getting close to five or six feet (an estimate,
of course). Guys were blasting across the
eight-foot section with tremendous agility.
It was unbelievable, "eight foot channel
airs!" Tony Hawk did his standard board-
twirling feet-removing moves. Precision,"
not aggression was the factor here. Where
does he come up with these tricks? The
crowd loved it! The Texas crew was defin-
ing their presence with fine, aggro-runs that
expressed the true Texas riding style. Gib-
son amiably shredded on several assaults,
and Craig Johnson pressed on with a
dazzling display of foot plant variations,
and "run-and-leaps-into-the-ramp-with-
board. A gung-ho attitude is good. One
curious note was that long-time skatedog
Ron Emory T.S.OL guitarist, was sitting
in at a judge's position. In fact, Neil Blender
borrowed his fluorescent hat to wear during
the jam
Bill Ruff was having a good go at it. As
usual, he worked the whole riding surface,
unlike other riders, who just tend to go back
and forth setting up for tricks and making
you feel like a spectator at a ping-pong
match, Bill works whatever he's sessioning
at the time. He takes one riding situation to
the next, and appears to be improvising as
he goes along, because when you choose
to be too rad when you ride, there's no real-
pre-set calculation to how you're gonna-
come out of it.
THE PRO RESULTS
1 Tony Hawk
2 Christian Hosoi
choose, and going for all they know.
Colorful moves, dynamic body work in the
form of stylish, contorted airs, hand plants,
and the liker There's nothing like beholding.
this sort of spectacle: It's almost like
watching the Blue Angels precisionjet
fighter air team perform. In a nutshell,
condensed-comprehensive-sideview
photographers-angle-of-things, observa-
tion point, reference-area way of describ
ing it.
Like mentioned earlier, the sup had its
totalling factors, and it wreaked havoc on.
the more sober senses. Pushing the
atmospheric limits again became a major
focusing paint, with Sfeadham, Hosoi, and
Caballero at odds. Neil Blender maintained
his usual, unusual status by calmly-
invoking bizarre leaps across the channel,
which he calls a Stationary Bean-in Not
only that, there is a strange air about his
whole approach to lito. Don't ask me
again, but I think they guy's an alien. The
good kind, like in the movie with the big
robot that was on Ringo Starr's album
cover I think the robot's name was 'Gort,
but I'm not sure; so don't quote me on it.
The ramp is spacious enough for the
riders to get real loose with their runs. Losi
has been an incredible resurgence into this
competition scene. Easily one of the more
aggressive faces out there. He blasts the
long frontside grinds to the rail and in
again, with heavy doses of flair, style,
gusto, machismo, etc. Teammate Grisham
has also hopped back onto the speeding
train with some classic approaches and
3. Bill Ruff
4. Neil Blender
5. John Gibson
6. Craig Johnson
7. Kevin Staab
8. Steve Steadham
AMS AND OTHER STUFF
While the pro'jam was going on, a band
called "The Zany Guys" played by the
porch, a few feet from the water-hole.
Then, after the pros finished, several con-
testants and a few others, splashed in the
darkening water hole. Belly flops and
strange dives became the standard.
Vince's mom was getting kinda bummed
because the excessive splashing was
causing minor flooding to the dirt areas in
the backyard, creating a mud situation. But
there she was, standing there, telling
everyone that if they were gonna keep
doing that stuff, she didn't want them in the
pool. Then Roskopp ran up and did a total
dork-Ohio homeplate-slide (with a blowfish
look on his face) dive into the pool, totally
spraying Mrs. Bochinni. She wiped off her
face and said, "Since it's so hot out, I'll ig-
nore that last gesture of crazed excite-
ment."
T.S.O.L borrowed some amps, drumis
and the like, set up and began playing their
first of two energetic sefs under the Arizona
sun. In the background, the Am-Ramp Jam
was going on with some serious blazing.
happening. The crowd grew larger and
larger and it turned out to be the biggest-
backyard party I've ever seen. There was
limit pushing of his own. He's always good.
for a few hair-raising visions of miscalcu
lated free-falls. Micke Alba, although not
placing very high on the final ist, kicked
out some exceptional runs with added
loud, barking grinds.
Back to Caballéro. The guy has just
returned from a legendary US tour. He
hasn't skated competitively for the last few
contests, and here he is back into the thick
of things as if he'd been actively competing
the whole time. Easily the hottest rider
today, his uns give ample display. Suicidal
assaults to the air, across the channel,
across the lip. Not one surface was left
unscathed by Steve. Not one
Then, as quickly as I realized the contest
had begun, I found out that it was over.
Still, one or two of the riders took a few
additional runs to try and scrub off some of
their gained momentum
THE RESULTS
What happens at this point, can only be
one or two of a few things. Either some-
one's gonna throw slickers, Christian is
gonna throw postcards (with his mug on it
or someone is gonna throw a skateboard
from the deck of the ramp, to the hungry
skatoids down below.
