Masonite Boogz

The one-off, indoor skateboard contest for-the-sake-of-an indoor skateboard contest is a time tested and true, seemingly Middle Western tradition that I hold in high esteem having participated in many myself. The locked in feeling of a day or weekend at the skatepark during the throws of winter holds a hazy, masonite boogery, jittery-legs-type nostalgia for me that harkens back to my first-ever contest in spring of '97. I got second, maybe third, intermediate; they didn't bother with a beginner because no self-respecting 15-year-old (we were the youngest there) would stoop to that (maybe there was a beginner section, I don't know).

Which brings us to the vestigially named Southern Slaughter at the Lair. B-Show gave the finals high marks as a judge and let's not gloss over the fact that the above video features babies doing cute skateboarding, a 39-year-old man nosesliding the handrail and a bunch of teenagers killing it. 3rd Lair features one other "contest for the hell of it," that exists on its own outside of some other run formatted contest series, the more lastingly titled and older Midwest Melee. My pontifications here should be taken with a grain of salt, but with the lead-in here in mind, maybe the "Southern Slaughter" title could be dropped and the contest could be simplified into something older, more cabin fevered, with only a 15-25 and a 25 and up division, an intense masonite dust experience of a single day that gives the teens their due, but might also give the semi-retired and Dan Jackson a chance to come out and relive their other days with some dignity (not that Dan was lacking, I'm thinking of myself).

That's not quite the ode to the local contest I had in mind, but I'm cool. Be sure to take a Pizzy Break and ponder the economics of a trip to Cream City in the waning days of the most mild/best winter ever.

PS: Henkler, ask me sometime about the 411 rule on contest video editing.