Percussive Skull Bongo
"And I wonder. Yes, I wonder. Will Elvis take the place of Jesus in a thousand years?" -Dead Kennedys
In the grand scope of things, it's not unreason-
able to think that skaters will someday, en masse,
trade in their blocks of wax for buckets and re-
invade the backyards. They'll skate the pools.
It's got to happen. Skateboarding's only thirty
years old. Forty at best. Think there won't come
a day? Skateboarding's got hundreds of years
ahead of it. It'll come around.
Thirty-year-old men wearing dated clothing
and riding boards resembling popsicle sticks will
be heckled from passing cars as they orangutan
themselves onto waxed ledges.
"Yeah, old school!" the new breed will yelp
from passing cars.
Pool skating will be the new wave. Street skat-
ing will be wack, although that
won't be the word used to
describe it. It will be another word-a new word.
"Widest available!" truck companies will
advertise. "Extra weight for extra stability!"
they'll boast.
"I knew it!" a ninety-eight-year-old Steve Alba
will cough.
"Hah!" he'll yell, as he tries to get up from his
chair. "Hah! Hah! Haaaugh!" The attendants will
settle him back into his rocker as he struggles in
a fit of hacking.
The Basic Bowl contest is going on its third or
fourth year and continues to draw from the
small but feisty pool of bowl riding buddies in
the SoCal area. Though this event seemed a lit-
tle smaller than last year's, some new faces and
lines stoked the action in the wavy triple to
make it a radical event.
The day began with a lil' rascal called Punk
Rock Matt attempting the Zero-style transfer
from the roof of the house to the slippery roll-in,
with no success, but stupendous WWF caliber
slams. He tried it about ten more times before
taking a seat.
Although there was an amateur division that
included, among others, a dude with shoulder
pads and feet straps, most folks just barged the
pro event in a high-speed free-for-all type of deal.
The lineup included ex-Turf locals Al Partenin
and Sam Hitz, ex-Del Mar Skate Ranch loc Peter
Hewitt, Upland Pipeline's Steve Alba, the Nude
Bowl's Dave Reul as well as Remy Stratton,
Rodney Cassell, Jake Piasecki, Mad Dog, Rune
Glifberg, Matt Moffett, Eddie Alioto, Brent the
amateur champ, and everyone's favorite come-
back kid, Jeff Grosso. They were given the dura-
tion of a Minor Threat CD to prove to the judges
they deserved to be crowned King of the Day.
Highlights include Rodney Cassell's Partain-
inspired presence, Remy's lengthy lipslides,
Rune's backside tailslides over the hip, Sam
Hitz's smooth lines, Mad Dog's hip-jump-
ing tailslides into the deep and Punk
Rock Matt's bean plants to fakie.
Salba kept it going with machine-
style lines and Peter Hewitt went
faster than anyone until a switch
grind over the death box.
slammed his dome piece into
the hard 'crete of the flat bot-
tom. The Grossman revived
some handplant and slide and
roll lines that got the crowd
amped and even blasted his
200-plus frame a good five
feet out to take highest-air
honors. It was sick to see him
back in business. Dave Reul
stood up on some 50-50s and
generally regulated and Jake
Piasecki went plain crazy in the big
bowl. Some cash was passed out to
the winners and the skating continued
long into the night-and will continue
until this time next year.
Results:
-Michael Burnett
1. Jake Piasecki 2. Dave Reul
3. Steve Alba 4. Jeff Grosso
Left: Emergency eye view of Peter
Hewitt's noggin after conking the
'crete. Right: The judges gave
Punk Rock Matt a big zero for his
"make it or take me to the hospi-
tal" approach to pool skating.
Sertis O
O
Sertak