42 TH
BASIC
you see people point at others and ridicule their clothes,
hairstyles and who they are with. The social aspects of
contest are baffling because everyone is so uncomfortable
that they cannot be themselves. The skaters cry about the
course, the manufacturers whine about the scores and the
crowd complains that nobody makes anything. It should
be a meeting of the minds, but it turns into a shit-talking
nightmare. Sunday was reserved for qualifying and if you
made the thirty cut you rode in the finals on Monday.
There were over 80 entrants, so that meant a long day.
Mike Carroll tore and qualified first, but Salman Agah was
right behind him with an incredible display of switch-
stance dexterity.
MONDAY: FINAL ANALYSIS
The top five qualifiers from Sunday had the morning off
while they waited for the other twenty-five to be whittled
down to ten with the final two runs of the contest for
keeps. After all was said and done, the results read like
this, (first number represents qualifying on Sunday, sec-
ond is final placing on Monday).
Salman Agah ran dry. His Sunday performance had the
crowd gasping and reeling. On Monday he fell on
his simplest shit. Huge switchstance ollies, nollie
tailslides both ways and nollie heelflips were i
done with speed and confidence, but bails kept
Sal out of the money.
Put Pat Duffy in a contest situation like this and there is
14-14
/ no telling what will happen. In his pro contest
debut, Pat threw down 50-50s on the bar both
ways, backside lipslides, backside noseblunt
reverts, 360 ollies, impossibles to fakie and
kickflips. You know there is more to him than
seventy-foot handrails.
Another new face in the pro ranks, Mike Santarossa, rode
aggressive and hard into the cut by making 360°
B-B
nollie heelflips, switchstance ollies to tail, 360's
both ways and noseslides on the bar.
Tom Knox called time early in his first run hoping he
could knock 'em dead in the second.
3-12
Unfortunately, he bailed again and his hopes for a
paycheck were history. Sunday's session for Tom
included 360's both ways, one-footers, big ollies,
flatland action and the usual punk style that is
Tom Knox. He was disappointed and it showed.
Salman Agah rode backwards... Sha wny Mac nollie picked...Mirko Mangum hoisted...
It was only a matter of time
before Salman Agah (left)
could switchstance allie as
high as normal people regu
lar foot. After being the
brunt of many jokes, Shawn
Martin (above) had the last
laugh. Highest placing rook-
ie, Mirko Mangum, (right)
was there early to practice.
Last year's champ Omar Hassan rode long and hard but
1-1
didn't have the crowd with him like 1991. Calm
and collected, he stayed on frontside shove-its on
the big bank, alley-oop frontside 360's and blind-
side tailgrab to fakies.
Fresh from his third place in the Houston street amateur
9-10
finals was top placing rookie pro Mirko Mangum.
The smile on his face and the way he never
stopped said, "I want it," and he got it. He stuck
big ollies to rail, heelflips to fakie on the big bank
and a tail to rail over the spine. Proving his top
ten berth was no fluke. (continued on page 60)