Freewheelin' Page #3

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And down the road

it's a beautiful feeling

The day is still so new

Oh, watch me shine, I feel so fine

Just rolling with you

- Let's start it, it's

gonna start at 15 after,

15 after one and it's five

after right now, 10 minutes.

- [Stacy] What's gonna be

the giant slalom that's off?

- The giant slalom, the cones are,

the slalom is gonna be just a bang out,

bam, bam, bam, real tight

cones, maybe four feet away.

This thing is just real long turns.

It requires a different board,

sometimes different wheels and stuff.

On your mark, get set, go.

- [Camille] Every Sunday,

there's a skateboard

contest at La Costa.

The skaters organize

it themselves for fun.

First, the giant slalom and

then the straight cone course.

- [Man] All right, all right.

- 24.2 for Vince Turner.

(spirited music)

(crowd cheers)

- [Camille] Stacy's slalom

style is really different.

It's all in the way he shifts his weight

back and forth on the ball

of his rear foot for control.

He cuts closer to the cones than anyone.

In the giant slalom, Stacy had

the fastest time of the day.

But just by knocking over one cone,

the corrected time put

him back to third place.

- Man, I got so messed up on that.

- You got to start pumping in the middle.

I haven't been doing it either.

You could pump this course--

- Man, the wheel just

goes (imitates laboring).

- I know it.

Wait till you see Danny.

- [Camille] Danny Trailer

won the giant slalom,

skating really smooth

and without knocking over

a single cone.

- [Henry] That's it, right

there, pump it, pump it.

He did it, good time right there.

I'm afraid to start down.

I got no amount.

(adventurous rock music)

- [Walkie Talkie Voiceover]

The two best scores

of the third run for Stacy Peralta at 20,

I'm sorry, he got back

in second with a 23.3,

and first was Danny Trailer with a 23.1.

- [Walkie Talkie Voiceover]

Well, we only three runs,

a second run of three for Danny Trailer.

Okay, you wave your hand.

Danny?

- [Line Judge] Racer ready.

On your mark, get set, go.

(adventurous rock music)

- Oh, he's got it.

(crowd cheers)

It's pretty neat, I'm just waiting

for the straight cone slalom

so I can just start gyrating.

- [Interviewer] What's gyrating?

- Just pumping your board fast.

And that's really the main

thing I'm looking for.

This is sorta gnarly.

You can't really get the good grip

with any kind of wheels.

- Get set, go.

(spirited music)

(crowd applauds and cheers)

- [Bobby] What was that time, please?

- [Walkie Talkie

Voiceover] 23.1, that's it.

- 23.1, who's up?

- [Interviewer] How'd

you get into gyrating?

How'd you figure that out?

- Just when I started skateboarding.

That's all I knew is

like me and my friends

used to skate these banks

and I was like the first one

that could make it to the top of the bank

by throwing and shifting my weight.

And it worked and so I

just started doing that

on the ground in front of my house.

I played like this wall was a wave

and I would just like gyrate below it

and then cut back into this driveway

and do the full burdle-man.

And just keep doing it

and it got me so I can know how

to pump my skateboard really far

and get a lotta speed just on flat ground.

- The top five guys are gonna take

three runs in the final.

- [Walkie Talkie Voiceover] Henry?

- [Henry] Yeah?

- [Walkie Talkie Voiceover]

How many seconds do we

take off for a knock over of cone?

- On this course it's a 10th

of a second, one little notch.

- Are you ready, racer?

On your mark, get set, go.

- [Camille] The straight

cone slalom is even faster.

The cones are so close together,

there's no time at all

for conscious control.

It's all reflex.

You get a rhythm going

and if it's just right,

you make it without

knocking over any cones.

(vibrant harmonica music)

Bobby's a professional skier.

A lot of skiers are

getting into skateboarding,

but Bobby's one of the first.

He's got a totally different style.

The other guys are surfers mostly

and they skate with their

feet spread further apart,

the surfing stance.

But Bobby skates like a skier

with his feet together and parallel.

(lively harmonica music)

- All right, yeah!

Woo hoo, okay, here we go, man.

- [Walkie Talkie Voiceover]

Yeah, 7.2 for Tom Ryan.

- Without checking him through.

- I am ready.

Okay.

(crowd cheers)

- Time, seven, one, ow-hoo!

Seven, one, man, unreal.

- [Interviewer] What'd you win, man?

- A big bundle.

- [Interviewer] Let's see the money, man.

Hey man, this way.

(crowd cheers)

- For you.

- All right, we did it last week,

but hey, it was a good race.

It was real tight, but we

know it was all right, right?

- I was watching our styles and it's like,

we're into a totally

different trip in a way

'cause like I'm sorta like,

and with gyrating, you can

like almost pump up a hill.

But he's quicker in a tight cone thing,

'cause he can just go (imitates vibrating)

and I'm more of getting the power.

See like in a down hill,

you know what I mean?

- Exactly what you mean.

- In a down hill you can just shoot.

And in a flat, I can pick up speed

'cause it's you know, it's

pumping, and you're shooting.

How do you get your rhythm

and your body moving

in the direction, like at La Costa,

you were just parallel and

just going, boom, boom, boom.

You were going so fast,

I couldn't get over it.

- The only way you can

make a course that tight,

at that kind of a speed,

is to have total concentration

and you're watching

absolutely in front of you.

And if you're watching that

far ahead at the course,

you can adjust much faster

with a parallel stance.

You have both feet

working much more together

and counter punching from

stepping to one to the other one.

- [Stacy] You mean

you're moving your feet?

- [Bobby] Actually you're un-weighting

from one to the other one,

just like you'd be

doing if you were skiing

a powder bowl, riding parallel

is identical to skiing.

It's really a summer skiing.

- [Camille] Watching Bobby

skiing the slalom course

was really neat, just like his skating.

(lively jazz music)

This guy on a single ski would have made

a good skateboarder,

he really had it down.

Skiers are really getting out there,

free-falling, doing incredible things,

but they're not the only ones.

Soaring, hang-gliding,

surfing, skateboarding,

they're all really getting out there.

It's a new age, the space age.

Equipment keeps getting

better all the time

and the barriers get pushed

back further and further.

There's a new freedom

and that's what all these

sports have in common.

They're completely natural, no motors.

The force of gravity is all you've got

and that's what it comes

down to, controlled falling.

(lively jazz music)

And the new equipment,

especially in skateboarding,

has less drag, less friction,

so you go faster and faster,

until you're weightless, you're free.

(dramatic percussion music)

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