May 18 - 20 Dallas, TX

When they said Dallas, I thought they meant barbecues, strip joints and Eisenberg's. These are the issues that preoccupy any well-bred rollerblader: food, girls and a world-class temple to rolling. But I misunderstood. What they meant was leather boots and line dancing. Horse racing and humidity. ESPN loves contrast. They love to take an old world location like, say, Providence, RI, and fill it with extreme athletes. They snicker behind pale ales and think of the havoc that will arise when a city of old money and unwavering legal institutions gets invaded by a group of ruffians with more respect for their tattoo artists than their parole officers.

It was just such wild tomfoolery that inspired the ESPN architects to plan their X Trials in Texas, where if you ain't wearing a ten gallon hat, you might as well be a "hoe-moe-sexual." But it wasn't enough just to stick the skaters in Texas and hope for friction. They loaded the odds by putting us in the backyard of the racetrack. They booked us into a hotel where the only entertainment in a two-mile radius was the lobby saloon. And just to make certain the tension would be tangible, they stocked the DJ booth of that saloon with an even amount of hip-hop and country music.

(Well, maybe ESPN didn't do it on purpose, but the staff sure seemed entertained and it made for some good visuals between events!)

Every night, the skaters would descend on the lobby bar, where the ritual of two-stepping and testosterone-swaggering would have already begun. Age-worn Texans in fine cowboy hats would swing their dates around the dance floor, glance up in surprise when Scott Crawford and Fabiola would traipse in. The DJ knew his cue. He would wait until the skaters were just drunk enough to be belligerent, until the cowboys were just nervous enough to be provocative, then he would rip the Garth Brooks record off the turntable and replace it with The Outcaste. It was like a scene from "West Side Story." Divisive. The skaters would mosh the cowboys off the floor only to be shuffled away on the next song by a two-step frenzy.

Shockingly, nobody was hurt.

The competition was held in Grand Prairie, a western suburb of Dallas, in the parking lot of the prestigious Lone Star Race Track and Sports Book. John Tyson, one of rollerblading's premiere personalities (see the July '95 issue of Teen magazine), built a permanent skate park complete with vert ramp and two streetcourses on the outskirts of the oval track. It's a work of art. Next time, you're in Grand Prairie, I recommend you give it a spin.

The vert comp was dominated by the Yasutoko brothers, who battled back and forth in the two final runs. With Cesar's ongoing arm injury, the Australian torch was carried by Shane Yost who unveiled a brand new trick, a pop tart mctwist (360 to invert to 360), although it was Sam Fogarty who claimed the bronze medal. It was good to see Manual Billiris again, those signature ambidextrous tricks laced around the ramp like a pearl necklace.

The street comp was a celebration of great street skating. As announcer and Dallas native Arlo Eisenberg said following the prelims, "I just watched 78 street runs and I was entertained the entire time." The USD team had just come off tour, so Louie Zamora and Josh Petty were trying to qualify for the Games. Jaron's run was predictably huge and Pennsylvania rookie, Adam Killgore skated well, but the real heroes of the street course were the Texas skaters. Shawn Robertson, Randy Moreno and Weston Kramer all placed out of the prelim round, but Ryan Dawes finished in seventh place overall and Houston skater, Chris Fleener finished fifth. Blake Dennis pulled an immaculate run with a creative line to claim the victory, followed by Jaron and Sam Fogarty.