W
ANN BEGINNT DIE FÜHRUNG?: After dis-
embarking, Phil and Buck make their way
into the sunshine. Beneath a sign reading
"Ausfahrt" they encounter several familiar faces. Sitting
on the sidewalk next to a taxi stand is a mangy figure,
Jeff Grosso. Plowing some noisy curb thumpers barefoot
Is Ben Schroeder. One of his toes is slightly bleeding and
he looks in need of a bath. Eric Nash peddles up on a
rented bike. It has a girl's frame. Steve stands against a
wall in the shade, his bag-
gage stacked in a pile next
to a phone booth.
"You guys just get here?"
inquires Phil.
"Ugh. naw. We got here a
couple of days ago," replies
Steve.
"Don't you have a hotel?"
"We had a hotel, but
Grosso snuck too many
people into the room and
the management found.
out. They weren't too.
happy."
"Yeah. In the middle of
the night, all of these cops
come busting into our
room. There's people lying
all over the floor, the tub,
the balcony, and Steve
wasn't even there." Grosso
explains.
"So I get back to the hotel
and there's cops all over
the lobby, and my bags are
laying there on the floor,"
adds Steve. "Everyone.
points the finger at me and
we get the boot. There was
no way of talking ourselves
out of that one."
"We all slept in the park."
Ben smiles.
"Better luck next time!"
Buck says, bending to pick
up his baggage. Turning
his head slightly, he says.
to Merde under his breath,
"Let's hop a cab and dice it over to our hotel. Let's not
get our asses booted."
REISTOẞ SCHLEIMHAUT EINLAUF: The atmo-
sphere is palatable although the weather appears
to be taking a turn for the worse. Münster has
been the sight of eight Masterships, each hosted
by Titus Skates. With all of the shenanigans that occur
throughout the duration of these events, one would
think that the city would know better by now.
Every year, Münster is besieged by thousands of skate-
boarders from all over Europe, a number which increas-
es as the years go on. This year, the throngs are pep-
pered with citizens coming from Eastern block
countries, East Germany. Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hun-
gary and Lithuania. Scenes from Brando's "The Wild
One" come to mind. Ironically, at this very same time in
Sturgis, a small town of 7,000 in South Dakota. 250,000
bikers are gathered for a virtual Woodstock in leathers.
an occasion marking the 50th Anniversary of the Black
Hills Motorcycle classic, a yearly festival of racing and
merrymaking. One maniac busts down the door of some
old lady's house, waves a 24-inch knife around, holds it
to her throat long enough for her to redecorate her
shorts, then runs scream-
ing into the night smashing
car windows and motorcy-
cle headlights until he is
gunned down by the feds
when he charges their
vehicles.
t
he scenario in Mün-
ster isn't quite as
diabolic. First, there
isn't as much of a
drug problem, and they're
not roaming the asphalt on
hogged-out, 2-wheeled gas-
powered highway mach-
ines. They ride rental bikes.
Instead of wielding knives,
the chosen tool of damage
is a four-wheeled stunt-
wood. The rental bikes
aren't so much rented as
just lifted from wherever
they lie, which is just about
everywhere.
Throughout the upcoming
days, a major concern of
the visiting contingent of
American Juggernauts, is
the instability of the mone-
tary exchange rate. Stable
at first, it become erratic
once Mr. Joe Saddam
Hussien decides to prove to
his ol' lady that he wasn't
actually impotent. Not only
can he rattle her brains
out, he could do the same
to a whole 'nother country,
in this case, Kuwait. So,
Mr. Sad busts through a borderline, invades, plunders.
rapes...the whole shebang. At this point he is just fin-
gering the country. Oh, what to do when the devil shows
up at your doorstep.
DU BIST NICHTS, DEIN VOLK IS ALLES: After accli-
mating to the surrounding areas, Merde and Scout
shoot off into different directions.
seeking adventure, and, if they are
really lucky, maybe even the true
meaning of life. Not that the meaning
of life is what they are really after. It's
just that the less you really try to
find something, the better the chance
of you finding it. So they keep the
Stay on or slam.
