8th-Lance Mountain-Big McTwists, fakie
slide 'n' rolls. Lance tears up more ramp real
estate than anyone with his carving lines and
lofty air. His intensity level is somewhat lack-
ing this year and the small, unstoked crowd
didn't help. Lance muttered something about
wanting to be home with his wife and junior
before going into the final jam.
7th-Steve Caballero-Frontside board-
slides, frontside slide 'n' rolls, finger flips,
long indy nose grinds. Just when you think
that Cab is getting to be the old man of the
top ten, he pulls agile maneuvers that hark
back to his Winchester days as a non-failing
magician of vert trickery. He's matured a lot
and definitely knows what he has to do.
6th-Chris Miller-Fat frontside airs, lien
airs, giant fastplants near the ramp edge. If
Chris doesn't get distracted, he poses a
threat at every contest he enters. His mere
presence in the line-up intimidates the
strategies of the other contestants. Chris'
speed-smooth style is definitely taking ramp
skating in the right direction.
5th-Tony Magnusson-360° stale fish,
shove-it rock 'n' rolls, fakie ollie hang-ups.
Whether it's style, attitude or what, the
reasons for Tony's lower scores are hard to
pinpoint, though, he continues to improve
against all odds. Consistent top five finishes
for the past couple of years may mean he's
ready for a big win.
4th-Micke Alba-Judo airs on the edge,
Freedom Hall, Louisville, Kentucky.
PERIOD
BLUEGRASS
AGGRESSION
SESSION!
high mutes, frontside boardslides, clean LOUISVILLE SLUGS
wheelie roll-outs. Micke had the longest run
of the jam. This veteran could return to his
young winning form, and has had good
results this year. Micke's a strategist. He uses
a lot of ramp and is starting to kick the board
up over his head on those methods.
3rd-Tony Hawk-360° disasters, ollies to
tail, backside stale fish, Caballerials to may-
day. On his last run, Tony made one of the
cleanest 720's ever, stalled on the lip, raised
a fist, then dropped in to a flip dismount.
Although Tony doesn't seem to tolerate crowd
scenes well unless he's on his board, he cer-
tainly hasn't lost his touch. There's no doubt
he'll be flying in the top three until he gets
bored.
2nd-Christian Hosoi-Extra large.
McTwists and gay twists, lien to indy, mute
indy sketch but pulled it out. Like Tony
(Hawk). Christian seems to be getting judged
against himself a lot these days. It's hard to
say what else Christian has to do to win
besides staying on, and he does that. Maybe
beating himself is the only answer, or more
circus tricks.
1st-Mark Anthony. Boardslides of every
description, McTwist, fakie footplant thrusters,
360° frontside air. Sporting a whole new at-
titude, Mark even changed his name for this
contest. Gator is always in the hunt when
cash is on the line, but he still hadn't won
since Del Mar a few years back. As Chris-
tian pointed out, "They let a new guy win for
once." But it may not be the case next time.
AKA Gator skated tough, no doubt, but bail-
ed hard several times in the final jam. Next
time the judges may not be so forgiving. Or
maybe bails don't count anymore.
52
So, what happened? A whopping three
events were all grandslammed into a drawn
out five days. What a great opportunity the
NSA presented to all the participating skate
companies and competing skaters: the
chance to showcase skateboarding to a
large, eager, skating populace.
But it was held in a 10,000 seat arena with
barely 1,000 people showing every day. The
first day's program ended after midnight
with an audience of fifty die-hards. Some
skaters brought their mothers and fathers
along only to have them die of boredom in
their seats. The NSA demonstrated, with
the gifted skill of a roadside carnival, how
utterly tedious a skateboard contest can be.
The NSA board has good intentions and
a believable passion for skateboarding, but
seems scattered and unorganized this year
when it comes to promoting the big events.
Several manufacturers have noted that
each of these contests costs them approx-
imately $12,000 to fly, house, feed and enter
their teams. This is a tidy sum when you
consider that for one-tenth that cost they
could send two skaters into the same town
and collect a much larger group of spec-
tators. In one tenth of the time they could
leave the hungry skaters truly inspired and,
more importantly, leave them some time to
go out and skate.
All in all, NSA officials and Sports Ven-
ture representatives, who put on the event.
were vocally pleased.
"I'm not disappointed with the turnout,"
said NSA honcho Frank Hawk. "It is pro-
bably too big an arena at too high an
admission price."
"Overall, we were pleased with the
event," said Martha J. Morris, a partner in
the Sports Venture company. "It was ade-
quate for a first-time event and three weeks
of promotion. Part of the problem might
have been the last minute nature of the con-
test. The actual date was confirmed only
19 days before the event."
While contest promoters seemed
satisfied, the skaters were overwhelming-
ly bummed on the attendance. Neil Blender
decided to become a competetive truant
after noticing the turnout. "There are about
ten people here," he said..
"I expected more people." Pierre Andre
said.
"It wasn't very exciting." Eric Dressen
commented.
"Nine dollars a shot and $27 for the
whole weekend is too much money for a
kid to spend," John Lucero spouted. "A
skater can almost buy a new deck for that
much money."
"At least we didn't have to sign as many
autographs," concluded Eddie Reategui.
Maybe it's time the NSA and the industry
come to terms for the good of skateboard-
ing and skaters. Of course, there is another
alternative: everyone for themselves. But,
we'd hate to see any bloodshed. T-ed
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