PHOENIX ST
NSA PRO STREET/FREESTYLE FINALS
PRIDE PAVILION DECEMBER 10-11, 1988
A Brian Brannon Interpretation
Whenever a contest comes to Phoenix,
there is always an assortment of high profile
skate activities. Hotel wreckings, food fights,
billiard games, beer guzzlings, arrests and
pool sessions are usually in order, especially
if the tournament is a professional event.
The NSA pro free/streetstyle contests in
Phoenix, Arizona, were no exception to this
rule. In fact, some of the most exciting events
occurred off the arena floor. We won't discuss
how one pro got arrested for pulling a fire
alarm, how one lost hodad almost got a jour
nalist and a room full of pros taken downtown
for possession of a stolen twelver of Bud
Light, or the names and details of any of the
various room thrashings.
No, we will ignore those few harmless and
minor incidents. There was something that
far outweighed any mere misdemeanors: the
38
mean, clean, backyard pool sessions.
A certain four-leaf clover was the word
upon everyone's lips. All the pros knew it had
luscious transitions, incredible lines, and
thick square coping. They also knew there
was a good chance of meeting the long arm
of the law. Nonetheless, rumors of bodacious
ripping fell like leaves from the grapevine.
Credit is due to the Alva camp for their
discovery of a hitherto unknown sweet baby
sister just a mile away from the contest site.
Tight but workable lines, from shallow-to-
deep-to-pocket-to-deep were quite the rage.
Score one for the visitors..
A friendly right-hand kidney with generous
vert and fine tiled coping saw extreme ac-
tion during the contest weekend. Its flaking.
plaster certainly did not get any less flaky dur-
ing the heavy rippage, and at least a hun-
dred pounds of pool dust was kicked-up while
Above: Pride Pavilion's environs play backdrop for
master Dressen's dapper crallslide. Left: A frozen mo-
ment with the Mutt-ollie-airwalk-fingerflip-etc., etc.
the skaters got down. Blaize Blouin proved
beyond a reasonable doubt that he is
thoroughly deserving of the title "1988
Amateur Vertical Champion" with frontside
carves and a roll-in from the deep. However,
the man of the hour here was Christian
Hosoi, who pulled the never-before-seen.
frontside-carve-grind-with-high-velocity-
deep-end-to-backside-carve-grind-pump.
over-the-stairs. Frontside laybacks in both
shallow and deep, as well as instantaneous
coping destruction from the very first run af-
firmed the validity of the Hosoi legend.
Maryvale's Pride Pavilion was the chosen
arena for both the freestyle and streetstyle.
competitions. The various props were decor-
ated with such flourescent graffiti colors that
they prompted a Mr. V. to comment that the
course looked mighty like a pinball machine.
Practice saw the funky skaters grooving
to the fabulous sounds of Mr. James Brown.
As the Godfather let loose a "'Waaaaaahhh,"
Bryce Kanights drew a R&R slide up and
across the teeter bar, JB said "Good God!"
as Tommy Guerrero blasted incredible airs
from a quarter-pipe launch that rose from the
center of the bank ramp, and Reese Simp-
son nailed frontside grinds upon the high
vertical wall to James' command of "Hit me!"
The streetstyle finals saw a field of forty-
nine skaters reduced to twenty. The remain-
der were an able and hardy bunch.
Mark Gonzales worked his way through
ollies atop the vertical extensions. 50-508-10-
fakie across the handrail, and high flyboys
off the launch attached to the bank ramp. A
hostile crowd gave the judges a thorough
booing for the scores handed in on Mark's
second run. Still, Mr. Gonzales was able to
bring home seventh place.
Steve Caballero skated the course with the
confidence and aggression he is highly
regarded for on vert. He slid R&Rs on the
extensions, honed lipslides and pulled 360°
airs off the bank/launch. His overall commit-
ment to excellence earned him sixth place,
despite a fall.
Ramp magician Tony Hawk introduced
himself with a taildrop from the top of the tall
vert wall. Needless to say, he had a good
amount of speed as he yanked high ollies
over the humps and sliders-to-fakie across
the vert. For his merits, Tony was handed a
fifth of street.
