DAYTON
and several bank-type slant ramps pushed
together. A launch ramp dominated the
center of the course, and a black and white
statue of a cow iced the cake. Pros and ams
agreed that this was one of the best street
contest/demo set-ups they'd seen.
After the amateurs warmed up the crowd
of around 1,500 got a chance to see some
of skateboarding's best talent in action. Jinx
was smacking ollies to rail slides from the
quarter ramp to the curb and onto the
ground. The unassuming and amicable
Dan Wilkes chose to power backside grinds
on that particular curb. Martinez and
Kendall were blasting big methods off the
launch ramp. Sam Cunningham, on only his
second trip outside of California, shredded
to impress with smooth confident lines, lots
of lip hangers and big ollies over benches.
Speaking of ollies, Natas' ollie antics left the
entire crowd picking their jaws up off the
ground. Mr. Kaupas was hitting fakie 180°
ollies over the foot-and-a-half high bench,
ollie kickflips to rail slides, ollie kickflips over
chairs, one-footed rail slides up the curb to
the platform of the quarter ramp, and even
an ollie over five boards using Taters' long-
board. The crowd stunner of the day,
though, was when he rode up to the cow
statue, nearly three feet high, and popped
over it with inches to spare. The place went
nutzo.
Another surprise was the street-skating
ability of Tony Hawk. Having never heard
of his street abilities nor seen him street
skate, more than a few people were quite
impressed. Hawk had an extensive reper-
toire of excellent street tricks, including
massively high ollie airs off the launch..
Bill Ruff was all over the course, hitting
everything with high speed flair. Rocco, one
of the nicest guys in skating, was hitting ollie
Left: Fifth place
Ricky Winsor rocks
a rallslide on a lengthy curb. Above: The
"Dudely Duo," Olson and Hackett, stunning
the crowd with their foolish cowboy antics.
airwalks, ollie to nose-picks and almost nail-
ing some 360°-ollies, which went largely
unappreciated by the crowd who were con-
tent to concentrate on the launch ramp.
Hateful Bill Danforth was king of the bone-
up and blunt maneuvers in his typical
shirtless fashion.
Hackett and Olson performed a stylish
synchronized doubles routine to some
down-home country and western music in
full western gear, complete with ever-
present cowboy hats. At one point, when the
P.A. dropped dead, Hackett put the mike
down and jumped into a pedestrian
(skateless) routine that had 'em in stiches.
The amateur contest revealed that much
talent lives east of the Mississippi and
proved that many skaters from this part of
the country are equal to skaters on either.
coast. The judges' table boasted an all-star
cast; head NSA judge Brian Ridgeway,
Marty Jimenez, Gary Davis, Skatemaster
Tate and Skull Skates' Johnny Ray. Each
amateur was supposed to get two 45
second runs, with a cut to 16, another run,
a cut to eight and one final run for the top
eight before final rankings would be made.
Unfortunately, with 45 amateurs entered,
the first runs took too long, so, mid-contest,
Jyme and the judges decided to make the
cut after the first batch of runs. A lot of
grumbles were heard throughout the
amateur ranks. After a lot of good runs and
much confusion, the final eight skated one
more time.
Eighth Paul Schneider: Consistent well-
rounded runs highlighted by 360° airs off
the launch.
Seventh- Jesse Neuhaus: Yow! Watch out
for this kid. He's 14, from Chicago, and he
rips. He hit consistent ollies, ollie kickflips,
360° airs, scissor kicked airs, lien-to-tails,
and launches onto the wall combined with
smooth, speedy runs.
Sixth - Brian Mank: Holy Toledo is where
Mank hails from. This great vertical rider
chewed it up with big airs, wall rides, bench
slides and high speed ollies onto benches.
Fifth-Ricky Winsor: Ricky flew in from Cal.
with the Alva team to show the Midwest the
meaning of "at speed." Everything he did
was fast-like frontside wall rides, backside
bench slides, ollie to cow slides and nice
airs.
Fourth-Kelly Rosecrans: Another hot teen
from California who had high ollies, big
tweaked airs, bench slides, consistent and
nearly bail-less runs. A bad attitude might
have kept him from placing higher.
Third Bill Tocco: This Michigan resident
I was just plain hot with speed, style and
rarely a bail. He hit some fakie wall rides
on the wall ramp, hefty airs and long slides
off the benches.
Second- Jeff Hartsell: Another Alva import,
Hartsell didn't try to blow the crowd away
with any mind altering tricks-he just skated
hard, fast and clean and made his moves.
Nice methods, Gray slide on the quarter,
varial to tail on the cow, high jump from the
quarter to a railslide on the curb slanted to
the ground.
First-Mike Vallely: RAD, RAD, RAD! huge
ollies from the back of the launch onto the
ramp, an invert from the eight-foot high rail-
ing onto the ground, ho-ho board walk the
length of the platform, 360° airs, an
extremely extended air walk (board in both
hands above head, feet pointed straight
down and then-Axe Murderer? Lumber-
jack? The Axe?). This really quiet kid had
the crowd and judges drooling, and he
walked away with a brand new Burton
Snowboard for his efforts. It's even harder
to believe that this guy has only been
skating for two years-talk about natural
ability.
The bottom eight of the top 16 included:
Marc Erickson, Mark Heintzman, Randy
Gawlik, Chuck Dinkins, Jason Brown, Rod
Smith, Rob Dyrdek and Terry Aldrich.
Product giveaways via a loose raffle run
by Olson immediately followed the awards
session. Greedy, sticker-hungry, pre-
pubescent brats roamed freely amid the
chaos, stripping every pro or am clean of
everything save clothing.
Saturday night saw most of the contest
and demo participants at a local country
club where Jyme had booked three bands:
the local Highwaymen, Chicago's UNGH!
and Ohio's Necros.
A lot of credit has to be given to Surf Ohio
owner Jyme George and his gnarly-rad-cool
skate parents who put up everything, put
up with everybody and helped pull it off.
Surf Ohio and the Sweetheart Skate
helped cure the winter blues for many
winter-weary Midwest and East Coast skate
junkies. The recurring wet skate dreams
have stopped and spring doesn't look so far
away anymore.