COMPETITION
CLOSE-UP
G&S CUP
HAMBURG, GERMANY
They were six of the longest hours of my
life. Bruno's Alfa Romeo Spyder was
careening down the highway in excess of
100 miles per. The sun was out, the top was
down, and by the time we reached Hamburg
my nervous system was defunct and I was
working on the first stages of skin cancer.
Bruno was padded up before the engine
died. He leapt out of the car muttering about
land speed records. I took one look at the
ramp, thought about it, and passed out...
I was awakened the following morning by
Bruno, who was pacing and chanting.
"Let's eat, let's skate, let's do something."
The man is the new age Richard Simmons,
no doubt. He just doesn't know how to relax.
Some sort of chemical imbalance. We in-
dulged in a quality breakfast and headed
to Pfander Sports to skate their mini-ramp.
We arrived to find Ryan Monihan, Aaron
Deeter and a session already in progress.
Bruno packed on an axle stall, the direct
cause of which could only have been his
sleeping habits-it happens to the best of
us. We soon packed it in and headed for
Hagenbecks Tierpark (i.e. the ramp).
Everyone was arriving to prepare for the
next day's contest. We sessioned for a while
and headed back to Pfander and the best
session of the day. Barry Abrook, Robert
Wolfe, Chris and some Pfander boys were
laying into the ramp while a lively (and ine-
briated) trio of musicians played on the plat-
form. The three letter word was had by all.
The fun continued as we left Pfander and
found ourselves in the middle of the red light
district, and I'm not talking stoplights. We
made a few drive-bys, hooting and holler-
ing. The girls started to holler back until they
realized we were just looking. No sense of
humor. We took Barry to the Come Back
Hotel (how's that for corny?), scored some
Thai food, then slumbered.
Bruno the human alarm clock was at it
again. Fortunately for him, it was contest
day or he would have been a dead man. The
good breakfast spot was closed, so we
wound up at the Loser Cafe (complete with
Right: Craig Johnson lifts a lengthy lien-to-tail.
Inset: Florlan Bohm with a symbol of triumph.
42
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G&S
hairy armed waitresses in tank tops). Then
it was on to the contest. Saturday was quali-
fication and seeding day for Sunday's final,
so survival was the name of the game.
Twenty-nine skaters made the grade in three
categories and the rest were sent to the
showers. After the qualifying, three bands
played to the remaining sun, skate and beer
soaked crowd. The Militant Mothers, Kick
'n' Run and Bionic were the perfect finale
to one of the finest days Hamburg has
probably ever known.
Sunday's finals brought a larger crowd.
In freestyle, eleven men went in and, again,
Gunter Mokulys came out on top. You need
the three P's (power, perfection and preci-
sion) to win, and Gunter did. In the amateur
street final, Rasmus Skousen and Mark
Fowle tied for first, even though Rasmus'
last trick, "the freeway dance," was hard to
beat. Mark kept up with some good, fluid
footwork and an ollie off the steepest fun
box quarter to boardslide down the handrail
foundation. In pro street Aaron Deeter went
off. Air-to-fakie over the gnarliest part of the
fun box, fakie rock on the wall ramp-he did
it all. Nicky took second with a clean run,
using the whole area and ollieing over the
fun box hip. Barry Abrook, a firm believer
in symmetry, matched his last place street
performance with another last place show-
ing later in the day. Quote: "I looked like a
gay Christian Hosoi on acid."
The amateur halfpipe finals saw Konstanz
boys Thomas Keller and Ralf "Pogo" Vogt
consistently bust out with tricks too numer-
ous to mention, finishing first and second
respectively. Rounding out the top three was
Bonn rookie Ingo Frobich, who learned lien-
to-tail reverts the day before and then used
them in the finals. In pro halfpipe, Florian
Bohm and Nicky Guerrero were neck and
neck, but when Nicky fell during a saran
wrap on his final run, the judges gave it to
Florian. He had worked hard, with fakie
ollies over the channel, backside Smith
grinds and high airs, among other things.
Craig Johnson had arrived the day before
and used his typical approach to riding-
attack every wall and refuse to bail. He
unleashed bio frontside airs over the chan-
nel and six-foot pogos on his way to third
place. Other highlights in the pro final in-
cluded Jason Fine's 270° backside disaster-
to-Smith grind, Jim Murphy's layback roll-
outs-to-revert and Barry Abrook's unit (after
the bell, unfortunately).
The awards ceremony took place right
after the pro finals, and Florian laid a kiss
on the trophy girl amid cries from the Alva
boys to "Take her out!"
That evening's festivities were memor-
able, to say the least. Between meeting
"The Greek Connection," going to Mad-
house, strolling down the Reeperbahn, and
being stopped by the police, we managed
to make quick work of an entire evening and
a good part of the following morning. I
swear, if Bruno even makes so much as a
peep before noon today, it will be his last.
"Boy King" Sean Sheffey bombs the bannister.
THOMPKINS SQUARE
N.Y.C. SUNDAY MAY 28, 1989
by Jeremy Henderson
The Lowdown: Ten days prior to the event
all the ramps and obstacles were designed
and built by Chris Freeman, Bruno Musso,
Rod Smith, Rich (from Florida) and myself
in Chris' well-equipped shop in Brooklyn. On
Sunday, May 28th, at 6:30 a.m., with at
caffeine-bump-start, four loaded flatbed.
trucks rolled up like a mirage and claimed
the wide-open, relatively smooth softball and
basketball grounds in Thompkins Square
Park in Manhattan's East Village for the First
Annual NYC Street Obstacle Contest. Near-
by Skate NYC shop owners Tom Agawa,
Steve Schwartz and freestyler Joe Humeres
were the hosts and MC's. By 11:00 a.m. the
course was set and chaos ensued. A special
thanks to the NYC Parks & Recreation Com-
missioner Bill Castro for the support, lumber,
trucks and initial "Okay" to even con-
template such an event.
The Course:-One 12" high jump ramp;
-One 12' long, 10" high PVC slider;
-One 10' long, 8" high waxed railroad tie:
-One 5' high, 8' wide quarterpipe with a 2"
platform, backed by an 8' wide, 45° wedge;
-One 8'x8'x30" high box with an 8' long
double PVC mock handrail and two loose
quarterpipes to form a hip with a slant ramp;
-One 16' wide, 5'6" high wedge ramp:
-One "spined," double-sided 8' wide by 4'
high quarterpipe for mini-ramp transfer skills;
-Four 4'x8'x8" high boxes set next to each
other lengthwise;"
-Two 4' high, 5' transitioned wall ramps set
flush against an 8' high by 16' wide wall;
-All the flat in between for flat skills.
The Showdown: In the first division, 15 &
Under Advanced, only a few skaters used
most of the obstacles and even fewer used
them successfully. Obed Rios skated fast
and transferred stylishly from the ramp to wall
to ramp with frontside sliders to clinch it. The
next three top skaters, Enzo, Qulon and
Harold utilized the handrail and quick Bar-
biesque flatland trickery to be the top four
of twenty-five.
In the Advanced 16 & Over division the dif-
ficulty of maneuvers and power increased as
more local rippers pushed the boundaries.
It was apparent that more thought was put
into these skaters' lines. The local favorites,
hotfoot boys Wiley Singer and Jeff Pang, fell
too often in both runs to (Continued on page 115)