When we arrived at this ramp, everyone
started to skate at once. This ramp had
plenty of flat bottom, but the kinked
transitions proved it to be "unfunctional."
Everybody was riding hectic since the
kinks would throw them off balance. It was
hard to believe that Zill pulled off a frontside
rock 'n' roll on this kinked and sketchy
ramp. After a few good slams all of us
agreed to head back to the Pipeline.
We were just in time for the Am finals
when we arrived. I grabbed my camera
gear and tape recorder from the rental car
and scurried over to the pool. By now the
sun was hovering high above the park and
the smog was pretty thick. The top eight
skaters to compete in the heat of the
afternoon were as follows: Eric Nash, Ed
Reatigui, Rick Demontrond, Adrian
Demain, Gary Sanderson, Kevin Staab,
Jeff Grosso, and Joe Johnson. During the
jam all of these guys pulled off maneuvers
that made the crowd of 200-plus scream in
approval. The big dude from Colorado, Joe
Johnson, was pulling off some blazing airs
along with a layback-air-to-invert in the
corner in which he hung up his back truck
and still pulled it off. Eric Nash was blasting
alley-oops about four feet out of the round
pool with precise control. Although his line
was always the same, he was consistent
and pulled off cool maneuvers. Kevin
Staab was blowing minds with his smooth
prowess. His graceful boneless ones and
fakie-pllies in the corner proved him to be
on top of this event. Rick Demontrond
powered on with stylish grinds and air-to-
taps on the hip during his violent runs.
Pulling off stylishly kicked out backside airs
was Jeff Grosso. He is definitely the future
threat for the pro riders. Eddie Reatigui
slapped some mean lapover-grinds on his
runs along with intense backside-airs and
liens-to-tail in the corners. Although he
was ripping some cool airs, Adrian Demain
didn't seem like he was skating up to the
standard that he does at Del Mar. Gary
Sanderson continued to flow in the pool
with assorted tricks as he skated in the jam
with a minor injury received during the
eliminations. After a half-hour of intense
jamming and sweating under the unforgiv-
ingly hot sun, the judges made their
notations and decisions from what they
had observed. Next came the results from
Mr. Hawk. He read off the names as if he
were at a function among bingo players.
The list read: Gary Sanderson in eighth
place, preceded by Adrian Demain in the
seventh place slot. Spidey landed himself
in sixth with Eddie Reatigui before him with
a cool fifth place spot. Jeff Grosso earned
himself a respectable fourth place. Eric
Nash kicked in with third place. Joe
Johnson ripped into second place with
Kevin Staab reigning as the dude with the
first place title.
I soon started to feel a severe energy
drain, so I grabbed my board from the car
and skated to a nearby restaurant for some
grub. After practically inhaling my food, I
went back to the skatepark and mingled
with a few notable types such as Kiwi, Bob
Schmelzer, Beau Brown, Spidey, Rob
Roskopp and Paul Schmitt.
38
Joe Johnson takes to the corner on a layback-air-to-invert
As it got towards the evening, I put on my
equipment and skated the banked slalom
area with Mofo and Cooksie. Mofo is
ripping hard these days on the banks, and
if he really cared, could very well be a
threat to G.S.D. Cook was shredding and
seemed to be in his usual chaotic form. I
was having a blast skating the hip and
upper end of the 15-foot bowl. That thing is
intimidating! I took a little break and
watched the pros practice for Sunday's
competition. These guys were blowing my
mind by the shit they were pulling off. 1
knew tomorrow would be intense!
As I continued to study the lines that the
pros were executing, two C.B.S. (City Boys
Shred) members and fellow skate bros
Sam Dorsey and Mike Shaw show up to
my amazement. I inquired about how and
why they were here. They both mentioned
something about a boogie board contest
up north and decided to go farther south to
see the contest here. "We're here to rage
bra, insisted Mike. Sam nodded in silent
agreement.
Next to approach me was another skate
bro, Owen Nieder (I call him Owenbrau),
who came up from Del Mar with fellow
co-worker Chip. We all exchanged
thoughts, ideas and comments with each
other. It was decided that we skate the pipe
and other various bowls. We skated until
the park closed, packed up our gear and
went out to eat. At the restaurant we were
seated in the section with the most beauti-
ful waitress of the joint. Owen was being
his usual obnoxious self, stabbing his fork
in the soft vinyl seats in our booth, while
Mike made swift comments to every
female that passed by. As soon as our food
came, all of us indulged hastily. No food
fight this time. We paid our bill, left a
generous tip for the beauty queen, and
piled into Sam's car.
When we arrived at our motel room, all
of us changed to our swim shorts and went
for a late night swim. Owen went out of
control again by tossing various patio
furniture into the pool. I had no choice but
to threaten him with the possibility of
sleeping in the pool if he didn't get that shit
out of it, so he considered his options and
started to salvage the stuff out.
