Right away I knew these boys were no
ordinary skaters. All week they were
pummellin' the ramp, night and day, tearin
it up. I guess word gets around fast in these
skater circles, not to mention Paige was
offerin' top prize money, somethin' like
$2175.00 bucks to split between the top
placin' pro skaters. By week's end there
was somewhere around 30 of the best pro
skaters in the world and over forty ams
millin' about Hearn's property, skatin' the
ramp and kicking up the dust with their
antics.
By and by, before I knowed it, Friday was
upon us and to no one's surprise there
were a few problems and squabbles.
There was quite a feud brewin' about
practice sessions and such. It got to the
point where the skaters were takin pen in
hand and rearranging the heat sheets in
their favor. Some sessions were filled to
the point of heavy snakin'. Boiling practice
Jim Murphy, tuck knee, helmetless.
sessions had really come to full steam
when Paige, in a hasty attempt to give the
ramp and himself a break, dragged an 8"x
8" rail tie onto the flat bottom of the ramp.
unaware that Ramp Rancher Tommy Kay
was barreling off coping in mid-run. TK
slapped without even knowing why and, of
course, tempers raged a bit.
Now, the rules and regulations are well
posted on the ramp and although I thought
by and large the boys were fairly well
behavin', there was some weirdo-shit goin'
on. Take Fred Smith fer instance. Damn kid
is loony boy, I'll tell ya. Not only did he skate
with a live lizard in his hair for two days but
I heard tell of him doing some kind of trick
with a chain where he'd suck one end of it
up his nose, cough it into his throat and pull
the thing out through his mouth. I didn't see
this myself and I weren't so sure that I
wanted to, thank you.
There was a constant display of street
skatin' going on out in front of the furniture
store which was wreakin' havoc with
motorists, rubberneckin' as they swerved
by the house here. All in all Mr. Hearn was
takin' everything in stride, even when a
couple of bottle rockets and an M-80 was
launched from the parking lot later that
evening.
Practice sessions kept most of the
skaters busy until long after nightfall when
the ramp was coated with a slippery dew.
Course the madness didn't stop there for
these people. The Arkansas state fair was
kickin' off that night and sure enough a
throng of skaters headed off in the direction
of the fair grounds to see what it was all
about. I took the grandkids over myself and
sure enough, there's a bunch of the Vision
boys makin' sure stickers were bein
plastered on everything they could slap a
hand on.
Saturday broke with early practice
sessions and skaters slowly arriving by the
carloads. I strolled over and took a seat in
the bleachers at rampside just as the
amateurs began skatin' it out. During the
practice things boiled over just a little too
much when Bob Pribble and Bob Reeves
got into a little fracas over ramp rights-
punches flew but cooler heads prevailed.
Fausto and KT pulled together the
paperwork and format for the judges and
timers while KT took over the announcer's
chair. A fair-sized sound system was set up
and soon crankin' a full barrage of heavy-
metal music to skate by. A mop crew
headed by injured Gregor Rankin was
hastily assembled. If the Skateboard Plus
ramp had any drawbacks, it was that the
surface got slicker than ice as the week
progressed. The solution was a wet mop
dipped in a one to one mixture of Coca-
Cola and water applied in a thin coat over
the skating surface.
I stood in total amazement as the
amateurs started tearin' up the ramp in a
qualifying round soon cut to twelve skaters.
One thing fer sure, this contest showed
that the best up and coming skate talent is
widespread throughout the country. In the
quarter finals the roster looked as such:
Ken Fillion- Houston, TX, Tod Chasen-
Houston, TX, Don Pollard-California,
John Fudala-VA Beach, Alan Midgette-VA
Beach, Jeff Kendall-Indianapolis, Reese
Simpson-San Diego, Eric Nash-L.A., CA,
Buck Smith-Florida, Joe Johnson-Col-
orado, Jim Murphy-New Jersey and, at
the top of the heap, Jeff Grosso from
California.
The semi final breakdown eliminated
Fillion, Midgette, Fudala and Chasen while
the remaining eight went into the final jam.
For thirty minutes these dudes were
heavin' around that ramp like nobody's
bizness, throwin' themselves into contorted
body positions. Listenin' to KT on the
microphone and the skaters around me I
started to pick up on the strange lingo
these boys use to describe their skating.
Jeff Kendall gets pretzel-like on all hand-
plant variations. Buck Smith's wild style
mixed well with big airs of the one foot
variety. Joe Johnson, as usual, showed a
unique bundle of tricks. The crowd favorite
had to be Jimmy Murphy, who skated with
speed and total aggro and just seemed
glued to his skateboard as he bashed his
side to side assaults. Jeff Grosso and Eric
Nash stole the show as they matched each
other's high airs and straight arm full-exten-
sion inverts. Grosso stalled sadplants for
too long while Nash pushed boosters and
channel ollies to the limit. By the time the
dust had settled and the ramp had cooled
off, the winners were announced. Grosso
first, Nash second, Buck Smith third, Jeff
Kendall fourth and Jim Murphy fifth.