Bod Boyle does it
all. Vertical first
at Münster and
third at Grand
Bornand.
possibility of finding the meaning of life in the back of
their minds. Buck had once said that if, by any chance.
they found it, it would probably be worth a lot of money.
Maybe even enough to pay for the trip to Europe.
After much skateboarding along Bahnhofsraße, Phil
comes upon Halle Münsterland, off to the side of down-
town, just past the train station. Next to the entrance.
the sidewalk is a lot dirtier than the rest of the side-
walks leading to this point. There is no reason for this.
and Phil is baffled by its
odd significance.
While scoping the facili-
ties, he stumbles upon a
curious fellow by the name
of Darby Simon Jagannath.
Darby Simon has an eerie
quality about him. He
appears to be without na-
tionality. He has a lan-
guage all his own with an
accent from every dialect.
As Phil slides to a halt out-
side the stage entrance, the
Jag is in the throes of a
tale: "I dreamed of making
love to the bride of Frank-
enstein." He pauses a sec-
ond, then he said, "Hell is a
summer festival, and there
is nothing like stereo ham-
mers on the continent! If
you get my drift. Phil
doesn't, and can't tell who
Darby is talking to. Decid-
ing to research this charac
ter later, he slides into the
building.
CHRAUBE RECHT-
ZEITIG: The main
attractions in the
contest are the vert and
street competitions, with
other events like freestyle
and vert rollerskating in-
between. One thing unani-
mously falls into favor with
the street competitors...the
"No pad rule."
The streetstyle course is very fast, not too slippery. It's
much better than last year and is peppered with numer
ous obstacles: the Fun Box, located near the center of
the arena, combines three hip ramps and a large plat-
form with a handrail descending over a quarter-pipe: V-
shaped quarter-pipes; an elevated sidewalk with a curb
on the side; a mean quarter-pipe
with a kink to a half-foot of vert;
another bank about six feet high and
twelve feet wide with a curb on top
with no platform; a quarter pipe in a
corner; and, not far from the Fun
Box, a little "pump-hump-bump."
also known as a mogul. Finally, next
Ed Templeton
came in from the
dark to dominate
overseas. One
footed ottle to
railslide.
to that, is an eight-foot wide, four-foot high spine ramp.
The halfpipe's construction is massive. Though not
unique in design, it features two elevated areas and a
death box. It is covered by one layer of ply and one layer
of Masonite. The Masonite was flown in from the U.S.
ESCHWINDIGKEITSBEGRENZUG FREILAUF:
Buck Scout walks the downtown limits of the
city, catching hot glimpses of busty and sweaty
frauliens with their skirts hiked up high to sit
on festhaus barstools. He
climbs a tree by the edge of
the promenade. It is grow-
ing dark. With a bird's eye
view of the surrounding
area, he observes the peo-
ple up close and is not
seen. Near the corner of
Klemensstraße and Winkl-
straße, he is only a couple
of steps away from the
pedestrian street, a major
foot path through to the
center of the city. Given the
compact size of Münster,
Scout deduces that nearly
all of the visiting jugger-
nauts are bound to walk
past this spot within the
next few hours.
Minutes pass, a commo-
tion comes up the street
behind him. It grows loud-
er. A handful of American
skathletes wobble beneath
the tree on bikes, singing,
arguing, swearing, breath-
ing. They brake to a stop a
few yards off and begin
pointing in several different
directions. Finally, the
group splits and cruises.
into the darkness in two
completely different direc-
tions. There seems to be no
natural or reasonable
cause for this behavior, but
then again, these creatures
are skaters, and being rea-
sonable is not anywhere in their credo. In fact, being
unpredictable is about the only thing predictable about
them.
Buck winds his way through the streets to his hotel, he
stumbles upon a nightclub, the Odeon. The place is like
flypaper for young people. Nearly all of the visiting clus-
ter of skaters are gathered. The action is as bizarre as
that bar in Star Wars.
reaks from every jungle line the barstools, and
even freakier ones are bouncing around on the
dance floor. A large gathering of warriors from one
of the California tribes are leaning forward in a
circle, chanting some sort of voodoo song. 'GO GO GO
THE WIRE! GO GO GO THE WIRE! A closer look reveals
44 THRASHER MAGAZIN