Submitted by Tommy Phillips
It was a warm sunny June day in 1987. We were going to meet at Soda Lakes in Lakewood Colorado for a combination Slalom and Kneeboard tournament that weekend. Two guys (Tony and Tony) were both coming to meet me and promote their new products that weekend. When one called I told him I wanted to try to have a Skurfer contest along with the other events. We had tons of traditional slalom skiers, kneeboarders and nine guys that all had planned to enter the Skurfer division and were game to compete.
We decided that we would hold an expression session. Best overall impression to the three judges would win. I spoke to the riders over the phone and told them of our experimental idea and they were stoked. We decided there would be a small entry fee since we did not know what we were doing. The weekend was going to be great. One of these riders was doing things on the kneeboard that no rider had ever performed. We had six local kneeboarders that could rip and push him to the limit.
The riders all strolled to the starting dock and I got on the PA system. Naturally I started hamming it up since I was a surfer back in high school and skurfing was the closest thing to surfing now that I lived in the mountains. One by one the guys would go out and go for big air. A couple of guys imitated the back scratchers they saw on the Skurfer tape. A couple of guys tried helicopters and failed. Brian tried the first flip and crashed and burned hard.
Last on the dock was local skateboarder Ed. He was a cool guy with bushy hair and an attitude that was and still is incredible. Ed started off the dock and went to the starboard side of the boat. He delayed his cut into the wake and loaded the line and launched high into the air and stuck the biggest air of the day. He then went to the starboard side of the boat and launched into a backside jump and threw a huge tabletop grabbing it up on the tip underhanded. A rocket air and then a big fin release and Ed was on his way back to the dock. But wait! Ed had time for one more move. He pulls out backside and delays his turn, loads the line and throws another huge air and reaches up and grabs it stiffy. None of us had ever seen this type of stuff. Ed blew us away. He won by a mile.
Tommy Phillips
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