Impact Skatepark
East Providence, RI
June 21, 1998
I can't remember the last time I went to a contest (never mind ENTERED one), but the first contest at Kevin Robinson's new skatepark renewed my faith that contests can still be fun. Local comps are usually more fun anyway, simply because they're smaller & more intimate, you're among friends, and there's little pressure to perform. The contest was supposed to start with Novice Flatland at 10 AM, but things didn't get rolling until noon. (I think the first thing that Kevin learned from this contest is that nobody likes to get up really early.)

Although many of New England's flatlanders had previous plans and couldn't make this contest, it still drew riders from Maine, New Jersey and New York, as well as plenty from Massachusetts and Rhode Island. By the time the Novice & Expert flatland classes were underway, most flat competitors had been beaten by the sun for several hours and were reddened and/or tired. John Conners from New York went out and "just screwed around" to some disco tunes (to take away any possible seriousness of the situation), and (to his surprise) won Expert flat with some pretty fast riding.

Official music of the contest: Eric B. & Rakim.

Masters flat was the best & closest class of the day (though maybe not the most exciting to non-flatlanders). Brian Chapman (rad tricks, but messed up a little) and Mike Yeager (had a perfect first run) were a couple standouts in the class who were definitely in the running. Jared Souney had near-perfect runs with his usual style: smooth, hard tricks and strings that go on forever. Nothing short of amazing, but unfortunately "amazing" would only get him third place today. The top two spots went to New Jersey riders Ed Guild and Adam Nussbaum. Both had a similar style with lots of complicated front wheel strings that bordered on the impossible, combining tomahawks, steamboats, funky chickens, blenders, and whole lot more.


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