Frontside acid roll-In, Sean McClean,
Ocean City Bowl/Ramp
there, all had to do was let Midwest
skaters know there was now a
Midwest Amatuer Ramp Series.
Flyers were mailed with basic info
about M.A.R.S. to skaters through-
out the Midwest and to skate
companies and magazines for
possible sponsors.
Everything was taken care of far in
advance so the word could be
spread completely throughout local
skate scenes. I received a good
deal of mail from at least 10 states
and many long distance phone
calls. Everyone was stoked and
wanted to hear more about
M.A.R.S., most of the people I had
been in contact with made plans to
be there. We were now ready for
M.A.R.S. No.1 in Cary, Illinois on
Tory Boettcher's ramp, June 1st
M.A.R.S. No.1
Cary, I
Our carload arrived a few days in
advance so that we could get ready
for the contest early. Neil Blender
and John Lucero were at the ramp
with ramp owner Tory Boettcher.
Neil and John were on their way (by
train) to the VA Beach Pro contest
and thought they would check out
our little contest.
We were happy to hear we could
all stay in the Boettcher's house and
didn't have to sleep on the ramp like
we had expected. This place had all
the luxuries of home, but some of
were forced to bathe in a nearby
lake a couple of times.
The ramp itself, 20ft. wide, quick
transitions, about 7 1/2 feet tall,
good pool coping and a carvable
corner that must be seen to be
believed, was skated from the time
we got up until way past dark
Groups of skaters began arriving
from linois. Nebraska, Iowa,
Missouri, Minnesota, Wisconsin,
Indiana, Arkansas and Tennessee.
Sessions became heated, crowded
and intense. The art of snaking
came in handy for a majority of
people.
Contest Saturday arrived, the
skaters were ready and a crowd of
150-200 people were in attendance.
We ran 2 divisions, A and B.
Division B ran first, consisting of
basically young, but definitely rad
skators. Three twenty minute jams
with 8 skaters in each would be cut
to 8 skaters for the final jam. Judges
for the events were John Lucero,
Marty Beaudoin and Tory Boettcher.
Out of the 24 skaters, 8 thon
jammed for 20 minutes to determine
final standings. Insanity nearly
broke loose when the jam got so
intense that skaters were going two
or three at a time for about five
minutes straight. During those five
minutes the crowd was in hysterics,
the roar was heard for blocks. After
the jam had ended the standings
looked like this:
1. Pete DiAntoni-Wisconsin
2. Dave Matesi-Minnesota
3. Dave Williams-Illinois
4. Tom Baonder-lowa
5. Rick Kahn-Wisconsin
6. Brian Nahl- Indiana
7. Noah Desmond - Wisconsin
8. Bernie McGinn-Nebraska
Then Neil Blender, John Lucero
and Tory Bottcher gave the crowd a
30 minute demo which everyone
went wild about. More loud yelling
throughout this jam. These guys
ripped the ramp up.
Now it was time for the A division.
20 or so skaters were in 3 jams, just
like B division. Notables were Greg
Bahn with Miller flips, Andrechts
and multiple inverts; Rich Pete got
some high backside airs; Paul
Hugasian stalled layback airs and
styled inverts; and Matt Campora
pulled off eggplants and boned
1-side airs. Final results were:
Greg Bahn- Minnesota
1.
2. Rich Pete - Illinois
3. Paul Hugasian
4. Matt Campora Tennessee
5. Erik Frojan - Minnesota
6. Jimmy Counce incis
7. Cyndi Pendergrass-Illinois
8. Mike Renfro - Nebraska
Prizes were then awarded to the
skaters. All prizes were donated by:
Thrasher, Independent, Thunder
Trucks, Santa Cruz, Tracker, TWS,
Sims/Vision, Zorlac, Motobilt
Madrid and G & S. I'd like to thank
our sponsors for all the donations,
they helped the cause a great deal.
I'm sure I speaking for everyone by
thanking the Boettcher family for
putting up with everything. I hope
everyone had fun and will be able to
make it to M.A.R.S. No.2 in
Minneapolis, Minnesota, or at
another M.A.R.S. contest. Hope to
see you there.
M.A.R.S. Coordinator
Bill Miller
OCEAN BOWL AMATEUR
CONTEST
We blew into town early Saturday
a.m. to help re-skin the ramp with a
new layer of masonite. Materials for
the job, along with trophies, skate
gear, shirts and stickers were
provided by the city of Ocean
Beach, Atlantic Skates and Sun-
dancer. The Ocean Bowl skatepark,
one of the first ever, has seen
improvements for the better with the
addition of a killer halfpipe situated
smack dab in the middle of the main
bowl.
After heavy sessioning all day
Saturday, the contest began late
Sunday afternoon. Lower class 1-A
skaters wore impressive with Mike
Shaw rock-n-roll siding into fifth
Indy airs and back bones saw A.J.
Wolf to fourth; third wont to 'little'
Phil who bonelessed-in on his last
run. Paul Wismooski did various
plants for 2nd and 'Thaiman' picked
up a wel deserved first for his
Andrecht inverts and high airs.
Every one blazed in 2-A, Ozzie
Taylor pulled just about every air in
the book for 5th. Dave Strupe
stalled eggplants and muted
way-high into 4th. In 3rd spot was
Jason Farrel shouting "Skate
straight or die high" in response to
continuous vocals from the Loud
Ones concerning his partying status
(he doesn't). Tom Wagner stalled
and haired into 2nd while Henry
Griffin blazed first without falling
and all the while doing flapping
Andrechts, big airs and one-footed
inverts.
