1985 Thrash-A-Thon overview.
Anyways, let's say by some act of
God you wind up at Kiyose Skate-
park. Now this Klyose place
happens to be a pretty decent
place to session, unless it happens
to be during Japan's Summer
months, when temperatures are
90°F and the humidity is about the
same. The key words here are
serious sweat. This didn't seem to
bother the hardoore skaters (what
ever does?) who were on hand to
lay down some lines in the keyhole
pool, where the contest was to be
held. This pool, for lack of a better
phrase, "sort of sucks". The contest
also included highest air and
longest slide and roll events-just
like the good old days.
Philip, the man credited with
Inventing Japan Air was on hand
doing his namesake trick, along
with some very sick contorted
inverts. Rose, a top Japanese
skater with his own model, was
also ripping up the pool.
Ciao
YOYOGI FREESTYLE
MEET VOL. #3
And while I was at Kiyose Park,
these Japanese skate-type guys go,
"Hey, there's a streetstyle contest in
Yoyogi Park next weekend-are you
going?". I was just about to say
Hah-se" (yes) when an elbow to the
ribs from Mari-san reminded me I
was supposed to go to Mt. Fuji with
her that weekend. What's a "gaijin
to do? You just don't turn down a girl
like Mari. Besides, I think she knows
all the martial arts stuff, so it's very
possible that she could kill with her
bare hands...anyway, as luck (7)
would have it, I had to work on
Saturday, right? Wrong. I showed up
at Yoyogi park only to find that the
contest had been postponed until
the following weekend. It was time
to stress, standing in a pool of sweat
in Yoyogi Park made Mt. Fuji sound
real good...
Next weekend rolls around and I
figure I'll just shine Yoyogi Park, 'cuz
the contest probably isn't going to
happen anyway, right? Wrong again.
Ishowed up around four o'clock just
to check things out and sure
enough, a full-on street contest was
underway, complete with curbs,
quarter pipes and the whole 9 yards.
Fortunately the always lame BMX
freestyle had taken up most of the
contest time and even though I
showed up late I was able to enter
So I did. Each skater got two
minutes to do his own thing, and
when it was all over and the scores
had been tabulated, the awards
ceremony got underway, which
included girls in bikinis handing out
the prizes along with a kiss. As soon
as everyone got what was coming
to them, we returned to the 8 foot
quarter pipe for an evening session,
which was unfortuantely plagued
with BMX riders, but since it was
their ramp, I guess you could
almost tolerate them....
As the sun set on the East, I
headed back to Roppongi, where
another night of heavy club action
was about to get underway.
RESULTS
Sunday August 18th
KIYOSE SKATEBOARD FINAL
PRO
1. Katsumi "Rose" Matsushimah
2. Yoshimitsu Shino
3. Takeshi Miyouchi
AM
1. Kazunari Shimamurah
2. Kaoru Kashiwagi
3. Mitsuhiro Soshimah
September 1st Sunday
FREESTYLE MEET VOL. 3
YOYOGI TOKYO
1. Yoshimitsu Shino
2. Hisakatsu Nihey
3. Keith Stephenson
The 72-hour Thrash-A-Thon helped
raise thousands for the American Heart
Association and brought skating to the
academic masses on the Cal Poly
Technical Institute campus. The entire
affair was the work of Eric Horn and the
frat house boyz from Lambda Chi Alpha
Kaoru Matsul, layback air, Klyose Skatepark.
Physical Education
1985, October 23-25, Location:
Cal Poly campus, San Luis Obispo.
Known to the locals as "Slo-Town
for reasons all too obvious. The
town's only exciting part, other than
the serious over-population of
women, are the boys over at the
Lambda Chi Alpha house who just
happened to be putting on their
annual three day Thrash-A-Thon.
The technical facts and figures
are of little significance right now.
The overall impact on the unsus-
pecting witnesses, though, was
substantial whether they know it or
not. Three days of skating on the
computer designed ramp, still,
many of them still had little concept
of what had taken, or was going to
take place. Laws of physics were
30
Bean plant on harsh transition, Hisakatsu Nihey
being broken with each maneuver
but the majority of the crowd saved
any form of stimuli-activated motor
response for, of all things, bails.
They may have slept through the
lectures, but the test was still to
come.
The night before final exams
found a major gathering at the
infamous "Bulls". Location is better
left anonymous as a session there
can put survival in serious jeopardy
Power-partying was the much
abused norm for the night. Ramp
designer, buider, shredder and Frat.
prez Eric Horn and his Lambda Chi
attitude introduced the tourist to a
form of aberrant behavior they
reserve for only one thing other
than skating. Numerous liquid
victims including "Buffalo Breath".
unknown nachos and three vicious
bitches from Hell later found the
casualty rate high. One very
confused battered and cheese
covered survivor managed to find
refuge on the second to the last
step of the Lambda house
staircase.
Takeshi Miyouchl, high up on the plexiglass.
Finals morning and 300-500
people were in class early enough
to witness one severely fractured
leg in the first hour of sessioning.
Needless to say, some of them
were beginning to grasp the
situation. The irony quickly became
apparent as the proof of a conform-
ing society watched quite possibly
the most non-conformist act
known: a skate session.
Lester Kasai, Tod Swank, Jeff
Grissell, Joe Johnson, Owen
Neider, Don Pollard, et. al, exposed
the increasingly exuberant crowd to
some serious facts that they were
definitely not going to learn down
the hall in Pre-psych II. Meanwhile
a group of motivated offshoots
threw out a pop quiz on a nearby
curb. Exploiting and defining the
90° angles in ways that the Math
department could never explain.
Midnight, Friday the 25th saw the
end of the Thrash-A-Thon and,
along with it, a chance for those
who forgot their #2 pencils, to learn
something significant. A few,
though, probably did pass,
obtaining their most useful
knowledge in four years, but, like
they say, "It's not the grade that
counts but what you do after
school."
Scott Foss
An Andrecht on campus by Don Pollard.
Lester Kasal launches well above
the Lambda Chi crew
RASHAT
Coors