Academy Awards
A Delirium inspired celebration at the end of a decade at Brixton’s Academy Theatre ran the Snakes Lane New Year race a close second as skate non-event of the holiday season. At Snakes Lane only three people showed up to race. The turn out at the Academy was much better with Rodga Harvey, Matt Bain, Shane O’Brien, Mike Manzouri, Mick Forster and Paul Wright on boards and Craig Campbell on bike, but the ramp was a nightmare, about 6.5 feet wide, soggy, and with no flat bottom to start with. To make matters worse, it was perched on a stage with no possibility for riding out and there were no safety nets.
Predictably, boards flew and Shane was soon banned from skating after his board landed amongst the pricy laser light show equipment. Since skating was such a nightmare the skaters indulged in other forms of entertainment. And that caused trouble too, with Rodga Harvey thrown off the premises after he got a little carried away and started dancing behind Chaka Kahn during her set. Final score: skate-as-fashion-accessory 2; skateboarding 0.
Bikes at Milton Keynes
A bike event with a diference is promised for February 24th at the Woughton Centre in Milton Keynes. The organisers are hoping to attract some of the riders who don’t normally trek up north for the BFA events. The Woughton Centre is in Rainbow Drive, Leadenhall — leave the M4 (!!!) at junction 14 and head for the Milton Keynes bowl.
Pulpanek to Death Box
As hinted last month, tope German skater, Anders Pulpanek has joined Death Box. Their pro team now consists of Dosset, Goff, Pulpanek, Rocker, Van Der Eng and Wurzel — the new Rocker and Pulpanek models should be out any day now, featuring the lengthways fade paint/stain jobs like all the latest DB decks. Also new from Death Box are new shirts, trousers, jackets and sweatpants and 93a DoDo wheels.
Nicky Guerrero Joins Powell
Powell have announced the line up of their new European team and, in a surprise master-stroke, they have snapped up Nicky Guerrero when his contract with G & S ran out. The top Danish vert skater joins Mark Fowlie (Denmark), Eng-san Kho (Netherlands), Mike Manzouri (UK), Stefan Toth (Swedish junior champ), Jan Waage (West Germany) and of course Frank Messman.
Powell’s new European base in Amsterdam is coming togther and will include an indoor ‘training facility’ — to be built by Tim Payne.
Fake Skate Russians in Texas
On returning to his nativeTexas for the Shut Up and Skate contest, Jay Podesta was struck by an eerie sense of deja vu as he watched an American tv commercial featuring a Russian skater. He could swear he’d seen the skater before and yet he had NEVER BEEN TO RUSSIA. Podesta put it down to the Texan welcome and went back to sleep.
As ever there’s a straightforward, scientific explanation for this paranormal phenomenon. Far-fetched though it may sound, the American company responsible for the advert had decided that for whatever reason they would not film in Russia itself, but would have to make do with Britain. They sent talent scouts to the South Bank looking for skaters who looked suitably ‘hungry’ and ‘Russian’. Close-cropped, decidedly skinny slalomer Leon Clark fitted the bill. And the Russian monument in the commercial? That was a huge bit of wooden scenery erected for the day near the windmill on Wimbledon Common, a spot whose only known link with the Eastern Bloc is the presence of Great Uncle Bulgaria.