30 T
PSL PRO CONTEST AT SAN JOSE SKATEPARK
Indoor parks are like bowling alleys,
they are dark cavernous buildings where
noises echo violently off high ceilings. The
similarity doesn't end there. People come
for camaraderie and to show what they
know. Go to any bowling alley and start
knocking down pins like there is no tomor-
row, and invariably, "Big Fred" will come out
and show you a thing or two about bowling.
Skateparks are no different, start ripping the
ramp apart and the locals will crawl out from
under their rocks and let you know who is
boss. In the future, I predict parks will have
bars like "The Extension" or "Grinder's Grill,"
and will be adorned with photos of
famous rippers and memorabilia from
ancient times. The PSL had a contest at
San Jose Skatepark on July 12, 1992,
and all the "Big Freds" showed.
Arriving at the park, I headed straight
for the snack bar and ordered my usual,
an iced tea and some Crunchtators, but
they were out. I settled for a Coke and
exited into a sea of denim and ball caps.
Nudge, nudge, bump, bump, and sure
enough, I had a view to a kill.
The qualifying was well underway when I
sat down. JJ Rogers landed a frontside to
rail over the hip that was a least four-feet
tall. When he rode by, the smell was so
awful that I nearly fell over. That sweet San
Jo sweat would linger in my nostrils all after-
noon. Other things that caught my eye were
Ronnie Bertino's kickflip 180° over the pyra-
mid, Simon Woodstock skating his second
run barefooted and still making the cut, a
double kickflip nose slap by Markovich,
Willy Santos' switchstance frontside kickflip
180°, Jaya's 360° nollie, and Gentry's mon-
ster 360' over the big hip. Rick Howard still
isn't old enough to skate by himself, so he
had all his little blow-buddies join in. All in
all, the qualifying went well but the runs
were too long and most skaters had a hard
time figuring out which heat they were in.
When everyone had taken their runs, I split
for the water closet. After an invigorating
piss I was back in the saddle and ready for
the final twelve man jamboree. The count-
down read like this: Furtado made it but
thought otherwise and went home early for
thirteenth. Skatepark local "Jumping" Jason
Brown launched over the fun box and hip
but couldn't hang on in the clutch and
stopped at twelfth. Back in action and in the
contest was proven competitor Tom
Guerrero. In his first cut since breaking his
leg last year in Europe, Tollie shiftied, kick
flipped and grabbed his way to a tie for
tenth and served notice that he is indeed
back. Silent and sick are words
that describe Gershon Mosely.
He yanked shove-it benihana noseslap
fakies, nosegrind reverts and jumbo ollies at
will. He might have done better had he skat-
ed more of the course, but a tie for tenth
ain't bad. Andy Roy got burned. Starting off
with an unruly alley-oop lien over the hip
that had the crowd screaming, Roy Boy car-
omed through the course the fastest of all.
He wanted it bad and paid the price for the
committed noseblunt slide over the channel,
which he made clean only twice. If speed
and daring were judging criteria, his ninth
would have been changed to third. Probably
the most talented but least enthused was
Mike Carroll. He is not a local, but he
impressed the crowd with footwork, nose-
slides through the bowl and a late shove-it
recovery that stoked even Rick Howard.
Pencil Mike into eighth. Alternate Josh
Beagle rode hard and long with a frontside
180 over the pyramid and 5-0 grinds on the
spine. Announcer Tod Swank plugged his
boy all the way to seventh. Ron Whaley
looks remarkably like Beagle, and when
they had a run-off to see who would take
sixth, the crowd was still trying to figure out
who was which. After the dust settled,
Whaley's combo of frontside blunt to tails,
nosestall to disasters and 360° late kickflips
were enough for sixth.
His royal dirtiness JJ Rogers stunk up the
multi-faceted bank racetrack with frontside.
blunts, Indy hip flights and speed overdrive
to check in at fifth. Derby superstar and
silky smooth roller Jaya Bonderov tweaked
mutes over the big hip, fakie noseblunt.
slide reverts into the channel and back-
side noseblunts where he grabbed Indy to
ensure a make. I though he won, but he
scooped fourth. Third place went to
supreme freak Simon Woodstock. He
went out of his way to find lines that
nobody would steal. Rock to fakie on the
nugget, tailslide off the nugget into the
bowl and a lipslide over the pump.
bump and up the curb took the cake for
Woodstock. Steve Caballero qualified first
and should have had the final run of the
contest, but with the alternates and run-off,
he got lost in the shuffle. Cab sailed tail-
grabs to tail over the big hip, backside
noseblunts and backside big-spins over the
pyramid. In his hometown park, he ripped to
second. Number one at this contest was
Eric Dressen. The little fire hydrant sped
through the Masonite battlefield in full
ragged glory. Dressen's wallrides off the
vert wall, a noseslide of the whole spine and
fakie ollie tailslides over the hip were obvi-
ously top notch on this day.
I Love Ozzy, Biff Beaureguard
Clockwise from opposite top left: Andy Roy fudges an alley-oop frontside bluntslide, (by BK). Steve Cab, Mr. San Jo, freezes before going to tail, (by Dolinsky). Dirty dude
JJ Rogers tweaks an Indy over the main hip, (by Fischer). Victor Eric Dressen holographs a lengthy noseslide, (by BK). Stylee Jaya Bonderov fakied into this noseblunt slide on
the parking block, (by BK). Female spectators take a break between heats, (by BK). During his second run, Simon Woodstock rode shoeless and still qualified, (by BK). After a
dry spell, Dressen (above) was back in the winner's circle, (by BK).