Back in our room, I noticed a fowl stench
along with the other dudes. It turned out to
be Cooksie's Converses and we made him
Steve Steadham powers his way to the upper section, pasting the highest sticker in the pipe.
put them outside for the night. What a
relief. Next everyone was battling for a
place to sleep. As I grabbed my pillow and
dove for my bed, so did Cooksie. Owen
and Luis somehow scammed their way to
sleep on our beds also. Sam and Mike took
to the carpet and all of us fell asleep for the
night.
Sunday morning brought hot weather
and plenty of that dreary smog. We all went
for the Denny's unspecial breakfast
special once again, checked out of our
rooms, and headed for the Pipeline.
The pipe-pasting event was the first of
the day. Participants included Gary and
Eric Sanderson, Brian Martin, Micke and
Steve Alba, Steve Steadham, Gator, and
Craig Johnson. Micke seemed to have this
event in the bag with the highest sticker
until powerhouse Steve Steadham, surged
to the ceiling with the winning pasted
sticker. He blew my mind along with others
who witnessed this event.
The next event was the one most of the
spectators were waiting for the pro pool.
eliminations, which would be followed with
the pool jam. There seemed to be a large
turnout of spectators, 250 or so, despite
the blistering sun. During the eliminations,
there were many notable contestants who
were in contention for pulling away with
first place. Hawi was looking impressive,
Hosoi was on top of his contorted airs,
Caballero was flawless, Miller had his lines
locked in and patented, Steadham was
ripping with a knowledge of the pool, Alba
was definitely ripping hard on home turf,
Monty Nolder shredded in the eliminations,
but was plagued by a bad wrist and too
many falls. Števe Álba came out of
retirement and raged with slashing grinds,
handplants, and carves in just about
every section of the pool. Jeff Phillips
was pulling off some amazing stunts
although he fell on some important man-
euvers. The large dude from Texas, Craig
Johnson, blasted some lengthly corner
airs and stalled handplants in a flurry of
aggression. Due to injuries, Rob Roskopp,
Billy Ruff and Tony Magnusson were
unable to compete.
The pro jam was intense and had the
crowd shouting in appreciation. Neil
Blender was pulling of 50/50 carves
around the corner, and stalling Andrechts
for four to five seconds. On one of his runs
he stalled an invert on the hip of the
shallow end and broke his truck upon
landing it. Dressed in pink attire was
Christian Hosoi, who blasted contorted
airs and inverts. Christ was flowing with
high lines and style. The one dude that
definitely stood out in the jam was Gator.
He was utilizing the entire pool with
prominent maneuvers such as fakie hand-
plants, stylish airs and aggro laybacks.
Micke Alba, a heavy veteran of this
sport, was puiling out all the stops with a
hoard of new maneuvers. Micke's pure
knowledge of the combi-pool definitely
helped him here today. Shoulder high
backside-airs in the square pool, egg-
plants, high Elgerials, and consistency
provided him with some of the best
hardcore runs of the day. Chris Miller was
another local favorite in this pool as well.
His lines were nothing short of bio. Launch-
ing from midwall in the square pool and
landing about three feet past the corner,
Chris blasted his frontside airs to the hilt.
He had the crowd going wild due to his
straightforward approach to this pool.
Steve Steadham came on strong with an
assorted array of tricks. He was pulling off
contorted frontside handplants, five-foot
backside airs, and backside boneless
ones on the center hip of the pool. This
dude skates with "full-on" energy and
never seems to let up.
The true battle in this jam was between
the two pint-sized contortionists, Steve
Caballero and Tony Hawk. Both of these
guys were shredding the pool without the
slightest flaws. The rubberman, Hawk,
was pulling off fakie rock 'n' roll sliders.
around the corner, combined with backside
ollies on the hip. He was ripping every
section of the pool with variated and
contorted maneuvers that he had perfected
earlier in the day. Steve Caballero, the
famed skate rocker, had the bionic lines in
the pool down to a science. He shredded
so hard that he was even ripping it up
backwards. Steve would come out of the
round bowl, revert on the left wall of the
square, fakie carve the corner, and blast
into a gay-twist on the heavily vertical left
wall.
When the 30 minutes of this blazing jam
were over and the scores were added up,
the results were announced. The list read:
Neil Blender, eighth; Christian Hosoi,
seventh; Mark Rogowski, sixth; Micke
Alba, fifth; Chris Miller, fourth; Steve
Steadham, third; Tony Hawk, second;
Steve Caballero, first.
The last but certainly not least event of
the weekend was the doubles pool event.
Many of the originally scheduled pairs of
riders scratched before they even took a
single practice run. Many of them were
exhausted from the previous event. This
left only five pairs of riders: Lance Mountain
and Steve Caballero dominated the event
with simultaneous airs and handplants
along with a haphazardly combined
routine of hair-raising stunts. Not far
behind were Mike McGill and Steve
Steadham; these two kept the energy
flowing with synchronized maneuvers
including one run where McGill blasted a
backside air over Steadham who was