Ffej, Eiguerial
Backside launch, Lester Kasal
Skateboard worship in the Sierras
Don Pollard
Friday, June 28th- a.m. After count-
less bad jokes, bad music and no sleep.
our entourage arrived in Lake Tahoe at
about 9 o'clock, a full 11 hours after depar-
ture. During this time I had heard enough
break dance music (courtesy of Bob
Schmelzer) to last the rest of my present
life and well into the next. Had one more
hip-hop song been played during the trip
I'm afraid I would have been responsible
for the brutal slaying of certain individuals.
Our acting tour guide/comedian/
philosopher for this trip. Mr. Mike Smith,
suggested that we stop at a place called
JR.'s for a bite to eat before heading to the
ramp, a good idea since the last food stop
had occurred somewhere around the
Mojave Desert. After a "J.R.'s breakfast
special" we arrived at the Mile High ramp.
It's a good thing I brought along some
extra underwear because I think I just wet
my pants. The ramp was well...terrifying.
no pun intended. If Upland is one of the
most challenging pools around, then Mile
High has got to be one of the most challeng-
ing ramps in existence. Consider the follow-
ing facts: The ramp has only 8' of flat bot-
tom. Not pretty. The transitions are only 8.
Tombstones at either end of the ramp on
both sides make things interesting. Add to
that the fact that the ramp is leaning not
only from end to end but from side to side
as well. The side with the channel has real
pool coping and the other side has PVC
coping, which sticks out just a bit too much
if you ask me. A final feature of the Mile
High ramp is called the "escalator," a
molded piece of coping which connects one
of the tombstones with the lower part of the
ramp. After watching the skating, it didn't
take long to figure that we would be witnes-
sing a pretty wild event. We had to leave
the ramp for a bit in order to find ourselves
a place to sleep, which lead us to the
Tamarack Lodge, owned and operated by
the benevolent Mrs. Tamarack. Mike Smith
and Mrs. Tamarack seemed to hit it off
pretty well, so we were optimistic about
staying longer than the standard 24 hours.
Friday afternoon Most of the ams
show up to get some last minute practice
before the contest. Don Pollard was looking
good with high method airs and contorted
Andrechts. Edc Nash was drawing some.
bio lines. Jeff Kendall, Ffej and Grosso
were living up to their reputation. Spidey,
riding unattached after mishappenings in
VA Beach, looked to be a strong contender.
At 4 p.m. the amateurs were put into sched-
uled practice heats and the sessioning con-
tinued.
Friday evening A trip to the Nevada
side of Tahoe was chartered in order to try
our hands at the gaming tables. After a
beefy Mexican dinner, compliments of Mr.
Balma, the next stop was Caesar's Palace.
The skate industry must be treating it's fa-
vorite sons well for Tracker Larry and
Goodrich were observed skipping the ta-
bles and the dollar machines and heading
straight for the nickel slots, where we all
know the big money is. Since this was my
first venture into the wild world of gambling,
I decided to go for broke and headed for the
blackjack tables. I convinced Goodrich that
he too could turn a mere $6.00 into a size-
able fortune. Jim didn't seem to have it that
night, but I did, turning my modest invest-
ment into a large pile of chips. After Good-
rich threatened to leave me rideless, I
cashed out. We hunted down Grant catch-
ing a late night bondage extravaganza at a
hotel down the street and were off to the
other side of the line, a little older, a little
wiser, and in my case, a little richer.
Friday, late evening Upon arriving
back in Tahoe, a large party/get-together
was already in progress. Rumors were fly-
ing that the infamous Duane Peters would
show up and "win" the event. The "Sac
girls were busy discussing not the issue of
"old" vs. "new" Coke, but rather can versus
bottle. With one vote for and one against.
the girl with the deciding vote remained
neutral. Instead she preferred to tell (again)
how a prominent pro skater had forced
open the door of her bathroom and joined
her in the shower....
Meanwhile, back at the ramp, Lake
Tahoe's finest had decided to pay a visit.
Those in attendance were getting ready for
the worst when the man in blue parked his
vehicle at one end of the ramp and lit up the
entire area with his full arsenal of lights. He
then simply stated that he'd like to see how
it's done, which caused some skaters to go
into shock. The few who could still stand up
were quick to oblige and soon a session
was in full swing. The man in blue kept his
lights on for about an hour and caught the
late, late show, which featured some state
of the art skate action
Saturday, June 29th- We were forcibly
ejected from our hotel, keeping intact our
dubious record of never keeping a room for
more than one night. Mike Smith tried to
reason with them but to no avail. Mrs.
