It had nothing to do with hurricanes. The closest thing to a hur-
ricane were the drinks that bartender Wendy Wentzel was whipping
up for Malba, Muir, Schneer, Midgett, Losi, Detters, yours truly and
a host of others in the downstairs lounge and pool room of a Virginia
Beach Days Inn, hard by Highway 44, and across the road from Mt.
Trashmore Park and its world-famous skateboard ramp facility.
It had nothing to do with race riots or hooligan behavior, although
VA Beach had grabbed major
national news attention during the
recent Labor Day unrest. VBPD
policy regarding the drunk and
disorderly is quite clear: take
prisoners. Visitors, Schroeder,
Schneer, Big Jim from NYC, and
members of the House of Kasai all
took a tour of the downtown brink
before a local academy graduate
drove them to the Days Inn.
It's probable that a light drizzling
rain blew in from Florida on Friday
night and caused the first cancel-
lation of an outdoor pro vert ramp.
event this reporter can remember.
It's fact that the practice sessions blazed without a hitch under
the supervision of Don and Danielle Bostick on Friday and everything
was set to go. Rain? So there was a slight rain delay. That's nothing
new on the East Coast. It would blow over. The only thing really out
of place was Tom Cozens' hair. A good majority of the team managers
and NSA administrators had been there since one or two o'clock
at the earliest. Tom said he had to personally inspect the dance floor
and the employees at Crazy Charlies on the outside chance that
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the NSA might be liable if someone slipped in spilt liquid and cracked
their head open. Other names mentioned as part of the inspection
team included T-Peggy, Randy G., Hogan, Bowers, Sherman Tank
and Rude Ridgeway.
At this juncture the pro skater activity was centered around the
small and tightly-transitioned Trashmore ramp. This ramp has been
the scene of several major vert events and several major incidents.
It was in the parking lot back in
1986 that Gator Rogowski was ar-
rested for something nobody could
remember. On the same spot, an
unknown kid from Jersey named
Mike Vallely was discovered walk-
ing on his hands. This year the
parking lot scene was much more
low key and the older, wiser VB.
crew ruled. There was Mike.
Crescini on crutches, Henry
Guiterrez and bros, Alan Midgett
with a car, John Fudala talking
BBQ, and Sergie Ventura ripping
the ramp like he owned it. Conroy
and Youssefpour were going pro,
and the rest of the East Coast contingency was ready to wage war-
Buck Smith, fresh from a successful campaign at Munster, Jim Mur-
phy, not far away from his Jersey roots, Rob Mertz had something
to prove, and Donny Myhre, Scott Stanton, Bob Umble, Jeff Jones,
Peanut Brown and Billy Beauregaurd were all anxiously chomping.
at the bit. Then there were rookie sensations like Bryan Pennington,
Dave Nielson, John Sonner, Bernie O'Dowd, New Zealand's Andrew
Morrison, John Fabriquer, and Dave Donaldson ready to step up
Opening Page Official unofficial cane king Simon Levine swoops
em on Trashmore's soap box hill Photo: Kevin J. Thatcher
Clockwise from Left: Suspension truck check-up time for Bad. H
you can't skate Vert abuse the dirt-Jim Crazy Legs" Murphy
Jooks for a holo Open field aggression by strong safety Eddip
Reategul Peanut Brown high steps for extra yardage