four-cornered, seven-foot
deep bowl, which was
adjacent to a multi-hipped
and spined mini-ramp that
resembled the NSA's San
Jose contest mini-ramp. A
twenty-eight-foot wide,
eleven-foot tall, vertical
halfpipe hosted a heated
session with local Noal
Rector, Englishman Andy
Williams, nomad Graham
Stanners and Linda Vista.
local Peter Hewitt. On the
mega-structured mini-
tamp, a squadron of visi-
tors from team Death Box,
including Jocke Olson,
Andy Scott & Rune Glife
berg, were feverishly tear
ng jeto hip transfers Sind
works of the lip ickly
donned pads and Sarapled
this wooden skale palace.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 17th
Mariam's parents insisted
they drive me to Münster
rather than let me take a
train. Their offer was wel
come, given my hefty bag
Bager Besides, would
set a killer view of the
German countryside
from the interior of
their plesh Mercedes
and arrive in town in
half the time it would
take by train
After arrived at the
Movenpick Hotel,
pedaled through Mün-
ster to orientate myself
with the town's skate
spots, restaurants,
pubs and other points
of interest. Mönster is
primarily a university
town with many old
buildings, churches
and roads The main
mode of transportation is
the bicycle
THURSDAY, JULY 18th
Mother Nature let loose
with a steady downpour
that continued all day. It
was good taxi weather. I
took a ten-minute ride to:
Halle Münsterland to.
check ramp construction
and get information on the
practice sessions.
FRIDAY, JULY 19th
After a dose of MTV
Europe and a light Euro,
breakfast, I pedaled to
Halle Münsterland. Today
was open streetstyle and
scheduled ramp practice. I
BLUMEN
blew through a couple
rolls of film, took notes.
checked angles and talked
to friends. That afternoon, I
went a short distance to
the Titus ramp/warehouse
and caught a session with
fason Ellis, Wade Speyer,
Scott Smiley, Lee Ralph
and a couple local tippers.
I did the fish-eye and slave
flash ritual for a while, but
the session was so hot and
steamy. I seized the mo-
ment and joined the ses-
sion at hand.
Later in the evening.
contestants, judges, team
managers, groupies and
most other beings affiliated
with the World Cup event
gathered at the Odeon
nightclub. Everyone in this
smoke-filled watering hole
was somewhat conserva
tive due to isolated proh
lems with skaters last year
But the party went on
nonetheless
SATURDAY, JULY 20th
The opening ceremony
for the Tenth Minster Mon-
ster Championship began
at 10:00 am. There was a
total of fifty-four com
petitors, who were broken
into three heats for the
street qualifications Due
to lack of sleep and re
sponsibility, Jeremy Klein
Ron Chatman, Mark Gon-
zales, Rick Howard and
Omar Hassan slept in and
missed their heats. The
NSA had finally instituted
a tough policy towards tar
diness and made no bar
gains. The fortunate soul of
the day was Rudy Johnson,
whe woke up with the
Bones Brigad, made it on
time and must have eatery
a damn good breakfast. He
qualified at the top of the
street cut with speedy and
well-connected runs.
The Halle Münsterland)
was packed with over four
thousand screaming skate
enthusiasts, the Münster
media had definitely
hyped this event. The hal
pipe qualifications were
next. Fifty pros would do
battle and only twenty
would make the cut. No
one was surprised Tony
Hawk qualified first.
I fled to the public park
with Wade, Remy, and
Jimmy Leaphan during the
freestyle and ramp roller-
skating qualifications. The
vertical cement bowl and
coping-adomed snake run
gave a memorable session
amidst a flock of locals.
SUNDAY, JULY 21st
Back at Halle Münster-
land, thirty-six street semi-
finalists took two runs each
at sixty seconds and got
chopped to twelve. Bucky
Lasek popped a notewor
thy ollie-to-nose blunt
slide over the fun box hip,
but had a few falls to finish
twelth. The big man, Sran
Shelley, was blowing
minds with powerful front,
side and hackside 180
ollies over everything in
sight. He fell to eleventh
Colby Carter gained tenth
with alley-oop half Cabs
across the quarter-pipe hip
and ollie-to-nose rinds
down the rail. Ninth went
to Aaron Deeter with a
board varial-to-tail and
finger flip-to-tail atop the
wide quarter pipe. His
Casual style and aspiration
shined Eighth place reciple
ent, Salman Agah, knows
nollies. Nollie board-slides
down the handrail, nollic
kickflips and ollie-blunt
disaster fakies kept the
crowd cheering. Wade
Speyer turned up the vol
ume with a speedy line
consisting of frontside oilie p
nose blunts, ollies over the
fun box hip, clearing the
handrail, and huge oflies
10-Smith grinds. Following
his final run, Vade pulled
off a backside grab 540
over the quarter-pipe hip
which he had never done
in practice. The crowd
went nuts, and seventh
went to Wade, Stove Cab
allero dialed a well-con
nected line with 50/50
down the railing backside
nose grinds off the quarte
pipe hip, and backside
180 Collies over the fun
box hip to seize sixth
Rookie finalist Rob Dyrdek
launched big mute grabs
over the fun box hip,
charged 360 offie shove
its and dazzled clean ollie
impossibles down the rail-
ing for fifth. Last year's
Show Wade Speyer (top) a spot like this and there's no telling what might happen, Ollie-to-axle at the
seldom skated Wilhelmsburg banks, Peter Hewitt (middle) went to Europe an am and came back a pro.
