Place: Palm Springs, CA.
Organisation: Ron Wilkerson
Mike Daily go february 1991: The obstacles this time comprised a triangle stonehenge, a five-foot-high spine (steep), a small launch to a grind table, and the obligatory bashed-in Cadillac. Not a whole lot of stuff, and not a very flowing arrangement if the riders did say so themselves, like Danny Schow: "I threw up after my run. I was just out of breath, energy, just BLUUUUUHHHH! I wish they would have had a quarterpipe down there and a berm right here. It was a figure 8 contest." Endurance was the key, especially in the lip-cracking dry heat of Palm Springs. Gatorade and Chapstik sales must have been booming.
Injuries kept Dave Voelker and Brad Blanchard sidelined from the beginning, while Pete Augustin and Mark Kirunchyk were forced to withdraw from the competition after taking big bails during practice. The Disgustman ate it on a table topped 180 triangle ramp transfer, and Mark K. misjudged the grind table and endoed hard for a fractured wrist and palmful of broken glass from the car. Pete later claimed, "I would have lost anyway," but hisschralping begged to differ. He's been riding hard and it shows. Vic Murphy sickened the crowd with his 360 tabletops and hella tweaked variations held past the point of panic, but even more so when he opted NOT to enter the contest. His Top 3 reasons ? 1. "I bent my rim.", 2. "Hurt my ankle.", 3. "A hundred bucks is too much."
Entry fees were $40 for the Good class and $100 for Great. Steep. Kevin Martin once again delivered his brand of zany and insightful announcing, and Gregg Hansen handled the industrialized musical entertainment cranking from the speakers. And speaking of cranking, here's a synopsis of who did what for what and why.
THE GOOD GUYS
Relegating photography duties to McRibbie, Spike Jonze was free to take to his full-race Robinson and cut loose on the course. He heaved large lookback 360's, smooth 360 tail taps, jump-ramped fakies, boned airs, and his bio bonelesses for first. The wispy-beardded wiseman might not practice much, but what he has floooooows oh so well. Ruben Castillo takes care of business when he rides in contests, hitting tricks like clockwork and quickly setting his sights on the next obstacle to attack. He was pulling 360's everywhere, tail taps to nosepicks over the spine, 360 tail tappers, and more on his DBI frame and fork ("The Dirt Brothers are gonna rule the grasslands, just like Pete said."). The result was second place. The total highlight of the contest HAD to be Mad Dog's Fonzie-imitation car jump for his second and final run, when he jumped not only the car lengthwise, but also the grind table, a bike, a towel, a pair of shoes, two tires, and an empty Big Gulp cup (standing up). Moeller was hilariously decked out in a leather jacket, jeans, and visorless helmet with flames when he came out for his run. He rode a slow wheelie and eased his bike up the takeoff ramp Evel Knievel-style to make the crowd yearn for what he was about to do. They were yearning ... loudly. The Rottweiler of Soul started WAY back and barreled full speed at the setup like he was holeshotting out of the gate. The jump was spectacular, but the landing obliterated his back wheel upon impact and sent him knee-sliding just like The Fonz, but safely to a halt. The crowd was dying. No "I rule!" theatrics from this guy-he just nonchalantly wheeled his bike away with a sheepish and satisfied smirk on his face, his friends and fans jumping all over him. M.D.'s earlier runs featured bar-spinners off the table, hot manual licks along the deck of the spine, and of course his masochistic jump variations. Tres. Fastplanting 180's over the spine and flailing limbs in the air was worth fourth for Eben Krackau, who was riding a Bully. Dave Clymer, KORE thrashguard user, ground the length of the table, twisted 360 rockers over the spine, and jumped for the crowd's joy ... to the extent of two (2) close-but-no-cigar 720 attempts. Fifth. Dave Parrick X-upped the spine like a champ and took sixth. Seventh was the ticket for triangle rampmaster Keith Trainor, and eighth was had by Mark Eaton, who beaned his eyebrow on his brake lever after landing from a manly alleyooped 360 off the side of the spine. Yo Adrian.
GOOD results:1.Spike Jonze 2.Ruben Castillo 3.Chris Moeller 4.Eben Krackau 5.Dave Clymer 6.Dave Parrick 7.Keith Trainor 8.Mark Eaton
GREAT
Jay Miron did his new sponsor Bully no wrong by winning the Great class hands down: No footed 360's over the spine, full-steam-ahead nose wheelies across the table and perfectamundo 540's and rocket airs on the spine to name a few of his stunts. Jay has more than post-modern maneuvers -he has style and he's "not afraid to die" either.Second was duly snagged by Brian Blyther, who made his own lines like jumping the car's width from the spine and landing like a cat on the grind table, a burly 360 from the spine to the caved-in roof of the Caddy, and spinning glassy-smooth 540's and 360's on the spine ramp. How does tailwhip-jumping the spine, a massive decade jump on the triangle, no-footers to cancan no-footers, going for the glory of a 720 (of course) over the spine, and nicely-stalled no-footed nosepicks on the spine sound for the meat of Mike Kranich's runs ? It was good enough for third place dollars. The spine was just flat-out WORKED by Dennis McCoy-all day long he was hitting dialed stuff on it like 540 tail taps, 360 tail taps to nosepicks, tail taps to nosepicks to fakie, and other ruling and fully controlled lip trick combos. DMC did up the triangle stonehenge with flavored 360's (one-footers, can-cans, lookbacks) and 720 attempts. IVth.
One Great guy did 180 and 360 nosepicks on the spine, X-up 360's, and jumps that pretzeled his upper torso, and his name is Dino DeLuca. Fifth. Nor Cal's Danny Schow is a total wildman on his bike, which by the way is currently a Haro (has he been talking to Bob?). Dan doesn't just thrash, he actually thRESHes-throwing flat tabletops, Learies, 360's over the spine to flat ground, tweaked tail taps fufanu-style but coming back in fakie, giant footplants, and trials-style car rides around like they were nothing. Sixth place and one distinct rider who will leave an indelible impression on your mind, guaranteed. Out of semi-retirement came Craig Campbell for this contest. He was looking hot all day until the finals when he started looking fatigued, which helps explain his un-characteristic seventh place finish. Craig still pulled things like 360 rockers over the spine, 360 nosepicks, high 360's, 360 tail taps, and grind table sprocket crunchers. The sun had been slowly disappearing into the horizon during the running of the Great class, and by the time the contest was over it was gone. Spectators, 'zine guys, and various streettypes mulled about the comp area as the awards were given out and the ramps were packed back up for the next big one.
GREAT results: 1.Jay Miron 2.Brian Blyther 3.Mike Kranich 4.Dennis McCoy 5.Dino DeLuca 6.Danny Schow 7.Craig Campbell
Brian Blyther over the volcano on the cover of Invert march 1991. Photo by Brad McDonald.
Vic Murphy.
Pete Augustin. Photo by Brad McDonald.