the list. Damn, that's more skaters than in my
whole state.
Back to the course. First off, the place is
gigantic. The biggest change from the
videos is a new Hubba Hideout-style wall
that goes across and down the big snow-
board jump. It's as high as a real handrail. I
saw Riley gettin' nervous.
flip over the pyramid. Riley wasn't as lucky and
Iran head first into one of the Conklin broth-
ers-just bounced right off him. We tortured
him all night, sayin' they were gonna' get Bo
Turner on him.
"I'll probably just switch crooks it," I told him.
"Yeah, crooks, buttas," he mumbled, staring
all blank-eyed at the thing. He must have
known I was just kidding.
We tried to get adjusted to the course, but it's
hard with so many people. Bam wasn't having
no problem, that's for sure. Neither were J.R.
Nieves, Alex Chalmers, Frank Gerwer, Brian
Sumner, and Ed Selego.
Right before we left, I finally landed a 180°
"Which guy's he?" he kept asking.
"It's better you don't know. Then you'll be
more relaxed when you get it," Filthy told him,
60
Rob. Filthy was all pissed off and pretended
like he was stoked to sleep in that toilet of a
room. "Seems fine to me. You guys are
pussies," he yelled.
The TV didn't even work and the window AC
unit was half lying on the floor.
As we were walking back to the
Winnebago, this sketchy street dude lum-
newded.
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realized what's up, Tim goes and grabs it! It looked like a Jimmy
Dean sausage or some shit. Messed up! It was all charred-just a big
scab where the hand used to be. Riley started busting up, but Lil'
Tim, I don't know, played it off legit. I don't know if he was just in
shock or the bravest 15 year old around, but he looked in the man's
eyes all sincere and gripped that stump like the dude was handing
him a family heirloom. We got in the 'bago and laughed about that
shit all night long.
The next day was the first heats and we didn't have to skate, thank.
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"kind of like how drunk drivers survive 'cause
they're so relaxed."
Riley laughed, but it was a nervous laugh, and
kind of high-pitched like a girl's.
Filthy's cheap ass struck once again as he drove
us over to a place called the Tropicana Motel.
"It's only $25 a night," he explained as we
checked out the cracked-out room he wanted
us to be sleeping in. Me and Riley turned right
around for the 'bago, followed by Lil' Tim and
THINK
bered over from behind the building and was
all, "Hey fellas! Fellas!"
We kept cruising, but dumb-ass Tim thinks he's
all down with the people and was all "Yeah,
what's up bro," looking at us, all smirking.
The dude smelled like Thunderbird or some
shit and slaps up with Tim.
"Now shake what Vietnam give me!" the
dude said as he pulled out his other hand,
which was just a fucked up stump! Before he
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jump. Other heads like Danny Gonzalez, Elissa Steamer, Brandon
Turner, Scott Pommier, and Jon Klein were busting out too. It was rad
to watch, but with so many kids it got boring after a while. We went
and checked the mini-ramp out back.
Jesus! In our town the only dudes who bother skating ramps are
Filthy and his old school posse, but at SPOT it was like the mini-ramp
championships of the world or something back there. I didn't know
you could do some of the shit that was going on. Some pros like Ryan
Wilburn, Chet Childress and Andrew Reynolds were there, and even
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Left: Neil Nims
backside tailslides
above the sickest
sticker in the joint.
Seq: Scott Pommier
gets Vietnam with
this wallie up to
nollie hardflip down
the hubba wall.
God. It's not like we couldn't have, but shit, I was glad to have a day
off from fighting that crowd.
Malcolm Watson busted out with flips over the door gap and high
heelflips over the pyramid to qualify first. Brian Seber was also rip-
ping and doing big-ass chicken wings over the whole snowboard
Filth was throwing a boneless or two. I was like, "I
got to start doing this shit when I get home."
The next day, I woke up feeling sick, like nerv-
ous. I thought about the contest. I didn't have
no lines or nothing. What was I thinking? We
showed up and I tried to get something going.
Riley was a lot worse off. He rammed a video
dude that I heard is Dan Wolfe's protégé-so
much for Riley in Eastern Exposure 4. Shit.
"Why don't you just switch 360° flip the
big gap?" Lil' Tim yammered in my ear.
"Switch crooks. Backside yada yada." The
kid won't shut up.
"Fuck you, dude! You fuckin' do it!" I yelled
at him. Fuck. I had to get a grip. C.R.P. Shoes
don't want nobody representin' who freaks out
on little kids. I put on my headphones and tried
to mellow with the Wu.
Me and Riley were in heat 4 so we sat around
for a few hours while other people skated.
Oh my God, Kerry Getz is a maniac! The kid is
a kickflippin' machine. He polished off his spot-
less run by kickflipping the entire flat bar plat-
form. I bet he's Toy Machine's next pro. Jeff
Lenoce was also tearing it. So was Mike
Peterson, who goes super big, and Joe
Fernandez, who skates like butter.
Riley was a choking, stumbling mess. He com-
pletely kicked out his first trick, and then
slipped trying to run up the big roll-in bank.
The judges weren't even looking at him he was
flopping so hard. Lil' Tim was yelling for the
360° flip, but it seemed like Riley really just
wanted to get the hell out of there. Forty-five
seconds can be forever when you're under the
gun like that. Shit.
My run didn't go much better, but at least I
walked calmly after I messed up. Chillin', yeah.
I got like 80-something place, but at least I was
off the hook. Shit, I'll take it next year.
"Dude, at least when I was in the '88 NSA Am
districts I got top 20," Filthy kept mumbling.
Who cares about some handstand contest? He
didn't say it, but I think he was thinking about
us paying him back the fifty bucks.
Schaefer threw a party at the park that night
for its 5th anniversary and we all went over to
see what's what. Nobody but Filthy was old
enough to drink the free beer that was being
mobbed over, so we hung out and watched the
vert. I'll admit, I'm not the biggest vert fan, but
Ali Cairns, Anthony Furlong, Jesse Fritsch, and
Greg Hiler know how to ride a skateboard.
Next thing you know, this freak called "The
Science Fair" dropped his pants and started skat-
ing the thing naked. It was messed up. He was even chillin' nude on
the deck between runs-just hanging out. Greg Hiler had to hide his
eyes. What would happen if someone in the street contest pulled
that shit? It would be unbelievable.
"We used to skate naked all the time," Filthy said, spilling beer
"NOW SHAKE WHAT VIETNAM GIVE ME!"