"did tricks that he can't do and made them." Mike
Vallely, from New Jersey, blew minds with his state
of the art streetstyle. This guy will make you glad
to say that you are a street skater. His street plants
and wall walks have to be witnessed first hand. An
interesting new qualifying format had three skaters
on the course at once for 2 minutes and 25 seconds
while the judges would swivel from skater to skater
every 45 seconds. The skaters were supposed to
wear numbered bibs so the judges could tell who
was who and where was what. Some bibs either
didn't get worn or flew off the skaters mid-run.
Somehow the judges managed a tally for everyone
and after all 80 amateur streetsters had taken two i
runs each the field was cut to 12 for the finals.
Whew!
The lucky dozen all got one more run to
determine just exactly who was who. They ended
up in this particular order by the time the trophies
were given out: 1st-Mike Vallely, 2nd-Steve Saiz,
3rd-Jeff Hartsell, 4th-Marc Hostetter, 5th-Andy
Howell, 6th Jim Thiebau, 7th-John Chen, 8th-Dave
Duncan, 9th-Aaron Murray, 10th-Tod Swank, 11th-
Scott Lambright, 12th-Mike Proshenko.
A break in the action shifted the focus of atten-
tion to the jump ramp behind the pavilion. Roving
gangs of autograph-seeking youth converged on
those they'd deemed worthy of getting ink from.
Christian was telling a small group of people why
someone had seen fit to point a gun in the direc-
tion of he and his father earlier in the week. They
Eddie Reategui and Mike Smith, still in wetsuits,
emerged from the line-up and asked when it would
be time to skate.
Soon enough it was that time and the pro's were
allowed on the arena for practice, creating confu-
sion, near collisions, collisions and general excite-
ment. For some reason, Rob Roskopp was not very
excited about an incident that had almost rendered
him lead singer of the Bee Gees. He left the area
holding his own and not looking at all well. Fifty-two
pro's and fifteen minutes later the NSA called all
concerned to the stand for a rider's meeting. The
matter addressed was whether to allow each pro
a run by himself and then cut to 12 for another run,
or to have three riders go at once and then cut to
12. The solitary man, Neil Blender, voted for the
three-man system but was outvoted 51-1. Neil's
comment: "At least it would make things in-
teresting." Fortunately, 1 run proved to be in-
teresting enough, even though it ran a bit long. As
the pros did their streetstyle thing, the security men
swung into full force-unfortunately they always
seem to swing in the wrong direction. For some
reason, men with guns at a skateboard contest
seem a little out of place to me, especially when they
tell the pro skaters to move back beyond a line that
they were supposed to be in front of in the first place.
An exercise in futility and not a very desirable job.
When the security got a little too hot with Beau
Brown, he let someone know about it and they
hastily established some new guidelines for crowd
control, namely mellowing it out a bit. I personally
think it was the four or five different colors of Zinc
Oxide that Beau had on his face that provoked the
Incident.
Anyway, when all was said and done, the follow-
ing 12 pros had made the cut. Natas, Cab, Johnee.
Kopp, Éric Dressen, Roskopp, Lucero, Bill Danforth,
Jeff Kendall, Mark Gonzales, Billy Ruff, Christian
Hosol and Tommy Guerrero. These 12 then had one
more run and proceeded to skate like there was no
tomorrow. Maybe there wouldn't be a tomorrow, I
didn't know. What I did know was that these guys
were shralping big-time. Natas was making Isaac
Newton roll over in his grave by continually defy-
ing the laws of gravity, not to mention the odds.
4render(render)vb. (ME. rendren OFr. rendre) 6. to
cause to be or become; make see PAIN.
Sisaac Newton-an English mathemetician and
astronomer, bom in 1642. Responsible for for-
mulating the laws of gravity and motion, see APPLE
Have you ollied up onto a picnic table at speed
lately? I didn't think so. Natas has. Unfortunately
the odds finally caught up with him on his last run
and a few untimely falls relegated him to a ninth
place finish, not an accurate reflection of the kind
of skating this guy is capable of. Rob Roskopp, mak
ing somewhat of a recovery from his groin injury,
skated into 10th place with his own brand of power
skating. Bill Danforth and John Lucero found
themselves in a tie for seventh after showing some
solid street skating in their final runs. Mr. Hate had
a higher score on his prelim and was awarded 7th.
Lucero had to settle for 8th. John Kopp and Eric
Dressen were looking good in the prel's but they
had trouble keeping their gluefoot in the finals. John
ended up in 11th, Eric in 12th. Rookie (sort of) pro,
Jeff Kendall, was mixing it up with a good variety
of street plants and ramp attacks. Read him into 6th
place.
Hot shoe, glue-footed street scoundrel from New
Jersey, Mike Vallely.
Mark Gonzales is a man with a lot on his mind,
as evidenced by the Tony Hawk t-shirt he wore with
the words "Drugs Suck" penned on the front. This
guy does tricks that are so hard you can't even
figure out why he does them. He refuses to play it
safe and get points, which is why, even though he
used Rocco as a props to ollie onto in his final run,
he ended up in 5th place, which is not an indica-
tion of how bio he really is.
