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of freestyle finals and streetstyle qualifying. Things holding his back foot, one-wheeled wheelies while
would pick up tomorrow.
The freestyle skating was excellent despite the poor
turnout. Over 20 pros entered, including some aliens
to the genre like Natas Kaupas, Eric Dressen, Adrian
Demain and Mike Vallely.
It's safe to say that when Rodney Mullen skates,
everyone stops what they're doing and watches. He
hypnotized onlookers with ollie airwalks, wrap-around
pogos, huge ollie grabs, 360's into one-wheeled
360's, yo-yo plants and a host of other tricks that
haven't even been named yet for an easy first.
Pierre Andre captured second with a stylish, roll-
ing routine that included one-footed 360's while
BULLET
TEAM
rolling backward, one-footed nose 360's into two-
footed nose 360's, one wheeled G-turns and his in-
famous board twirling one-armed handstand.
Primo Desiderio skated fast and aggressively and
incorporated a lot of street maneuvers into his
routines for third place. His Primo slides sparked the
crowd's enthusiasm.
Fourth place went to Per Welinder who impressed
the judges with fingerflips, handstand kickflips, hang-
ten shove-its and lots of weird casper moves. ►
Kevin Harris took fifth with his rolling
wheelie style. He did kickflip to one-footed
tail wheelies, shove-it to rolling nose 360's,
and multiple one-wheeled 360's.
Streetstyle qualifying followed the freestyle
finals on the same floorspace and the course
was pulled out and set up in a matter of
minutes. It was constructed mainly of wood
and featured a whiplash type wall obstacle
(a smaller version of the one used in Ohio)
with 10-foot walls, a 10-foot PVC slider curb,
two slant/bank ramps in the other corners,
a small wood platform about 2 feet off the
ground, various cement curbs and park
benches, the infamous Surf Ohio cow and
even a take-off ramp to help skaters accom-
odate the smaller than usual area. The main
obstacle was a behemoth structure con-
sisting of two jump ramps affixed at right
angles to each other, a sloped wall with PVC
on top, several platforms ranging in height
and width and a low PVC-topped handrail-
ing. It was like a combination loading dock,
stairs, bank and wall.
After the pros got their official practice
runs, the qualifying began. Five groups of
ten pros got two sixty second runs each. The
elimination runs reduced the field to twenty:
Mike Folmer, Steve Caballero, Mike Vallely,
Scott Oster, Corey O'Brien, Lance Mountain,
John Lucero, Ricky Winsor, Mark Gonzales,
Chuck Dinkins, Eddie Reategui, Dave Crabb,
Natas Kaupas, Mark Partain, Jim Theibaud,
Tony Hawk, Jeff Kendall, Doug Smith, Eric
Dressen and Christian Hosoi.
Even though things seemed to be moving
at a brisk pace, it took nearly five hours to
finish everyone's qualifying runs. It was well
past midnight by the time everything was
over. Since it was after midnight on a Thurs
day without much in terms of visible females
Far Left: Muir and Malba remain cool and casual
while Christian gets intense. Left: The infamous
Smith vert is simply a sample of Hawk's vast
repertoire. Spread: From high in the sky, Steve
Caballero follows his Indy nose bone back into
the thick of things. This Page: Daddy Mountain
whips a wicked frontside ramp to ramp grind.
or nightlife, most everyone made it early to
bed. Practice was scheduled to begin at
8 a.m. the next day. The hotels were
obviously warned that 100 pro skaters would
be in town and increased their security
forces. Rent-a-cops patrolled the grounds
like nervous Dobermans.
Friday evening we were greeted by another
"sell-out crowd." There were actually a few
hundred people in attendance.
Steve Caballero took 1st place and $2,500
to the bank with break-neck speed lines. He
covered the entire course and hit airs off the
jump ramp to railslide, slides up and down
the handrail and generally terrorized.
Eric Dressen let loose with another high
velocity run to take second place. His reper-
toire included launching off the ramp to wall
ride, 180 stale fish grab in a launch ramp to
launch ramp transfer and even an ollie to
50/50 down the railing.
Third place went to Christian Hosoi. He
launched airs off the ramp to the higher plat-
form then 180'ed off, stalled a cess slide on
the whiplash wall, hit backside ollies to slides
and big bonelesses on the banks and even
did a few one-footed 360's.
Another Dogtown local, Scott Oster, styl-
ed his way to fourth place with slides, tuck
knee G-turns, 180 wall slides and long cess
slides through the whip.
Rookie street pro Doug Smith wowed more
than a few with his aggressive style as he
launched to a wheelie on the high platform,
ollied to fakie on the bank and floated high
method airs into fifth place.
Lance Mountain landed in sixth place. He
did boosters on the banks, rock and rolls and
grinds on top of the whiplash wall, ollies over
the bench and backside launches to railslide.
Seventh place went to Jim Theibaud. He
hucked a huge 3-foot ollie to the platform,
boardslid up the hand railing, stalled, then
slid down backwards, ollied to the bench,
ollie kickflipped and pulled a fakie fish off the
launch ramp.
Another rookie, Mark Partain, abused the
whiplash wall with rock and rolls and long
grinds along the top edge and a kickout
launch to platform. Mark placed eighth.
Eddie Reategui virtually thumbed his nose
at gravity as he did tail stalls on top of the
whiplash wall and overextended his rock and
rolls on the ten foot wall. The judges gave
him ninth.
Tony Hawk settled into tenth. He was the
only top placing competitor who wore a
helmet, and his high flying antics warranted
it. He powered Guerrero ollies off the launch
ramps, alley-ooped airs to railslide and styled.
some nice looking G-turns on the banks.
Jeff Kendall, Mike Vallely, Mike Folmer,
Mark Gonzales and John Lucero rounded
out the top fifteen spots.
Friday was another relatively uneventful
night. The sweltering humidity encouraged
most people to hole up in the air-conditioned
sanctuary of their hotel rooms or knock pins
and pinball at the bowling alley next door.
Saturday arrived without any sign of a cool-
ing trend. Again, outdoor activities were cur-
tailed in favor of Big Time Wrestling and the
Miniature Golf Championships on ESPN.
On Friday the vertical field had been whit-
tled down to 40 skaters, then to 15 during the
first part of Saturday's program. A sub-jam
was held with the ten lower scoring skaters
to see which five would advance to the final
jam with the top five. A twenty-minute melee
allowed each skater four runs to determine
how the cash pie would be sliced amongst
the top ten. When it was over, the order was:
10th-Jeff Phillips-Reverse eggs,
booster roll-outs. He regained the form that
brought him a victory at the Anaheim finals
in 86. Jeff's sit-down squat from a backside
air
is a mockery of contest seriousness, but
still a point scoring, radical trick.
9th-Ken Park-Frontside switch grab
airs, one-footed eggs. After coming on strong
in the last couple of contests at his home bowl
(Del Mar), Ken has adjusted well to thei
ramps. Ken has been placing consistently in
the top ten when he stays on. ►
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