Figure Slalom

[Slappy Maxwell]

I've always found it strange that the whitest band ever is from chocolate city.

[John Gilmour]

Ahem...well Mr. Kirby is not so far off. I have a few skeletons in the closet to air out.

I did in 1976- go to a summer camp in the Adirondacks where there was no pavement. Indeed, I had just gotten Bennetts and Road Rider 4's and BECAUSE of "original" New school Old School bolt pattern problems I had to put my three hole "new School" Bennetts on a Hang Ten (which came originally with Chicago trucks- 3 hole) because they would not fit on my "old School" Wayne Brown kicktail board with Suregrip ultra narrow/short 4 hole pattern. (even better for nollies).

So without a kicktail or pavement I was forced to pump around on a basketball court for a summer. Larry Marcus and I would skate around- trying to invent skateboard basketball- but since I sucked at basketball, and he was very short, our dream died.

Without a kicktail, flatland freestyle wasn't happening. I also did not have any opera music, so I did not go follow Dan Gesmer's path.

Yes if it had been Opera things might have been different. But as it was it was the Bicentennial Summer of 1976- and already Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon was 3 years old and passe'. Boston hadn't caught on yet. For Led Zeppelin- Physical Graffitti was already more than a year old- Prescence had flopped- and the Song Remains the Same was not yet released.

I tried to explain the scenario to Terence Kirby, in his quest for knowing the roots of East Coast slalom. I told him about the camp-too many days of rain- and the DJ with the limited playlist who played the same song-... the most popular song of 1976 summer- over and over again. And when the DJ was fired- he got a few days of food and locked himself in the DJ booth broadcasting this song. Our radios could only pull in one station- with one song on the playlist.

So after telling TK the history- he decided to relive it. I went up to see TK and there he was slaloming on a Basketball court with this ancient 8 track player belting out this tune.

http://users.cis.net/sammy/starland.htm

The band was partly responsible for launching David Letterman's career. After being nominated for 5 grammys and winning two including best new artist- they even had a TV SHOW. The drugs must have been very strong that year- angel dust was all the rage. see-
http://www.coolforever.com/html/lps/sta ... lband.html


Here is an actual sample of what drove our skateboarding.

http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.a ... =sh_google
track number 8.

TK did not understand that the drive to slalom was to AVOID listening to that song. It was either skate on the basketball court in the rain in 1976 or debate the lyrics of that song in the cabins. see-

http://www.amiright.com/misheard/artist ... band.shtml

So to all the Newbies of slalom- wanting to get into figure slalom- other than Afternoon Delight- here is a playlist of the music you'll need to drive you.

http://pages.map.com/~freek/1976.html

THE MOST POWERFUL SLALOM HITS OF ALL TIME-music to criddle by.

You can see by 1977 and afterwards- the music wasn't fit for slalom. http://pages.map.com/~freek/look.html most of the beat and flow was gone.

Also Peter Verdone may end up including a copy of Afternoon Delight with each pair of G.E.T.'s to balance the 666 problems.

[Vlad Popov]

This discipline has been touched briefly before. I find it really appealing, considering it's probably the gayest slalom there is. Dan Gessmer's "Two wheels down " (or something) video is really-really good, even though it's more of a ballet then figure slalom. If I ever lay my hands on some true Figure Slalom videos, I'll make a copy (with a permission). The Russians might organize an Open Slalom Cup of Russia this summer, so chances are good I'll see how it's done (and why).
It's more about grace and style then it is about speed, even though the later is what counts. But pumping around on flats, especially on good surface such as "Chevron" tennis courts, is at least a great workout. Maybe John can demonstrate some of it when they melt the snow on the streets and turn up some heat.

Judging from Jani's article in Slalom! mag it's one of the toughest disciplines to master and really fun to watch. If my recall program is bug-free tonight, the "bad" Soviets (now "good" Russians) used modified boards and loose trucks to run gates in all directions, some being as tight as 3 feet.

When some of the older Slalom! issues are up on the site, we'll be able to get more info on the slalom dark years from all over the world.

PS Thank you Terence for sharing valuable information on the Royalty.

Off to run some cones indoors.

Yours in slalom and beyond,
Vlad.

[Terry Kirby]

ah yes, figure slalom. john gilmour believe it or not is a closet 'figure slalom' enthusiast. you can sometimes see it leak out when he sets his normal courses in the form of curves. sometimes we'd be driving and john would get all excited and say 'tk look at that great slalom spot' i would look but all i could see was a tennis court, no hills or nothing. i later found out it was tennis courts where he loved to set up his figure slalom courses. figure slalom can also be a great workout if you set a figure 8 course and go round and round. i believe vlad would be very good at this considering his pumping ability. anyway, the only way to tell if you like it is to try it. the cool thing is you do not need a lot of room or a big gs board. just a smooth surface and an open mind will do. ice skating costumes are optional. yours in slalom, tk

[Brian Morris]

The Idea sounds cool, how do you do it? What type of setup do you need to do it?

Brian