TORONTO
(From page 50)
To one side of the entrance over 600
skateboards were impounded. Imagine the
potential of being indoors with a few thou-
sand screaming pre-post-past-and-present
adolescents, over six hundred of whom have
had their skateboards taken away from them.
In the bleachers, Mr. Frank Hawk signed
scores of autographs for clawing hordes of
sport enthusiasts. Grosso and Gonz took
several shirts and hid them high in the
bleacher seats before any spectators were
let in. As the floor seating area filled up, the
pair pointed high into the bleachers and said
what they'd done. People ran in every direc-
tion, causing momentary chaos. Mike Smith
exploited the Canadian dollar by having most
of his fellow pros sign t-shirts, which he then
sold in the stands. They went for a high price,
and he sold a lot.
In a rental car en route to the arena was
Mr. Ed-a man who likes to take it as it
comes-accompanied by his partner Gnit.
who usually likes to churn it up. Both men
had sacrificed watching the qualifying heats
of the Indy 500 to attend the contest, so they
released their frustrations on Toronto drivers
via precision California metropolitan motorist
tactics. The rental car was a front-wheel drive.
making fishtailing on the train tracks which
WORN OUT DECK
ANDA ANCIENT VEST...?
HA HA HA
run through many of Toronto's wharfside
streets a particular joy.
An unimpressed motorist pulled up to Mr.
Ed's side of the vehicle.
Driver: "Nice car."
Ed: "We like it."
Driver: "You should learn to drive it."
Gnit. "You seem to have a problem with
my driving."
Driver: "I'm telling you, you were driving
pretty darn stupid back there."
Gnit: "Well, pal, you were making left turns
all over the place, you bald-headed
dingflap!"
RAMP CONSTRUCTION
It had a ten-foot transition with about a foot
and a half of vert. Two extensions faced each
other at one end of the ramp, creating about
three feet of vertical. It had sixteen feet of
flat bottom and was thirty-two feet wide.
THE CONTEST
The early stages of the contest were
highlighted by good runs from Art Godoy and
Tom Groholski. Craig Johnson was stunning
in his "Fuck You, We're From Texas" t-shirt,
and hot entity Ben Schroeder made a vicious
impression on the scene with his alley-oop.
lipslides.
Some other stoked youngbloods, including
Crescini, Schultes, Tocco and Claar, gave
highly impressive performances. Caballero
pulled off ollie-to-lipslides and frontside rock
'n roll sliders. Grosso did everything fast and
...GET TO THE SHOP
THAT BEATS THE REST
ROLLERMANIA
JFA CAS
STREET
WEAR
ROLLERMANIA
EXCEEDS THE NEED
BEAND 88
GOING DOWN AT:
62 PARK ROW
BRISTOL BSISLE
TEL: (0272) 279981
10:00-5:30 Tue-Sat.
*ENGLANDS NUMBER ONE SKATE SHOP
powerful. Between his runs he sat inside a
garbage can.
Jason Jesse and Ken Park are mean-
looking guys when they skate. Hosoi's.
boundaries will never be defined or attained
by anyone else. The poetry of his line is
classical and majestic. His seldom seen
stand-up grinds-to-tailslides were a real treat.
Lance Mountain did McTwists on the exten-
sion, frontside fastplants off the extension
and lien airs across the whole ramp at high
speed. Nolder flashed with some rad
backside lipslides. Magnusson took a severe
fall in the middle of the jam, but still came
back with a couple more explosive runs.
Nicky Guerrero has niched himself a pro-
minent spot among the big guys. The con-
sensus in many camps is that Tony Hawk
does the most tricks. He did frontside
hurricane-to-fakies on the extension..
backside tailslides, frontside ollie stalefish to
boardslides, super high fastplants-to-fakies
and stalled Elguerials. There are so many
more tricks he could've done.
There were ten in the final jam, and they
had to take four runs apiece. The lowest
score was thrown out and the rest averaged
for the final placing
THE OUTCOME: Tony Hawk 1st, Christ
2nd, Caballero 3rd, Magnusson - 4th,
Mountain - 5th, Nolder 6th, Grosso - 7th,
N. Guerrero - 8th, McGill - 9th, Jesse - 10th.
Considering the fact that Tony Hawk bailed
twice and Christ's runs were complete, a per-
son couldn't help but picture Christ wonder-
ing what the hell has to be done to win an
NSA contest.
TORONTO'S LAST NIGHT OF SIEGE
UNDER THE UGLY YANKEES
The hallways of the eighth floor of the
Ramada Inn were covered with mustard, cat-
sup, beer and cigarette ashes. The ashtray
by the elevator was filled with empty beer bot-
tles, and the elevator floor was carpeted by
torn-off shirt and pants pockets, other scraps
of torn clothing and broken bottles. The mir-
rored walls were covered with stickers, and
frightened people scurried down the
hallways to their hopefully private rooms. It
all bore quite a resemblance to the scene of
the previous year. The occupying force was
once again having tough, sloppy fun.
Jim Muir's door was kicked down early in
the evening while he napped. It was to Jim's
great surprise, many hours later, when Ben
Schroeder was escorted into the room by two
Mounties. It seems that Ben was kicking gar-
bage cans in the streets of Toronto at four
o'clock in the morning.
The hotel lounge was, again, assaulted
and defiled in true American streetstyle. Even
the management came out to help close the
place after several wheelheads jumped on
the baby grand piano for a rendition of "I
Heard It Through The Grapevine."
SUNDAY
After less than a week's occupation, the
skaters withdrew. I found Chris Borst's wallet
with one hundred and twenty dollars in it-
just enough for the many cocktails needed
on the long flight back to California.
124
T-BONE
Tony Hawk
67x36mm
95a, 97a, 98a