home on a tree lined street is indeed where
the current head of the American Nazi
party lives. Not leaving choice to chance,
Lance has Eggman hit the horn to announce
our arrival. After offering a few well-chosen
Intellectual phrases we realize that we have
attracted the attention of the surrounding
neighborhood. Not wanting to kick a dead
dog as it were, Eggs now proceeds to the
next door neighbor's house where he drives
around the circular driveway a few times.
The resident elderly woman is visibly agi-
tated until Mountain explains the purpose
of our mission. While the old lady nods
knowingly, we depart. It never got strange
until the Eggman started conversing in
perfect Waffen SS-style German.
SOMETIME FRIDAY. The posters are
up, and the word is out. Newton sells six
hundred bucks worth of product and then
resorts to trading new Zorlacs for used
Japanese science fiction toys. After a few
hours his new Honda was stuffed with
assorted Ultraman facsimiles. Both
McGinns, Bernies senior and junior were
present and waxing philosophical.
The morning of Melee 2 most everyone was
bleary-eyed and bushy-tailed. It was busi-
ness as usually since money was on the line
and these are the world's best. Phillips was
officially out. The format was three prelimi
nary jam heats of 30 minutes in length
followed by a final jam super heat for the
money. The judging criteria was overall
good skating with the emphasis on radical
maneuvers. The crowd's number was
consistently in the mid four hundreds (if
you counted the different people who came
and went over the day then that figure could
easily double).
The news and wire service men were also
in attendance, for apparently the Melee is
now regarded as a genuine sporting event.
The presence of virtually all of the sport's
top pros in one backyard was considered by
skate afficionados to be truly epic. The
riders did not disappoint with each display-
ing distinctively personalized attacks.
Lester flew with grace and bared true fangs
on innumerable landings. Groholski ignited
much excitement and was quite populare
with the far travelling East Coast fans.
Staab skated in his bio-cryptic style and
showed himself to be a certain future con-
tender. Billy Ruff, the neo-businessman,
clearly and efficiently executed his runs, as
well as promoting his corporate image.
Then came Malba: the tour's veteran had
obviously sharpened his skills and had come
to kick ass. A crowd favorite was Monty
Nolder, who rode innovatively and aggres-
sively. Craig Johnson, fresh from his bloody
victory at the Impromptu nocturnal ramp
action, displayed power and fury. Mysto
Dan Wilkes demonstrated strength and
authority on numerous occasions. Gator
flashed his new tattoo to full advantage as
he showed himself to be nearly fully reco-
vered from his recent devastating injury.
Chris Miller quietly and confidently rode
the airwaves, re-directing inflight to new
Improbably aggro-lines. John Gibson was
his usual bell-raising self, equally bio, balls
and audacious. Losi pulled off several
phenomenal moves before resuming the
hunt.
After three blazing pre-lim heats the
crowd was seemingly saturated. Predictably
the final super heat pushed the level into
another whole zone, the selected finalists,
whose riding we have avoided discussing
until now, were Mike McGill, Christian
Hosol, Steve Caballero, Steve Steadham,
Neil Blender and last years' Melee consen-
sus choice, Lance Mountain. The perfor-
mance variable rose with each run and the
enthusiasm of the audience followed accord-
ingly. Christ worked his patented aerial
repertoire, constantly re-directing his
board and gaining major air in intuitive
ways. Steadham rode hard, fast and ex-
tremely aggressively indicating that his long
awalted and much rumored model is close
at hand. Neil Blender provided another
classically paradoxic performance (his
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combination of randomly bizarre lines,
unique tricks, power, transcental attitude
and peculiar personal attire, all were vin-
tage Blender). Mountain displayed his
usual characteristically irrepressible aban-
don as he ripped, rolled and laughed his
way through the finals, his total mastery of
the invert was proven on a couple of unbe-
lievable double-truck hang-ups, which he
made. McGill, to no one's surprise, played
the role of superior strategist as he consis-
tently executed his runs. Mike possesses
many major moves but the one which
everyone is watching for these days is the
540, which McGill unleashes at the approp-
riate time for maximum crowd pleasing
appeal. A calm, cool and very collected
Caballero conducted another seminar in
"skate-of-the-art" vertical aggression.
Steve mixed moves, lines and motion into a
lethal concoction that few could hope to
match. His aerials at Melee 2 were the
highest many seasoned observers could
recall ever seeing. In the end Cab collected
first place and the check, followed by 2)
McGill, 3) Hosol, 4) Steadham and tied for
5) Mountain and Blender.
The sticker toss was probably the most
spirited such occurrence in the history of
the globe. Stickers escalated to Ts, which in
turn gave way to wheels which eventually
led to fully set up boards. The frenzy of the
crowd was such that several dazed combat-
ants had to be helped up off the ramp
surface. When push came to shove, Gibson
and his cohort taunted the assembled mul-
titudes, driving them onto new heights of
hyper-aggressive behavior. The sticker toss
demonstrated Darwin's "survival of the
fittest" theory in action. At the last possible
moment the stage dive segment was pre-
empted; still, the gnashing, clawing and
growling of the true skate addicts craving
free products continued unabated.
Suddenly there was another commotion
in the Flowerday's driveway. A mass of
sticker-crazed skaters had surrounded the
renowned lowered Chevy truck. At the
center of the fracass was who else
but...Christian Hosol. Apparently unsatis-
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