Eric Koston.

"The second - place mini - ramp champ's name is Eric Koston. Eric had endless combinations of tricks, as well as some flights worthy of praise. Ollie tail - grab."

This Mark Water's photo of Eric Koston is from the 1991 NSA Amateur Finals at the Skate Zone in Atlanta, Georgia. In addition to second on the mini - ramp, Koston got fourth, in between Fred Gall at third and Andrew Reynolds at fifth on street. Jordan Richter won the mini, got third in vert and tenth in street. A few of the other riders in the contest included Willy Santos, Chris Senn, Tim Brauch, John Cardiel, Colin McKay, Chet Thomas, Matt Beach and Steve Berra.

The one thing I've been noticing about the photos in the old magazines is that the skateboarders are always wearing pads at contests, even on the street courses. Some of the street setups were rather tiny and laughable, too. In addition, some of the pads were tiny and laughable as well, with guys having elbow pads for knee pads. You used to have to wear pads at nearly every park. I understand the importance of safety gear for vert and helmets in general, but pads just limit your range of motion on street and smaller ramps. This might have been an additional factor contributing to closing of many skateparks in the early 90s. Why wear nasty kneepads to skate a two foot high hip or a ledge when you can go ride the streets for free? It's a shame the parks closed up back then because I lived in an area that had winter. Curse the lawsuits and insurance issues.

Transworld - February 1992 Volume 10 Number 2