The pit for the goodies is becoming a
more vicious entanglement, it can be.
dangerous, and soptetimes the price is
high. So let ye be forewarned. In the future.
grabs for the goods are gonna be tougher.
So if you don't think you can handle the
elbows in the forehoad, fingers in the eye,
feet in the stomach, board tug-of-
the full family scene going on, with little
toddlers and little girls walking around with
the moms and dads, and at the same time,
there were kids walking around with
mowhawks, studs and leather, it was a
unique melting pot: At one point, the local
police showed up because a neighbor re-
ported that someone had four-wheeled
through their yard. Mr. and Mrs. Bochinni
went out and explained that everything was
under control, and not to worry. I thought
it'd make a good picture and set to clicking
away. When the main "cop-guy-dude" saw
me doing that, he about turned inside out,
"You take one more picture boy, and I'm
taking your camera!!" I took three quick
ones and walked away.
Regardless of all the ruckus, the ams
were blazing away to the T.S.O.L. tunes,
beneath the baking sun. It was no secret
that Eddie Reategui was skating tougher
than the rest, and it showed with his secur-
ing the first place spot. Coming close to it,
but hot quite, were Eric Nash, Bill Danforth,
Jeff Grosso, Bedore, all of whom were skat-
ing to the extent of which, if you had a seat,
you'd be at the edge of it,
THE AM RESULTS
1. Eddie Reategui
2. Eric Nash
3. Jeff Grosso
4. Joe Johnson
5. Bill Danforth
6. Dave Bedore
7. Tippaconic
8. Marty Jimenez
wars then stay out of it. It's what the
hardcore enthusiasts crave to do, and they
play tough. It's what the skater wants, and
it shouldn't be stopped if people who can't
handle the ritual refuse to stay out of it. It's
a private ordeal that only skaters can
understand, because it's their creation.
I threw some stickers. Yeah, but they ran
out fast. To compensate for this gross
miscalculation, I threw out a few bucks.
Some ones, a five and some change. Well
worth the price of admission to see those
kids crawling over each other, grappling for
the green.
Finally just before the pro results were
about to be announced, I flashed on what
the red-headed.kid had said to me when I
asked him, "Hey, can I use your restroom
real quick before this thing starts?"
"You can't use the one in the house.
There're some down the road, go there if
you have to use the restroom."
"What, am I that undesirable that you
won't let me in your house to take a leak? I
few all the way down here to cover your
contest, even give you a roll of film, only to
hear you tell me I can't use your toilet real
quick?
"I'm sorry, but that's the way it is."
1. Steve Caballeroi
2. Steve Steadbam,
3. Christian Hösbi
4. Neil Blender
Embarcadero
StreetStyle
Harold,
What's going on. We got into San Diego
yesterday and we're staying in a Holiday Inn
near downtown. California's pretty cool, they do
all kinds of wild stuff out here. Right after we
checked into our room, I went down to this wharf
area down by the water to check it out and fool
around. Anyway, I heard a bunch of loud music
coming from this parking lot across the street
and I went over there. Man, it was cool, there
were like about 60 kids ridin' skateboards
around doing all kinds of weird tricks and stuff. It
was nothing like we do on our boards back
home. They had these plywood ramps set up all
over the parking lot. One of 'em was like just a
picnic table with a plywood ramp up to the top of
it and these guys were flying off of it in all
directions, grinding along the edge on their
axles and stuff. Also, there were a bunch of
cement curbs laying around on the ground and
the skaters would grind 'em and slide their
boards sideways along the top of them and just
roll away, like nothing. One curb was different
from the rest, it was shaped like a U and made
out of steel, or something, and they were doing
those board sliders all the way around it in a
circle, kinda. That one was pretty cool.
Over in this other area, where they had an
announcer's booth all covered with banners I
saw a bunch of other skaters doing freestyle,
where they do tricks on flat ground, just flipping
these kinda small boards around their feet. I was
watching this one guy named Per Welinder
practicing and I found out he is one of the world's
best freestylers. They said over the loudspeaker
that a lot of other freestylers were there also and
that they were having a Pro/Am contest the next
day for freestyle and the ramps and curbs they
called streetstyle. I stayed around there all day
and checked out the amateur division freestyle
contest, some of those guys looked as good as
the pros.
When I got back to the hotel and told my mom.
and dad about it they said we could go the next
day and watch. When we got over there they
were just starting the street contest with the
ramps all set up. The music was real loud and
Dad didn't like it too much but Mom thought it
was cool. There were a few more skaters there
that I hadn't seen the day before, but not very
many people were watching even though they
had little bleachers set up for a crowd.
Continued on page 31
Clockwise from top: Master Caballero
showed up about ten minutes before th
street style event and walked away with first
place. Unbeatable amateur, Bob Schmelzer,
drops to the rail from a one-footed pogo
stance. Little Eric Sanderson is practically
dwarfed by his board but manages to shove
it around with the best in the amateur
dvision.
WING
Holiday