VISION
like some kinda biker-gang plumber. Then Neil
Blender walks by.
"Who's Neil Blender?" asks Limp, hoping to
stay a small jump ahead of the game.
"If you don't already know, then you don't
deserve to know." Itch says, secretly hoping her
will actually get to meet the great
Neil or even get close enough to
touch him, or hear him say.
something in the "Neil Way."
The city of San Jose boasts a
fairly healthy night scene, i.e.
music clubs and hangout spots.
One hot place, where all of the
cooler San Jo Locos congregate,
is a joint called Jack's. At Jack's
you can kick it with your
friends and listen and watch as
Corey O'Brien and Ray
Stevens spin tunes and video.
stuff to a standing- room-only
crowd. But it seems that the
evening's best bet is the
Boneshavers/Hemi show at
Marsugi's, down the street.
Flat Top has now climbed
to the highest rafters of the
auditorium to secure some
thyboid delerium receipt and
transmit crystals. It's funny to
see a guy clinging to the
ceiling, wearing a black.
leather jacket with his shirt
untucked, and his crack.
showing, while clenching
the stub of a Camel filtered
in his teeth and squinting to
see through the smoke at
what he's doing
Limp tests the strobes at
full throttle. Granted, he
should have waited for
Flats to get back down..
But Flat doesn't even
flinch even though the
With this sort of versatility at the skater's toe-tips,
it's possible to attain sheer terror through a
maximum effort.
The qualifying heats finally begin and the
action is non-stop, highlighted by some mag-
nificent runs. Nicky Guerrero pulls mean melan-
cholies over
Harry the Snit, a one-time front line correspon-
dent for the Magnum organization, immediately
recognizes the tell-tale signs of a classic Dark
Room Ranger operation. He finds the crew at the
end of a long trail of squished cigarette butts.
"You guys worried about this Gulf business?"
Think you might have to move your operation
over there?" Harry asks
the three, who are
rubbing their eyes in
an attempt to soothe
the effects of the strobe.
"We don't play Golf!"
say the Rangers.
The Snitman rambles
about how these little.
causes are gonna lead to
those great conse-
quences out there on the
field of honor. "The
world could soon stand
in flames," he says.
"It'll never happen. No
way is it gonna happen,
at least not before the
Super Bowl," Gimp re-
sponds. "Hey, let's eat!
The time is right for a
feeding frenzy."
THE CLOCK TICKS
AWAY, SLOWLY
When the boys are in.
town, things happen. This
time, the night features girl
fights, guy fights, guy/girl
fights, mud fights, fart fights
and a garage fight. Each is
just another way of relieving
a little pre-contest tension.
The next day starts early.
Some skaters slide into the
arena as the janitors are get-
ting to work and skate freely
before anybody else arrives.
Reese Simpson appears
noticeably worked up for the
flash is blinding. "Per- Look, no fest! Hometown hero Steve Caballero (left) grabs tail on a smooth varial hip sig, even with a cast on his
transfer while high-tech equipment blazes in the background. A bare-chested
Tommy Guerrero (above) slices up to re-entry from a backside national disaster.
fect, Itchy says. "Ya
gotta have this kind of
Klieg action if you're
gonna shoot with NASA BFD22 ASA Putri-Grain
film in a horseshoe-shaped arena like this one."
The set-up for a good old-fashioned skate romp
couldn't be better. Take a random run by Tom
Knox, the imperial wizard of the trick game. He'll
start with a backside slappy, into a frontside slide
and roll, backside air body jar, ollie-to-disaster,
boardslide, backside transfer, an ollie blunt-to-
backside disaster and then a frontside lien-to-tail
over the spine hip into a frontside boardslide.
the hips, frontside boardslides over the spine-231
and fakie-to-frontside slide 'n' roll to Indy 1801
over the brim of the Hat 23 Jason Rogers pulls
out some beautiful examples of ollie blunts off
the extension,(6) He also travels a far, big,
frontside bone air over the hip, air-to-fakies
over another hip-31 then a fakie-pivot-fakie.14
His finishing move takes the shape of a big air-to-
fakie off of the extension,
arm. He feels it's good to
watch other people's lines,
"But, if you watch too much,
you burn out," he says. It takes
a good warm-up to get to optimum level, "When
it comes down to it, you gotta rise to the
occasion. Otherwise, you won't do shit!"
It looks as though Tony Hawk is leading in the
incredible category. He pulls assorted 'round-the-
clock allies over all of the hips in as many
variations as one would care to ponder. He
works most of the ramp, but tends to favor, as do