Mr. Big, Christ Hosol, won big, This frigid air is
but a small example of what kind of havoc he
unleashed upon the massive crowd. Denie Torres
(inset) of France twists his board by the wheel
while standing on one hand in the rest of the
amateur freestyle finals. Opposite Page Jason
Jesse (top) has forced his way to the top half of
the professional vertical hardcore seith socie
during displays of high speed aerial anarchy
Flare Andre ponders his final run (center) in the
pro freestyle finals. A slice of the from the am
streetstyle (bottom) shows Yves tehno of
Belguim working the tip of the multi-camp
sha
Meanwhile, the freestylers are trying to drill
amidst the chaotic turbulence of streetstylers.
Over by the halfpipe, Chris Black, Ken Park,
Nicky Guerrero, Adrian Demain, Dan Wilkes,
Groholski, Grabke and Florian Böhm prepare
for their practice session.
Todd Swank is busy swilling about on the
streetstyle course in the old slither and dither,
snake-about way of sessioning through
spontaneous uncontrollable mayhem.
At this point I begin to notice an element
of the European skaters who approach
competition much more seriously than the
unorthodox Americans. Some skaters go
with the flow when it comes to this sort of
event. Some bear down and deal with it.
Others simply can't.
It is evident that the Europeans don't "ses-
sion" as much as they "train." Many of them
seem extremely obedient and regimented.
I begin to believe that much of this will
change as this contest marks the first real
full-scale invasion of America's finest, most
talented and ornery skaters. Previously, the
Europeans have received small doses of
touring professional and amateur skaters.
They have yet to ex-1
perience the explosive
potential of dozens of
raging wheelheads, who
are used to getting away
with as much carnage as
possible.
I investigate the
whereabouts of Monty, to
be sure that he is being
properly taken care of.
He's being held in the
massage room, some-
where upstairs. He sits..
not understanding Ger-
man, with his shoe off
and his ankle swollen up
like a balloon.
"Man, just let me out
of here. Fuck, I'm so
pissed. I came all the
way out here, took two
runs and tweaked my
ankle. I didn't even skate
the ramp. Shit, I made up
three new tricks for this
contest," Monty said,
voicing his anguish. He
looks at me. "Tell them I
wanna split. Tell them to
get me some crutches so I can get out of this
country and go home."
Monty is not happy.
"Geez, Monty, they got a German word for
crutches, but I don't know it."
"Yeah. These Germans got a different
word for everything."
X-rays are the verdict, so Monty is off to
the hospital in a Red Cross ambulance.
The contest medic, Christian Wasdaris,
kindly gives me a ride back to the hotel,
where Hosoi is sleeping. Monty has re-
quested Christ's prescence to take care of
any financial matters that may arise.
The four of us spend much of the afternoon
doing hand gestures and deciphering the
German doctors. Wasdaris, a skate/med stu-
dent from West Berlin, translates as Hosoi
snaps Polariods of all the big crucifixes on
the walls. This is a Catholic hospital.
So here I am in a hallway with two guys
named Christian, in a Catholic hospital, in
Münster, Germany, listening to Monty's
screams of anguish leak out of the radio-
graph torture chamber.
SATURDAY, JULY 10
The scuttlebutt this morning is centered
around last night's devious discoteque
activities. One tale is of the antics at the Go-
Go disco, where no less than two hundred
THRASHER stickers were attached to the
backs of unsuspecting disco dancers.
Reprisals against said act were very few, due
to the skaters' boisterous superiority of
number.
The day is spent at Hälle Münsterland,
going through the motions of qualifying.
The skate force attacks the city disco-
teques for some all-night occupation. Jason
Jesse is denied entry to the Depot, an out
of the way discoteque. The proprietors
believe he is a member of the U.S. military,
who must have a pretty bad image in these
parts. My floor of the hotel is sabotaged by
infiltrators, who make an effort to
psychologically harass some of the top quali-
fying pros in the building. I find out later,
through inside contacts, that the dangerous
subversive Martin Wagner of Frankfurt is
somehow connected to this sabotage opera-
tion which has the hotel management up in
arms. Damage consists of fifteen bed sheets
torn into shreds along with eighteen towels.
The perpetrators, with the strands tied
together, created a spider web off of all the
doorknobs down my hallway and smeared
toothpaste on every doorknob. The maids are
pissed.
SUNDAY, JULY 11
SLALOM
The tight course in the first event of the
day runs the length of the arena. Europeans
have the event in hand. I did not see any▸