Tamarack's quote: "We have what's known
as jail up here." Smith: "But....". Our im-
mediate concern was again finding shelter
for the night. This led us to a place known
as the Pepper Tree Inn. Apparently all the
hotel owners in Lake Tahoe suspected that
something was awry, for as we pulled into
the parking lot the "No Vacancy sign mys-
teriously came on. After some intense
negotiations with the owners, we were
granted a room, but for one night only. We
fold them that this was o.k. since we had
never stayed in one hotel longer than that
anyway. They were not amused.
Saturday, late morning After another
morning munch at J.R.'s we arrived at the
ramp site to find it packed and awaiting the
start of the amateur event. Parking space
was, at a minimum and so was room in
which to view the event. Kevin Thatcher
had assumed the announcing duties and
the amateur eliminations were underway.
After all of the amateurs had taken two
runs, scores were calculated and those
making it to the eight cut were announced.
They were; Eric Jueden, Eric Nash, Jeff
Kendall, Ffej Hedges, Gregor Rankine,
Spidey, Gary Sanderson and Jeff Grosso.
As these guys went into the jam, they
started to "let it all hang out," as the saying
goes. Gregor Rankine's "make-it-or-take
me-to-the-hospital" approach produced
some mind blowing skating. Jeff Grosso
was riding at his usual full-tilt level. Two
other skaters hungry to win were Flej and
Spidey. I can't remember seeing these two
guys ripping a contest any harder. When all
was said and done, Gregor had scored an
upset by defeating the previously unbeaten
Jeff Grosso. His "door knock" and method
airs just couldn't be matched. Grosso's
sadplants and bio lines put him in second.
Right behind him was Spidey in third place
and Ffej finished it up in fourth.
Saturday afternoon The pros took
over the ramp for some scheduled practice.
Many of them had paid their respects to Mr.
Wilson earlier in the week and were skating
with injuries. Tony Hawk, Lester Kasal,
John Lucero and Gator all fell into this cat-
egory, making frequent visits to SIO Barry's
makeshift hospital on the side of the ramp.
Back on the ramp, Steve Steadhan was
flying backside airs over the canyon and
landing on the extension, covering about
10 feet in the process. Extended backside
boneless' off the extensions also made him
look like a top contender. Chris Miller had i
obviously recovered from his Upland mis-
hap and was in top form. His fast plants and
nose boned frontside airs were raising
more than a few eyebrows. Christ was
puzzling local air traffic controllers by mak-
ing an occasional appearance on their
screens, Neil Blender was doing his thing
and doing it well, ripping neon plants and
"hurricanes"; backwards 50/50's into slide
and rolls. Hectic. Monty Nolder was doing
some wild backside Smith-type grinders
and varial backside boneless ones.
Saturday evening I convinced Beau
Brown into faking me across the state line
to do some more gambling. This took us to
the small border town of Crystal Bay. I
walked into the first casino and found Owen
Neider, Don Pollard and Chris Robison
giving the one-armed bandits a workout.
After informing Chris that even more fame
and fortune awaited him on the other side
of the lake, we all headed off in that direc-
tion (besides, Chris had already been
ejected from every casino in Crystal Bay for
being underage). Beau Brown was glad to
be rid of me and headed back to Tahoe.
With Owen Neider taking the wheel of the
new vehicle in which I was travelling, I
began to wonder if I would see the final
event tomorrow. About 10 minutes into our
journey, we pulled up behind an early-
model Mustang that appeared to be some-
what out of control. Owen followed the veh-
icle for awhile, afraid to pass him. Bets were
taken as to whether the Stang would crash
into another car, go into the lake or drive
into the side of the mountain. After almost-
putting his car into the lake the guy changed
his mind, drifted back across the center line
and piled into the side of the mountain,
ending his wild ride. We had a gambling
date to keep so we left the guy in the side
of the mountain and headed towards the
bright lights.
Saturday evening-late - After a severe
case of gambling fever subsided Chris
Robison found himself with a mere $2.00
to his name. Owen fared no better. We tried
to catch the bondage show that Grant had
recommended from the previous night and
found our luck had run out entirely. It was
a monstrously fat woman in a leotard sing-
ing stale cover tunes with a Holiday Inn
back-up band. Out of both luck and money.
we headed for hotel.
Coerver on pape 2
29