Clockwise from Left: Frontside channel invert by a
fearless Steve Schneer Paul Schmitt pilots his plank
across the same chasm South American schralper
Lincoln Ueda lets loose with a lien airwalk. The
snakerun's steel Mp submits to Andy Howell.
Tony Hawk carve-grinded the corner and
launched an ollie-to- backward boardslide on
the double coping of the platform quarter-
pipe. Ray Barbee skated, smiled, flipped,
twisted and spun the board under his feet.
Lance outshined them all, dorking around
and making a mockery of everyone and
everything with his rare just-for-fun attitude.
Of course, with Lance, you always get an
eyeful of skating-he landed a handplant
over the handrail and a big frontside air on
the corner ramp, to name a couple tricks
Very few made the steep high handrail. One.
of them was Fernandi Nho from Brazil, who
skated rad with a 360° corner air on the
Venice High corner.
The freestyle area, custom-made out of
perfectly joined, painted wood particle board,
was big, smooth and grippy. Blazing amateur
champ Sean Coons could have been a top.
contender in the pros. A lot of freestylers from
Brazil showed up and pulled off some hard
maneuvers, but with little consistency. Daryl
Grogan, at his second pro contest, outskated
some heavyweight pros with his English
handstand flip, ollie flips, and shove-its, and
left me thinking he could do better. Gunter
showed his usual bag of intricate 50/50 varia-
tions, fast footwork and allie impossible
skating to the "Legalize It" beat. Pierre
Andre was fast, maybe too fast, and stepped
down a couple of times. Don Brown put
together a thousand tricks in his usual clean
and smiling style to capture first place.
The slalom comp took place in the morn-
ing while everyone was still kicking back from
a long night. In a major upset, Paolo Gatti
from Italy took it, beating skate promoter and
master-coner Jani Soderhall of Sweden.
The amateur vertsmen took to the ramp
next. Farm Ramp vet Morris Wainwright
rolled into seventh place, close behind
Swedish rocker Slamming Tony Jansson.
Fifth place went to SoCal shredder Omar
Hassan, who, with his ninth place am street
finish, was crossover champ. Scotland's
Livingston Park local Davie Phillips nabbed
fourth while insane Dane Soeren Aaby
garnered a hotly contested third behind
American citizen/European vagabond Ryan
Monihan. Am grand champ title went to Nor-
Cal nice guy Marc Saito. Then it was time
for the pros to show their stuff.
As usual, the coping area was fully
stickered with two or three layers of colorful
paper. Negao, the impressive Brazilian guy
who pulled off three frontside Mclwists in a
row during practice, didn't make the cut. Tony
Hawk was up on the platform, calm and
loose. Bod Boyle warmed up while some
guys cleaned the ramp. The music was calm,
like the calm before a storm. Magnusson hit.
the coping. Allen "I'm-a-cut-maker" Losi
practiced some unique tricks while people
jockeyed for the best vantage points. Claus
Grabke was up on the platform too, this time
with camera in his hands, waiting for his knee
to return to full strength again. I decided to
ask some of the skaters a few questions.
Hi, Jeff Kendall, what's your attitude for the
final? "Uhmmm, try not to have an attitude."
Well, so much for that idea. Jeff pretty.
much summed it up. Kevin Thatcher finished
stickering everyone's helmet. Tony H. landed
a stale McTwist. practice stopped, and the
final jam began.
As the comp rolled on, pressure got higher
and higher. The spectators screamed and the
skaters pushed harder. Communication for
most of the people was now reduced to loud,
primitive, pure "YEAH's" and "WHOA's!"
The whole Halle's attention was focused on
whomever was riding.
Allen Losi and Allen Midgett bailed a bit
but showed some individuality. The shy.
fifteen-year-old Brazilian kid named Ueda,
who was unable to get a run during the snak-
ing session, exploded at full speed during
the jam, landing perfectly a long sequence
of high-flying maneuvers. Buck Smith was
really aggressive and powerful as he blazed
some wild runs. Jeff Kendall showed
stamina, with long runs full of big airs and
smooth lip tricks performed with an easy-
flowing, clean style. Bod showed impressive.
routines during practice, but lacked con-
sistency in the final jam. Tony Magnusson
did something new each time. Tony Hawk
didn't bail, and also introduced new tricks
each run. Eventually, he ended up with the
world champ title.
After the contest, competitors got free
tickets for the party at the Odeon where 8
Dayz, Claus Grabke's band, was going to
play. Too bad some of us wasted our time
dorking around and arrived late to find that
the live music was over. The atmosphere was
still hot, however, and lots of skaters were still
joining the fiesta and slamming/dancing
around the club. Good beer at cheap prices,
cool vibes and fun were the ingredients that
cooked skaters and friends till 3 a.m., when,
even after the music was (Continued on page 117)