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RAL CICLE JAM
LET
JMS Ent
FF
Cara-Beth Burnside is so sick
on transition, they named a
skatepark in Oregon after her.
Crossbone over the hip.
This mother and daughter team promote protective
headgear and proper dental hygiene to facilitate a
fun and positive skateboarding environment.
Streetstyle was the first event, and
the lines seemed to be drawn between
the pool skaters, the street skaters,
and those who could barely skate at
all. Practice went on forever and was
randomly interrupted by raffles (I won
a helmet and some rave jeans), rock
bands, and garbled announcements.
The 30-or-so streetstyle contestants
were split up into 3 heats, and then a
top 12 was taken. The pool skaters
included Cara-Beth Burnside, Jen
O'Brien, and Heidi Fitzgerald (who
some fans were heard to have nick-
named "the female Danforth").
Cara-Beth used her ample experi-
ence to hop the small hip, fly frontside
off the extension, and jump the large
hip to grind around the corner.
Jen O'Brien gave the steep corner a
good workout and transferred the big
hip backside. Her finale was an ollie to
frontside roll-in in the corner pocket
that got the crowd especially excited.
Jamie Reyes is a street skater
from Hawaii. She used her Hickam
Hanger skills to throw backside nol-
lies to tail on the quarter-pipe, ollies
to fakie, as well as switch nosegrabs
to fakie. More importantly, Jamie
tried to land each and every kickflip
to fakie she tried, whether it was on
her feet or not.
But the real star of the event was
Elissa Steamer. More than any other
girl skater, Elissa has proven that
gender has nothing to do with style,
tricks, or the willingness to take a
slam. She powered through the
course, blasting backside airs on the
big wall, melons to disaster on the
pool coping, and speedy crooked
grinds, nollie lipslides, and nosegrinds
across the box. Her show-stopping
ollie off the corner deck into the tight
quarter-pipe sealed her 1st place fate
as well as the $1,000 prize, and had
everyone hopping up and down with
excitement. Does the thousand bucks
mean she's pro now?
Immediately following Elissa's big
plunge, teammate Chris Senn got so
excited, he dropped in to a first-try
attempt over the big channel. The
crowd went nuts, but not as nuts as
promoter Patty Segovia. In a fit of
"girls only" pettiness, Patty wigged out
and decided to try and block Chris'
follow-up wallride attempt with her
camera bag and a kick to his board,
causing him to fall. He deservedly
gave her the finger. Next, Patty got the
announcer to demand Chris apologize
to her. Not being a skater, I guess
Patty didn't realize that kicking at
someone while they're in mid-air is
outside of normal ramp etiquette.
Vert was the next event, and
although there were only 5 people
who could drop in, and only 20-or-so
people watching, Patty made good
and sure that her muscle-bound secu-
rity force kept the deck clear of all
stragglers, even if they were the
ramp's locals, other pros, or close
friends of the competitors. Chris
Livingston, one of the nicest kids in
pro skateboarding, even had to be
removed from the building for the
crime of cheering from the deck.
Cara-Beth pretty much had this
one in the bag. Pounding out dive-
bomb Indy airs, feeble grinds,
50/50s to fakie, and a bunch of other
moves in her longish runs, vert skat-
ing's favorite daughter showed no
signs of letting up and will probably
be making the guys jealous well into
the new millennium.
The best surprise of the vert con-
test was Jodi McDonald. No pussy-
footin' around, Jodi charges. Haul-
ass 50/50s into solid Indy airs off
the tombstone mixed with alley-oop
5-0s à la Jason Jessee and floaty
tuck-knee frontside airs-all in a
cool-looking, Navarette-esque, all
black ensemble. Jodi's tough.
Jen O'Brien also came correct
with slashity grinds and airs off
the extensions.
The Vans All Girl Skate Jam
was probably a fun contest to
skate in and acted as a nice little.
pow-wow for girls skaters to hook
up and hang out. Perhaps having
different skill divisions would
have encouraged more girls to
enter, as well as make the
advanced event more exciting. As
it was, 12-year-old girls had to
skate against Cara-Beth. Maybe
that's not the point, but if it
wasn't, why was ESPN there?
A yee-hah goes out to Elissa,
Cara-Beth, and all the girls who
showed up and kicked ass.