A
nother year and another contest at Ventura's Skate Street
skatepark. Plywood Paradise II was an improvement over
last year's, due to the addition of several new skaters to the
pro ranks as well as a new pyramid/flat bar/ledge ensemble to
the street course.
Paradise Lost
etnies etnies e
Skate Street
Words and photos by Michael Burnett
"a style that many
would describe as
etnies
se
flawless."
ies etnies e
HUP Street
Street
44. Caine Gayle. A heavy hitter last year, falls kept him
down. 43. Felix Arguelles. A burly lipslide transfer over
the back of the pyramid ledge. 42. Jerry Fowler. Technical
technician. 41. Dave Duren. Bristling crooked grinds
across and down the pyramid ledge. 40. Bob Burnquist.
Hovered recklessly above 360 flips into the big mellow
bank. 39. Billy Joe Yarborough. This Sacto ripper loves the
big air. 38. Alphonzo Rawls. Carefully plotted lines spiced
with those H-Street quarterpipe tricks we all love him for.
37. Mike Maldonado. Toy Machine's wrecking ball could
have been a contender! 36. Israel Forbes. Noseslides to
shove-it with no attention given to popular fashion trends.
35. Brent Kronmueller. 1996 Amateur champ! One-footed
50-50s. 34. Sasha Steinhorst. Screeching wallrides and
mega speed. 33. Joe Pino. Straight ollies over to 50-50s
down all rails. 32. Kenny Anderson. Tech moves down the
smaller rail. 31. Steve Caballero. Frontside flips way up on
the roll-in. 30. Anthony Furlong. Vert-inspired runs with
frontside blunts on the big quarterpipe. 29. Chris Pastras.
Feeble precision. 28. Brad Staba. Loose style and heroic
flips to slider. 27. Salman Agah. Back on Real but still walk-
ing with Jesus. Raw Agah switch ollies over the whole penta-
gon piece. 26. Bam Margera. His giant nollie Cabs and
kickflips make you want to punch a friend in the face.
25. Mike Vallely. Frontside dog pissers over the big hip and
all-around toughness. 24. Satva Leung. Unstoppable switch
270 frontside El Niños. 23. Dustin Dollin. A barrage of
etnies
54 THRASHER
Clockwise from far left: Precision
and skill beyond his 16 big ones,
Arto Saari both kickflipped into
and shoved out of backside
lipslides, but was content to
stick standard ones as well. Ten
years after cavemanning the rail
into Tony Mag's living room, Danny Way still
has what it takes to get first, er, second in a pro
contest. Holy crap! Chris Senn attacked the
course and definitely would have placed higher if
he had landed beauties like this kickflip
frontside wallride in the finals.