Soulriders Contest
July 6, 1996

Big Daddy Chane

Let's just say that it was pretty amazing this contest actually took place.

After being postponed a multiple amount of times due to weather, most wondered whether the contest would ever happen (the lucky ones stayed home or skated downtown). After the long anticipation (eg. radio promotion and hype), the contest was an embarassing flop. The contest's only saving attribute was that it rained only part of the time.

Darren Lee: 180 fakie grind thing

contest.mov (446k)

(Movie) A series of tricks, including Sam's 'Trick of the Day'. clip is in b&w to reduce download time.

Since it was slated as a street-oriented contest, there were "street" obstacles scattered among the interior of A'ala Park's over-vert madness. There was a pyramid. Of course this was no ordinary pyramid. This pyramid looked like it had fallen off the back of the truck on the way to the contest. There was a noticable part on the flat deck where there was a crack repaired and reinforced with duct tape. In fact, most of the ramp was pieced together with duct tape. I'm not exactly sure whether there wasn't an attempt to make the ramp completely out of duct tape (sort of like molding a shoe out of Shoe-Goo). For this, the ramp's custodians should be commended on their environmentally-conscious effort. Anyway, the ramp's bottom was kinked, and nobody was blasting crazy flipper tricks over it.

There were a couple other mysterious objects: a flat platform (sort of like a sidewalk), some 6 inch cones (which nobody used anyway), and the corner of a swing set. Obviously, the best obstacle of the day was A'ala's smooth concrete walls. Left: Shane Rodrigues

Robby [above] and Pete [right] enjoy the permanent obstacles

For entertainment purposes during the contest, the PA system was set to crank out "Four Horsemen", "Search and Destroy", Ozzy, Green Day, and Wu-Tang Clan repeatedly. The musical choices weren't bad, but they were being played out of a single speaker, which caused every "stereo" song to sound like they were devoid of a singer and drums. For a while, we weren't quite sure whether Randy Rhodes hadn't risen from the dead and started jamming with Kirk Hammett and all the other A'ala Park locals. Perhaps the sound man should take a class called Mono Switch 101.

As far as chicks go, they decided to shine the contest. Nobody really knew whether the contest was canceled or not. There was a small pack of about 5 or 6 nubile 15-year old betties, but they caught the bus home after they weren't impressed with the skating.

Expect more extensive coverage for the next contest (if there is anything to cover). Even though the contest left much to be desired, people had fun skating and hanging out. Here are some of the highlights:

• Some kid fell as he rolled up the pyramid and in the process his shoe fell off, sort of like Simon Woodstock. However, there was no dog to fetch his shoe.
  
  
• Brian Takeshita skated the whole course and touched only one wooden obstacle with his hand (when he did an streetplant on the wooden sidewalk).
  
  
• When this guy Larry bailed a tailslide over the "LARS A.P.B." graffiti he obviously spray-painted before the contest for the added visual effect.
  
  
• Sam Clemen's 50-50 on lower guard rail (Trick of the Day).
  
  
• Robby Gaskell's show-off nosepick on the over-vert lip after he couldn't pull it the day before when nobody gave a shit.
  
  
• The big guy who looked like Ron Whaley (Sean Payne).
  
  
• Kale showed up late, but it was cool, because he had a twelve-pack in his backpack.
  
  
• Willy looked like Elvis and drove a caddy.