forgotten you after the fun I had on the
Blind tour last summer. And Kyle Berard.
Jesus, Kyle. You won and I don't even
know what you look like. I'm almost posi-
tive I didn't get your photo. Sorry, man.
Same to you, Rod James, Michito Iwata,
and Kevin "Spanky" Long. I'll be sure to
get you guys next year.
You got two hundred photos of upcom-
ing skaters, you got a historical document.
You got no way to scan 'em, you got dick.
To be completely honest, I tried to
spend as little time in the actual
Skatepark of Tampa as possible this year,
the reason being that no matter how
badass the skating, or how gnarly the
well, performing the same powerful, lien-
to-tail based line that I saw him do when I
I was 13 years old. Mark Roth was cheated
out of the finals because of politics and the
fact that he flailed like a wounded baboon,
and Jesse Fritsch surprised nobody for tak-
ing first for the second year in a row.
On to street! The competition was
BY THREE O'CLOCK. DUDES WERE BEING
OPENLY MOCKED FOR THEIR HAIRCUTS.
PANTS, AND ANYTHING ELSE THE
ANNOUNCERS COULD FIND TO
I really need to apologize to all the peo-
ple I made pose for a picture, as, upon
sending in my 200-plus photos to Thrasher,
I was quickly told that there was no way in
hell they would have enough time to scan
them all anyway. So I had just wasted all
my and everybody else's time, not to men-
tion gotten up the hopes of the handful of
kids who seemed genuinely excited to
have their photo in the mag.
trick, a few hours in that dusty warehouse
has a profound numbing effect.
Therefore, I took in the contest action in
small controlled doses, saving the bulk of
my attention for the action-packed
Sunday finals. The rest was reserved for
raw streetstyle excursions, the fruits of
which accompany the contest coverage.
Vert was a brief affair, with only a few
surprises. At age 31, Mike Speranzo placed
POKE FUN AT
extremely rough, was the announcing,
which got more and more brutal as the day
wore on. By three o'clock, dudes were
being openly mocked for their haircuts,
pants, and anything else the announcers
could find to poke fun at. One guy was so
steamed he threw his trophy in the moat.
But let us continue.
Jim Bates raised some brows with his
solid Rothmeyer-esque performance and
LEFT TO RIGHT: DAMIAN BRAVO NOLLIES TO LIP AT MIAMI'S SYNAGOGUE RAILS. BRAVO, DAMIAN! BRAVO!
ALEX "TRAINWRECK" GALL CAN FUCKIN' 5-0 ANY RAIL YOU GIVE HIM. IT'S LIKE A GAME TO HIM.
90 THRASHER
heel