a while. The bowls were
good but scared the piss out of me
at the same time. I met Ryan Simonetti at
his shop called Anomaly. He told me he
hadn't seen Johnny Rad but was willing to
go to the park and check it out.
Ryan is a machine. He does airs out and
over everything. We skated for a while.
until it started raining, and then we
headed back to his friend's pad. I asked
everyone at the house about the Rad Man
but was answered by shaking heads. The
next morning I arose to find snow on the
ground. It was time to get out of there
before I got snowed in. Besides, Mr. Rad
wouldn't kick it in the snow.
Driving through the powder was crazy. I
looked over and saw a figure in the snow.
What if Johnny Rad was hitchhiking and
needed a ride? I pulled up just long
enough to see that it was just a snow-
man. I was really starting to lose it.
Finally the sun came through as I
reached the AZ border, and I pushed on
straight back to Phoenix.
I stayed in Phoenix for five days this
time, each day going out in pursuit of the
Radster. A whole group of dudes joined
the mission, people like Mike "Yeah, Yeah"
Pringle, Joe Lanenga, Scotty Copalman,"
Cody Boat, Andy Bohna, Nectar, Jense,
and others. When the sun set, our time
was pretty much spent in crazy, madden-
ing displays of good times, which is every-
one in Arizona excels at..
I was getting bummed though. The road
was tearing me down after three weeks. I
had road rage, and I still hadn't found
Johnny Rad. My last day was spent recu-
perating and waiting for Jimmy Moore.
and others to go on a pool mis-
sion, but they had nothing but
Zs; they were late-night fisher-
men. Farewells were given and I
hit Tucson once more-skated a
fullpipe and played Ikari
Warriors on an old Nintendo and
was out. I was Radless.
The California sign popped
up in my windshield heading
home, and then it hit me, just
like in Animal Chin: Johnny Rad
was everywhere! He was every-
one who was down to skate.
Everyone I met was the
coolest, amped on skating. The
Rad Man is in everyone. I was
stoked. I had found him after
all. Ripping style, holmes.
GRE
96 THRASHER
Clockwise from
top left: Chris Swanson
hurtles over a hydrant to
Drehobl crunch. You may
remember Andy Bohna from
those bitchin' Z-Roller ads; here
he is grinding without the aid
of a rolling axle. Zac Hudson
hits the road on the 'hound.
Steve Valdez pivots on a
natural quarterpipe in
Tuscon, AZ.