SKULLY NUTS
A NUTS & BOLTS Co.
1½" HIGH-GRADE
ALLENHEAD TRUCK BOLTS
With lock-tight nuts
If you can break it...we'll replace it FREE.
TO ORDER: Send $4.50 for complete set PLUS FREE stickers.
MAIL TO: 4629 N. Blythe, Fresno, CA 93722.
SKULLY
NUTS T's
SWEAT
SHIRT $18
"(For Ball-Busters Only)
ROLLERMANIA
illie
+6033)497265
25 FLEET St. SWINDON
Opening Easter
Indoor ramps and half pipe
Briping Biggest little rate Store!!
62 PARK ROW, BRISTOL BS1 5LE
tel.(0272) 279981 fax.(0272)291867
CLOSED
(From page at master control made
everything look small, including his
competitors.
Omar Hassan is cocky and sure
of himself in skate situations, mixed
with a rare combination of fifteen-
year-old nice guy. A member of the
"chrome domes," a crew who skates
a 40' wide steel coated mini-ramp
somewhere in California, Omar did
stuff like fly four feet over the exten-
sion while grabbing method air, to
fakie, into a gay twist over the spine,
back to an ollie off the pool coping
and into a method lien air over the
spine. For a kid, he skated the bowl
real well and his aired-out transfers
from bowl to mini-ramp were without
flaw and consistently pulled while
others bailed. Omar had the only run
other than Buck Smith that was fall-
free and near perfect. He's coming
on strong and showed why he could
be the next Steve Caballero.
Wade Speyer. This set up was
definitely Wade's world for a while as
he qualified second to Chris Miller.
enough to drink the champagne, kiss
the pretty girl and take the cash, but
it was Jeff Phillips who dominated the
proceedings and the score sheets
with a walkaway victory in the house
that he built. Jeff got pantsed to the
ankles by Schneer during the awards
ceremony but somehow managed to
make everyone else feel more
embarrassed about it than he was.
Epilogue-Although you get sick
and tired of hanging around a skate-
park after a week's worth of stench
and sweat build-up, the NSA "Pro-
gression Session" at Jeff Phillips' in
Dallas was a good opportunity for a
lot of pro skaters and the best in the
business to get together and com-
pare notes as it were, and to put the
new radicals up against some of the
aging skate pirates. For the NSA and
new president Don Bostick it was a
good chance to take a deep breath,
hang with the skaters and still in-
stigate some great skating in a casual
setting. Hopefully, future contests
(with spectators) will continue along
those lines. RESULTS ON PAGE 30
In between smoke breaks Wade lit GOING DOWN
(From page 6) it has enough width so
it doesn't fold in the corners."
Cutting-edge sleds are made out
of T66 aluminum shaped into a rec-
the place up with blazing speed
through the bowl, 50/50's backside
and frontside into ollies out of the
bowl to 50/50 ollies into the mini-
ramp. From there, a spine to island
180° Les twist kind of thing, and then tangular rail or channel. Slap on a
came back with a rock walk 50/50
boardslide-to-fakie over the spine. He
launched over the island to a front-
side pivot then a fakie-to-backwards
50/50-to-backwards roll-in. Whew.
Backsliding disasters-to-Smith
grinds at speed are Wade's specialty
and he ended the world with an ollie-
to-back truck Smith-to-fakie in. Did
you get all that?
Chris Miller dropped into the bowl
and swirled around for a speed carve
then launched a giant lien air out
and...slammed, accidentally going
to his axle. Back in the bowl Chris
got so much speed going it could
hardly contain him as he threw down
50/50's and fast rock 'n' rolls. With
heavy m.p.h. Chris launched another
big air and throw it away again.
Once back up. Chris settled in with
backwards carves through the bowl,
double-truck grinding side-to-side,
then figure-eight carved before
reverting on the wall at speed to a
manual rollout over the deck and in-
to the mini-ramp, flew over the spine
and threw up a backside lipslide on
the extension from low to high, back
to Smith over the spine and finished
with a frontside boardslide-to-fakie.
Without a fall, Chris' routine was
unbeatable, but with a bail or two it
was up for grabs.
Phillips, Omar, Buck Smith, Miller,
Dressen, Speyer, all had done well
custom fit seat (kind of a miniature
tractor seat), add some foot pegs.
and you're ready to go. The seat's
edges give you enough support so
that you almost don't have to hold
on-you can just push your hips up
to the side for leverage. The end
result of all this custom development
is speed-cues that stick like glue
around almost any corner. Four-
wheel drift has been eliminated, and,
according to Ken, "You can go as fast
as you can around any corner. Sleds
turn faster than anything-cars.
bikes, anything-with more control."
On the other hand, Bostick, who
rides a simpler, more skate-like
vehicle, finds that the four-wheel drift
greatly assists steering and speed
control. Says Don: "You can go into
every run jamming, go into a four-
wheel slide and control your speed
through sliding. You don't even have
to use your brakes or burn your feet."
