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Joe Johnson leans a full-tilt frontside air back into the ramp. showcasing
his vastly improved power approach.
and even a shaky and beat-up Danforth
model from a kid in the crowd. He had left
his equipment elsewhere thinking the con-
test was cancelled. His two runs were
remarkably good considering the cir-
cumstances. Neil Blender had two really
intense prelim runs, pulling some
remarkably unique but underappreciated
stuff. He wowed peers and the crowd with
a mega contorto stallacious invert, Gray
slide, indy air to nose picker and some other
nameless Blenderesque type tricks..
Everyone was impressed, save the judges.
Returned from the skating dead, Eddie
Elguera also wowed a lot of people, even
pulling off a backside tail slide/grind to
revert, you know, fakie re-entry. Yikes!
Finally, the scores were tabulated and the
finalists were chosen: Monty Nolder, Craig,
Johnson, Rob Roskopp, Micke Alba, Jason
Jesse, Mike McGill, Joe Johnson, Mark
Rogowski, Ken Park, Tony Magnusson,
Chris Miller, Steve Caballero, Lance
STREET
WEAR
Mountain, Tony Hawk and Christian Hosoi.
The first of two jams were from numbers
6 through 15 of the top placers. The top five
qualifing scorers automatically went to the
final jam, joining the top five scorers from
the first jam in the finals for the top 10 spots.
You had to be there, really.
Although he didn't get to ride in the jam,
English skater Danny Webster's prelim
score was high enough to give him 16th
place and a hundred bucks.
Mark "Gator" Rogowski wound up in the
15th spot, hitting 360° airs, fastplants,
disasters and cess slides to backside
grinds.
Lacking his usual intensity, Ken Park
made his tricks but didn't quite have the
energy he's known for. His one-footed
Andrechts still kicked butt. Park took 14th
and $200.
Swooping down from six feet out to
smack his tail on the coping, Rob Roskopp
throws the definitive body jars. His rail
slides, 360° airs and burly thrusters also
helped him get 13th and $250.
Micke Alba, finding himself in the top 15
again, pulled together some intense runs
which showed off high airs, frigids,
sweepers, ally oops, bonelesses from either
side and 180° slide on the flat to score 12th
place and $300.
Jason Jesse was the only rookie pro to
make the cut and he impressed crowd and
judges alike with a good dose of the stan-
dard tricks, tear-jerking sadplants and his
especially perplexing ally oop Madonnas.
Jason got 11th and $350.
Completely abusing the metal coping,
Monty Nolder hit some painfully loud lien-
to-tails, pogos and long grinds. Some really
big air walks, fast plants, backside disasters
and huge backside bonelesses rounded out
his runs to give him an underappreciated
10th and $450.
The award for the gnarliest facials goes
to Craig Johnson, who skated with more
intensity than anyone else. He was just
going for everything-big air, sweepers,
bonelesses, fast plants, frontside ollies and,
of course, Texas foot plants. Craig nabbed
9th and $550.
"Joe Johnson improved about 1000%
from last contest," said Chris Miller of Joe's
fluid runs and ability to stay on the board.
Joe did stay on and ripped, making indy air
fingerflips, stalled Andrechts, cess slides,
Gray slides, a blunt and even a McTwist. He
was awarded 8th and $600.
Mike McGill put in the same, consistent
yet tedious runs he always does, concen-
trating on the high part of the ramp. He did
get a McTwist in every run, with a double
in the final, and hit a few rail slides from the
short extension onto the lower part of the
ramp. Mike got 7th and $750.
A bout with the flu had laid Tony
Magnusson up for a few days before the
contest. He skated, as usual, with high airs,
ollies, finger flips to tails, McTwists, varial
inverts, even a stalled ho-ho on the coping.
Tony earned $900 for 6th.
Lance Mountain blasted airs, indy to
nosepicks, sads, fast plants, grinds and a
McTwist to snag fifth place and a cool $1,000.
Steve Caballero, even with a board-
crushed hand from the day before, skated
fast and aggressively. He hit high air walks,
judos, methods, and liens to 4th place and
$1,400.
Chris Miller is probably one of the most
fluid skaters the sport has ever seen. He
floated airs over the entire ramp, tweaked
methods and judos and hit a few ollie to rail
slides and half Cabs to backside grinds. The
McTwist was just out of reach for Chris as
he couldn't stay on for the full 540 degrees.
He got a well-deserved third and $2,300.
First and second place was really a
toss-up until the last run of the final jam.
Hosoi had a higher score going into the jam
with a 84.33 compared to Tony Hawk's 83.67.
Everyone knew this run would determine
who would win the $7,500 and each skater
would go all out. (Continued on page 95)
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