THRASHER
RAD
SANTA CRUZ
RAD
RAD
SANTZ
HRASHER KAS
KATEBOARD
COMPETITION
CLOSE-UP
SHUT UP AND SKATE- Dallas, Nov. 11 & Houston Nov. 12
by Don Fisher
Mark Roach picked Ffej Hedges, Mike Prosenko and me up in Dallas
and we set anchor at a cheap motel near the Jeff Phillips' skatepark. Due
the lack of vert contests this year and the quality of Jeff's park, lots of pros
were showing for both SUAS showdowns, even though they weren't NSA
events.
The contest ramp was 44' wide with extensions and 8' long downhill
escalators opposite each other with 26' of flat wall. "No vert' was the main
complaint. The format was: qualify Saturday, jam Sunday.
Many ams from across the nation chose to participate in this one event
rather than the regional, district-to-finals style NSA jams. Dan Hollenbeck
stayed on and ripped. Chris Gentry floated ollie blunts on the extensions.
Ryan Monihan lofted ollie indy grabs. Adam Luxford from Oz took 7th with
his big bag of tricks, including 10' long lipslides. Mike Youssefpour busted
big half-Cab indy grabs-to-fakle in his mean runs. Texas-bred Troy Chasen
smashed over-the-head tail grabs, no-footed Madonnas about 4' out; Mark
Roach was at his home park and it showed with frontside roll-in reverts,
ollie reverts and smooth long backside Smith grinds, but a lack of con- Two tiche man am Tom "The Rock" Boyle
sistency gave him 4th. Coming out of Minnesota, Dave Leroux
spanked the coping and busted frontside airs-to-fakie into 3rd.
Dallas boy Mike Crum smacked crail and feebly slid into 2nd.
The winner was Tom Boyle. This amateur would have pro-
bably won the pro event with his rides that day: McTwists,
lipslides, half-Cab indy grabs-to-fakie and feebles, all on edge,
clearly pushed harder than anyone else's.
The pros took to the ramp furiously. Announcer Dana Buck
had his hands full calling the wall-to-wall action. Standouts
included Father Flej's varial handplants and lipslide reverts
to 12th. Craig Johnson showed everyone he is not afraid of
delivering an on-the-edge view of powerhouse skating. Dave
Neilson held down tenth with indy McTwists and more Tom
Groholski whipped 360° hurricanes. Henry Guiterrez out of
VB, styled VA frontside fingerflip airs to 8th. Floridan Buck
Smith, with a van full of skaters (Jimmy O'Brien and Marty
Ramos), slapped varial thrusters-to-tall and clean lien
disasters. Bio Airs and handplants stalled Ken Fillion into 6th.
Bryan Pennington made a great showing at 5th with lipslides
and high ollies. East Coast elite Blaize Blouin showed major
style with long stand-up grinds, and speedy backside
bonelesses. Probably the most underrated pro skater, Al Losi
punched backside disasters to front truck, pumped long Smith
One man, one foot, one dream-Houston champ Al Losi
LIFE'S
BLAC
grinds-to-fakie, forward ollies-to-fakie and snatched 3rd place.
Bod Boyle had entered seven contests in the last nine weeks,
and he was still on. Layback roll-out reverts, high airs and
big body jars guaranteed him the number 2 spot. Jeff Phillips
skated harder and more consistently than any other pro. A
local to say the least, he pushed every trick. Lien-to-tail reverts,
Phillips 66's and 33's, high stale fish and frontside inverts.
He even popped his shoulder out of socket on one run but
still completed his next two runs.
All in all it was a good contest at a great location. Highlights
in the warm-up bowl included Allen Midgette's fakie figure-
eight carves, Owen Nolder r-n-r sliding around the corners
and Ben Schroeder's speed lines. Unfortunately, the spec-
tator turnout was weak-what happened to Texas?
That night, the Video Bar hosted a skate party featuring
Dana's band. No pogo allowed. Billy Smith will attest to the
overzealous attitudes of the doormen. I guess they had
something to prove.
The next morning Ffej and I flew south to Houston. The Hur
ricane ramp had just been redone with fresh steel layers and
8' wide extensions opposite each other. Everyone voted to
hold the am event on Saturday and the pro on Sunday. The
cold weather in Houston deadened bones, muscles and
nerves of skaters and spectators alike. I myself took a quick
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