1989 COMPETITION WRAP-UP
SHOWER AT TOWER
evening during the freestyle eliminations,
thus rescheduling all events for the rest of
the weekend and potentially affecting the out-
come in several events.
In the hotly-contested freestyle category,
Tim Waldusky railed-to-impossible and beat
out much-improved Andres Camacho for first
place. George Nagai and Rob Rodriguez
rounded out the top four spots. The freestyle
event, as it turned out, was the only one of
the four disciplines to go the distance of two
qualifying runs to a 12-man final.
After a rain delay scattered everyone just
as the street qualifying was getting under
way Friday afternoon, it was decided that all
three remaining events-street, vert and mini
ramp-would be held on Saturday in a two
run, no-cut, wham-bam-you-won situation.
This meant a 12-hour day for the judges.
STREET FEED
Saturday morning would be a scramble for
street honors. Only Max Evans and Mike
Kepper sparked the judges interest in the first
round. Heat two was the burner, with almost
every skater posting a score above 80.
Highlights were Jeremy Klein's award-
winning 360° ollie from platform to bank and
Noah Salasnek's smooth, stay-on tuck-knee
style. Brian Blake, Ron Chatman, Eric
Britton, Barker Barrett, Ed Templeton, Brent
Koslowski and Eric Murphy also deserve
honorable mentions. Heat number three
came to a standstill when light-footed Jesse
Neuhaus came off the rail slide and full body
slammed, cutting his chin and practically
knocking himself out. While Jesse
recovered, Dave Warne ripped around the
course in his boots and Justin Girard put in
two solid routines to earn sixth place. Jesse
came back to 50/50 the rail and take fifth
while Brian Blake's score held up for fourth,
Max Evans slid into third, Jeremy Klein was
second and Noah Salasnek surprised all by
retaining first.
VERT CALL
tion in the U-pipe was getting heavy. In the
Before you could say "Who won?" the ac-
first heat Sean Miller had the crowd of most-
ly contestants, friends, moms and dads
shouting approval. Miller is an animal, and
his final three minute and eighteen second
run proved it. After starting his routine with
a fourth trick Mctwist Sean continued to as-
tound with laybacks-to-revert, switch stance
inverts, burly airs and his award winning fakie
eggplant-to-fakie, or good buddy-to-fakie for
those keeping track. Sean skated shirtless
and his upper body was showing the mark-
ings of battle, scraped and bloodied. After
Sean's marathon in the first heat set the
blistering pace, it was hard for anyone else
to compare. The closest competitor, smooth
skating Jason Rogers, was in Sean's heat.
Third place went to another burler, Brian
Boyd, who shows a mastery (Continued on page 100)
Clockwise from Right: A master at two mediums,
Noah Salasnek hucks one off the bank launch then
hefts his street champ trophy. Sick man Sean Miller
holds the gold, and spins into vertical victory. Lien-
to-tail-to-mini-ramp-gold by Eric Sanderson. Ross
Goodman gets reckless on the big'un.
by Kevin Thatcher
he road to the finals this year took a
detour before it reached Pride Pavilion
in Phoenix, Arizona (site of last years na-
tionals), and ended up in Tower Skatepark
on the rural side of the valley, hard by the
railroad tracks, inside a swap meet grounds.
What better place to invite a randy bunch of
amateur skaters from all over America to
skate it out for top national honors, trophies
and lucrative model deals and pro contracts
for 1990?
TOWER OF POWER
A large vert ramp sat majestically in a far
corner of the park, boxed in by the free-
standing walls of what used to be a cotton
processing plant for military clothing during
wartime. A mini-ramp complex complete with
spine, offset wall and two ancillary ramps-
accessible only by a hefty corner air transfer
or a tricky manual roll-out-encircled the
spectator area. On the the other side of this
skating grounds along the opposite wall was
a compact street scene featuring a large
banked wall with launch ramp in the middle;
a quarter-pipe; a banked island with stairs,
rail and carveable bowl; a banked corner that
doubled as the judges platform; a
pseudo sidewalk with metal edge and
a kicklip on one end. Throw in a man-
made curbslide and a real cement curb
and the facility was complete.
A roof would have come in handy
when the rain sprinkled in Thursday
48
ASO AR
RAD SONJA
Sonja Catalano has been presi-
dent of the California Amateur
Skateboard League, director of
the NSA Amateur Series, den
mother and friend to amateur
skaters and liason to parents and
city officials for years. Kevin
Thatcher caught up with her a
few days after the am finals to get
her thoughts on the 1989 series.
How do you feel about the
Amateur Nationals, now that you
can sit back and look at the
whole thing?
I felt for the skaters, as far as
them being put under a great deal
of pressure. For example, during
the vertical ramp contest, we had
skaters scheduled during the mid-
dle of that contest to go practice on
X
the mini-ramp. If it hadn't rained, the
same thing would have been true of
street and vertical. Some of them
opted not to practice because they
couldn't break their concentration on
one competitive situation to go prac-
tice another event.
It wasn't the way I personally
wanted to schedule the contest.
Regardless of the rain, I was told to
compress it.
I would really like to express my
thanks to people like Rick Neuhaus,
Eric Matheis and the Thomhills, who
flew themselves out to work as a
volunteer staff because I didn't have
money to pay a staff. Red Dog sat
there all day, helping me and keep-
ing score. Keith Cochrane helped me
too. It was truly a group effort. Todd
Hastings from Powell, Gavin from
Santa Cruz, Mark from Blockhead,
All the team managers have been
great about pitching in all year. We
need to get back to that.
Basically, the paid amateur staff
this year was Dave Crabb and me.
That was it for the season. Going into
the finals, I did come up with money
to get Fish back, who of course is ex-
perienced. Mario Martinez, the new
vice-president of CASL, was paid
also. Mark Waters was our MC and
overnight security guard. He even
slept in the trailer.
Can you think of any bright spots?
I think the bright spots were the
skaters. They have been fantastic all
year, except for one or two isolated
incidents. They've been 100% coop-
erative with Dave Crabb and me. At
their districts and regionals I think
they were all happy. I personally felt
very sorry for them-having to be put
into the situation they were put in at
the nationals. (Continued on page 98)