Media Watch

We’re used to seeing skaters blamed for everything in the papers — most of it total fiction — but the strangest ‘skate rats’ clipping of recent months has the ring of truth. It’s from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram’ and begins “Up to 5 car burglaries on recent weekends may have been the work of teenagers who scooted through underground sewers on skateboards, popped up through manholes and pilfered items from unlocked cars.” Police had spotted two kids climbing out of a manhole, collared them and found a collection of items and two skateboards down in the sewer. “From this we conclude that they were lying on their skateboards and propelling themselves all over the place through the storm drainage system.” said Sgt. Richard Winstanley.
Think you can beat that? Send in any skate-related news clippings you come across this year — including all those skate harrassment ones — if we print yours we’ll send you a token prize of some unspecified useful type.

Bass Player Wanted

Strange item seeking to drum up trade for the Wall by drawing attention to certain items such as an advert for a band memebr (Into Husker Du, Descendants etc) and a home video of the recent Powell Team appearance at Latimer Road ramp.

Very Short Shorts

• The Washington Oval’s indoor spine ramp is up (but there’s still no electricity)
• But bad news from Brian Wainwright: the Farm Ramp has gone
• And last month’s story about the NEC ramp ending up an indoor ramp in Yorkshire turned out to be terminally exaggerated
• Aaron Deeter’s got a model out on Zorlac
• Davross is getting married (on St Valentine’s Day)
• some kid pulled his arm out of his socket at St Albans — he was chucking his board, not skating it, at the time
• Don Brider has joined the insdy skate clothing scene with his “Tear and Wear” brand
• Two to three hundred people packed into the Antrim steel factors where Steve Barrow made space indoors for the mini-ramp for a New Year’s competition. Wurzel and Goff can remember little about it — although they were present in body at least
• The ultimate in custom graphics? World Industries’ colorform decks, said to have a street scene screened on them as a background for you to position the rub-down transfers of skaters, cop-cars etc supplied with each deck
• And which notorious British pro indulged so heavily in pre-Christmas good cheer on an Airwalk promo tour of London skate shops that he ended up signing his own board?

Copenhager Robots and Rebates

There’s now a firm date for the Danish round of the European Cup Series. The Scandinavian Open will take place in Copenhagen’s Forum on April 20th – 22nd. This year’s events will be mini-ramp and street, making this the first official AES mini-ramp contest. The organisers promise that this will not be your average mini-ramp. They’re promising to build a monster the like of which has never been seen in Europe. If the vert ramp Tim Payne built for them last year is anything to go by, they’ll keep their word. The large street course is alos bound to be hot if they manage to top the one they built for 1989.
If you read the report on last year’s contest, or the Interail feature we ran on Copenhagen in Issue 79, you’ll know that Copenhagen is full of places to skate and Skating Magazine have produced a guide to all of them which will be available to visitors the the competition. If you need details, write to the Scandinavian Open Committee, Anker Brinck, —