BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE
OVER THE LAST TEN YEARS, one man
has dominated all vertical competitions.
That person is Tony Hawk. After coming
out of retirement earlier last year and get-
ting beaten in Tampa, the Bird got focused
and nailed down the last two vert wins of
1995 at The Hard Rock and Missile Park.
Staying limber enough at 27 to spin 720's,
pull mind-numbing combos like half-Cab
to full Cab to 360° backside ollie to front-
side Caballerials, and still progressing with
360 flip mutes and fastplant 540's, Tony
Hawk is head and antlers above the rest in
the vertical competition realm.
Of the other competitors in the top ten,
only three had beaten him in the last year-
Tom Boyle, Mike Crum and Bob Burnquist.
As in boxing, you cannot just tie the champ,
you must beat him to win. To stand on the
platform alone next to Hawk is intimidating
enough, but to skate against him is the ulti-
mate mind-fuck. How does one go about
dealing with dropping in after Hawk has
just hit 20 to 25 walls with different tricks
on each wall? The grace of Crum, the
power and brute strength of Boyle and
the amazing ambidexterity of Bob Gnar
are all beautiful to watch, but unless Hawk
bails or slams himself out, to place or show
is all you can hope. Here is a list of high-
lights of the Hard Rock festivities:
Ben Pappas was ruling the ramp and his
placing more than miffed big brother Tas.
Brian Howard's first wall rebate trick was a
smooth as silk backside Smith, and he then
went on to blaze in true Howard form. Rune
Glifberg entered the highest air contest
with a hefty tailgrab to fakie and walked
away from one of the gnarliest slams in
recent memory when he flew off the exten-
sion and landed tailbone first on the asphalt
some ten feet above. Wade Speyer took a
mega bellringer on a first wall 540', but got
back up and killed it. Moses Itkonen is the
vert underdog of the year, his smooth style
Always coming through with the enormous allies,
Mike Crum (above) did this one frontside alley-oop.
The front foot English of Bob Burnquist (opposite)
alone assures the make on this backside lipslide.
A skater in his own right, Ben Harper (opposite
bottom) belted it out for Fashion Island.
Hock
FE
88 THRASHER