Left: Basking in the
afterglow, champ Chris
Miller and runner-up Tony
Hawk whoop. Right: Papa
Chris pops back in on the
pipe. Photos: M.Fo
vans jam
by Kevin J. Thatcher
With the NSA still in the midst of a year of reorganiza-
tion, new president Tom Cozens and acting pro director
Don Bostick wanted to get in touch with the pro skaters,
and have a grass roots event with no spectators and no
pressure on the competitors for autograghs, product, or
their affection. However the main reason the NSA tour
ended in the Vans factory parking lot for the first vertical
event of the 89 season was because the folks at the Univer-
sity of California at San Diego denied the use of their cam-
pus only weeks before the event was scheduled. Tom and
Don had met with a committee and chosen a spot to erect
the Swatch ramp for the occasion but alas, some uptight
bitty on the board voted it down. Tom approached Everrett
Rosecrans at Vans about the predictament and Ev offerred
the facility.
Upland's Pipeline. Originally the shell of the main ramp.
at Vans was 24' wide but for this "movie" they extended
it another sixteen and created a funnel-like shallow end
that sucked out underneath the 3/4-extension. Another ex-1
tension was added opposite the Bell hump. Once you read
the results you may find it interesting that Tony Hawk com-
plained of the ramps quirks and Chris Miller was going
to scratch because of a bruised tailbone. In an NSA first,
the judges Joe Bowers, Billy Ruff, Britt Parrot, Joel Gomez
and Buddy Carr-sat down and and watched videos for
trial judging excercises.
A new NSA record was set in the area c competitor at-
tendance when close to 70 verticalists showed up to show
down. There were also more skaters than spectators. To
accomadate the mass Don Bostick devised a new format
Paul Schmitt designed the most elaborately built ramp whereby the skaters were grouped into seven heats of ap-
for an NSA event since Vision's double duty dreamboat proximately 10 skaters each. The top scorer from each heat
at the '86 pro finals in the Anaheim Convention Center. would automatically go to a 10-man final jam. The three
Don Fisher, Stevo, Malba, Beatle Rosecrans, Salba and remaining slots would be determined by a 10-man two-run
Mark Cernicky pitched in and heave ho'd. Ramp highlights semi-jam of the highest scorers in qualifying. Don't ask.
included the Taco Bell hump extension, and a 3/4-pipe ex- how they determined who was in what heat. When it was
tension that was rather egg shaped. Salba and Malba also
over Hawk, Miller, Hosoi, Boyle, Way, Alba and Nolder were
donated several slabs of original combi pool coping from the magnificent seven who would sit out for the final, while
SMITH
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