Neil Blender-Tom Groholski's dad. I'd like to say
that this categorizing of liptrick versus air has gone
too far. We're all a bunch of jerks. Why not start
saying "Oh, he's a fakie trick guy." meaning he
does a lot of tricks involving "to takie" or "from
fakie? Darrell Miller was a slide guy because he
had a sequence of a rock walk in his Who's Hot.
What's your favorite liptrick?
Dan Wilkes-Jetton grind (frontside grind to
revert).
Tom Groholski-Ollie lipslide (frontside).
Bill Danforth-I like to do liptricks that consist of
hand-on-coping while the truck is grinding, such
as layback roll-outs and tail slides where you con-
trol the lip with both your body and board.
Rick Demontrond-Frontside lapper grinds at 90
m.p.h. and air off them.
Steve Douglas-Cess slide 50/50's, any grinding
trick.
Mark Rogowski-Frontside grind to tail, 50/50 to
boardslide fakie, indy jars for example. There are
more, especially pre-slumber imaginings
Neil Blender-Axel sit. But I saw Loe Ralph do
a sweeper disaster. Listening to "Seven and Seven
Is" by Love.
What helps you learn liptricks?
Dan Wilkes-There's nothing to aerials. But lip-
tricks, handplants, footplants are all balance point
tricks, tricks where you can hold (stop, stall, hang
out) in place-actually beating gravity and momen-
tum. It's a very different feeling.
Tom Groholski-l learn liptricks 'cause even at
a really kinked place the lip is always the same.
Bill Danforth Boring air runs where the skater
might go 7-8 feet wall-to-wall, and do maybe 10-15
airs. Then the next skater does the exact same
thing. That's when I like to drop in and ignore the
air war and skate the way I like.
Rick Demontrond-I like going fast, high
speed a little surfing feeling.
Steve Douglas-Because when you can think of
a trick, learn it and you might be the first person
ever to do it, it feels good.
Mark Rogowski-Because variety matters. It's
exciting to learn difficult stuff and to skate radically.
It's thrilling to go bio and do air variations. Skating
the lip appears, to some, to be puss. Actually, it
involves an equal amount or more effort and preci-
sion compared to many footplant, invert and aerial
stunts. A real intense feeling... like skinning kiwi
fruit slowly
64
Neil Blender-I learn these tricks because they
are the easiest to repeat and bail without too much
fear.
What's the hardest liptrick you've ever made?
Dan Wilkes-Cess to fakie, a slide 'n roll toward
your back to fakie.
Tom Groholski-A Caballerial to pivot/rock 'n roll.
Bill Danforth-I don't really know because liptricks
vary so much. You have to take the ramp into con-
sideration. Coping plays a big part. Small coping
is good for some stuff, big coping is good, steel's
good, nails suck
Rick Demontrond Backside ollie over the chan-
nel to 50/50 grind,
Steve Douglas Hurricanes were hard to learn,
a lot of tricks at one time are hard to learn, some
are easy to learn and some are just scary: doing
backside disasters always leaves me biting my
nails,
Neil Blender-It was in June. It was an alley-
oop-540-Madonna-to-back-axle-to-front-axle-to
nose, then shuffle. So it ended up in a fakie, see
Then I had a Micke Alba sticker in my hand right
after I met Dale Carnegie and got sponsored. Ya
know what I mean? But I don't think it was quite
as good as Claus' frontside invert to fakie rock.
if that was good enough for you.
What's the scariest liptrick you've ever done?
Dan Wilkes-Frontside rock 'n roll. I really hate.
that trick. Although I can do it, it scares me.
Tom Groholski Ollie to grind up an extension.
Bill Danforth-Frontside tail-stand on slippery
pool üles in AZ over death boxes or blunts in
backyard pools.
Rick Demontrond-Layback 50/50 around the
corner in Upland's square pool.
Steve Douglas-Half-Cab to boardslide fake up
the Paige Mill ramp extension.
Neil Blender I learned how to knee slide.
What pushes you to learn these sort of tricks?
Dan Wilkes-Skill level. It's because of the
difficulty factor, no doubt."
Tom Groholski The thing that pushed me the lip
direction is that I learned how to skate on a really
small fiberglass ramp.
Bill Danforth Just to stand out in an air war.
Really, it's what I prefer to do because it just feels
good to grind long and feel like you and the ramp
are one instead of travelling out of the universe
and burning up on re-entry only to hang up on
gnarly coping.
Rick Demontrond-guess the feeling that going
fast gives me, make or break.
Steve Douglas-It's fun. I like going fast and do-
ing long sliding tricks and then going slow to do
pivot tricks, just doing tricks nobody else does.
Neil Blender-Earl Grey
At contests do you know what the crowd wants?
Dan Wilkes-Yeah, I know what they wanna see,
but skateboarding isn't about what they want, ever.
To me it's about what I want and what I want to
show them, and I want to SKATE FOR FUN.
Tom Groholski-I don't skate for the crowd and
I feel bad for anybody who does Skateboarding
should be for one's self
Bill Danforth-Crowds can only cope with airs and
spins (360%, 540's, etc). They judge height and
spinning and fail to realize the style and creative
aspects of skating.
Rick Demontrond-Who cares? Piss off Anarchy
Die!
Steve Douglas-Yeah, I know, but I skate and do
what I want. The real skaters know what you're
doing
Ben Schroeder-I usually can't hear the crowd
during my runs.
Neil Blender At contests I try to talk to Stacy
Peralta. Seems like he shines me, though. Not
really, we talk a lot at contests. Seems that's the
only time everyone has time to mingle. Once I was
at Surf Ohio and Mark Ericson said Lance looks
like a mechanic. Another time I was on the roll-
out deck at Pheonix contest in the flaming hot sun.
I recall Ken Park saying to me. "Neil, take it serious
this time." Next thing you know, his very next run.
he winds up in the midst of an Andrecht varial with
his Jockey "Ball, Queer" underwear on
Does it bother you?
Dan Wilkes-Does it bother me to hear peopple
yelling, "twist, twist, twist!" or "rocket airt"? Yeah,
but I just tune it out and do laybacks.
Tom Groholski- don't care what people want.
The real skaters in the crowd understand what's
happening.
Bill Danforth- think the next kid who yells
"rocket air!" at a demo will probably get an Alva
Danforth in the teeth. You don't ever hear kids yell
for grinds, which have tons more style.
Rick Demontrond-Naw, because they're not the
ones doing it.
Steve Douglas-Sort of, but who cares?
Neil Blender-Yeah, it bothers me I didn't see the
weather change..
Does it influence your performance or ride?
Dan Wilkes-I skate better without people around,
just skating. My hands sweat at contests. Liptricks
to me are kind of a lame way of breaking skating
up. The streetstyle shit's gotta go, too. What hap-
pened to just skateboarding? I believe it shouldn't.
be broken up into separate events, it should be
an over-all deal
Tom Groholski-The only thing that influences my
ride/performance is my mood.
Bill Danforth-Not even I skate my way.
Rick Demontrond-Nope.
Steve Douglas-I'll skate like I would in a normal
session, some airs, etc. Then I'll play and have
some fun on the lip
Neil Blender-Everything influences my perfor
mance andior ride. I'd like to tell everyone reading
this to do what's most comfortable to you. You can't
go wrong.
"It can never end. The art of working the lip...it's
infinite it's dynamic...it's quite hot.
"
Mark Rogowski
Above: Gettin' involved with some "real" coping.
Steve Alba tampers the lip with a maple laminate.
Opposite Page: Bill Danforth executes a blunt of
bravery on the face wall of a narrow Arizona pool.