Here's why: One-footed ollie hip flight at Mönchengladbach Remy Straton tright went off with a truly
hairball fastplant at the Monster Bowl in Münster.
Clockwise from above: Af
Petersen's Bruce Lee blad
side one-footed-to-fakie hip
assault. "Ein mark ein sticka"
w the exchange rate at
Halle Münsterland. Jason Ellis
tossed a salad grind at Titus
warehouse. A family stroll in
Münster Hunters' parade
Dusseldorf, A long way from
home, two Danville boys
make the most of an asphalt
crash pad. Jason Rogers
rocked the course, Big Don B.
and Titus planned a ren
dezvous. "Chaka. Petersen,
Hawk and Rogers mu
street victor, Ed Temple-
on, launched impossible.
tail grabs over the fun box,
hip and ollie-to-nose
blunt slides across the
quarter-pipe hip, working
the course for fourth.
Jason Rogers swiped third
with tail grab varial hip
transfers, switch-stance
ollie blunts-to-nollie re-
entries, feeble grinds
down the rail and other
creative works of trickery.
Alan Petersen cast a shad-
ow of consistency with
huge f-side ollie shifties
over the fun box Hips, and
one footed allie-to-fakles
across the quarter-pipe
hip traveling to his blind
side. This earned him
some well deserved sect
ond pace cash. Tony
Hawk carved another
notch in his tree of victo
ries with oille impossible
tail grabs over the jin box
hips, big 360 billies-to-
nose pivot re-entries,
oltie-to-tail grab moses-
lides down the rail and a
sketchy frontside manuali
roll out on the wide quar
ter-pipe to fakie tail blunt
re-entry
Synthesized industrial
music blared for the free-
style event. Don Brown
cruised with a Cheshire.
cat sinile and busted fluid
and original micks Gunter
Home
Mokulys did flippity-flip
razzle dazzles before the
jazzed crowd to win it, in
absence of last year's ace,
Rodney Mullen.
The vert semi-finals
exploded with twenty
wizards striving to make i
the final ten cut. Photog
raphers outnumbered the
competitors on the decks
and several minor scuffles
ensued as skate lensmen
trying to do their job jock-
eyed with kooks trying to
take snap shots. There
were twenty-seven camer
amen at one count. I
looked through my lens to
compose Mike Frazier
gliding into frame Chok
grinds, frontside tail
grabs-to-tail, one
footed frontside
ollie tail grabs and
ollie-to-Smith grinds
that covered at least
twenty feet of ramp
Chris Livingston.
charged the finals
with an author-
itative style and
churned keen back-
side crailslide vari
als across a wide margin
of the lip. He tossed large
body jars, frontside airs
to-disaster and overhead
backside tail grabs. Dur
ing his second run, an
ignorant video camera-1
man thwarted Chris"
flash. What the @sfrontside nose grind-to-
Jacque Photog threw him
self in front of my view
finder lost it. He pre-
tended to not understand,
but my aggressive sign
language sunk in quickly.
When the flashes, fast-
plants, batteries, 540%,
applause, fists, feeble
grinds and the music
ceased. Tony Hawk had
qualified at the top.
The final was a four-run
jam session where each
skater rode for as long as
they could breathe. The
first wall rebate was in
ellect Rob Boyce went
into heavy rotation with
tall grah $40
backsida
ellie 360's, method
fakies, backside
chink-chinks and
frontside airs faller
than Don Bestick's
morning stretch
Omar Hassan lacked
ambition, but mus
cled mighty tine lien
crossbones trustside
tail grab bose bones.
540's and wicked
tuck knee indy airs.
Mike Crum is no
stranger to the finals
He cavorted toe-
flapping stalefish, lip-
slides-to-Smith-
disaster from the exten-
sion by jamming his lens
into Chris board. A rebate
was honored but Chris
was too exhausted to
replace the vigorous run
he had going in the first
place, Jason Ellis floated
some of the biggest front
side allies on record. This
raging Australian teenager
released a batch, of front
side salad grinds, An
drechts and backside
540's Mike Frazier drop-
ped into every run from
the vertical extensions for
max speed. He powered
exaggerated Smith-vents,
live foot, straight-legged
frontside airs, boned-out
slob airs, backside body
varials, stalled Et
guerials and flung gh
body variats Floridian
Buck Smith barged the
structure with neck
straining bean plants,
lien disasters, airs-to-
fakie, Caballerial dis-
asters and hurricanes-
to-fakic. Buck proved
he can handle the heat
in the kitchen. Steve.
Caballero remained
calm and consistent
throughout the semi-
finals, but now it was
all or nothing. He started.
off with a tail grab varial,
cruised a big board back-
wards stalefish, hit a jodo-
kicked backside varial-to-
mute grab and finally, a-
looming frontside invert
up the opposing exten-
sion. Besides wiring the
big combinations, Steve
brandished a new strate
gie weapon, a backside
arab 540. On his final
run, his rear foot slipped
off on landing, he drop-
ped his knee to the Ma
sonite, and replaced his
Tea feot just before he
reached the opposing
transition. The judges,
credited Steve's radical
recovery and the arena
filled with cheers. Christ
Miller leapt through nose
baned and dive-bombed
indy airs, lien cross bones.
and totalitarian frontside
ollies-to-back truck. He
pranced upon the lip with
cess slide 50/50s-to-front-
side Smith grinds, sugar-
GERMANY
59