IN SEARCH OF ILLUSTRIOUS
PLASTIC
OCEANSIDE BEACHSTYLE
N.S.A. No. 6
By Bryce Kanights
Ahh...So there I was in the
coastside town of Oceanside, CA
for the N.S.A. No. 6 Sure Grip.
sponsored Beachstylo skateboard
event. Warm weather and a
beachful of tan bodies made the
grueling 9 hour automobile trek
seem worthwhile for the time being
My travelling comrades, Tony (not
Tommy) Guerrero and S.F. Frees-
tylist Ray Meyer agreed that the
speeding ticket in Ventura for 80 in
a 55 was a joke. We all knew Ray's
car couldn't do over 70 m.ph. The
officer laughed when I tried to
explain this to him. A slow hour of
LA traffic perked up our senses
before a 3 a.m. arrival in Oceanside,
Just in time to wake up a roomful of
skators in Madrid's motel room and
scammed a spot on the floor,
Saturday moming blasted us awake
with some fine skating weather and
a bad breakfast, courtesy of Bilt
Danforth. Which brings us to the
present
On the contest agenda for the day
is streetstyle, or beachstyle
whatever you prefer. Personally, I
don't skate on the beach all that
much but the Oceanside pavillion
area, including the stage, a banked
picnic table, rows of curbs, the
infamous horseshoe curb of stee
an oil drum and a cable spool was
set up for the right kind of moves
(and a few of the wrong kind as
we). You know, a curb grind here,
a garbage can sweeper there
maybe a body ollie and of course, it
you're Chris Cook or Eddie
Realegui, a van or rooftop acid
drop
Practice sessions at streetstyle,
contests always make you wonder
why they even bother to have a
contest. Sure enough though, after
a practice melee all the street ams
dove into their qualifying runs
engerly, each of us hoping to bring
home that illustrious plastic (trophy)
to mom
The top eight skaters were a
follows: Jeff Kendall, the vert-rager
from the Midwest took top honors
with quite a number of stalled
street-verts and high aerials as well.
Right behind him was Jesse
Martinez who ironed out some
vertical wall transistions and
performed other hair raising stunts
Third place went to Joe Arabia with
assorted boneless variations. Gary
Sanderson wound up fourth Stave
Saiz, a hot newcomer, took fifth with
ollies of every kind. Rick Demon-
trond launched high off the ramp
into sixth, seventh place went to
Don Pollard and I followed up
somewhere around eighth. Quite a
fow of the competitors were
complaining about poor judging as
the results were announced
After a lengthy practice session
the pro qualifying began and ended
when the the cut went to twelve
skaters. Mark Gonzales blasted
skyward off every obstacle, with
and without hands, performed a few
unique tricks and stayed on to win
26
some cash and first place. In
second, John Kop from Hawail
soared high above the ramp/picnic
table as well. Third place went to B
Danforth in his pro debut Christian
Hosoi blasted a number of method
type aerials to gain a fourth place
spot. John Grigley grabbed the fith
place tie breaker against Tommy
Guerrero, doing some awesome
looking wall walks. Tommy ended
up in sixth due to a sprained ankle,
although it didn't seem to hinder him
all that much. Eddie Reategui
jumped off the cable video wagon
and Mr. Hawk's van to drop into
seventh place, Due to a three way
tie for eighth place, Gary S. Davis
Steve Caballero and Bob Schmelzer
were pushed into a run-off with the
three of them skating simultane
ously for two long minutes, Cabal
ero went bio and cashed in. Many
of the skaters, competitors and
sponsors agreed that there still
remained a problem with the
judging system or judges them-
selves.
More sun and skating awaited us
on Sunday moming. The spectators.
started to gather and the am
freestyle was ready to start. The top
eight skaters in this event were
Victor Starr in eighth place, Seventh
went to pint sized Eric Sanderson
who is improving every time 1 ss0
him. Ray Meyer, a major threat due
to his unique and innovative tricks,
took sixth. Sean Coons, another
young man from Nor Cal claimed
fith. Fourth place went to Andre
Walton, whose fast footwork
definitely helped him along, Fabian
Kravetz flowed to his music and
received third place. Don Brown
and Greg Smith tied for first place
due to flawless runs. In the run-off,
Greg fell one time too many and
Don emerged the victor of the am
freestyle. These two skaters are so
rad and precise, they should-
consider going into the pro category.
The pro freestyle was somewhat
different with the absence of
Rodney Mullen and Per Wellnder.
Pierre Andre was the favorite going
into the contest after winning in
Vancouver, Canada over hometown
hero Kevin Harris. A battle for
supremecy between four skaters
developed and involved three very
contrasting styles. Pierre Andre and
4th place Joan Marc, both of
France, were showing wide
varieties of handstands, spins, fips
and shove-its a high degree of
difficulty and more tricks per
routine. Kevin Harris was very
smooth with a combination of stylish
footwork. His routines consisted of
every variation of 360's and insane
choreography and earned him a
second place finish. Lightning fast
choppy footwork and crowd support
have become the trademark of
Primo Desiderio. He is fun to watch
and is no stranger to throngs of
enthulastic spectators. He took third
place. Fifth place went to Steve
Rocco showed a mastery of
freestyle technique mixed with
streetstyle but not all that much
variety. Bob Schmetzer admittedly
did not have a set routine but
conjured up enough tricks to place
Don Brown
Hawaiian Islander John Kop
definitely has a flair for air
Kevin Harris
HAN
Shane Rouse
Jeff Croutenu
Frank Messman
in sodh Jason Catalano flowed into
seventh place and Mike Foster
skating to Eddie Murphy's "Boogie
in your Butt," remained in eighth
It was now five o'clock and we str
had to use up nine hours on the
highway to get home We yelled our
good-byes, took our plastic with un
and headed northward until next
time.