In this writer's biased opinion, Scott
Oster's G-turns are the embodiment of pure
street skating. With righteous speed and ut-
ter style, Oster's front wheels traced a full and
perfect circle without a moment's quavering
or hesitation. Then, when the circumference
grew tight, Oster smoothly grabbed his out-
side rail in the frontside tuck position (or
once, the inside rail in stale fish position).
From there he held on tight until the arc was
completed and he flipped a nose turn to roll
backwards. Oster's strong vertical thrusters
and Jettons, as well as his 180° ollies over
the launch secured him the fourth place title.
There can be no doubt that Lance Moun-
tain was a dominant factor on the street
course. His unchallenged sadplants on the
vert and especially his sad-to-fakie, along
with 360° liens, boned indys and frontside
airs above vertical proved Mountain's met-
tle. For his incredible exploits, Lance was
handed a clean and well-deserved third.
The top spot was left open. Either Eric
Dressen or Christian Hosoi would claim the
victory. Your guess is as good as mine was.
Eric Dressen came on strong. He popped
high airs-to-fakie from the bank/launch,
ollies-to-tail, tail slides and stale fishies upon
the vert. His crystal precision and unassum-
ing control gave him the highest scores thus
far. There was only one man who could steal
the glory.
Christian Hosoi was ready and willing. He
sailed ollies from the bank/launch, floated
frontside airs and slung thrusters atop the
vert. He even threw in an ever-graceful ollie-
to-manual across the plywood sidewalk.
Then the favorite fell. This would not help.
When the final tally came in, it was Hosoi
second, and Dressen holding the gold.
The next day's freestyle competition saw
quite a smaller spectator turn-out than the
street, but the freemen rode undeterred.
Fourteen skaters went at it, ignoring the
relatively slick hardwood floor.
British Columbia's Kevin Harris kicked in
180° and 360° kickflips, one-wheeled nose
wheelies, slip sliding control and 540° shove.
its. Skating to the sounds of AC/DC, Harris
racked fifth.
Tim Morris, in his third pro outing, provi-
ded nose grab airwalks, rail walk kickflips.
truck stand kickbacks and one-wheeler
360°. He received a respectable fourth
place finish.
Per Welinder's control and motion showed
the native Swede to be a threat indeed.
Backwards wheelie-to-180-to-frontwards
wheelie, tailstand handstands and 360°s
gave him a trophy engraved with the words
"Third Place."
Softly and quietly, Primo Desiderio started
his runs, pushing forward until he gained a
good deal of speed. Then he let loose a
scream and kicked his board to rail. As it slid
on its side, he stood above it guiding it around.
until he threw it down to complete the dread-
ed "Primo Slide." Backwards kickflips,
handstand wheel fingerflips and one-footed
nose wheelies also highlighted Primo's run.
returning him second place honors.
There was no denying that Rodney Mullen
would capture first place. The only question
was, what moves would he toss to get it?
Mullen unarguably smoked the floorboards
with switch stance kickflips, yo-yo plants,
seriously high ollies with stale fish grabs and
ollie 360°-to-shove-its. Once again, the Mutt
was crowned freestyle master and walked in-
to the Arizona sunset a happy man.
Streetstyle
RESULTS
1. Eric Dressen
2. Christian Hosoi
3. Lance Mountain
4. Scott Oster
5. Tony Hawk
6. Steve Caballero
7. Mark Gonzales
8. Mike McGill
Freestyle
1. Rodney Mullen
2. Primo Desiderio
3. Per Welinder
4. Tim Morris
5. Kevin Harris
6. Don Brown
7. Reggie Barnes
NSA Series Winners
Streetstyle
1. Eric Dressen
2. Christian Hosoi
3. Steve Caballero
9. Tom Guerrero (tie)
9. Jim Thiebaud (tie)
11. Reese Simpson
12. Doug Smith
13. Jef Hartsel (tie)
13. Bo Ikeda (tie)
15. John Thomas
8. Hans Lindgren
9. Bill Robertson
10. Fabian Kravitz
11. David Cox
12. Lynn Cooper
13. Andre Walton
14. Denny Riorden
Freestyle
1. Rodney Mullen
2. Primo Desiderio
3. Per Welinder