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Few skaters have access to halfpipes or empty
pools. Mostly it's launch ramps if they're lucky,
curbs and driveways for practice and the Dairy
Queen drive-thru banks for a session. With so
many kids street skating you'd think that street
skating contests would be popular. So who says
that the N.S.A.'s stamp of approval is necessary
to put on a decent contest? Someone had to take
initiative and not let pro street skating slip away,
so Willamette Sports Center, Stacy Peralta and
THRASHER Magazine put on this event.
Ten hours was the call as we launched our ren-
tal at 3:30 Friday afternoon and headed toward
the shores of Interstate-5. A flatbed full of launch
ramps had been barged up from San Francisco
on Thursday. On Friday a contest site was cleared,
a course mapped out and more obstacles built.
Early Saturday morning the ramps were given a
final check for loose nails and set in a skateable
arrangement. The spectator, announcing and
judging areas were established and the Sno-cone
man finally got power for his octagon of ice. The
organizers of this event, F-V, B. Ware, K.T., Jim
Muir, Stacy Peralta, and Dänn of W.S.C., put in a
lot of hard work to get this thing going.
A 12x8' plywood wall was set up so it couldn't
be knocked down by the intensity of the pros. On
Friday 80° temperatures gave the impression that
the wall could be supported by 10" spikes driven
into the parking lot. The spikes bent in the cold.
morning asphalt. Sandbags were suggested,
more 2x4 supports were tried and a .22 caliber
nail gun was finally used to fasten the wall to
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First? Who, me? Tommy Guerrero raises an eyebrow
after raising hell on the street with maneuvers like this
ollie-to-mute catch.
the pavement. The first spectators were
there by 7:30, though the parking lot was
bare and the contest wasn't supposed to
start for at least four hours. They were put
to work carrying ramps. The course was set
up with a run-in area about 70 feet across
from a wooden wall with a small transition
ramp against it. On the right were two bank
ramps with a channel in between and a
"volcano" ramp with a steep transition on
one side and gradual slope on the other. On
the left was a launch ramp with a roll-out
deck. A long railroad rail ran down the mid-
dle and assorted curbs surrounded the
edges of the spectator area. It looked like
it would rain, which was hardly surprising.
For the past two years both contests had
been held in the rain.
During pro warm-ups the sky opened up
and let loose with enough precipitation to
soak the course and cast shadows across
the faces of the skaters. Riding in the rain
is a challenge, decidedly more so than in
the sun. Right before the first pros were
about to take their qualifying runs the rain
quit, a patch of blue sliced through and Jeff
Kendall started the competition with a bang.
Method air to boardsnap on his first jump.
Jeff quickly borrowed Jesse Martinez's
board and jumped back into the action. He
stretched high method airs, smoothly slap-
ped from ramp to ramp and pleased the
streetplant hungry crowd with a few
standard variations.
Sam Cunningham pulled some impres-
sive, stylish tricks but didn't show enough
energy to convince the judges. He did
bones off the wall, and worked the rail,
asphalt and jump ramps with lethargic
finesse.
John Lucero, with pink hair ribbon in
place, twisted lanky 360° boneless, fakie
wallrides and a number of other innovative
moves. Too many stops and starts (many
due to photographer blockades) kept him
out of the finals.
Frenchman Pierre Andre made his
freestyle-influenced streetstyle debut with
a slow, deliberate routine. He relied too
much on flatland and hardly used the
ramps. His determination was clear, though,
and no doubt once he gets comfortable with
the air he'll be up there with the pack.
Ken McGuire and Chris Cook collided in
warm-up, leaving Chris with a head lump
and Ken with a split lip. This must have
inspired McGuire, though, because he took
to the course with an awesome display of
wild lip tricks, including backside ollie to
boardslide on the volcano ramp. With his
diverse runs, Ken was definitely a crowd
favorite-many wondered why he didn't
make the cut. A number of bails suggested
that he may have been trying too many dif-
ficult tricks, but even so he pulled an ollie
to rock 'n roll on the platform, a no-hands
ollie airwalk, a Miller flip on the volcano,
front and backside wallrides, no-footed airs
and a one-footed ollie off the jump ramp.
During the break between the pro prelim
heats and finals a few West Coast ams▷
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