TRASH
HOT SHEET
The Dominican wrecking ball
Chad Fernandez was on a roll,
tearing up SoCal handrails for his
part in The Storm, and he went
ahead and tore himself from the
Planet Earth roster. He has since
been put on the new HB World
Industries program.
Also rumored off at Earth is Frank Garcia Hirata.
For the second and possibly final time, Kris
Markovich has quit Duffs.
After three years of shitball apartment living in
San Diego's College Area, Osiris star Chad
Knight has s relocated to a beachside house on the
ultra-pricey y La Jolla Shores, with rent rumored to
be in the three-grand-per-month neighborhood.
After surviving for two months on the road with
Scott Bourne, Consolidated ATV Steven Bailey
figured he could take anything and took off for a
month-long trip to China.
Drop king Josh Kasper has been spicing up his
video and photo shoots by not only clearing big
gaps, but kegs, breakdancers, and most recently, a
turntablist in his quest for the ultimate skate/urban
flavor crossover.
Crossove
Congrats to Chad Bartie and his girlfriend on
their recent engagement.
RIP John, AKA Jack, Marsh, the heart and soul
of the infamous Jaks team, who passed away as a
result of a a motorcycle accident.
The Butcher made the same double-set ollie
that just took out Andrew Reynolds and
Jamie Thomas. To make certain that it wasn't
a fluke, Diego went for a rebate. See both film
and video evidence.
Steve Berra is completing a motion picture that
features Vallely among its cast, which will premiere
at the Sundance film festival. Yogi says the plot "is
something about
some kids who
want to kill
why seen on
TV?
ARMAGEDDON MINE
Tait Roelofs displays his latest
sculpture, appropriately entitled
"anti-skateboard laws."
themselves." Berra is also marrying Juliette Lewis
in Big Sur.
Kastel is producing a Jesse Paez sig shoe.
ROLL AIDS
Desid
"There has never been a freestyler who wasn't a
fag or stupid." These immortal words of vert pioneer
Jay Adams continue to resonate throughout the
sport today. The eccentric arcs laid down by such F-
style "individuals" as Steve Rocco, Rodney
Mullen, and Reginald Barnes have amused and
alarmed as they have transformed much of the
industry into their own image and likeness. Primo
Desidero inaugurated the era of the Broadway
skate stage show. Per Welinder brought check-
ered shoes and marketing plans to the forefront.
Kevin Harris brought power block marketing to
the hinterlands. Current meanderings by ex-world
champion freestyler Pierre Andre and his F-ing
Flerte
his
associate Don Brown have again led to an out-
break of F-S bashing. Their Mike Vallely film bio
seemed so promising, what with Mike being of
relatively normal skate temperament and dis-
playing hardly any telltale freestyle affectations.
(The fact that MV occasionally tapes his fingers
notwithstanding.) Yet when their chosen film edi-
tor Wing Ko left the Sole Tech Media 100 editing
room to go buy a set of golf clubs, alarms went
off. So much for the final edit. Bring on the éS golf
shoes. Then Senizergues was spotted road tripping
with the notoriously theatrical French skate and
surf personality Fabrice La Mao. Fab was report-
edly on the scene to write dialogue for the Vallely
documentary. But did Pierre Andre and La Mao
actually go
visit prehistoric flatland and slalom
G&S Fibreflex test rider Skip Frye in La Jolla?
Undoubtedly Emerica slalom boots must be on
the agenda to go along with the Elissa Steamer
girl's gear.
HEAR ME
Best radio advertisement come-on: "meet
skaters like Chad Muska at Jack's Garage sale.
412 Pacific Coast Highway." What skater is like
Chad? Unwilling-to-be-identified sources close
to Tracker management claim the acquisition of
The Muska still is Larry Balma's top priority. As
the last round of personal negotiations went
nowhere, watch for a move at the upcoming ASR
trade show. Balma may bring the racing Porsche
Boxster to impress. Can the Indy crew top it with
Fausto's new Ferrari? Will drunken industrialists
again bet it all and take to the streets in an effort
to define the pecking order? Board czar and racer
Mike Pust was observed deep in conference with
Vitello in the pits of the recent Momo Grand Prix
in Irvine. Now there is a hook-up that could depress
a few more business category fliers.
MEAT MEN
What better proof there that alienation
sells than the spectacle of Andy Macdonald
singing in a Gap commercial?
Does the rumored acquisition of an alleged
25% of CCS by those ever-expanding financial
men and women at the Swander investment
combine hint of further corporate mergers in
the skate biz? CCS now is said to be linked to
such other purported Swander Co assets as
World, Switch, etc.
BEATEN TO THE PUNCH
This double set never made
Josh Kasper's part in the Osiris video.
