V-FORCE
CREME
RENO LIVESTOCK EVENTS CENTER
D
ollie off the fun box to a 50/50 down the
handrail and into second place.
Mr. Lance Conklin came out of Florida
and rode his Tea Bags into first place with
ollies-to-fakie over the fun box, body jars
on the Q.P., ollies off the fun box to feeble
down the handrail and good use of the flat.
The Finals - Freestyle
Before my digestive system could even go
to work on my pita bread taco and
unidentified beverage, the freestyle finals go
underway. The NSA had a strong contingent
of freestyle skaters this year, and the top
fifteen finalists were showing the stuff that
earned them their top spots. Even I, the
eternal freestyle "Mikey," was impressed.
Third place Henry Candiotti earned his spot
with a plethora of intricate rail-to-tail (and
vice-versa) work, and some impressive
shove maneuvers. In second spot was West
Coaster Jeff Rycklebosh. A freestyle aficio-
nado observing the finals would have
labeled some of Jeff's tricks as follows:
ollie impossible, hand-
stand kickflip, shove-it and
M-80 kickflip.
Rob Rodrigues, in addi-
tion to being the first place
freestyler, was also a fash-
ion statement, decked out
in all black, from his skin
head to the Vans around
his toes, which were con-
nected to his board
through some long, high-
speed front and backside
G-turns, interspersed with
backward space walks and
a long list of other speed
and style tricks.
Mike Kinney, Ben Mul-
len, Matt Wood, J.T.
Murphy and Jason Burch
rounded out the top eight.
spots, and, with the appli-
cation of a little elbow.
grease, could easily find
themselves on
top next year.
The Finals Mini-Ramp
Some time between the end of
the freestyle event and the onset
of my first gambling withdrawals,
the weather changed into a
summer thundershower, much to the
NSA officials chagrin. This was fine by
me, as it gave me a brief respite from my
editorial obligations and enabled my en-
quiring mind to put an end to the eternal
question: "What is pig racing?"
I was just in time for the two
o'clock post, which included such
stellar names in pigdom as
Magnum P.I.G., Steven
Squealburg and Tammy Faye
Bacon. I seized my
chance to get a
quick gambling fix for
my withdrawals and
made a C-note bet on
Tammy Faye with an
unidentified industry
person. What can I say?
There's a sucker born
every minute. The end of
the pig races coincided
with a break in the
weather so I headed
back outside one
Opposite Page: Top
streetstyle dude
Lance Conklin
ollies-to-mute grab
over a slight
masonite bump.
Left: Fancy foot of
cionado Rob Rodri
guez shuffles into
first place freestyle
Above Right: Dave
Leroux tweaks his
floatation device
backside on the way
to second place vert.
hundred dollars richer
and prepared myself for
the mini-ramp finals,
which would have to be
nothing short of amazing
to compare with the
sheer adrenaline surge of pig racing.
Needless to say, even die-hard pig racing
fans were left slack-jawed at the level of
intensity of the mini-ramp comp.
Tenth place Fred Olande was skating
on borrowed time after being ejected from
the premises earlier by an over-zealous and
overweight security drone, but still snuck in
some good runs. He event
did a half-Cab nose stall,
if I remember correctly.
Todd Bechele came out
from Nebraska and went
home with ninth place by
virtue of maneuvers like
body jars on the
extension (Madonnas
tool, blunts, nose blunts,
backside disaster revert
and chink-chink from
high to low. Crazy airs-
to-fakies too.
Mike Sinclair simply
couldn't decide which
way to ride his board, so
he rode it both ways,
doing board-backward
backside Smiths and
body jars, and then
shoving it back around to
standard mode and
continuing to deal out
punishment to the
already swollen lip. Tom
Taylor, the only skater to
make it to the finals in three divisions
(street, ramp and mini), was looking a little
fatigued, but still provided everyone some
food for thought with long 50/50s-to-fakie
and frontside 50/50s-to-revert.
What happened next is unclear, due to the
fact that my recording device died at this
portion of the tape and my memory is non-
existent. During this time Josh Swindell and
Chad Vogt skated into sixth and second
places, respectively. For a recreation of
Josh's runs, look back to his street write-up,
use your imagination and go from there. As
for Chad Vogt, well hmmm... he must have
been doing something right because when
my tape started to function again they were
saying, "...and that's Chad Vogt" and
people were screaming like he had just shot
the Pope or something. If you need to know
his run blow-by-blow, just give him a ring
at 805-767-2676 ($2 plus tolls if any - kids
be sure to ask your parents).
Matt Goldsby apparently ingested a
massive amount of Flintstone's chewables
the preceding evening, because he was
nothing short of "on" in the finals,
employing I-o-o-ng five o's-to-fakie, 50/50s-
to-frontside lippers and fakie ollie-to-
layback Smith on the E.T., just to satisfy his
R.D.A. of fun.
Chris Gentry-what can I say about this
man? How about, "He won."
"How?" you ask. Simple. He skated
longer, stronger and harder than nine of the
best mini-ramp skaters that the United
States has to offer (Canada too). No big deal
right? Not if you can do backside air off the
E.T.-to-slide-to-fakie a la Godoy, airs-to-
fakie that could put satellites into orbit and
one-footed ollies-to-fakies that weren't
exactly suffocating either. Throw in massive
doses of stales, liens, eggplants and body
jars, and you've just drawn two Kings to an
Ace split. (Continued on page 83)
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