EUROPE mage42)
and we were all in a daze. The last
stop of our Madrid visit was the
burgundy concrete of Alcobendas.
Never have you laid eyes on such
an engineering marvel: bowls eight
and ten feet deep, a brownie pan
with lots of different transitions and
a funny snake run. Funniest of all was
the fact that it was a killer park and
there was no one around. Our train
was leaving that night for Bilbao, so
we picked up some product at Acid
Drop to pump the Cartel and get on.
Right before we caught the train,
Cardiel decided to 180 this psycho
gap and got worked. He crushed
both heels against the street and
went down for the count. After bare
ly making the train, we had a whole
night to get on to the north coast
and Bilbao.
Bilbao in the morning was grey
and scary. A guy named Manolo was
late meeting us. Eventually he
showed and took us to the town of
Las Arenas where there was a con-
test scheduled for that afternoon.
The gear was heavy, the clothes
were dirty and Cards was thinking
about leaving. It was about as low as
we had been all trip.
Luckily, we met Ferdi, who
hooked us up with a place to stay at
his squat, an old bombed-out police
station. After we dropped the gear,
we went to check the contest. All
over Spain, the towns have cement
reservoirs with extensions off the
end. The contest took place in one
of these and it was bad ass.
Swarming, flipping and grinding, a
hundred and fifty Spaniards tore it
up all day long. After the contest, we
did some killer downhill through the
streets and decided we had to get
to England and the contest at
Northampton. We paused for a brief
stopover at Guernica and an event
known as the Aggroskate, then left
for Calais to catch the boat to the
United Kingdom. Cards split out,
so now we were only seven road
weary souls who were far from done.
I lost two boards in two weeks and
once again I was walking. The cur
rency all looked like monopoly
money and you knew that when
you bought or sold anything you
were getting ripped off.
88 Вилоя
Arrival in England was a bitch
because we got hassled at customs
for looking like the dirt that we had
accumulated. Once we got in, we
somehow ended up on a New Deal
tour with Paulo, Markovich, Pang,
Salman and the others, which meant
floor space and free grub. We
mooched a ride to Northampton
and made it in time to ride. The
street course was just big quarter
pipes and a slider bar. The vert ramp
was big and slow. The Brazilians,
Italians, Czechs and a host of oth-
ers made it a worldwide event.
After qualifying, there was a party
arranged by the park owner at a pub
called The Five Bells. As the testos-
terone, beer and culture shock came
to a boil, some action went down. It
came to a head when some bloke
wanted to fight Kareem and thirty
skaters joined in. To make a long
story short, the raining bottles on
the club ended the evening off with
a bang.
The street contest was dominated
by one man, Carl Shipman. Backside
50-50's on the bar, huge kickflips
on the roll-in and amazing frontside
bluntslides on the bar made it clear
that he should have won. But
somehow, his inconsistency put
him out of the top three. Colin
This page, bot
tom to top: The
smoking room
on the double-
decker at North
ampton. Twelve
year old alco-
holic at six am
on Monday.
Cards at Mar-
seille. Where
were you?
McKay had excellent runs also, but
was denied top placings for not
sticking to his line. Willy Santos, who
did the same runs all through the
weekend and fell numerous times,
was awarded the top slot. Danny
Way got burned most of all. In
street, he threw 360's over the box,
heelflip Indys and 360' kickflips to
fakie on the roll-in, but in the eyes of
judges (Messman, Monihan and
some others) they weren't "street
tricks." Ha.
Tom Penny looked like he would
have rather been somewhere else
but still managed to kickflip the big
box. Omar powered lipslides over
the whole bar (he loves that trick).
Dave Duren made the top ten easi
ly with kickflips of all
sorts and a backside ollie
to tail kickflip 180° off.
Mirko Mangum smiled all
the way to second by
using the whole course,
some Howard flips and
inside shove-it heelflips
over the little box.
The only problem with
the contest was the
judges. It was like they
were stuck in a time warp.
It should be mandatory to
be able to name a trick
before you judge it. These guys only
knew how to get their checks.
The vert was won by Tom Boyle
from his first ride. He did every trick
in the book and kept going long
after they called time. The Brazilians
were in town to skate. Heelflip
indys to tail, benihanas to fakie and
Cab late shove-its all came from
the Brazilian hit squad. Frazier was
there but feeling a little under the
weather and it showed in his riding.
Danny Way did kickflip Indys both
ways, heelflips out and noseslide
fakies both ways. The judges
dogged him because he didn't do
Madonnas, handplants and other
tricks he did in 1987. The judges
were thinking in the past while his
riding was far into the future. Rune
Gilfberg did a kickflip 5-0, and some
fakie alley-oop frontside nosegrinds,
but boy, he sure loves to do those
bodyjars. Colin McKay didn't enter
vert, but in practice he pulled the
sweetest half-Cab noseslide to
switchstance frontside tailslides.
Danny Way won the "Biggest
Trick Over The Box" contest with a
monster backside ollie 360, while
Jordan Richter tried to backside
180' kickflip it about a thousand
times and came up short. They had
a product toss outside where I saw
five guys on one Gullwing t-shirt and
one gut with a lit cigarette burning
his way through the flesh and com-
petition to gain the prize.
The Cartel fell apart at 5 pm
English time on August 22 after the
contest at Northampton. We
showed up with nothing and came
home with nothing, but some-
where along the way we did what-
ever we wanted. We lived and ate
for free, drank like barbarians and
lived to tell the tale. And as for all
you little scrubs over there paying
astronomical fees for jacked stuff,
start saving your allowances
because we'll be back to clean you
out again next year. Lars LaMar
HOMECOMING
from page 50 on the big bank. Japan
is on the map, but too many bails
made the sushi go bad. Fourteenth.
Willy Santos is a contest iron
man who hoisted large amounts of
360° varial heelflips, long noseslides
and a switcher backside 180° ollie.
Willy was dressed in brown and was
down for tenth place.
Colin McKay came down from
the north and ice skated his path
with 50-50 grinds on the desk and a
backwards kickflip to fakie on the
big bank. Thirteenth place.
Salman "The Bald Bull" Agah
punched his way to the top of the
heap again this year, swinging with
full power switchstance kickflips,
switch frontside flips on the big bank
and fat 180° backside ollies, taking
fourth place home for San Jose.
Phil Shao cut through the SF fog
like a hot Ginsu knife. Sharp nollie
pointers, kickflips over the onion
and a ninja-style consistency all took
part in Phil's third place finish in his
long overdue pro contest debut.
Wade fought off the chilly climate
with his favorite flannel, but the
whole crowd warned up to Speyer's
fire. 5-0 grinds on the beam, back-
side blunt heelflips, fast furious flip-
pin' and the twelve foot 180° nose-
grind on the fountain's wall nearly
sent the spectators home with a sun-
burn on a cloudy day. Second.
Ever have a good day at the
beach? Well, on this day, the Beach
had sweet revenge. Matt did switch-
stance ollies, 360° flip fakie on the
big bank, backside tailslides and
reeling in the kickflip catch of the
day, he earned a first place trophy
for the mantle of the Beach house.
That was all I saw because I heard
the shorebreak at Ocean Beach
was dripping.
-Simon Woodstock
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