Sponsored Am division was so
hot I'm sure the judges had
difficulty. Alan Chaney styled Miller
flips to 5th; Sean McLean was
punching high, consecutive airs and
acid dropped in for his last run off
the 4. deck. Sean was the crowd
favorite, always putting in his two
cents. He took 4th bagind Keith
Lenhart, leader of the Loud Bosto-
nians. Keith ripped 3rd with almost
every trick like invert to tail, f-side
inverts and high airs. Second place,
Dan Brown, did otherwise unseen
moves like no- footed inverts and a
finger flip layback air. Finally Josh
Marlowe amazed the 'taters by
skating on an injured ankle and still
going head high backside, pushing
every kind of plant to contortion and
fully boning frontside airs, Josh took
first.
Following the skating the normal
ceremonials took place along with
sticker tossing and the distribution
of champagne on just about
everybody from one bottle. We all
packed it in and hit the road after a
tiresome skate weekend.
N.I.C.L.S. No.2
BRAINTREE, MASS.
Hadgl
It was Sunday May 26th, the day
before Memorial Day, the second
contest of the N.I.C.LS. series was
set for Braintree, a suburb of
Boston, Massachusetts. The
Braintree ramp, a skate refuge to
many skaters in and around the
Boston area, is easily accessible
because of Boston's major transit
authority. Catch the train to Brain-
tree and skate down Union Street to
the house of Sean McLean
On this Memorial Day weekend
skaters travelled from 10 states to
partake in what would be another
step foward for the sake of skate-
kind. No David Lee Roth money-
television weekend, no parents, no
pity for the wounded, just pure raw
non-stop skate energy. This
contest, instead of breaking up into
three different age groups and a
sponsored ams division, we
followed more along the lines of the
M.E.S.S. series format. There
would be two unsponsored divi-
sions; 1A and 2A. The 1A consisted
of beginners and the 2A, inter-
mediate skaters. Last but not least
the sponsored ams division. 1A and
2A divisions would take three runs
each until a skater tired or fell. The
judges would then determine from
the overall number of skaters who
would be cut and who would
advance into the jam. The skaters
would session head to head for an
alloted time period, with each skater
following an order. There were only
7 sponsored ams so each of these
skaters would compete in the final
jam.
Jersey boy Dan Jay, who took his
division in the first N.I.C.LS.
contest, came on strong again hore
to dominate the 1A. Bob Barker,
missing in action the first contest,
sliced hold of second. Proving to be
consistant in third was Dave
Rogers. In the 2A division the stats
ran as follows: Jay Henry, another
Jersey boy, part of the Bar crow,
captured the number one spot
pushing bio inverts. Ozzie Taylor
was putting down smooth back to
back airs and laybacks for second
Dave Lemieux broke a kingpin,
which slowed things down a bit, but
he recovered to take third. Fourth
place went to Loud Ones drummer
Metal Man, who was pulling off
these Jay Boy type handplants; the
kind where you don't get inverted,
but he was pulling them off two feet
above the cope.
With the sponsored ams division
up last, these boys were more than
eager to go at it. When Dave
Lemieux broke his kingpin during
the 2A jam, they immediately
assaulted the ramp for a practice
session, which included some rad
doubles sessions. Their jam results
looked like this: In seventh was
Dickon Greene, who is sure to be an
up and coming threat in the near
future. Sixth was given to Jeff
Thompson, who was pulling off
some of the highest boneless ones
I've ever seen. In fifth was rad
McShredder himself, Chuck The
Man Treece Footplants, boneless
ones, backside smairs and, in
keeping with the tradition, some
fluid, fully extended laybacks. The
Megazine man himself, Fred Smith,
who seems to push his airs higher
and higher with every contest, took
fourth. If he keeps this up, by the
end of the series he'll be passing
the five foot mark. Third went to
home boy Sean McLean. Sean
would start his run from an axle stall
on the peak of the roof to produce
the raddest roll-in ever. Second
place went to Keith Lenhart with one
footed inverts, one footed airs and
back to back boneless'. First was
sewn up by Atlantic Skates man
Dan Brown. This boy seemed to do
no wrong, pulling off mean foot
plants, sweepers, boneless' and
inverts that he would totally kick out
sending the board up off of his feet.
All in all things ran pretty smoothly
and everyone seemed to have a
good time. With the summer well
underway and many more contests
to come, there's no telling what's in
store. Major sponsors who contri-
buted this time round read as
follows: Zorlac. Sure Grip, Sims Vi-
sion, Independent, Action Sports,
Walker and Kryptonics. Local
sponsors were Dave's Bike
Infirmary, Beacon Hill Skate,
Watershed and Charles River
Skate Shop. I would also like to
thank Mrs. McLean and the Albany
skate crew. We'll see you all at the
next contest.
Pinhead
Tommy Stahle
N.I.C.L.S. RESULTS
1A
1. Dan Jay
2. Bob Ducharme
2A
1. Jay Henry
2. Ozzie Taylor
3. Dave Lemieux
4. Metal Man
5. Jim Noonan
6. Steve Mannon
7. Tom Putnam
8. John Cardash
3. Dave Rogers
4. Dennis McLean
5. Nate Bodwich
SPONSORED AMS
1. Dan Brown
2. Keith Lenhart
3. Sean McLean
4. Fred Smith
5. Chuck Treece
6. Jeff Thompson
7. Cicken Groene
Fred Smith lofts some alr over Sean McLean.
Dan Brown, frontside Texas footplant.