It's not quite Hubba Hideout, but
Brian Anderson can frontside
bluntslide anything he wants, and
this time he wants it to fakie.
ocolat
Landspeed
RHYT
DUFFS
.
DUES
SKATEBOA
BUFFS DIDUF
ESPITFI
Du
DUFFS DIDUFFS
RAHYTHM
ESPITFIRE
UCTC
Element
DESTRUC
VM
CTC
Surprising Surprises!
Kind of. There were a bunch of new
pros in the crowd, many of whom
reminded me of the obscure adver-
tisment-only pros that were in the
magazines when I started skating.
Following in the proud tradition of
Chris Baucom and Chuck Dinkins
(remember them?), this handful of
self-guided athletes shook the dust of
their small towns or indoor
skateparks and were ready to com-
pete with the big boys. All I know is
at least Baucom and Dinkins had
board
sponsors.
Standing apart from this lot were
some true up-and-comers, including
'99 Tampa am champ Mike Peterson,
who came on strong in his first pro
contest; Trey Winslow and Brian
Dale, whose technical prowess pro-
pelled them into the semi-finals; and
Southern street legend Fred Reeves,
who took his well-deserved spot
MIOLUL
DDUFFS
SKATEBOARDING
>DuFFS 3DuFFS ¿DuFFS
G
alongside the pros.
Obstaclewise, the Hubba wall was
replaced with a thigh-high square bar
that ended in a full-sized handrail
(referred to from here on out as the
Highbar and the Rail, respectively).
Also, the kinked vert wall was
replaced with a bank to near-vert
wall (the Wall), and a loveseat-style
ledge was installed on the top of the
bank on the opposite side of the park
(the Love Seat).
Muska's New Shoe!
Oh, I mean vert top ten. Whoops.
Although vert skating is more popu-
lar with grandmothers of skaters
than with actual skate fans, I'll let you
know that both Matt Dove and Mike
Frazier were tearing the vert ramp a
new one, Dove with some pioneering
moves like the pop-shove Indy gay
twist and Frazier with frontside 180's
to switch crooked grind revert.
However, neither made a showing in
FIRE
SUFFS
the finals (Mike was a judge, Matt
choked). The finals, however, did
consist of ten rippin' skaters, which
is appropriate in a top-ten situation.
10. Paul Zitzer. Home ramp
advantage. Half-Cab heelflip Indys
followed by heelflip Indy gay twists.
9. Adil Dyoni. Squeaked past the
Vampire into the finals with Indy
540's. Packed on a backside tailslide
shove-it attempt that almost put him
into Cardiel's lap.
e. Mike Crum. Accented stylish
Crum flips with stalefishes, that
shove-it tailslide thing, and varial
inverts, probably. A strict no-flashes-
during-the-finals policy prevented
you, the reader, from seeing photos
of any of this.
7. Max Dufour. Being French
Canadian is tough, but Max is good and
I always enjoy seeing his half-Cabs,
which can sometimes reach a height of
four feet out-pretty high for a half-Cab.
MT8LBL
G
29
SiRBING
Bof78 1775 38.875 29-
6. Rune Glifberg. The ramp was
too small and junky for the style stal-
lion from Copenhagen. Style stallion?
5. Bucky Lasek. I thought this
might be Bucky's big win, as he was
doing his Birdhouse video tricks all
through practice. Nope.
4. Chris Gentry. Gentry's runs
are so consistent and uniform,
scientists could use them to set
their instruments.
3. Pierre-Luc Gagnon.
Everyone's favorite little French buddy
is starting to get some power to his
technically superior runs. Mon Dieu!
2. Bob Burnquist. A freshly bro-
ken wrist watered down Bob's runs
bit, but they were still good enough
to beat most everyone. One-footed
Nolder grinds to revert.
1. Mathies Ringstrom. Well, he
went and did it. No Birdman, but he
still did it. Half heelflip gay twists fol-
lowed by heelflip gay twists followed
18LBL
G
DDUFFS
SKATEBOARDING
Buffs DUITS BITS
Surfs DTS DIS
FIRE
SUFTS
toymach
DID
by kickflip backside lipslides. Good
job, Mathias!
Street Style!
