Billy Pepper and Oscar Jordan
have officially worn out their wel
come on the mic. The joke is over.
Mike Carroll makes everything
look easy
Ron Bertino is rad: Switchstance
heelflips over the center box as high
as anyone was going normal-footed.
The four-minute runs made it
painfully obvious that some skaters
didn't make any tricks at all.
•Coco threw down the frontside
blunt and the switch flip, and threw
up before and after his runs.
Go up the steep bank, wait until
you have almost stopped, try a flip
trick, miss, pretend like you're really
mad because you make that trick
every time at home and can't under-1
stand how you could have missed it
there, pick up your board and walk
across the course and repeat the
whole thing again and again.
•Paul Sharpe: Switchstance half-
Cabs on the slant bank.
Eric Koston: Switchstance heelflip
manual on the large box.
Chris Senn: Ollie grab over the car
into the wedge ramp.
Bill Weiss - Puck. Hank Hugh
often than not, they are just being
thrown to make some quick dough for
the organizers. Maybe us skaters need
to do our own contests and stop waiting
for others to throw them.
Thoughts on this year's Venice contest:
• Every Venice contest is bound to
have some good fights. Jesse Martinez
started this one off a day early by bat-
tling one of his friends.
•Willy Santos made every trick he tried
in his run. At one point he missed a trick
on the bank ramp and the crowd went
"Ohhhhh," in surprise.
•Gershon Mosely switchstance ollied
into the medium slant bank every time.
•Henry Sanchez switch backside tail-
slid off of the ollie ramp and onto the
front hood of the car.
Gonz did eggplant disasters on the
big quarter-pipe.
•Matt Rodriguez skated fast with big
kickflips and heelflips over the center
piece and didn't place in the top ten.
Karma and Keenan took much money
from any and all C-Low suckers behind
the judges' stand.
An announcer finally pronounced Kar-
ma's name right.
Marky Markovich (opposite left) rode a board with
no wheels or trucks and still didn't win. What the
fuck? The crowd was in love with Willy Santos
(opposite middle) and three teenage girls threat-
ened suicide if he didn't pull this healthy heelflip.
Thank heaven the flipping Filipino made it. Bryce
shot two usable sequences on one roll of film and
we used 'em both, Mako Urabe (opposite right)
blindside kickflip over the gap in the ramps.
Mister parachute pants, Omar Hassan (above)
pulled 180' nosegrinds on the quarter-panel of
the car every time and still got no respect. Another
street contest and another car (right) gets sacrificed
to the testosterone gods. Rod doddy Chris Senn
(below) went Bruce Lee all over that car shit.
60
THRASHE