The Sound & the Fury 1998

Fall had just decided to set in around Seattle when the date for this event came along. The now premiere event for Northwest Skateboarding was only established one year ago and has quickly become a yearly tradition. It was destined to be because of some hard work from some local Seattle area folks who are dedicated to skateboarding around Seattle. The big 3 worth mentioning are Ian from Marley’s, Francis from Crescent Downworks, and Jason (not the Powell Pro) Ellis from Tasty Shows Productions. Their backing was instrumental for the last 2 years success of this event.

This years optimism lead to a two day event where day one consisted of eliminations to twenty skaters in the following divisions. Under 15, 16 and over, Girls Division, Shop Sponsored, and a Factory /Pro division for some cashola. The first day was pretty business like where everything had a set schedule to be followed or else. It made the day go very smoothly. Their was only 21 Factory riders to fill the heat so everyone voted to expand this group and everyone qualified. Everyone got to leave on time and in good shape. A couple of hot shots had to sit out on crutches and watch.

Saturday night was full of partying all around Seattle so many of the contestants were quite groggy, including myself, and unwilling to ride in the brisk fall weather that early the next morning. Still, the youth and enthusiasm prevails as usual and you start to see the dinosaurs head out on the course and get in some valuable practice time.

Since everything was in place the contest got started almost on schedule. The unsponsored divisions went along nicely until Erin Mercier ollied from the platform over a fence only break his ankle. On to the Shop Sponsored we went after a packed out practice session only to find a good few riders were tearing shit up so hard that questions remained as to why they weren’t sponsored. Lars Campos nailed some super power lines that contained tech and no bails. The winner, undisputed! The Girls division was won by Cindy Gorsett who is pretty far advanced in her category, car rides and nollie hard flips gave her the win in this group. All the other girls ripped to!

Only Factory to go and practice was illuminating the best and what they would pull during their runs. Who would be able to stay on with so much difficulty in every trick? Well, Ben Kraun came outta nowhere to shred the place up, Forest Kirby came up from Cali. to make friends and bust out ollie nose blunt across the high box and ripped in to 1st place, N.W. ripper Joe McLellan managed to stay on for a fine run. P-Towns own Mike Crespino was hugely impressive even after finding the Seattle areas ER, as is his custom with every new town he visits. I honestly can’t remember what Dave Hupp did, but I’m sure he deserved the 2nd spot. Scotty Yamamura was also killing everything with smooth hard tricks.

So the only thing left to do besides awards, prizes, raffles, and car tipping was the Best Trick event. The only one who could top Josh Falks ollie kickflip over the car was Josh Falk who made an ollie kickflip 180 over the car. It was a great time and he well deserved to x-tra cash to take home. Next year I strongly recommend everyone come up to Seattle in late September for the showdown that accompanies a lot of good times and a laid back atmosphere.