Just a Splendid
Weekend...
N.S.A.#5
Bob Pribble and friend.
Vancouver
Story by Mofo
"Girls on Swings"
Canada
...I don't know, maybe two hours of sleep
last night. Me and Olson were lathering at
an all-night disco, where the girls wriggled
in abundance. We were really set back
when we discovered that these two girls
who tried to pick up on us were really
fifteen years old. On the dance floor, a
transexual danced.
This airplane is packed to capacity, the
only empty seat in the thing is next to me,
then the last passenger on the flight came
over, with one of those suitcases on a
collapsable cart.
"Uh, is this your seat right here?" I asked.
"Yes," she replied.
"Oh."
I crunched up in the seat, squatting, then
itched my nose. Then for the first time, I
took a good look at the person, which
resulted in inner tinglings. Like the feeling
one gets when one finds a hundred dollar
bill in the gutter. It was looking to be a
visually and conversationally enjoyable
34
Sunfull spectators
A true hipper or what? Fourth place finisher, Al Losi reflects on a bit of pain.
trip home. I'd just spent a splendid
weekend in Vancouver, Canada.
Trying to reverse any potential tenden-1
cies of my making a slobbering mess of
myself, I began to reflect on the events of
earlier today and all of yesterday. It was
difficult trying to distract myself but I
figured that if I didn't, I'd probably get
slapped for staring
A CONTEST
Yes, there was a contest. A contest with
Pro/Am freestyle and vertical ramp riding.
On the first day were the freestyle elimina-
tions and finals, along with amateur ramp
qualifying and then at the very end of the
day, professional ramp practice.
The freestyle event carried on very
smoothly. Vying for the top notches in the
amateur division were the likes of; April
Hoffman, Eric Sanderson, Fabian Kravitz,
Greg Smith and Victor Star. Top three in
this event were Eric Sanderson third.
Fabian Kravitz second and Greg Smith
first.
The pro freestyle, the way it looked, was
overwhelmingly dominated by visiting
Frenchman Pierre Andre. Other riders
included Jason Catalano, Steve Rocco,
Kevin Harris and Bob Schmelzer. Pierre of
Franskated to such effect that his final
placing at first was well deserved. It was
said afterwards that Pierre had decided to
win this contest well in advance. Reason
being that his ticket to the U.S. had cost
him so much it would have been unbeara-
ble to travel all that way and not win.
PAIR O'DUIS
The girls were on a set of swings, to one
side of the ramp. They were little
bombshells, products of the fashion media
barrage, turning young women into Candy
Kisses. A lot of the kids that nymph
rock-goddess Madonna inspires literally
blow her away. Anyway, there they were,
two Eurythmic K.O.'s. I took pictures of
them while they weren't looking and
walked away.
MEANWHILE
The amateur qualifying was looking to
be real good. A serious flavor of con-
tingency assaulting the transition, through
the vert, into the air, sampling the atmos-
phere and down again for a repeat.
It was clearly visible that the most
powerful of the riders were Eric Nash, Rick
Demontrond, Jeff Grosso and Jeff Kendall.
There were plenty of other riders vying,
many of them Canadian locals. Scott, from
Calgary, Alberta, B.C. was wailing around
for awhile, real hard, as well as the many
others that were on hand.
After the qualifying, the pro's began their
practice, which incidentally drew the
largest crowd of the day. An impromptu
session was a better description for the
highly inspired skating that commenced
before these astounded Canadians.
There were only a handful of pros
present for this contest. Most of the Powell
team were in Europe, as well as a few
others, and those who weren't in Europe,
well, their sponsors were just too cheap to
fly them up for this contest. Those present
included, Steve Steadham, Al Losi, Neil
Blender, Mark Rogowski, Lester Kasai,
Tony Magnusson, Christian Hosoi, Eddie
Reategui and Chris Miller.
It's an eggplant, it's a frontside invert, it's a jolly
mamba, it's Nell doing what Nell does.
WINDSURE
THAT NIGHT
Steve Olson phoned my room at the
Holiday Inn.
"Hello." I said.
"Let's go out, get drinks and get wet.", he
said.
"Fine."
6:31-next a.m.
What a night it became. I finally made it
back to my room. We got kicked out of
three places, bought our way to the head of
the line in two places then found ourselves
in a discoteque called Heaven, which
stayed open til 5 a.m. It took us that long.
after we met some females, to find out that
they were fifteen. So we left. What an initial
waste. But maybe not totally. As the night
progressed, a few of the pro skaters began
to appear out of the woodwork. One
minute there was Losi, then Gator, then
out of nowhere I saw Eddie Reategui, and
topping them all was Lester Kasai, shining
everybody off and dancing with his reflec-
tion in the mirror. I was impressed.
TWO HOURS AND FORTY FIVE MIN
UTES LATER.
Out by the ramp the amateurs were
getting warmed up and had been ready to
begin, for more than an hour. Some of the
pros were going to be judges, but they
didn't seem to want to show up til later in
the day, after they'd gotten sufficient
amounts of sleep.
Finally judges were found and the
contest was underway. The boys were
raging through a thirty minute jam and by
the time they were finished types like
Pribble were slammin' and swearin'.
When it was all over, said and done with,
it was time to announce the winners. I
knew it was gonna be close. Spidey was
definitely taking the long, gruelling, tough
runs. Eric Nash was getting the unbelieva
bly high airs. But it was really between Jeff
Kendall and Jeff Grosso for the top numero
uno slot. Kendall was ripping hard with
seemingly every imaginable handplant
variation, but he took some severe slam-
mos and Grosso didn't. Grosso won the
whole deal, by a margin of endurance and
psychability.
1. Grosso
2. Kendall
3. Nash
4. Demontrond
After a small duration, the pros began
practicing for their immenent clash. It was
tough, it was rosy, I stuck a THRASHER
button through some flesh in my arm. I was
suprised that it didn't hurt. Maybe I was
distracted by the skating. I was also
amazed because I thought I had lost the
talent to repulse, disgust and generally
cause people visible sufferage.
The pro's became perpetual in their
skating, lavishing incredible fool-hardy
lines. People were astonished. Everyone
was gassing, the sun was hot and people
began to sweat all at once.
Al Losi took a severe slammo about a
week before and was suffering from a bad
case of 'hipper'. It looked horrible, but it
didn't slow him down at all, until he fell on it.
They were all terrorizing, Neil Blender,
Eddie Reategui, Lester Kasai, Magnus-
son...all of 'em. But they weren't skating
up to the level that Christian Hosoi was
reaching. He pulled out the of 540 trick
from time to time and generally dazzled the
shit out of the people. It was that and a
bunch more incredible, well drawn out
lines that ended him up on top of the heap.
At the end of the whole thirty minute jam:
1. Christian Hosol
2. Lester Kasai
3. Tony Magnusson
4. Al Losi
The dust settled on everyone and I
made a mad dash to Rick Ducommon's
hotel room on the sixteenth floor of a
luxurious building. Rick was responsible
for the best jokes I've ever heard in my
life...the; "he must be, it tasted like shit
joke and "I don't know about you, but when
mine gets stuck in a refrigerator door, it
swells up real big..."
Finally, I get on this plane and this vision
appears before my eyes and ends up in the
seat right next to me. Probably just a
dream, I am pretty tired.
Ed "Everready" Reategul caught boosting a thruster
In a solo atmosphere.