76 THRASHER
Em
SUFAR
AWMM
SUFAR
SUFAF
Above: He noseblunted it and he tailslid it;
Alex Chalmers ain't goin' out like that.
Right: The only am to score a six-page interview-
Jake Rupp nosegrinds coast to coast.
FAR
ALLVM
HIM
to Sunday. The nightclub victims stumbled around
the course while the guys who got sleep stepped up
and threw down. Snake sessions, even at 9 AM,
became a daily occurrence. Everyone was getting
their lines down, with the pyramid and the small flat
rail being the "hot SPoTs." Everybody seemed to
have something in their bag to make their friends or
complete strangers cheer. Joey Brezinski set Friday
off with a
à bang (nose manual along the long box to
nollie heelflip out); he was the second skater in the
SEC
first heat. Only 201 skaters left to go.
After all the skating was done, it was time for more
skating. Many visiting pros joined the session,
which turned into money for tricks. With Mic-E
Reyes on the mic, Ryan Sheckler was called in for a
kickflip over the pyramid and he took Mic-E's $20
faster than a Mons Venus dancer. Billy Rohan put on
a blindfold for a Jedi Knight switch hardflip over the
pyramid. JP Jadeed showed persistence pays with a
nollie heelflip noseslide across the pyramid box.
send
On Saturday after the cut was announced, it was time.
to set up for the SPOT 6th Anniversary Party. With four
bands and 15 kegs of free beer, the party had the poten-
tial to draw more people than the Vanilla Ice show in
Ybor City that night. The bands were The Unholy
Alliance, Radon, Hot Water Music, and Avail. The
Unholy Alliance opened...the best way to describe them
is to take the Village People, mix them with Gwar, then
them on a pro wrestling
tour. The band announced its
members as only Mean Gene
Okerland could, and the pit
began instantly with the band
involved. Whiffle bats, cookie
sheets, and "wet floor" signs
were slung against bodies.
The 15 kegs of free beer
flowed, with Jeff Pang helping
out SPOT employees serving
beer while Jim Thiebaud kept
an event-saving eye on the
front gate. The vert ramp was
sessioned and many a drunk
tested
their skills. Tato
Feliciano attempted
270°
backside air, only to knock
himself out cold. Eventually
boards were nailed in the
ramp and skating stopped. By
about 2 AM the kegs were dry.
Sunday morning brought the
vert contest along with al
heavy hangover. I didn't wake
up with a hangover-it crept
up during the day. The vert
contest had 30 entrants with a
the
cut to 10. Contestants
a
estants ranged
in age from 14 to 36. With the
finals right after prelims, a few
who made the cut had to be
hunted down, and then the
contest was under way. The
vert contest brought out a
more adult crowd from the
spectators and a lot fewer sur-
prises from the skaters.
third place was Dan Ehara
with smooth solid airs, kickflip
Indys, and backside tailslides.
Greg Hiler, a true veteran of
the vertical air force, took second with
huge frontside and backside airs. Taking
first was Jesse Fritsch with a good mix of
lip tricks and airs, Cab heelflip Indys,
shove-it Indys, and chink-chink grinds.
Immediately following the vert contest
were the street finals, with 30 skaters try-
ing for the top ten. Anyone who made it to
Above: Working the box back
and forth, JR Neves snagged
this switch frontside flip to
slide him into sixth place.
the street finals would end up taking a total of seven
runs. It seemed that the most important thing to the
judges was who could stay on the skateboard for 50 sec-
onds. A fall in this contest would all but nullify the entire
run. Qualifying second on Friday almost guaranteed a
spot in the finals. Here's how it went down.
10. Alex Chalmers. Started every run with a tail-drop
ollie in from the bank deck guardrail, frontside noseblunt
on the bank-to-wall, Indy 360° over the snowboard jump.
9.
Andrew Gordon.
Twelve-year-old Canadian.
8. Gianni
Frontside
Zattoni.
flips and
Caballerials over the pyra-
mid every time unless Pete
Thompson was getting in
the way. 7. Ryan Sheckler.
At only eight years old, this
kid has become a master of
the kickflip while also show-
ing that little guys can go
big with an ollie from the
Kahuna deck into a quarter-
pipe. 6. JR Neves. Covered
the whole course with
frontside flips over the pyra-
mid switch and regular, and
nice kickflips to fakie on the
steep bank. 5. Jeff Lenoce.
Tampa's own threw down
nice melons over the snow-
board jump, then hit the
pyramid up with a flurry of
tricks: big kickflips, backside
nollies, nollie heelflips, and
frontside and backside nol-
lie to 50-50 on the pyramid
box. 4. Toebee Parkhurst.
who did
Last-minute entry who did
not fall once during the
finals, doing everything
from one-footed feebles on
the flat rail to frontside tail-
slide 270 on the long box.
3. Brian Sumner.
Covered the entire course
with a smooth flowing
style, frontside nollies on
the vert quarterpipe,
tail-
slides and 5-0s on the box.
on top of the big bank hip,
and frontside crooked grinds on the box.
2. Paul Machnau. Destroyed the flat.
part of the rail of death with frontside
5-0s and tailslides to fakie, frontside
nosegrinds across the small flat rail,
and switch frontside flips over the
pyramid. 1. Mike Peterson. Qualified first
every time he skated while setting a new
apb
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