SFE
Jeff Kendall, 2nd place.
THE
PO
BATTLE
of NORFOLK
An NSA pro vert showcase
of raw talent on a raw ramp.
Reported by Kevin Thatcher
The best laid plans: To hold an
indoor professional vertical ramp
event at Norfolk, Virginia's Scope
arena. Several other events were
being held at Scope on the very same
weekend: a semi-pro ice hockey game
Friday night and the East Coast Ama-
teur Street and Freestyle Bike Cham-
pionships on Saturday. Sunday would
bring in the NSA pro show including
a high air event. Downstairs there
was an Arts and Flower Show, and
next door at the Performing Arts.
building a production of Shake-
speare's Hamlet. Mixed with rooms
getting ripped off at the Holiday Inn,
the weekend seemed like a disaster
waiting to happen.
The ramp was basically a mess.
Highlights included galvanized metal
studs, two sets of plans with varying
dimensions and two entirely different
construction crews. When it was final-
ly christened on Sunday morning, the
beast featured only twelve feet of
flatbottom. Eight-foot sections of
thin-walled electrial conduit com-
posed the coping. Bob Umbel said he
had a rail ripped right off his board
during a boardslide across a seam. It
was decided the next day at a rider's
meeting that an NSA representative
would oversee construction of future
NSA contest ramps. That settled, the
skaters were asked to bear with the
situation, which for lack of time was
The
weekend
seemed
like a
disaster
shortened to qualifying
cuts for a ten skater.
three-run jam.
As usual, when the
going got tough, the
skaters saved the day.
Since the ramp didn't
really have any vert, lip
tricks were the rule.
Airs were deadly, and a
waiting to lot of bailing was going
happen.
on. After the first
round of qualifying it
was evident that some
skaters were just trying
to survive. Others dealt with it and
dished out a dose of their best stuff.
Buster Halterman was on top of the
leader board, followed in order by
Hawk, Kendall, Hassan, Congeliere,
Boyle, Lasek, Nash, Sonner and Miller.
Into the jam Chris Miller turned up i
the flame with four-and-a half-foot
ollies-to-stand-up grinds with atti-
tude, then continued with alley-oop
lien airs, alley-oop 50/50-to-board-
slides, airs-to-fakies, and, from out of
nowhere, threw in a 540: John Sonner
ollied-to-tailgrabs and threw stalefish
360's and stale 180's-to-fakie and
from fakie. Nash was grinding long
and strong and held indy airs to the
last second. Bucky went ollie tailgrab-
to-front truck grind with ease on hist
first trick and followed with backside
disasters-to-revert, nose bones and
straight up backside airs-to-tail grab.
Todd Congelliere was no surprise with
reverse nose grinds, stalefish-to-disas-
ter and half-Cab-to-blunt-to-fakie, but
blew out on the 360' axle pivot. Omar
threw a McTwist on the first drop-in
and never let up, while commanding
big airs, flapped inverts, air tailgrabs-
to-fakie, frontside nosebone airs and
a 180 board varial-to-fastplant riding
backwards. Kendall fleshed out ollies-
to-tail, nose grabbing half-Cabs-to-
fakie, fast-to-fakie and ripped off a
McTwist in his final run along with a
last trick 360' tail grab. Hawk spun the
McTwist straight out and settled in to
blow minds with stalefish-to-revert,
gay twist disasters, nose pivot-to-
fakie, tailgrab 180-to-nose, reverse
Caballerials, 180" tailgrabs-to-nose
tap, 180 blunt-to-fakie, and frontside
180 tail blunts, finishing with a
switchstance revert and a 540' ollie.
Tony did everything (even bailed once
or twice) to win yet another. Kendall's
last clutch run placed him second,
Omar third, Miller fourth, Congelliere
fifth and Buster, who bailed away his
first place standing, finally ended up
in sixth.
After the jam, the high air event
commenced. Sergie Ventura rode a
wave of local support to a lofty nine-
and-a-half foot method. The only
human to fly higher was biker Matt
Hoffman, who also did his crazy half-
twist backflip.
All told, it was a sparse but stoked
crowd that left the Scope that night.
Money was raised for Wheels for
Wishes, a charitable cause. Peanut
Brown's snapped ankle was the one
serious injury. The pro skaters made it
all happen, but they were the ones
who suffered. The NSA squeaked out
of another one. Let's hope they don't
forget how bad it really was. Next
stop, San Jose. (Results on page 100)
Tony Hawk, 1st place.
LOWDOWN
59
58 THRASHER MAGAZINE