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State-funded skateboard racing? Yep (and the pending "Gorge Games" are, too), we've got a report on the Cascade Slalom Association's recent races in Oregon, sent in by Gordon Cully and Pat Chewning. Race Report:THE OREGON STATE GAMES, ‘08
The State Games of Oregon held its third annual slalom skateboarding event on the ultra smooth and fast Soap Box Derby track at Bush’s Pasture Park the weekend of June 21-22, 2008 in Salem, Oregon. The competition drew about 30 skaters of all ages from along the West Coast, with many of the competitors coming from California and Washington.
The State Games of Oregon is an amateur Olympic-style competition for athletes of all ages and skill levels and includes a total of 38 sports with about 16,000 athletes. The Games started in 1986 with 11 sports and 4,000 athletes and has grown into one of the biggest west of the Rockies. The slalom skateboarding portion of the competition is an ISSA prime event that is organized by the Cascade Slalom Association and included racing classes for Juniors, Open, and Masters. The competition format included fully automatic electronic timing with the Dual Hybrid Slalom and Giant Slalom taking place on Saturday, June 21st and the Tight Inline Slalom and SlalomCross taking place on Sunday, June 22nd.
Through the Hybrid offsets.
A pair of "mirrored" hybrid courses with a good mixed bag of offsets, stingers, angled lines, and curves. A 25 second course for the fast racers, the surprise top finisher was a very strong looking Tay Hunt who "hadn't been on a board in months". Sure Tay, whatever..... The next three finishers, Corey Moy, Brad Jackman, and Skip Marcotte were also looking very good in this course.
Giant Slalom with a longboard.
An easy-yet-fast flowing single-lane GS course, John Stryker and Tay Hunt owned this course from the 1st beep. It was great to see these two powerful racers on a course where they could pump strong at high speeds. In the Masters division, John Stryker took the gold followed closely by Tay Hunt who earned silver and Brad “Jackhammer” Jackman took home the bronze. In the Open class division, Skip Marcotte won the gold, Robbie Lyons took the silver and Eric Tokle earned the bronze. In the Juniors division, Darrin Moy, 15, earned the gold medal who had a time that rivaled some of the adults. Peter Ramirez earned the silver while Dylan Folley took home the bronze medal.
Oyama, ripping TS.
Two tight straight courses, a 100-cone 6.5-foot course for the A-class and an 80-cone 8-foot course for the B class. The 6.5 foot spacing was too difficult for most of the racers. Only Gareth Roe, Pete Ingraham, and Judi Oyama actually looked comfortable and in control on this course. For most everyone else, it took a bit of luck to make the course. Many competitors had wonderful 90-cone runs going. Too bad it was a 100-cone course! The 80-cone course was very doable for the experienced racers, but tripped up a lot of the new racers. Gareth Roe and Judi Oyama really put on a good show for us. Gareth Roe was the top overall finisher and earned the gold medal in the Open class division, Skip Marcotte took the silver and Josh Burt earned the bronze. In the Masters division, Dan Miszowski won the gold, Brad Jackman earned silver, and Judi Oyama took home the bronze medal. In the Juniors division, Darrin Moy earned the gold medal, Nick Ronzoni earned the silver, and Ian Roe took home the bronze medal.
SlalomCross. The Future of DH Racing?
A slalomcross course using the Hybrid course as a starting point, removing the center 1/2 of the course and replacing it with 5 "open" gates for shared use by the racers. The racers would go through the upper 1/4 of the course in their individual lanes, then enter the common area of open gates where they would tuck or power-pump to try to pass the other racer. Then they would enter the final individual 1/4 of the course and go for the finish. John Ravitch qualified first, but had a plane to catch and dropped out before the Head-to-Head.
This race format was very popular with the racers. As far as I know, Jack Smith was the first to try this format at the 2003? World Championships and Paul Howard took that concept and adapted it to the Salem Hill. The surprise winner was Jordan Huotari from Spokane, Washington. Jordan started racing last year. He qualified 6th in the event, won each of the ladder-bracket rounds and finally displaced Tay Hunt out of the top spot on the very last race.
The Salem Statesman-Journal ran two articles (one on Sunday, one on Saturday):
www.slalomskateboarder.com/Contests/2008OregonStateGames/Newspaper-1.pdf
www.slalomskateboarder.com/Contests/2008OregonStateGames/Newspaper-2.pdf
Gordon Cully of GCC photography took some great photos. Check out his galleries at: http://gcully.zenfolio.com
How Sweet It Is...
RESULTS Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals were awarded to the top finishers in Masters, Open, and Junior classes.
www.slalomskateboarder.com/Contests/2008OregonStateGames/Hybrid-Qual.pdf
www.slalomskateboarder.com/Contests/2008OregonStateGames/Hybrid-Elim-C.pdf
www.slalomskateboarder.com/Contests/2008OregonStateGames/Hybrid-Elim-B.pdf
www.slalomskateboarder.com/Contests/2008OregonStateGames/Hybrid-Elim-A.pdf
www.slalomskateboarder.com/Contests/2008OregonStateGames/Hybrid-final-results.pdf
www.slalomskateboarder.com/Contests/2008OregonStateGames/GS-times.pdf
www.slalomskateboarder.com/Contests/2008OregonStateGames/GS.pdf
www.slalomskateboarder.com/Contests/2008OregonStateGames/100-Cone-left-lane-times.pdf
www.slalomskateboarder.com/Contests/2008OregonStateGames/100-Cone-right-lane-times.pdf
www.slalomskateboarder.com/Contests/2008OregonStateGames/100-Cone-final-standings.pdf
www.slalomskateboarder.com/Contests/2008OregonStateGames/Slalomcross-Qualify.pdf
www.slalomskateboarder.com/Contests/2008OregonStateGames/Slalomcross-Ladder1.pdf
www.slalomskateboarder.com/Contests/2008OregonStateGames/Slalomcross-Ladder2.pdf
www.slalomskateboarder.com/Contests/2008OregonStateGames/Slalomcross-Ladder3.pdf
THANK YOU:
Sponsors: SK8KINGS, ROE RACING, THE BOARD ROOM, TACTIS SK8, LOST COAST SURF SHOP, GRAVITY, DADDIES BOARD SHOP
Helpers: Paul Howard -- course setting. Darrin and Corey Moy -- timing setup. Gareth Roe and John Ravitch -- announcing and timer/computer. |
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