how to ride a skate-
board, but who the hell taught you
how to park a car? There's a maroon
compact with Birmingham tags, sitting
in the middle of 6th St. If it's not moved
in five minutes, I will see that it is!!"
It seems a gang of locals, quite a
number of them actually, lifted Mark
Eddings vehicle and conveniently de-
posited it in the aforementioned loca-
tion. I had known of the plan but did
not participate. Ed's reaction was ut-
most entertainment in itself.
As a sort of understood respect
among the skaters, 'Max's Language"
headline the Alabama Skate Rock.
Max Russell is Alabama's premier
skaterocker. A founding member of
Next on was The Ditch.' All three the 'Ditch, Max later formed another
all skater band, Oxygen Debt, next,
Max put together Language, and
after a couple of personnel changes,
the current billing is "Max's Language."
Hey, wait a minute, this is turning into
a history lesson....
members of this band have been skat-
ing since 76, so it was only appro-
priate they opened with 'Betties and
Skatedogs."
The show seemed to be the night of
three piece bands and the Ditch kept
the motions going. The dance floor
was hot and heavy. Directly I noticed
some idiot passing out bandaids,
"Hey, you're a little late."
In between slugs of cheap beer, Pat
cladina Badlands T(wonder where he
got it?) was babbling about dedicating
Cave Life' to Steve Hobbie, "the only
skater with enough guts to miss a
good time, to represent us in the
M.E.S.S. competition." Halfway through
the song, I observed a skinhead per-
forming freestyle, in the back of the
crowd. "Is that Steve?" Better investi-
gate.
Approaching the styler, his identity
became clear. It was Bug Man! With
quick persistence, I questioned, "So,
you wake me up at six and show up
anyway?
"Hey, I drove six hours to Joe Bow-
ers' place. He was on vacation, the
contest was off, I skated two hours
and drove back to catch the gig, so
F-k Off!!" Hobbie shouted and contin-
ued to perform for his own group of
groupies. The boys evidently not in
too good a mood, better move on...
Back to the band, well backstage
anyway... The Ditch was into LA
Transplant, as I found my way back to
the fridge, it beamed in like radar,
"Free, Free," the stockboy was sure
doing his job, it was full and cold. Over
in the comer, a head monster was cre-
ating a small gathering of her own....
The Ditch finished their set with
"Studio City. Officer friendly made a
Clutching his big Gretsch as he
jumped on stage, Max received a de-
serving round of applause. Tonight
Max's line-up included brother Troy
(vocals), former Chromatics Tom
Pizza (bass) and Johnny Powell
(drums). After conducting a brief
question and answer session in his
bizarre humorous fashion, Max
cranked his Marshall to 10 and for the
next hour BLAZED!
a
Traveling toward the john, I caught
glimpse of an unconscious body lay-
ing in a pile of rubbish with a mezcal
bottle firmly in its death grip. "Some-
one should bury that guy, I am sure
he's dead," commented Ed, as
another bottle flew from the crowd
connecting with the lifeless body.
Thud! No response.
The band played on with Tom laying
down vicious bass lines behind Max's
distinctive guitar licks. A betty from the
125 member audience even jumped
on stage and sang backup on "Shout."
Oh, there's my blonde again. What
the hell, give it another try, got nothing
to lose, heh?" "Hey blondie, wanna
take a ride in my friend's '61 limo?""
believe it when I see it. Let's go!" re-
plied the betty in a more receptive
manner than our first encounter. My
anticipation was growing as we de-
scended the stairs. Opening the door
to the caddy, I glanced at the boutique
sign (which is always altered). It read:
Thanks for the warning THRASH"
Gonad the Ballbearing
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