Because of the threat of rain it was
decided to go straight into pro practice and
try to pull off the whole event in one day,
instead of the scheduled two. In the
bleachers the skaters and skate fans from
as far away as VA Beach, Florida, Georgia,
Nebraska, Tennessee and Texas began
fillin' me in on the who's who and what's
what as the pros took their last practice
sessions before the qualifying began.
There was Chuck Treece and Rick "Spidey"
Demontrond, takin' their first licks at earnin
some pro dollars. Monty Nolder was
powering those backside lapover grinds,
intense. Eddie Reategui: total lip master.
Micke Alba: back in action. Steve
Steadham: floating backside lofters. John
Lucero: oily ollie air. Bill Danforth: shred-
ding the lip and Hail Mary's. Ken Park:
smooth and sailing. John Gibson was
rockin' out. Kevin Staab apparently had a
whole slew of new tricks. Eric Grisham
seemed to be having a blast. Craig
Johnson was towering over the ramp with
totally hectic moves while another big fella,
Neil Blender, was showing some unruly,
twisted skating. Chris Miller was a study of
smooth and Lester Kasai was getting
massive height on front and backside air
variations. Steve Caballero: torn knee but
still making sick one-footed airs look easy.
Mike Smith was flashing Alley Oops over
channel. Tom Groholski was cranking
heavy metal grinds. Alan Losi slammed the
ramp with everything in the book as Billy
Ruff showed 360° ollies to axle-stall and
Tony Magnusson definitely had the highest
lein air around. The top picks for this event,
though, had to be Mike McGill, with his
gritty bionics, Christian Hosoi, literally
flying, Lance Mountain, outright dangerous
and Tony Hawk doing every trick and then
some. All of these guys were doing
unbelievable McTwist attempts and
making most of them. Rounding out the
field was ole' Jeff Phillips who pulled off
tricks that just shouldn't even be attempted
by the common skater.
Total chaos continued right into a big ten
man jam with Johnson, Hosol, Miller,
Magnusson, Hawk, Losi, Mountain, Kasai,
Phillips and McGill dropping in one after
another in that order. Highlights of the 40
minute skate-out included: Tony Magnus-
son rarely doing any air under 4 feet. Also
going insane was Christian Hosoi, pumpin'
four and five backside airs in a row, gettin'
higher with every one. Alan Losi was
performin' incredibly high and varied air,
varials and hand flip handplants. Lester
Kasai whipped a frontside 540 air in there,
Chris Miller was nosing out airs to the
bone. Lance Mountain had a finger flip to
tap and high frontside airs workin' and got
so amped after one blazed run he absent-
mindedly tossed his board towards the
crowd, grazing a few onlookers. Craig
Johnson had the crowd screaming for
more every time he dropped in. Tony Hawk
was gettin' the McTwist over with on his
third dang trick and goin' on to air walks
and finger flippin' backsides. Jeff Phillips
was skatin' nuts with ollie to frontside board
slappin' hangups, 360° lein air, air to fakies
and unbelievable frontside boosts. The
peak of the action had to be when Mike
McGill hung up momentarily, slapping his
tail on coping during a McTwist
re-entry. The crowd went haywire as McGill
went on to rage in his full skate machine
style; as if nothing had happened.
I was sittin' there with my jaw hangin' in
my lap when KT announced the winners,
after a sticker toss ceremony that looked
more like a riot to me. Once again that
Twist, flex and torque; Jeff Kendall.
young whippersnapper Tony Hawk had
prevailed, taking first place and ten crisp
100 dollar bills from Paige. Second went to
Jeff Phillips, followed by Lance Mountain
and Mike McGill. Losi powered into fifth
spot while Christian flew into sixth. The
remaining order was Magnusson 7th,
Craig Johnson 8th, Chris Miller 9th and
Lester in 10th place.
All told and tallied, the Skateboard Plus
contest went well and everyone was glad
that the whole deal was condensed onto
one day. Except maybe Lance, who was
blindly cold-cocked by the fueled-up
spectator that had been hit with the thrown
skate.
Sunday had some of them skaters back
at the ramp for a little more shreddin' and
layin' about before takin' off for their
respective homesteads. I can't say I
weren't ready for 'em to leave neither, so's
things could return back to normal in Little
Rock once again. See ya' all later, now.