Joey Tershay was observed drawing longboard
outline curves in the forest at Woodward skate camp
in Pennsylvania. He also was heard negotiating to
obtain an old Roger Hickey downhill model.
Tershay denies that he is crafting longboards at
night in a Hunter's Point shipyard, stating, "I only
make a few for my friends; I do it because you
can't buy anything decent." Another quiet project.
of Joey's is the release of a run of Independent
101 trucks.
BLOW JOB
The city of Providence, Rhode Island is said
to have signed an exclusive three-year contract
with the NBC network to be the host site for the
soon-to-be-unveiled Gravity Games. Provision
of "some funding" by the city to cover services,
insurance, etc. is said to be in effect. Yes,
HALL OF MEAT
TRASH
"Check out my three titanium
plates," says Dan Arambula
when checking into the Hall of
Meat. How did it happen? "Just hit
a rock on a steep-ass hill."
Providence is indeed the same location from
which the ESPN Extreme Games were originally
started. But what could be a surprise in the evo-
lution of this clone enterprise? The purported
connections between RCA, the E Map-Petersen
Publishing-Surfer-Skateboarder group and the
National Broadcasting Corporation are well
wow are
known. Do the intricately convoluted corporate
complexities of these marketing geniuses mat-
ter to anyone any more than their pre-digested,
for-mass-consumption products do? The ques-
tion ESPN seems to be putting out is, which
athletes will attend the Gravity Games?
POSER OF THE MONTH
Name: Matt Stevens
Rank: Water slide
Serial #: Punch drunk
The over-obvious inclusion of Tony Hawk
along with such "recognizable names" as
baseball players Mark McGwire and
Sammy Sosa in ESPN's mag hints of the
Birdman's allegiance to the X franchise. Yet
house sources drop the info that along
with five separate trips to Europe in as
many weeks, there exists a trip to
Providence on the CEO's travel itiner-
ary. Another potentially disruptive
Gravity Games presence could be
Christian Fletcher, who amazed many by
arriving at a G-Games street luge qualifier
and being highly competitive. Listed by NBC
as competitors are: Bucky Lasek, Andy
Mac, Gershon Mosley, Biker Sherlock,
George Orton, Burnquist, Waldo Autry.
Eric Koston, Chris Senn, Jaya Bonderov,
Chad Fernandez, Rick McCrank, Chet
Thomas, Colin McKay, Tas Pappas, Mike
Frazier, Max Schaaf, Diego Bucchieri,
Max Dufour, Neal Hendrix, Chris
Gentry, Lincoln Ueda, Danny Way,
Brian Howard, Pat Channita,
and Danny Gonzalez among
others. This erudite final field of
athletes is extremely reminis-
cent of the X Games competitors.
Basically this amounts to a show-
down between the networks as to who
can bring in the best field of riders.
The networks in their power struggle
are expending millions of dollars.
What do the athletes receive? The
Gravity Games hypes that
"everybody is
competing for the
highest purse in each of the 17
events." For Aggressive Inline
Skating they are offering a purse
of $165,000. This amount is sub-
stantially more than is being put
up for any of the Streetstyle,
Vert, Luge, Downhill, or for that
matter, BMX, Wakeboarding, or
Motocross events. An un-equi-
table prize structure like this will
only serve to alienate many. We will
leave it up to your imagination to
determine if you think that certain
corporate entities seem intent on
controlling skateboarding, or what
problems that may or may not pose.
MESSY SITUATION
And for this month's sleazy indus-
trial intrigue: which major clothing
mogul was allegedly caught doing
his "designer" on the company
desk? And for bonus points,
which prominent surf/skate
publishing executive is the
girl married to? Terms
such as truth in advertis-
ng and sponsorship
begin to assume new
meetings as the leg-
ends of the industry
begin to cross-polli-
nate one another.
The city of
Mission Viejo
opened their
$750,000 public
skatepark,
which received immediate heavy usage and
global press. Other SoCal municipalities in the
immediate area are following their example
and building skate facilities. Irvine, Laguna
Niguel, and San Clemente are already said to be
working towards them.
MOUTH FARTS
"Being a luge racer is
the easiest thing I have ever
done. It's way easier than skating
or surfing." -Christian Fletcher
"Columbine-I'm attending next year to do
graduate work." -Mic-E Reyes
"I feel like I'm cheating. These days I spend all
my time running my company."-Chris Miller
"They kicked me out and then tried to give
me a blow job when they heard my father's
name. I guess they don't understand that
skateboarders are supposed to be non-
conformists." -Nathan Fletcher
FOR EV
Mad Mark Gonzales gets
ready to cut his own hair.
152 THRASHER