Qualifying for street took two days.
and whittled the the 90 or so
entrants down to a healthy 30 for
the semis. Among those in places
eleven through thirty, the highlights
are as follows: 29. Kevin Taylor.
The Power for Pittsburgh backside
tailslid the whole Highbar from
bank to bank. 27. Brian Dale.
Pulverized practice with switch
360 flips over the pyramid and
wallride to fakie on the
kickflips to
wall. 24. Diego Bucchieri. Raw.
butcher style and frontside blunts
across the flat bar. 20. Eric Koston.
Qualified number one on the first
day with nollie heels to noseslide
across the pyramid ledge and tail-
sides to fakie across the Highbar.
18. Dave Duren. Amazing 360°
flips, varial flips, and fakie varial
NHLBL
G
SKATERL
Del BuySTS ITS FTS FTS
toy machine
Dur
flips across the pyramid. Cab
heelflips on the QP. 17. Mike York.
A stunning qualifying run brim-
ming with street savvy and no falls.
14. Daniel Pageau. Crazy consis-
tency on 360° flips to tailgrab over
the pyramid. Had his name slaugh-
tered by the announcers (they figured
it rhymed with "Magoo") all weekend
long. 13. JR Neves. Charging in his
first pro event. 12. Chris Senn.
Mangled the Wall with oop frontside
50-50s up to frontside grab in.
TOP TEN
The following is an interactive
experiment where you, the reader,
get to read an exact description of
the top tens' runs to decide how you
would place the skaters had you been
in the judges' seats. This should be
either very interesting or very boring,
depending on your interest in con-
tests and/or reading skill level.
Either way, it gives you a sense of
MI8LBL
G
SKATEBOAK
Element
what sitting through a pro skate con-
test is like. For full effect, put on a
mix tape of nine parts repetitive hip-
hop and one part Ozzy's Crazy Train.
Justin Strubing
RUN #1: Nollie over the pyramid,
lien melon on the QP, frontside ollie
to tail to backside 180° ollie into the
QP FALL, backside tailslide the flat
bar, FALL. frontside rock on the Wall.
RUN #2: Nollie the pyramid, lien
melon the QP FALL, frontside ollie to
tail, backside 180° ollie into the QP
backside tailslide the pyramid ledge
FALL, frontside rock the Wall,
crooked grind the pyramid ledge,
frontside ollie on the QP
RUN #3: Ollie the super kicker,
ollie Smith from the bank through
the elbow, crooked grind the flat
bar ledge, backside flip the pyra-
mid hip FALL, backside tailslide
the flat bar FALL, tailslide shove-it
the flat bar FALL.
DDUFFS
SKATEBOARDING
BFFS 300775 30uITS
SUITS DIY'S IDITE JED
G
IM
Janent Elemeer
Danny Gonzalez
RUN #1: Backside 180° nosegrind
the pyramid ledge, kickflip melon the
pyramid, wallride to kickflip out on
the Wall, crooked grind the ledge,
360 flip fakie on the bank, fakie
backside nosegrind the ledge FALL,
frontside boardslide the flat bar
FALL, roll across the flat FALL.
RUN #2: Frontside nosegrind the
pyramid ledge, kickflip melon super
tweak the pyramid, wallride, crooked
grind the ledge, 360° flip fakie the
bank, frontside boardslide the flat bar
FALL, frontside boardslide to jump
around to regular boardslide on the
flat bar, backside wallride to melon
out and over the channel to the QP.
RUN #3: Frontside nosegrind the
pyramid ledge, kickflip melon super
tweak the pyramid, wallride to kick-
flip out on the Wall, crooked grind
the ledge, 360 flip to fakie the bank
FALL, frontside boardslide to jump
D
SKATE
MIOLUL
Check the height above the
lip as Mike Vallely snaps a
quick disaster from the
quarterpipe to bank wall.
DuFTS TOUFTS 10-FFS
handavadrad
DUFFS
DUTES DUFFS
3BUFFS 3BUFFS
ブロッ
Benoemen
DUFFS 3DUFTS 3D-FTS
10FFS DUFFS DITS
83 Element Element
JOUFFS JOUFTS
BUFFS BUTTS
17
SFS 10-FFS 3D-ITS
મનપાનાના રાજમાં
DUFFS
BUTTS JOUFFS
પણ આવા માસા
89