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T&C's Rubdown with a Hangar
(or T&C's Korean Massage Rub and Bang Her)
August 26, 2000
We can tell from the Forum postings a few months ago, that this was everybody's favorite demo/contest/riot that anybody remembers coming to Oahu in recent times. Although Juliette Lewis didn't expose her nipples through a see-through t-shirt this time around, at least the skating was free and uninhibited.
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I don't remember what time I got down to the Hickam AFB skate facility, but the contest they were having on the street course was already well underway. The sponsored division was practicing at the time. During the contest this one psycho boy flew at the centerpiece into a smith grind and almost impaled himself on the mini-handrail. He went down in a meaty thud. That was rad. That's really all I saw of the contest, not because I wasn't watching, but because the hangar was so crowded with people I couldn't even see over their shoulders. I've never seen that many little girls at the hangar before, and the hangar even had bleachers and shit.
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Arto Saari : noseblunt
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After sneaking on top of the bowl ramp for a better view (and subsequently getting kicked off, then sneaking back up on the ramp numerous times), I realized that this was where the demo session stuff had already begun.
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Too bad the deck of the bowl can't support 1000 people, but they could have held the demo there, with all the ripping going on. Rick McCrank is really a well-rounded skater. I know he'd probably win the contest for the skater that most looks like a space alien, but he's also so springy he looks like he's wearing an anti-gravity belt. He'd blaze around the bowl really fast and then grind and slide everywhere, then acid drop into the deep end, and pop huge switch ollie fakies and shit like that, all while wearing a walkman with big old headphones on his head. He's a padless wonder.
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Rick McCrank : k-grind
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There was this other goofy-foot guy with big hair skating like Blaze Blouin and shit. I don't know who he was, but he was pretty chaotic (I guess we should ask Alf). Love was all around as Bob Burnquist and Jen O'Brien also traded off runs in the bowl. After seeing him skate on TV at the X-Games the past couple of days, you could tell he had his vert legs on.
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When the demo actually started and shifted to the street course and the newly constructed vert ramp all hell broke loose, literally. Burnquist busted out all his tricks on the vert ramp, and then, well, never really thought it was possible, but, he made the old fly off of the vert ramp over a gap up over the railing onto the deck of the bowl ramp trick. And then the old stand up on the bowl's railing jump over the gap and bomb drop into the vert ramp trick. McCrank and Arto Saari started skating the street course and got all big and tech at the same time. Arto did a switch kickflip frontside boardslide on the flat rail that was nice.
[right] Too tired to walk from one ramp to another, Bob Burnquist decides to jump from ramp to ramp. - What the hell is he thinking?
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[left]
Rick McCrank uses his anti-gravity space gear to propel himself over the center piece. |
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About that time, the Air Force decided it had enough of this padless destruction on the street course and told McCrank and Arto they needed to put on some helmets (I guess McCrank's padded headphones and Arto's fat hair don't count as proper head protection under military code). As they skated around the course all these little kids started getting in the way offering their little sweaty helmets for the boys to ride. They were then informed they had to stop skating. Unfortunately, the demo pretty much ended on that note, and a full youth riot ensued. After the kids began to kick holes in the side of the hangar, a couple of tanks rolled in and sprayed the crowd with tear gas and rubber bullets. It's cool though, because they were only there to apprehend Arto & Rick and beat them around before taking them off to the brig. Well, I guess the riot thing isn't totally true, but I wouldn't say everybody left all cheery and misty-eyed.
Even though the way the demo ended really sucked dong, I'd have to say that a lot of quality skating did go down that day and we should be happy for that. Thanks to Alf and everybody else at T&C for putting this event together.
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Roiteers ready themselves
Arto takes cover
McCrank Surrenders
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As a side note, the consequences of having this contest/demo at the hangar are:
- full pads (including elbow pads) and helmets became mandatory at the hangar, even on the street course (at least for the time being)
- no more contests/demos will be held at the hangar (with the exception of the Split Demo held in March 2001). Good call Hickam. Sometimes dreams really do come true!! Keep reaching for the stars kids.
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