HEAVY
METAL
Two Hours Later
"Don't go into
downtown. Get off the
highway and call that guy
Rudy at the skate shop."
"The number you have
reached has been discon-
nected and there is no new
number" "Crap. Now what?" "I
don't know about you, but I'm
gonna sleep." "Why don't we go straight to Virginia Beach,.
Trashmore? There have to be people there."
Five Hours Later
"Made it! Time to relax the hounds." "There's no one here."
"Bitch'n." "Let's go to 7-11 and make a phone call." "Swa? is
that you? What's going on?" "Steve Douglas is in town, he's stay-
ing at Jon Fudala's. Everyone had a big session today." "Thanks,
you're a bro." "I'm going to call Slug. Yea, Slug, come by
and get us. We're clue-less."
Ten Minutes Later
"Hi, ya, boys.
Missed a ripping session. Oh, my God, Mike
Cresini is the Ruler, King of the Mount." "Have
you seen Mike Conroy?" "Oh, yeah. Was there
today. Rippin' well. And Sergio was blazin' too." "Let's
go. We're sleepin' at Jon's house. And we're going
to a party at Eddie's." "Cool."
There are a lot of people at Crazy Eddie's Party
Palace. Punk-chicks, punk music, girls, dancing, wine
and foosball...Party, party, party, party..."Let's go,
so we can get up early and skate." "Yea." "Right."
"Keno and I have been driving and flying all day; we
need a lot of sleep." Sleep, sleep, and more sleep.
"Wake up. You guys sleep forever. It's one o'clock."
"That's Hollywood." "Shut up, Spidey." "Breakfast
is my middle name." "First stop at a super market,
and then the ramp."
'Who are those guys?" "They're the Guttierez
brothers. He's one of them. That guy blazes."
"Waah, man." Alley-oop the whole ramp six feet
plus at 60 mph. Drop in. The ramp is slick. Killer.
Slugless 360° hurricanes to frontside, rocks.
Cresini is the Lord, Saran-wrap to Indy-flips.
"What Smith-backs, lay-backs, Smith-grinds,
clearing the whole wall." "Sergio,... he's Christ-
like. 'Fly, baby-Jesus." Fly overhead." Jap-flap, lien
to tail, Madonna, smack! "No way! He learned
disaster. Smith-grinds, and ollie-lipslides, "Cool."
"Serge, ya rippin' ol' bean." "Hey! Mike Conroy. I've
heard about you." "Crack!" "Conroy, you gonna snap
a rib with those back-scratcher inverts, alley-oops, ollies
with no care at all." "Hot session boys. See you at the
party."
Same Night-Later
"Sleep. Oh, sleep. I'm into sleep." "Tomorrow we'll
go skate Red Wing. It's a small ramp owned by the
city." "How tall is it?" "Eight feet and no vert, but
it has steel coping. You'll like it. Good for lip tricks."
"Killer" Sleep. Zzzzzzzzz... Get up and off to
Red Wing. Drive, drive, drive...This ramp is in a
little Japanese garden. Before you skate, you have
to pay a dollar for a life-time membership. "That's
cool." "How is it, Steve?" "Rips." "Come on up.
We'll have a warm-up before Trashmore." Slap rock,
slap-grind. "It rips." Slug hurricane's everywhere.
Frontside, punk-rocks, fakie ollies, and all. "Oh, well.
Above: Getting ready to untle
himself, VA Beach loke, Mike
Conroy, after a near helmet-
tapping invert. Opposite page:
Stylin', smilin', Sergio Ventura,
launched and liened at OC
Get in the car. We're gonna leave." "Where we going?" "Witch-duck
ramp." "What's it like?" "Big. Twenty-four feet wide, eight feet high, PVC
coping, and plywood." "Why is it called Witch-duck?" "Seems a long
time ago, during the witch hunts, the settlers had these witch trials. They
used to put witches on the lake and if they sank they weren't a witch,
but if they lived...Anyway, that's where they buried all the witches.
Place's haunted." "Oh, great!" "Yea, they're buried at the ramp-site.
The ramp's illegal. Be quiet 'til we get there. Keep it cool. It's in a forest."
"Radical."
Douglas is rip'n, swivel-hips to fakies, tail-taps, and raging Smith-
grinds. "Ollie the whole ramp, Spidey." Backside ollies. "All right!" "Hey,
Keno, take a cruise. This is the best thing I've ridden on the trip so far."
"It's getting dark." "Yup. Slap a few rocks, and then leave."
"I'm gonna eat and sleep." After a short pinball session Sergie,
Slugless, and the boys meet at Jon Fudala's house to plan the trip ahead.
First go to Ocean City, Maryland, the metal ramp-Ocean Bowl. "That's
where there are two skate parks, and the Hell Ramp. Then to Virginia
Beach, and home." "Get your stuff packed. We leave about 1:00 pm
tomorrow." "Who's going?" "Sergio, Keno, Slugless, Mike Conroy, and
1. Later. See ya tomorrow." Sleep...at last....
"Ah, yes, another bright and early start at 1:00 pm." The tank is filled,
and off we go for Ocean City.
