Bizarro World: Billy Ruff vs Bruce Logan, Duane did something.

Subtitle: Agressiveness and spunk. I was cracking up about Billy Ruff’s 5th place gift certificate prize (for a PRO contest!) in the 1981 Del Mar freestyle contest. I began to speculate about what might have happened had Bruce Logan fallen an extra time. Maybe Billy Ruff would have gone on to become Rodney Mullen, and eventually been a major influence in the skateboarding industry. Instead, all we have is the reissue of one of the crappiest graphics of the era. I went back to the October 1981 issue of Thrasher to further investigate. Check out those results! That’s Billy in the top left pic, wining the bowl event. Ruff’s 5th place freestyle pushed him to the top of the overall standings, beating Caballero and Duane Peters. Duane entered the freestyle too. There’s a picture (see above: bottom right) with an excellent caption that reads “Duane did something.” The only thing that beats that?

When you say Billy Ruff, you say ‘Fly like an eagle, and leap like a panther’. Agressiveness and spunk.

For his agressive spunk and overall 1st place finish, Billy won $300 and a gift certificate for an undisclosed amount to an undisclosed location. These old Thrasher’s are priceless, but $129 can get you a fully set up Bruce Logan Earth Ski reissue from Gravity. That’s a reissue I can get behind.