TESTING GROUNDS
As equipment progresses and
speeds increase, it becomes more
and more necessary to find safe,
secure spots to lay it down. Max Rac-
ing has, on occasion, gained access
to protected slopes at Sears Point
and Laguna Seca Raceways. "It's
nice to have a closed circuit to let
loose on," says Ken. "Some roads
are dangerous because there are too
many driveways and cars will pull in
or out without even seeing you.
Sometimes people see you out on
the road-full helmet and leathers-
and they immediately think you're a
motorcyclist who ate it because they
can't see the board. They start look
ing for your motorcycle going, 'It's
coming, I know it is. Sometimes
police actually come out and direct
traffic, as long as you're not dicks and
use some common sense. Actually,
the Sheriff's Department doesn't like
us but the C.H.P. does. If the sheriffs
liked us then the C.H.P. wouldn't,
because they don't get along."
CRASH AND BURN
As you can imagine, scrub poten-
tial at these speeds is quite high.
However, Ken claims that proper
technique can prevent serious injury.
"The only time people crash bad is
when they try to plant their feet. You
have to stay laid out and loose. If you
panic and try to stand up, you're
going to take a tumble. If you try to
go too fast when you first start, you're
asking for it.
"I've seen somebody get run over
by a car. It was his second time, so
we told him to go slow and just follow
us. He tried to race all the way down
and was doing all right until he got
to the last gnarly corner. He took it
sliding and lost it going into oncom-
ing traffic. The car saw him coming
and actually stopped, but he plowed
right into it. Ripped his helmet right
off, broke a bunch of bones, and it
was all because he was trying to go
too fast. He almost died. We crash,
but it's not that bad when you know
how to control a slide-out or when to
let off in a certain situation. It's dan
gerous if you don't stay within your
limits. You have to start off slow and
slowly build yourself up. You can't
jump on a sled and go seventy the
first time. If it screws up in the slight
est, you have to know what to do."
STARTING
Of course, the next logical ques-
tion is, how do you learn what to do?
Do you just lie back on your long-
board and let 'er rip? Don spells it
out, plain and simple: "If you're
going to luge on your downhill board,
you want your ass right over that front
truck. For years I just held my legs
up out front and just held on to the
side. Other guys would show up with
these specialized boards and I'd still
beat them. If I was teaching begin-
ners, I would take them up to a
straight hill and slowly get them up
to about thirty-five or forty, get them
comfortable with the speed and lying
down on your back. It takes some gut
conditioning-sit-ups, crunches and
a lot of beer drinking help. Mainly you
just have to be open-minded and a
little crazy."
STOPPING
According to Ken, stopping is
totally easy. "You can stop twice as
fast as any other vehicle, even race
cars. By pulling the board up while
you put your feet down you can stop
from 80 to 0 in the length of a
telephone pole. If you had brakes
you'd use them too much, and it just
makes the board more complicated
and costly. 'How do you stop?" is
usually the first question anybody
asks. 'How often do you wear through
a pair of shoes?' is the next. Some-
times two runs will take care of a pair
We've designed plastic pads and
glued chunks of car tire on our heels,
but you have to hold up any extra
weight you put on your feet if you
don't have foot pegs.
FINISH LINE
Start to stop, top to bottom, street
luge is a high-speed, high-energy.
high-risk sport. Before you drag your
stick out to the longest, steepest hill
in town, remember that, like any
other form of skating, luge requires
mucho practice. Anyone who wants
to take this sport lightly should reflect
on a nightmare accident Ken suf-
fered just before press time...
"I was cruising down a straight-
away, minding my own business, no
turns. I was going down on the right
side of the road and I knew some
cars were back there because I had
passed them a couple of miles up the
road. The next thing I knew, there's
a tire coming over the back side of
my helmet. I thought there was an
earthquake or something until it was
on my chest. This was a big Ford
F-250 off-road truck. He had monster
mudders and stuff. As soon as it was
on my chest, I knew what was going
on, then it popped me out into the
middle of the road going back up the
hill." Ken suffered multiple fractures
and abrasions, but even now, laid up
on his couch, he recited some dates
and plans for Max Racing events. He
hopes link up with lugists in Seattle,
Hawaii and on the East Coast and set
up a tour
Street Luge-is it the ultimate
outlaw death sport of the nineties?
Will these daredevils of speed soon
be rocketing down from 12,000 foot
mountain passes at over 100 miles
per hour? Or perhaps they'll be tear-
ing through city streets in some sort
of macabre Grand Prix while crash-
thirsty fans line the street, craning
their necks as the boys fly by
Whether land luging gains accep-
tance or not, it's another example of
skateboarders treading that grey
area between law and order. In any
case, if it's speed thrills you want
today, luge is the way.
fishlips
AM BILL WHITE
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