In a moment of rage, Ricky Oyola (right) heaved
his helmet. A happy comper (for right) makes
off with two fists full of loot. Billy Pepper
(sequence) came at the course with speed
and made lengthy gap flights the
highlights of his runs. Andy
MacDonald (below) snapped
kickflip Indys and took
home first in vert.
Matt Beach sliced the course with noseslides to
fakie on the extension, lipslides down the rail and
switchstance shifties
Third place qualifier Peter McBride fandangoed
alley-oop ofle reverts, 180 tailstall spine disasters,
switchstance Kickflips and frontside heelflip to body
slap head bongo.
Marcel Johnson arrived in time for nollie nose
grinds and backside 180 kickflips.
Jason Maxwell jammed switchstance heelflips
and backside half Cabs over the bench.
Caine Gayle volleyed backside to tails on the ex-
tension, backside 180 kickflips and nosegrinds
down the rail.
Qualifying first under Bill Dore's sponsorship.
George Nagal came on strong with backfoot back-
side kickflips and 180 heelflips but lost steam.
An eerie silence settled in as everyone moseyed
over to the mini for a peek at practice. Clyde Single
ton dropped in last year and broke his thumb. This
year he hung up. However, he did point out that
Dave Durren's backside to tail backside 180 flip
out on the quarter was the definite highlight
of the street, even though he didn't enter
MINI-RAMP CHAMPS
Mini runs were scarce with up to four dudes
riding at once. There was no practice for the
meek, but there were near-collisions, confusion and
skaters that took forever and never did any tricks.
There were twenty-five skaters, three heats, two
runs and no finals. There was mushy Masonite and
screws sticking up in all the wrong places
Richard Kirby heaved frontside grabs to tail,
180 blunt rocks and ollies to fakle nosetap.
Anthony Furlong blasted bluntslides, switch-
stance ollies and kickflip fakie rocks.
Tony Loverade did everything to revert and
pushed for speed on the flat. He guzzled 360 blunts
and a mute 360 to Masonite which put him down
for the count with a dislocated shoulder. Ten years
after, the Encinitas fire department and paramedics
finally showed up. Good thing it wasn't serious.
Tony Briseno laid down fit nosebones and back
side disaster reverts. Paul Urich rocked backside
to tail reverts, backside
noseblunts to fakie and
frontside heelflips to
fakle rock.
DRY
Andy MacDonald threw
down assorted blunts, nose
blunts and shove-it fakie rocks.
Clark Fraley got sick with
nosegrind reverts and switch-
stance frontside disaster reverts.
Donny Barley glided long front-
side S-0s to lipslide, noseslides
and backside heelflips
Mike Sinclair cranked half-Cab
rocks, backside tailslide reverts
and long backside lipslides. He
was disqualified for the crime of
only one elbow pad, but some-
how ran away with seventh
Billy Lane, a little guy with big
speed, lacerated half-Cab blunts
and frontside noseblunts.
As the last run on the mini-
ramp was taken, the time for
the vert showdown drew near.
VERT LIVES
It really sucks when people
sit on ramps during contests and
let their legs dangle onto the rid-
Ing surface. Even if nobody is
skating there they should have
that option open.
The vert contest was held on
the old Vision ramp that resides
at the Encinitas YMCA. The ramp
went from semi-serviceable to
sucking, depending on who you
asked. Twelve skaters lined up
for a four-run jam where the best
two runs were taken.
Chet Childress, the gnarler,
twirled Les twists and backside
bluntslides. continued on page 54
opposite foot dimen
sion and is currently
tromping switchstance.
heelflip tricks. As for
the state of skating.
today, Gall says he'd
like to change "the way
kids are always trying
to show people up."
Bill Pepper, 18, of
Napa, CA, is an enthu
siastic skater who will
talk your ear off if you
let him. Coming out
with Ruben Orkin, Joey
Tershay, Coco Santia-
go, Noah Peacock and
Mike Archimedes, Pep-
per had plenty of stories to tell. "We
stayed in Huntington Beach at Jeff
Grosso's and those guys are demon-
ic," says Pepper. "They rule. I men
tioned shaving my hair, and this total
punk dude looking like Sid Vicious
grabs my shoulder and goes, 'No
long hair in the house. You must
shave your head.' So that's why I
have this conehead look-alike thing
on my head." When the pruned Pep
ster got to the contest, the crew
played Deicide and Bolthrower to
amp him up. "They push me to skate
fast," he said.
Last year's victor, Matt Beach,
comes from Aloha, OR. Riding hard
and staying on in practice, Beach
said he was working on "getting
more confidence and speed." If he
could alter anything about skating
today, Beach says, "I'd change all
the trends where people think they
have to wear certain clothes and
act a certain way to be accepted."
CASH FOR CHAOS
Qualification for the street finals
went on all day Saturday, and as
night came on, the judges were still
tabulating the scores. An anarchy
session ensued as justifiably impa
tient entrants and rapacious non-
entrants barged the course. Skaters
flew everywhere while NSA main
man Don Bostick sweated YMCA re-
prisals and potential insurance has
sles. After a lengthy lag, they an
nounced the street finals would be
held the next morning, much to the
chagrin of the contestants who had
not planned on staying
GREY SUNDAY
Sunday morning dawned over-
cast and early with sixteen finalists
whittled from eighty-six contenders.
The event ran in reverse qualifying
order with two sixty-second runs.
Tony Briseno brandished blunt to
fakie nosetaps, backside 180 kick-
flips and lipslides on the extension.
Mike Goetz powered nosestall
noseblunts over the spine and back-
wards 180' kickflips
Bill Pepper reached escape veloc
ity on a long gap clearance and fol
lowed up with 360' kickflips and nol-1
lies over the spine, but fell victim to
the announcer complex, and let
Bostick blow his concentration.
Rachman Chung got rough with
switchstance lipslides and 180"
kickflips over the corner.
Slow but sure, Patrick Channita
pinned nollie kickflips and backside
180's to tail over the spine.
Unsponsored tallboy Aaron
Snyder jabbed frontside 180° heel-
flips and nollie 180 heelflips
Chad Fernandez tagged nose-
slide fakies on the way-vert buddha-
buddha, tailslide reverts down the
rail and backside kickflips to fakie.
Pete Lehman dabbled in 360°
backfoot kickflips and switchstance
noseslides on the extension.
Marcel Johnson (top) showed
up in time to allice backside
lipslides. Phil Shoo (above
left) drove down from
Redwood City and flew out
of Encinitas. Todd Hastings
and Chris Senn (above) took
in the long and short of it all.