Driving Along the Toll Bridge
"That's $9.00, please." "Here. Why so much?" "The road saves a
lot of time. It crosses the Chesapeake Bay and is over 20 miles long."
The rest of the explanation comes later, as we cross the bridge. "What's
that ahead? Looks like a tunnel." And under the bay we go, while the
ships sail overhead. Daylight. We look back while K. sways the car back
and forth and Keno gets pale. Keno is having visions of white pointers
buffeting the tunnel, trying to eat their way in. He's always thinking of
sharks.
Two and One Half Hours Later
"Look, the end of the bridge." "Hey, isn't that the beach where they
filmed Jaws?" "Oh, shut up." But we are all glad to cruise along on
ye ol' Mother Earth." "Wait a minute! There are two Ocean City's on
the map. One in Maryland and another in Jersey." "I know it has to be
this one."
Enter Ocean City
"There's the boardwalk. Stop!" "I see Pro-Tech. Turn here." "Kool."
"Made it. We could've driven to the wrong Ocean City." This ramp is
huge, and, whoo...it's metal, too. "Let's skate it." "Naaah." "I'm gonna
ride the Ocean Bowl Run." A little banked bowl area with a hip to hop.
"Wait, we have to sign the release forms, and pay $7.00." (Lame) Well,
that ramp is 24 feet wide, 10 feet tall, 1% feet of vert, steel surfaces and
steel coping. Rippin' ramp. "Hi, I'm Patti. I run the park. The park closes
at 7:00, or when it gets dark. Have fun."
Next Morning
We arrive at Atlantic Skates and get some help on directions to get
to Baltimore. "Thanks for the directions, Josh." "See you at the ramp."
"Who was that?" "That's Josh Marlowe, a local skate-person. He said
there's a big session happening at the O.C. ramp today." "Who is that,
dude? Check it. He's rip'n. Look at the tuck-knee and handplants." "Him?
That's Josh Marlowe." "And that one? Watch those laybacks and tail
slides. What's his name?" "They call him Planters." "He's hell." "Give
me the names of the locals." "Mike Bowden." "Oh yeah, I saw him earlier
today. Rip'n." "Bob Noonan, another Hell-Master. Boomer, Eric Planters,
yeah." "He had wrist guards made of plaster?" Today was a cool ses-
sion. "Yep, all those guys were just hell-make or break type skating."
"Sergie was ripping the backside." Disaster; Conroy one-footed inverts.
Marlowe Indy airs, Planter's reverse iceplants. Everyone blazin'. Then
It started to rain. "Let's go to Baltimore." "Yeah. Let's go while there's
still daylight." "Sounds good." "Now, where are the keys?" "Sergie has
them. Toss 'em this way."
Four Hours Later
"Man, it's dark now. Wait. Here's the street we're supposed to turn
on. Stop. Put on the brights. You almost drove us into the ocean!" "Okay,
Keno, cool it and go back. I think it's the other street." There's the Hell
Ramp. That has to be it. "Rudy-boy said it was by a bar on the water.
front." "I see the docks over there." "There's a ramp, too. It's too big
to ride." "It is hell." It looks over vert on one wall. "How high do you
think it is?" "Looks about 12 feet tall, with 2% feet of vert." "Hi there,
can I help you? I'm the owner of this ramp. My name is Eddie Hicks.
Hey, we've been expecting you guys. The rest of the boys are supposed
to meet at a gig downtown." "Who's playing?" "Big Audio Dynamite."
One Hour Later
At the bar: Sergie and Mike Con-
roy get to go with the "over 21"
crowd. Music, liquor, girls in tight
clothing, tummy-rubs, dancing...
Sleep...
Morning In Downtown Baltimore
"Man, it looks like this is the place
where they got the idea for the street
on Sesame Street."
At The Ramp
"Well, we only skated for a little
bit, then it started to rain. We'll hang
out." "We'll call Rudy, then we can skate the parks tomorrow."
The Next Day
Rudy and the boys take off to Landsdowne, one of the first skate parks
built, according to Rudy-boy. Landsdowne is in a really bad area. The
park is public. No papers to sign, no fees, just skate. Two banked runs
with moguls and some "S" turns with hips that feed into a bowl area.
These in turn feed into a reservoir with moguls. Rudy has all the lines
down. Keno tears with all the speed and 360° tail spins. Bert reverts
barking slides. For Sergio it's totally foreign to him. And there are token
BMX kids rolling around. Then, because of rain, we leave.
"Oh, well, we can sit around the local skate shop, and watch the
videos." The rain stops. "Let's go to the park and skate." "We gotta
start heading home soon."
"Now what is this?" "It looks like a junkyard." "This place is called
the Concrete Curl." "Believe it or not, it opened up after Cherry Hill.
It was built by some cheapskates who thought they'd make a quick buck.
But after the first couple of months the park failed."
After hours of speed runs, slides and carving, Keno and the crew go
back to Rudy's. He shows us the highway to take to Virginia Beach,
and finally home.
Well, it was a long trip. We saw a lot of faces, rain, ripping, skating.
surprises and good times.
69