Cathlamet Downhill
It started a few years ago with just an idea for a push race. It turned into a push race, slalom, and downhill festival.
My son Addison Fox wanted to have a push race around the island my father lives on, about an hour and a half from Portland, OR. I had told him “no” for years because it was too far away for people to come for just a push race. But one day he caught me in a creative mood, and we started brainstorming a way for it to work. If we attached a charity to benefit, we thought people would be more likely to come out – after all, our local Annie Ross race has been very successful for homeless women with kids. Then I had the idea that if it were more races, it would be more worth the drive from Portland, plus it would appeal to the different demographic groups of skaters, so we decided to add slalom and a downhill race. I approached the town with the idea of a series of races to benefit their financially troubled medical clinic, and they were receptive. I approached Billy Meiners and Casey Morrow and they were also receptive. I ran it by Dean Ozuna and he was very helpful. He encouraged me to think big, and to schedule it the weekend before Maryhill Festival of Speed. Jp Rowan of Rip City Skates came on board with a very generous contribution of $500 for first prize in the DH. After months of planning and a lot of work we finally pulled it off.
We started off the weekend with a meeting Friday with the local powers in the town. Several people had volunteered from town to help with water, to direct traffic and to run a boom truck provided by the Public Utility Department for aerial shots. The weather went downhill on us so we moved a board demo session to the grade school playground canopy. Racers were trickling in through the night, checking in for things they had forgotten or wondering where the campgrounds were.
Saturday morning arrived and it had rained all night. The (7.5 mile) Puget Island Push Race had 9 people pre-registered, we ended up with 19 racers. As usual, Robin McGuirk won, but it was a “photo finish” with Erickson Colberg in his rookie push race, followed by Eric Hovey for 3rd. We headed back to Cathlamet to award prizes and raffle schwag. Meanwhile, Skip Marcotte and friends were setting up the slalom race, and downhill racers were trickling into town. In Skip’s words “Waking up in my waterfront yurt, the sound of rain on the canvas roof was not promising. The planned noon start time was in question. Showing up at the wet race site, we found a few lurkers lurkin'. Being optimists, we started getting the ramps together, sweeping the course, getting some cars moved and doing our anti-rain dance. The usual.
After Zac (Maytum) set a super fun 40 cone hybrid, and tons of help from Brad, Cory, Styker, Jordan, and pretty much everyone, especially Part Chewning, we got under way about 1:30.
There was a great vibe going all day. Smiles all around. I think the DH guys were having more fun than they would admit.” Final slalom results were: 1st - Michael Dong - 11.351 – clean, 2nd - Zac Maytum - 11.73 – clean, 3rd - Brad Jackman - 12.257 - 1 cone. The weather caused a couple rain delays in the slalom, but overall was clearing. A lot of the slalom racers stayed to help with hay since we felt confident enough to set it out Saturday evening, and to watch the DH on Sunday. Again, smiles and positive stoke all around, and they were glad they stayed.
It was a lot of fun watching the DH guys’ expressions when they first saw the hill. Daniel Hawes from Australia commented that it didn’t look like all that much on the internet, an opinion seconded by many of the racers. Someone later checked and declared the course to be 10 degrees from the first right to the end.
I’m not a longboarder, but know enough to realize what a technical course Billy and Casey had set. It starts out quite slow, with a limited area to push in, so you are coasting along to an easy left. This is where you start to pick up speed, with a relatively easy right that only saw a couple crashes. However this right is where it drops significantly for a fairly long run at 10 degrees, into a fast right/left chicane, another short 10 degree run with a fast left into a narrow side street (hence ‘corralled’), with a reflector mounted in the middle of the intersection for good measure. Listening to their plans regarding where and which way to shave off speed and which line they planned to take was quite interesting. Never having been ridden before, no one quite knew how the imagined lines would actually play out. They all had a different idea, and the initial practice runs resulted in a lot of crashes. In fact, Tad Drysdale was quoted by the Longview Daily News, “There is a corner called Carnage Corner at (another tournament called) Danger Bay. This turn will make Carnage Corner look like small potatoes”. Because of Maryhill Festival of Speed the following weekend, Andrew Mercado, Dean Ozuna, and Tad all elected to freeride the hill rather than race it. Those that were in it to win it, like Team O-Tang, were changing out wheels at each heat. Even those with Plasmas were rotating them often. The top eight results:
1. Patrick Switzer
2. James Kelly
3. Casey Morrow
4. David Mitchell
5. Kevin Reimer
6. Robin McGuirk
7. Patrick Haluska
8. Daniel Hawes
Other racers, but unsure of positions after 8th, Jeremy Banting, Zak Maytum, Thibault Courtois, Clement Gayraud, Alex Tongue, Michael Sughrue, Ryan Sorensen, Nicholas Calafato, Aidian O’Leyne, Ward Larson, Eric Hovey, and Reece Speakman being the best known out of 29 DH’ers. It was an international event with several Canadian, an Australian and two French riders in attendance. In the end, I had 59 signed waivers, including course workers who might have hopped on a board at some point over the weekend.
Robert McKendry III flew out from New York to announce for us, and did an amazing job of 1) learning to pronounce Cathlamet and Wahkiakum, and 2) educating the crowd who had never seen a longboard or DH race before. Billy elected not to race to insure things went smoothly, and did an amazing job.
The local media was with us all weekend filming, photographing and interviewing. We had a great write up on Sunday morning by the Longview paper that really got the town and racers amped up. The following Thursday we received even more positive press from the Wahkiakum County Eagle, the local weekly paper. Not only did we get front page coverage, but inside too with several photos and a positive editorial. Last but not least, they also edited three movies for us, one for each race. Plans are already underway for next year’s race with expanded slalom events, a slide competition, and camping in town all on the list. If you like a technical, challenging course, this is the race to hit. If you just enjoy hanging out and watching, then this whole event is for you!
You want more coverage?
The local newspaper did three videos for us (one for each
race), and Casey Morrow has done one so far. I posted both downhill vids on
the media thread under Cathlamet. Kole Galbraith used Ward Larson's camera
and took over 500 shots, and a lot of them turned out really good. Everyone
said the course didn't look like much on the pics, but when they saw it in
person they were all impressed. Someone checked and said it's 10 degrees
from the first right to the end of the run, with that gnarly Sullivan
Challenge type left turn.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/waheagle_rick/
http://www.waheagle.com/2/index.html
http://www.waheagle.com/2/opinion.html
Longview paper that came out on day of the downhill race - check out the
quote from Tad Drysdale re Carnage Corner. Ours ended up being nicknamed
Catastrophe Corner and Coffin Corner
http://www.tdn.com/articles/2009/08/30/area_news/doc4a9a104b36c63252243520.txt
http://s70.photobucket.com/albums/i92/WardLarson/cathlamet/
Here's Jon Huey's: http://photos.breakawayind.net/p416784486 check out the
shots from the PUD boom truck the town provided for us and the river in the
background of the crowd.
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