In the midst of all the go-for-broke runs and sen-
sational trickery, there are always a few guys who
are consistently rad and do what most others can't,
which is to stay on, run after run. On this day, those
skaters happened to be Cab, Tommy. Christian, and
Billy Ruff. They've been there before and they will
no doubt be there again. They received 1st, 2nd,
3rd and 4th respectively. Billy's style is so smooth
his difficult trickery always gets overlooked. Christ
was his usual blasting self, full method launches and
ollified airs off everything. Tommy Guerrero was,
in Dave Duncan's now (in)famous phrase, "Getting
bio off the jump ramp." "Ollies to the moon," as
Tommy would say. Cab simply just stayed on and
ripped, vaulting the picnic table and smoothing out
360° aerials and streetplants over all obstacles.
prop (prap) n. (ME. proppe) 2. a person or thing
that gives support or aid to a person, institution, etc.
see ROCCO
Sunday Morning-I woke up. so far so good. I
preformed all of the necessary bodily functions and
headed off toward the contest, arriving at 10 a.m..
about 5 hours later than John Lucero. Why was
John there so early? Because he spent the night
there. What else can you do when your team is kick-
ed out of the hotel? John claims, "The pavilion was
a nice place to sleep, but I wouldn't want to skate
there."
Meanwhile, the 47 amateur freestylers were busy
practicing for their moment of glory or shame,
depending. Each skater got two 1½ minute runs
and then there was a cut to 10. These 10 skaters
then received another 1% minute run in which they
displayed all they had and then some. When push
came to shove, Victor Starr of Sure Grip found
himself in the number ten spot, Bali Sahata, an up-
and-coming mini-shred from Madrid, copped 9th
spot. Fabian Kravitz put in a very tight routine, thus
scoring eighth. Seventh place went to Gunther
Mokolip of West Germany, very impressive and ser-
ving further notice that the Euro-stylers are a force
to be reckoned with. In sixth place was Tom St. John
who improved on his qualifying spot a few notches.
5th place belonged to Tony Haworth of LA skates.
Fourth place went to yet another European, West
German, Frank Messman, whose wheelies into
shove-its and 360 helicopters earned high marks
from the judges. The third place card was dealt to
Andre Walton, who finished up his clean runs with
some tasty multiple 360°s. Second place was
reserved for Lynn Cooper, whose tight, well thought-
out runs made the judges take notice. Finishing in
the numero uno spot has a happy Sean Coons of
Sessions Skate shop, whose multiple tricks, clean
execution and smooth style tearned his bed self top
honors. Way to go, Sean.
There was a break in the action before the pro
freestyle and energy was soon focused on the park-
ing lot, where some of the streetstylers were at it
again. Gonzo was witnessed giving a few pointers
to a stoked Stacy Peralta on the fine art of street
ollies. Stacy seemed to understand, probably
because he's been skating longer than most of you
have been alive and certainly longer than he cares
to admit. His number one freestyler, Rodney Mullen,
was observed quietly going about the business of
warming up in the parking lot. I cornered him over
by the ice cream truck long enough to get a glimpse
of what was to come and no sooner had I caught
it than he was off to another part of the lot. A real
secret type of guy and he has every reason to be.
Now, if you've never been a big fan of freestyle
or had your shins pulverized from countless
previous attempts, watching these guys making it
look so easy will urge you to give it one more try.
Each pro freestyler took two 2 minute runs and then
a cut to ten was made. Those making the cut were
Kevin Harris, Rodney Mullen, Per Welinder, Don
Brown, Primo Desiderio, Reggie Barnes, Ray
Meyer, Bob Schmelzer, Shane Rouse and Jim
McCall. To explain how well all of these skaters did
would take up the rest of the magazine, so let's just
make it short and state for the record that these guys
are the definition of freestyle skateboarding. Each
was allowed one more 2 minute run and then the
final standings would be made known. When it was
all over the man who found himself in 10th spot was
Ray Meyer. Ray's one-wheeled G-turns are worthy
of special mention. Jim McCall came out from
Florida to let everyone know that he is still alive and
kick-flipping. He took the number 9 spot. In 8th place
was Primo, who looked like he skated a lot better
than is finish would indicate and many others seem-
ed to agree. England's Shane Rouse put in a great
effort and took home 7th place. Now, if he could
just get a tanSixth place honors were taken by the
Mountain(Dew)Man Bob Schmelzer, bob has been
keeping busy with a full schedule of demos but says
he'll be focusing on competition again soon. Fifth
place went to North Carolinia skater Reggie Barnes,
who combined strength moves with some flashy
footwork to earn a top spot. Don Brown put together
some excellent runs and surprised a lot of people
ՈՒՐ
FAREL
All judges and cameras are focused on Aaron Murray's slashing backside style.
(except himself) by finishing in fourth place. Look fically flawless. The tricks this guy does are pure
for more from Don in the near future.
The top three skaters on this day were nothing
short of magical. Per Welinder wound up in third,
skating as bio as ever. If you've never seen this guy
skate then you're missing out Per put in some
nearly flawless runs but the competition at the top
of the freestyle heap is brutal. Kevin Harris skated
his way into second spot with one of his smoothest
and well-executed performances to date..
Rodney Mullen is. well...so many things have
been written about him that I'm not even going to
bother. If you don't know about Rodney by now then
you probably can't read anyway. Basically he skated
"brutal (brool) adj. (ME. and Fr. brutalis) 2. very
harsh or rigorous. (A brutal contest)
this contest like he has every other contest, prac-
state of the art, I won't go through them all, but I
will say that he has developed an ollie air-walk that
will make your head spin. And to finish his whole
run off, how about 30 or so one-wheeled 360's?
Needles to say, Rodney won. Many are starting to
wonder if he is even from this planet
A special mention in the pro freestyle must go to
Matt Richards, who did his hilarious routine to the
song "Tequila," attired in a Pee Wee Herman style
suit. Entertaining to say the least.
As the pro freestylers collected their trophies and
cash, the whole event drew to a close. The big wigs
of the skate industry were off to Henry Hester's par-
ty, the skater's were on their way home and the
Marines were content with the fact that Oceanside
would once again be all theirs...until next year.
Billy Runaway
Caballero waits in the wings for another win.