W
ednesday, May 17th, 8:15 p.m.
The street contest wouldn't start
until Saturday, so we had some
time to kill. What better way to do so than
by enjoying a crippling forty-eight-hour
hangover? We repaired to Kevin Barry's pub
on the romantic, paper mill scented banks
of the Savannah River and set to our task.
Six hours, five phone calls, four breasts, three
cocktail napkin skull drawings (sold to the
highest bidder), two ounces of flaming
Bacardi (on my face), and one shattered win-
dow later, it was time for bed.
Ramp building began early on Thursday
morning in a section of the 84 Lumber Yard.
Perhaps the abundance of wood explains the
massive proportions of this particular course.
Dave Duncan, master NSA craftsman and
foreman of the nail flailing session, had
already made some progress as everyone
else joined in. Every now and then, motley
skate teams would stop by to check out the
action and hurl abuse on the workers before
heading back into town. K.T., Duncan, Vitello,
Malins, Fudala, Ware, T.K., Maria and two
locals paid little mind and kept pounding. In
the afternoon, as I sat in the shade of a nine-
foot quarterpipe, I realized that this wasn't
going to be a typical street contest.
Thursday night saw more general
mayhem. Trains, planes and sticker covered
automobiles regurgitated skater after skater
into the city limits. Friday was freestyle day.
You have to read the box to find out
what it was like. Saturday's wake-up
call came at five, the perfect hour to
unload huge unwieldy slabs of wood
from semi trucks and then assemble
them inside an empty arena. Add a
hulking Buick carcass, a scratchy
P.A. and a gourmet hot dog/nacho
bar, and we were ready to begin
Savannah Slamma III.
It would help if you knew the
course layout, so here goes: first of
Previous Page: Danny Way wings it from bank to launch
on his way to third place. Photo: Mofo. This Page,
Clockwise from Upper Left: The construction brigade
gets busy. Death at noon; note the facial burn marks.
Young Rembrandt at work. Photos: MoFo Frontside
budda budda air a-la Tony Hawk. Photo: Bryce Kanights.
Loading in the precious cargo. Photo: MoFo
BUD
BUDD
SPACH BAR
RT ROOMS
27.PE
Course description by Christian..
Top to Bottom: Descending the
drop-in bank; crushing the bank-
to-wall; slashing the spine (photo:
Bryce Kanights); g-turning in front
of the quarterpipe; floating over
the corner; winning: (left) climbing
the mega wall. Photos: MoFo