Caballero-360" fast-plant to a first
place in the bowl riding avent,
Pavilion to capacity. Not many people real-
ly knew what to expect, and the unexpected
is what they were gonna get.
When the sawdust finally settled about
the ramp, though the fact that Tony Hawk
skated into first came as no surprise to
anyone. In the backs of many people's
minds, they probably figured it would be
Tony for sure, if not Christ or Caballero.
These three have taken skateboarding and
refined it. Chris Miller, although not one of
the big, multi-named-trick practitioners, was
giving a whole different face to the session-
ing; with his big drawn-out airs and high-
speed lines. He would even do a frontside
air and, upon re-entry, grind only the front
truck on the metal coping before descen-
ding back down the wall. McGill, known for
his constant practicing and professional ap-
proach, executed near flawless runs. Roun-
ding out the finals were Lance Mountain,
Lester Kasai and Claus Grabke. Claus, who
is from Germany, was the only finalist not
from the United States. He was so fired up
from making it to the top cut that during his
last run, he tried to do a McTwist, something
he had never done before. He didn't make
the trick, but he did make the finals and an
eighth place spot.
On Caballero's last run, he dismounted
on the roll-out deck, and in a gesture of pure
elation after completing an excellent run, he
raised his board above his head and slamm-
ed it to the pavement below.
Taking that gesture as a cue, a legion of
over-revved skate fans broke through the
elite security, sprinted roughly twenty yards
to the ramp and dove upon the board, caus-
ing some big havoc. So much havoc, in fact,
that hardly anyone, even the judges, saw
Christian Hosoi's final run. At the end of the
contest, the kids rushed the security guards
to get all the boards and stickers being
thrown out (that we weren't allowed to throw
out, but we were throwing out anyway).
The hysteria spread over to a nearby
grassy hill, where later it was reported that
a security guard got a broken leg trying to
stop the seemingly dangerous fun. After the
ruckus subsided, the winners were an-
nounced. It was Tony Hawk first, Christian-
Hosoi second and Steve Cabellero third.
SLALOM (INSURANCE SALESMAN
WINS BIG)
A slalom event was held in a very out-of-
the-way place on some back road of a col-
lege campus. It was an approximately
1-mile course, consisting of roughly 45
cones. The initial course was set up by
legendary pro slalom racer from the seven-
ties, Henry Hester, and later modified here
and there by the participants until it was just
right. For a slalom run, it was pretty wide.
The Pro event was dominated by another
slalom racing legend, Bob Skoldberg, who
is a thirty-four-year-old, balding insurance
salesman for Mutual of New York. He clock-
ed in with a sizzling 40.65 seconds.
An amazing run by Jose DeMatos in the
Amateur event was more than the pros
could believe. DeMatos beat Skoldberg's
40.65 with a speedy time of 39.12 seconds.
Henry Hester was heard muttering on the
sidelines that back in the heydays of slalom,
Jose would've blown every known pro off
the streets. In short, DeMatos was more
than incredible on the slalom course.
BOWL COMPETITION
The Skatepark of Vancouver bowl was bit-
chin. Actually, it's more than a bowl; it's a
snake run that ends up in a bowl. I wasn't
going to enter because I hadn't skated it
before the day of the contest, but I entered
anyway. David Hackett was ripping it up
hard, the way it should be ridden, with gnar-
ly power slides over the hips. Just total blaz-
ing. That was during practice. In the contest,
though, he bummed me out because he
tried to skate it like everybody else. He tried
to do street airs out of the bowl because
almost everyone else was launching out of
the bowl. He could've won, as far as I'm
concerned.
The lines you could draw in this bowl were
endless. Starting with the little half-pipe at
the top of the run, you could do all kinds of
slides-tail-slides, reverts, lip-slides, etc.-
then take it down through the snake run, air
off of one hip, another off the next, and carve
the whole bowl at the end. The bowl was rad
for lip-slides and everything.
Christian Hosoi showed up at the last
minute, part way into the qualifying heats,
took one practice run and ended up quali-
fying third or fourth. He carved around real
smooth and stuck his chest out. He was
bitchin'
Tony Hawk, though not an avid practi-
tioner of this sort of terrain, was himself sur-
prised when he ended up qualifying, then
going on to claim the second place spot
behind Caballero, who swooped first.
As for Caballero, he might as well have
owned the place because he skated it like
he did. He was pulling off slides that were
added onto already difficult slide maneuvers
and finishing 'em off with slides that weren't
even meant to be. He flowed all over the
place, as if he'd been skating this run every
day for the past ten years.
Lester Kasai, who landed a solid third
place, was blasting what may have been the
highest airs out of the bowl. Christian, with
his modest, closely calculated runs,
Henry Gutierrez, top vertical
amatour.
secured a tight fourth place, followed by
Chris Miller, who, in practice, had the total
speed lines off of each hip and then BOOM.
out of the end ten feet up, twenty-five feet
out and landing 'em. But in the finals he just
couldn't get a handle on his lines, as if he
were all out of gas. After Miller came McGill,
Grabke and Joe Johnson.
The Amateur Bowl Riding was
highlighted by first place winner Adrian De-
main of the U.S. He knew how to operate
under the conditions, and was well reward-
ed for it. Carlos Longo from Portugal was no
slouch, either. He worked the bowl with
some impressive lip tricks and booster
boneless-ones, which landed him in second
place, followed by American Gary Sander-
son, Canadian Colin Ruloff and American
Buck Smith.
Continued on Pp. 14
59