confusion to the confusion as it was attacked
throughout the day with reckless intent. K.T.
was late, and for some reason the contest
couldn't start without him, so the skaters
continued to session freely while the sun
burned past noon. It looked like the practice
would continue for awhile. Shade and cold
drinks became priority. The concession
stand was a sheet metal trailer, surrounded
by tables, a large grill and hundreds of con-
fused, hungry spectators wondering why
hamburgers were being cooked one at a
time. The closest store was a 5-mile drive
in a oven-like car so people put up with the
prices and lines. K.T. arrived, but the PA
system was going nowhere. They started in
one corner of the lot and moved to the other
because one PA blew up, setting up again
on the stage where the intermission band
would play, then switched back to the old
corner and a new PA with sound quality like
a Mr. Microphone. If you wanted to hear the
announcing you had to be within 30 feet,
and there the sound was still no more than
strangled.
The ams were broken into heats of 15 and
got going with two 45 second runs each,
some going as long as two minutes as the
PA was still on-again-off-again throughout
the event, with plans for a final run of eight
at the end. Sacto-local Ricky Windsor took
to the lot with assorted variation hazards
and handplants in the curb graveyard and
other smooth, innovative moves that left him
with what Quimby would later say was the
best run of the day, pro or am. A pulled groin
muscle kept him from skating his second
run, but this didn't stop him from snatching
first place. Eric Dressen and Julian Stranger
from Dogtown adapted their wide variety of
wall tricks to the side of the car, wall walks
and general 90° transition madness, placing
them second and fourth respectively. Rotor
pulled off one of the sloppiest but most im-
pressive tricks of the day with his ollie kickflip
to rail, staying on and placing sixth. Eric
Zepeda started his routine with the "manu-
facturer's-delight," a fakie blunt drop off of
the nine foot trailer to the side of the course.
His board didn't break, but kids will no doubt
be inspired by the "radicalness" of this trick
and soon be looking for their own replace-
ments.
Underneath Zepeda's trailer, in the feeble
sanctuary of 6 inches of shade, sat Gonzo,
sneezing and showering a bloody spray into
the air. It was hay fever time, the air was full
of floating agony. All day long the question
returned: Why the middle of the nowhere,
with no shade, no facilities, no escape? Last
year's Go Skate/Tower Books street style
was held in a mall parking lot, where anyone
could haphazardly run across the spectacle
and either stay to watch or get out of the
way. Thinking of last year's event brings the
assumtion that the promoters ran into com-
plaints from fellow mall-businesses about
the tons of glass and garbage left over and
the endless stream of skaters going in and
out of their doors all day. But still, with better.
planning, some kind of compromise could
have been reached between a busy parking
lot and an isolated slab in the middle of
nowhere. The question of liability obviously
arises. Who wants to take a chance these
days when millions are being sued for
millions because someone ddiscovers a
chink in their insurance armor and cashes
in? If the organizers of this contest were that
worried about being sued would they have
left razor sharp glass in the car's windshield
where tendon slashing potential on high
speed maneuvers was so probable? Maybe
they weren't as worried about liability as with
problems like disturbing the neighborhood
tranquility by inviting thousands of wild kids
who, in turn, invite the angry forces in blue
to try and calm things down, placing the
blame on the promoter. It's not that no one
wants to see skateboarding, it's just that no
one wants to see the ugly energy that follows
it. Rather than risk the chance of defaming
Giving himself a hand, and earning a well-deserved
one from the crowd and judges, Nell Blender beats
a hasty retreat off a hot hood.
business by linking it to a potential disaster,
the contest was set in the a desert, to rage
alone and offend only its self-chosen par-
ticipants.
About 30 pros took to the course around
three o'clock, cutting off the finals run for
the top eight amateurs. In the top eight:
Johnee Kop was smooth with a number of
interesting moves, including baton-twirls and
general "dance with a broom" tricks. His
grovelling belly twists with board balancing
on his feet showed some important spon-
taneous originality. An almost identical rou-
tine every time, however, took away from the
freshness of these maneuvers the third time
around. He placed 8th. Jesse Martinez, ig-
noring all friends and foes, impressed the
fatigued crowd with "Ick flips" and other ag-
gressive, street-inspired riding, landing 7th
place. Hosol, naturally flew everywhere. He
got away with 360 airs and method airs,
carved smooth g-turns and slid handouts on
the frying pan surface of the hood, getting
away with sixth place. Jeff Kendall, looking
as fresh as if he'd just gotten out of the
shower, woke everyone with Ho-ho plants
(handplant-balancing the board on feet
while switching arms mid-stall), Japan airs,
and more inverts than you can name, scoring
to fifth place. Neil Blender took my vote with
an amazing approach only he could come
up with. He sallied fourth with a push-the-
board-along- undescribable accelerating-
slide maneuver, extremely high-speed rock
'n slides over the pyramid curb, handouts on
the car and a varíal invert from the transition
of one wave ramp the to next. Natas Kaupas,
who won last year's event as an amateur,
placed third, probably losing only on account
of excess bailing. With a non-stop approach
he pulled off a frontside 360° judo air, ollied
up onto the Charger hood and rode off, "Nol-
lies" (fakie ollie to tail), an incredible R 'n R
60
Christain Hosol sequential method flight
off a transitional pyramid.