Clockwise from right: Bob
Reeves powered to a second
place amateur finish. Jeff
Hedges, one-footed Andrecht
and first place amateur. Five
judges judging.
TREET
VISIO
STREE
VISIO
STREE
Narrator: Too quiet. These undercover dicks
knew that havoc could erupt at any moment.
Curiously enough, though, it seemed that
most skaters were a little contest weary and
perhaps getting bored with life on the road.
Saturday quickly evolved into Sunday
morning with no further disturbances except
for the damaging, all-hours practice sessions.
Final qualifying was scheduled to begin at
high noon.
Agent #1: Okay men, we're going in. Keep
your weapons concealed; don't use firepower
unless absolutely necessary. One false move
by any one of you guys could blow our cover.
Look for any excessive product and/or sticker
tossing and especially unruly autograph.
sessions.
Narrator: The spectators were riveted to their
plastic chairs by the time the long qualifying
rounds were over. The main strategy on the
part of the skaters was to make the top
15-man cut. The first five high scorers
automatically went into the final 10-man jam.
They were 5th - Rogowski, 4th - McGill, 3rd
-Hawk, 2nd Caballero and 1st - Mountain.
The 10-man hit squad that was left entered
into a 20-minute shoot-out with the judges for
the rights to a spot in that final jam. John (Tex)
Gibson, Rob (Barn) Roskopp, Tom (the Jersey
Devil) Groholski, 'Colorado' Joe Johnson,
Chris (Bone) Miller, Ken (Skate) Park, Monty
(Mr. Big) Nolder, Kevin (Blunt) Staab, Malba
and Christian (Love King) Hosoi attacked with
all the fire power they could muster, knowing
it was a do-or-die situation. Roskopp, who's
parents were on hand to watch him skate, fell
on a critical run, took a rebate after his final
gun but to no avail. Tex Gibson, shaken by the
news of Metallica's accident the day before,
dropped into his last attempt saying, "This
one's for Cliff, but couldn't stay on. Chris
Miller used a lot of ramp real estate at high
speed, but had to throw away some trick at-
tempts, costing him valuable points. Johnson
and Groholski were gunned down by the am-
mo of the other five skaters who advanced to
the final half hour jam.
Monty Nolder used a volley of power
moves, including the backside boneless
varial. Micke Alba didn't let the vertical exten-
sions bother him when launching high
backside airs off of them. He also blasted
lengthy alley-oop flights over the channel..
Ken Park was pulling contorted one-footed
Andrechts, flapped inverts and straight leg
ging frontside airs. A colorful Kevin Staab,
decked out in bright pink knee armor, made
extended invert stalls and early lien air
releases. At one point he even lapped a front-
side grind riding his board backwards. And
finally, Hosoi easily McTwisted and floated his
way into the jam.
In the final 30-minute showdown it was ob-
vious who had the most bullets left. Steve
(Cab) Caballero, Tony (Glue Foot) Hawk and
Christ pulled fully loaded weapons out of their
violin cases and proceeded to spray the ramp
surface and the air space above the lip with
several rounds of the most advanced skating
to date. Hosoi flowed super smooth with max-
imum height on everything. Hawk went into
a series of three back to back McTwists that
had people ducking for cover. (An unidentified
source said Tony pulled six in a row during
practice.) Caballero was his usual explosive
self, having saved his highest airs and one-
foot-off hand-on-head variations for when
Mark Rogowski, high
to low grind off.
they would be the most damaging.
The awards ceremony told the final story
with Hawk, Cab and Hosoi, respectively,
stealing the top three spots. Lance (Mugsy)
Mountain lost a little steam toward jam's end
but still managed to snag fourth. Mike
(McTwist) McGill was in fine form, nailing most
of his tricks, but had to settle for fifth. Monty
Nolder killed 6th place but deserved higher.
"He's never skated better," observed Craig
(Wild Man) Johnson. Others agreed, each
time he launched his backside no-footed walk
of death aerial or smiled at the crowd during
an eye contact backside boneless. Also
skating some of his best stuff and deserving
better was Mark (Gator) Rogowski, who flash-
ed into seventh. K. Park fast planted into 8th,
Malba blasted to ninth and a bruised but
tough Staab-man stuck it out for 10th place.
Agent #1: Men, these pro skate bosses may
have cut down a bit on their law-breaking.
shenanigans and blatant abuse of NSA rules,
but the skating is the most volatile yet.
Captain, look out for that flying board!
Whap!
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