SKANDANAVIAN OPEN '85
Froelin Ramp, Denmark
By Claus Grabke
With the order on my mind to do
an article about the Scandinavia
Open 851 passed borderlines,
oceans and cultural barriers to
finally arrive in Helsinge, Denmark
It was this town where Europe's
best skaters would meat and battle
it out for top honors. The exact
location was the "Froelin rosi
dence more precisely the ramp in
their backyard. This ramp is
probably one of the most perfect
ramps on our beloved planet and
offers features like: tombstone,
channel + roll-in, metal coping,
wilde roll-out decks, staircases
and porn mags everywhere
(courtesy of Mr. Wam Ruf). The
whole thing is covered by a big
circus-type tent to enable the
locals to skate oven when it rains
or snows Owner of this beautiful
structure is Mortin Froelin, who
also ves in the house right by the
ramp. But now I guess I should
raloase some more info about the
actual contest, the episode in
European skate history known as
the Scandinavia-Open 851
Friday, July 12th saw the first run.
of the freestyle eliminations won
by Shane Rouse. During the whole
day (and night) people skated the
ramp. There were entrants and
onlookers from almost everywhere.
I saw people from England,
Denmark, Germany, Sweden,
Spain, Italy, Norway, Holland,
Florida and Calfornia For sleep
everyone consulted a local gym.
Saturday came and everyone was
eager to eat. Soon the kitchen was
pillaged and the skaters after
having pigged-out to the fullest
emerged from every where At 7
o'clock the second elimination run
for the freestylers was held As a
surprise Par Holknekt didn't make
the cut The finalists were Shane
Rouse, Frank Messmann, Hazze
Lindgran, some dude and Guenter
Mokulys. In the skate-off that
followed there were 3 top-doga
that ripped the pavement heavily
Hazze, who hates static tricks
moved some surt-style influenced
stuff, including wheelies at speed
and some original Hazze tricks
Frank showed a nice routine that
included way hard tricks (ke his
ollie to pogo, The winner of the day,
however was Shane Rouse, who
put in a stunning performance. He
didn't step oft his board at all in his
final run and even managed a 720
shove it! Back at the ramp (noticed
arankish sort of small coming from
the slovenly crowd hangin' out
B-group eliminations followed by
the B-group finals was now the
name of the game.
It was an ordeal for the crew of
judges which included a tired
looking Billy Ruff After two hours
Per Pershing emerged as
winner, having almost skated
bail-less throughout the whole
jam Other B-group rippers were
little Soren who pulled high airs to
second place, Pur Rasmussen
with hot Elguerials and Andreas
Gartner who showed handplant
channels and more. After a short
pause the A group eliminations
took place The sponsored skaters
soammed the ramp and layed
down some heavy lines 3
Everyone who entered was
damned good, so it would be a
sketchy decision skimming the
field to the final jam of eight. The
smell at the rühip arose to that of a
German hofbrauhaus when Mortin
Foolin announced who the finallots
were. Their names read as such
Nicky Guenero (Denmark), Danny
Webster (England). Tony Jansson
(Sweden, Florian Bootim (Ger
many), Robby Buttner (Holland)
and Tod Swank (U.S.A).
A short and refreshing pause
followed and Shane somehow lost
his wallet with more than $700 in it
The platform was crowded with
photographers as the jam started
One after another the riders took
their runs. Nicky and Danny were
going for it completely, end in a big
way, each knowing they had to put
in a great etort to beat the other
Nicky pulled the highest airs. It
seemed as if the ramp ejaculated
him out to never see him again, but
he always landed and was tossed
even higher on the next wall.
Danny skated with extra-English
style, pulling clean Caballenials
and a new trick of his own, the "Pit
Witch (name courtesy of Jeff
Croteau) a backside air to mute
Tony Jansson hurt his shoulder
shortly before the jam but still
skated strong. Consistant back-
side allies and stalled Todd-twists
were some of his tricks Florian
Boehm is a newcomer to the scene
but his runs seemed to never end.
He pulled off frontside handplants
over canyon, high airs and
basically everything. Soeren
Aeby, a local skater, how high airs
and stalled good plants. Stappoe
baled a lot, but made a handplant
varias across the channel. His units
are still fast. Tod Swank swanked
his way to 7th place after some
heavy ripping. Robby Buttner
there were bats up to 201
bucks that he'd hang and break
sumpthin he never did. instead
he captured 8th place. The jam
ended with a bio run of Nicky's
who was declared the winner.
Second place went to Danny, 3rd
Tony, 4th Florian, Sith Soeren and
6th Slappo
A heavy sticker-throw followed
and some locals cracked their
heads. I asked Morten who would
clean all the shit up... "The locals
wit But I could see some "locais
had disappeared already! For
them it was a five minute walk back
home. For me it was a 73 hour
dovel Next year...?