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AUSTRALIAN RULES
All shops, theatres, clubs, banks, restaurants and retail businesses shut down
at the mere sniff of a holiday. We happened onto four big ones: Good Friday,
Saturday, Easter Sunday, and Easter Monday.
Hooley Dooley
Back at the Torquay ramp, Tony Hawk was just finishing a warm-up ride,
and, being Tony Hawk, had already thrown himself into a McTwist to test
the performance potential of the half-pipe. An approving roar errupted from
the kids piled around the ramp and perched on the roof of Piping Hot, eagerly
anticipating the noon demo. The crowd, seemingly awestruck by the skating.
settled into spontaneous outbursts for big maneuvers and loud but polite
applause as each skater finished a run.
Pressed into announcing duties on short notice, local cut-up Matt Wilson
taunted, vibed and busted up all with commentary.
Hooley Dooley, this is more fun than dancing with Dolly Parton." "This
is more fun than opening Christmas presents."
Mark Gonzales bounded around the ramp with the same looseness he
displays on the street and surprised many as he traded licks with the vert
ical masters. Hawk could do no wrong, even if he chose to just cruise the
lip, which he did with incredible edgework between high ollie tail grabs,
boundless aerials and every varial. Lee Ralph committed to some hard and
lien lines. His Kiwi skate chum, Gregor Rankin, came out and sessioned
in top form after being on and off the board for the last two years.
Christian walked onto the roll-out deck, took his customary late warm-
up swings and then began launching fully-loaded aerials as high as I've
ever seen him fly: frontside, backside or stateside. Ten feet over the lip
Christian was giving weather reports as he looked out over the nearby land-
scape of bush and eucalyptus trees. The crowd seemed content to watch
and learn from Mark Rogowski's smooth mastery of technique as he sliced
50/50 grinds back and forth across the lips, then launched into a fastplant
here and a McTwist there. Roskopp powered with approval. Inverts were
being stalled and held by skaters waiting on deck. Lance and Steadham
Left: Steadham on skins, pounding out some steam after a session at the
Woodstock ramp near Brisbane. Right: Tony Hawk wheels his road gear out
of customs clearance without difficulty.
0
went over and under each other in a frantic doubles display that brewed
out of a snake session toward the end of the first demo. Boards were flying
and Losi was blazing saddles until he locked a tail slide and wiped the ramp
with his face. Steadham's board nicked a kid hanging on the fence at ramp-
side, finally drawing attention to the dangers of a launched board missile
at a crowded venue.
During a breather, the visiting skate stars retired to the office lounge of
the Rip Curl shop. The scene on the retail floor was not unlike a Saturday
at K-mart (which are abundant in this part of the world). The only thing
lacking was shopping carts.
The next demo raged on into the afternoon under partly cloudy conditions
and wind whipped airspace. After the froth churned up by the Torquay
ramp demo subsided, a session down the road at the Geelong Council skate
facility commenced with full participation by our cast and crew. The locals
never give any of these public, graffiti-sprayed facilities a good review,
probably because they've skated them for the last eight years, but the round.
non-vertical keyhole and a large square trough with round corners and nicely
curved transitions sem skaters carving and slashing about in every direction.
Follow-the-leader and near misses were the game. Lee Ralph opted to ride
barefoot so he wouldn't get too out of hand, but ended up doing everything.
everywhere, anyway. The guy is a skate animal, as near as they come.
Soon there were thirty or more skaters charging for runs in a mad, fun
session that lasted into the waning light of sunset. Our first full skate day
wasn't over until we had retired to a downtown Melbourne hotel suite and
enjoyed a long night of street skating.
Street Life
Street skating in Australia is different for the simple reason that you just
don't see a lot of it being done. Not once did we see any gang of skaters
other than our own as we prowled the downtown streets of Melbourne.
Nowhere is there such a variety of surfaces and textures. Wall-to-wall asphalt
and floor-to-sky cement covered all. The old architecture mixed with the
new created a distinctly European feel. Melbourne is a lively city with a
lot of hooting out of car windows, whistles, cat calls and carousing. The
unfamiliar flow of traffic (remember everyone's driving the wrong way).
keeps the foreign skater on his toes. You learn quickly to check for traffic
and, thinking A.O.K.. step off the curb into the path of a double decker
bus bearing down on your behind.
Travelogue
Saturday morning, April 19, knocked with a wake-up call at 0800 hours
from the Hill brothers and a reminder of a 10:00 am demo in downtown
Melbourne. This touched off a four-day schedule of gruel and good times
that would eventually relocate at base camps in Brisbane and Sydney for
two more tour stops and a blow-after-blow schedule of action, blondes,
beaches and bad room-service.
10:30
am
Our groggy entourage was fully jolted awake by thousands of spectators
gathered around a rickety demo ramp in the city square. For two hours
the skate fans were treated to a showcase of ramp antics set against a backdrop
of tall buildings and statuesque cathedral spires. Spectators had been sum-
moned by the frequent radio ads that blared throughout the prior week.
Many watched from perches around the plaza, including a large waterfall
fountain next to the ramp that served as a bleacher. Innocent passers-by
were swept in to watch. After Tony Hawk made a delicate McTwist on the
shaky, 12-foot-wide ramp I saw one lady standing across the street frantically
spinning her hand in a descriptive gesture to her mate. Peter Hill, Gonz
and I took turns describing the maneuvers over a soundtrack that was already
taxing the P.A. system. Despite the fact that the crew was concentrating
more on surviving the ramp than on a full-out assault, blazing skating was
done and seen by all.
12:30 pm
An autograph session at the Surf Dive and Ski shop two blocks from
the demo site had crowds of skate-kids spilling into the busy street traffic
while an unsuspecting business community looked on in horror. The
McDonalds across the street was overwhelmed when a swarm followed
Christian and Gator into the eatery.
2:30 pm
Cast and crew regrouped at Rob Regginato's house on the outskirts of
Melbourne for a relaxing wind-down on the halfpipe in Rob's backyard.
This was the only session where the visiting skaters were able to mix it
up with the locals, and one of the few times the Hill bros.. Stephen, Peter
and Matt, were able to take time off from their hectic (Continued on page 63)
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