The “First Annual” Encinitas Open took place over three days in September, and I am just now returning to “life as normal” after the event.   Thanks to the guys at the ‘Fish, I’ve got this forum to give you all an event report, and so I shall.  (Photos by the 'Fish.) 

 

The product of months of planning by Tiger Williams and me, the whole thing started as a simple idea:  La Costa Boys Racing would take the reins to continue the world-class slalom racing event we all know as the La Costa Open.  The event has been so important to so many skaters for so many years; there really wasn’t any question that we’d do this thing.  “Hey, we run races at Pumpstation.  This will just be bigger…”  So we thought but by the time it was done, many things changed:  the traditional hill was unavailable, since it’s surrounded by new homes now, so we surveyed the other roads in La Costa and discovered that all the “good hills” have houses, too.  Eventually, we found a road in the neighboring community of Encinitas that would work.   It wasn’t as steep or new as we’d like, but Saxony Road is perfect for closures and would prove its worth eventually.  There was some excitement and concern when trouble erupted from City staff, only weeks before the event, but even that was overcome by skaters working together to impress the Mayor and City Council.  Out of those exchanges came the most notable change, to the name “The Encinitas Open”.  Maybe everything was different this year, except for the most important part:  scores of skateboarders came and hit the hills of San Diego together to swerve around cones, as skaters have done since it all began…  

Day 1: Pumpstation GS Outlaw.

When we reduced The Encinitas Open to a 2-day event on Saxony, we urgently needed another place to skate on Friday, September 15.  It was a simple choice to invite everyone to hit “Pumpstation”, an epic, outlaw hill found by Dave Hamm 2 years ago.  We ran the main race late in the day, to minimize potential conflicts with the City of San Diego employees that use our race course for their own purposes and billed it as an Outlaw GS.  The course was set by Tiger Williams, the magician.  It was a quick-hopping course that allowed you to maintain your speed but forced you to turn early or miss a gate.  I think the ‘Fish crew got some good shots that will show you how it looks. 

	In the morning, we gave the groms, legends, ladies, and whoever wanted a chance to warm up on a half-course that we could easily tear down for the municipal trucks if we needed to.  The only catch to racing the short-course was that, once you got a time on the full course, you had to forfeit your time from the short one.  Czech Republic's Tomas Potucek won this C Division race, and then forfeited his win to Steve Lavin so he could ride the big hill.  Cliff Coleman raced Legends, bowing to Chris Yandall, and then jumped up to the Open Division to race on the big hill, later in the day.
With a new start ramp at the top of the hill, the playing field was leveled somewhat from the way we’ve been running the Pumpstation Outlaws this year.  Each person would have to gain speed from the course, not from an infinite push start.  The racing was fast, and the course fast enough to require some real strategy about how fast to hit the upper sections of the hill.  When it was all over, Jason Mitchell topped the playing field by a second-and-a-half for a complete slaughter of the competition!
	From an organizer’s perspective, the Outlaw GS went well.  I had time to race, thanks to excellent support from our volunteers; we had no issues with City trucks or visitors to the Preserve at the bottom of the hill.  Tiger and his crew were up at Saxony, setting fences and getting the porta-potties and street issues resolved for Saturday, so it was good that the timing and organization went well, until the PA caught on fire.  Hey, the fire thing was nothing compared to what happened the next day…    [See the Outlaw GS Gallery, HERE .]   [See the Outlaw GS Results, HERE .]

The “official” Encinitas Open weekend opened on a chilly Saturday morning with many volunteers working to make the race venue as professionally tuned as we have seen.  Saxony Road is really wide, with a lot of room for tents & spectators and a long run out.  It is located in a pristine valley that alternates between a head wind and a tail wind as one descends toward the Batiguitos Lagoon in La Costa.  The surface of Saxony Road is challenging.  It’s an older road, composed mainly of aggregate without much asphalt between the rocks.  It makes for a slippery course, and a challenge to the timing system, since the coarse texture was tough on our tape switches.  All in all, the competitors agreed it’s a good hill, and we’ll be back.

	The Hybrid/GS course was re-set by Tiger Williams, and the Juniors and Ladies novices had a chance to try out slalom.  Liz Stockham is making it a habit to win this division, with Amy Allan pushing her hard.  Both are skaters in the Downhill Divas program and were stoked to hit an official course.  The Junior Men were so happy with the setup on Saxony that all but one of them moved up to try out the full-length course!
We ran the Juniors and Ladies really, really early in the morning, so we had some time to change-over the course for the Open Class racing.  As we set that course, spectators, sponsors and racers started pouring onto the hill.  By the time I had a chance to look up from the timing and control systems, there were tents and booths strung out along the sidelines of the course.  Team Carrasco had an encampment at about the halfway point, Chicken had a big layout for the Pocket Pistols booth, the Silverfish Longboarding guys had a two-tent hospitality suite setup with schwag, chairs, shade and cold drinks for sale and the Canadians had an encampment near the ‘Fish tent with skateboards, chairs, gear and more strewn everywhere.  We let them put a flag up, just a little lower than our own…
	The main event started with the Star Spangled Banner, sung remarkably well by Encinitas' Romy Beagle.  Then, the racing began.  Right out of the chute, we knew the new start ramps were working great, Tiger’s funky “meandering course” was perfectly suited to the asphalt conditions our generator, the wind, and the timing system challenged the on-course timing crew and the LCB to keep a positive outlook and keep things moving.  We lost computers to power surges that blew out the suppressors, fried parts of the timing system to the point of smoking and our back-up PA system (remember that insignificant fire thing on Friday?) kinda sucked.  The day went longer than expected, but the racing was good and the skaters kept a good attitude.  Dennis Schufeld did a great job announcing the races and keeping everyone up to date with the changing schedule.  Some really deserved credit for keeping a grin on, as the electrical bugs required several to run their heats over, and over, again.   Keith Hollien sure got his money’s worth for track time on Saturday!
The first ever Legends division head-to-head racing was a hit, with Cliff Coleman, who also qualified in the A division, dominating.  Richy “The Brown Bomber” Carrasco was looking really strong that day, and beat out Gary Fluitt for the top placing.  Just go into the Forums inside the ‘Fish or elsewhere for more racing stories, and I’d sure like to read yours if you will post ‘em!
	After the racing, many of us headed over to Big Jim’s Barbecue restaurant in Encinitas.  It was totally cool to catch my breath as Tiger and I could look over the rowdy crowd of 50 or so skaters and their families to see racers from every generation in the room.  Slalom has quite a history and a great future.  We gave awards, passed out schwag and I rushed home to prepare for Sunday’s racing and the timing system… [See the Hybrid GS Gallery, HERE .]   [See the Hybrid GS Results, HERE .

Day 3: Saxony Road Tight Slalom

	It turns out, we got the electrical issues under control and our timing system survived the day with only a short break between heats to repair some damage to the tape switches at the finish line caused by our wheels and the coarse road surface.  Our third PA system of the weekend performed as well as we could expect a borrowed karaoke kit to do, and flawlessly so.  The crowds returned, and several groups of local homeowners came by to watch… some dragging kids with street decks along to see what was going on.  Dennis did another great job announcing the races and there were no re-runs the entire day!
Back to the racing.  It was gnarlier than many expected for this hill, and we saw some really great performances on the course.  Brent Kosick skipped practice to surf at Swami’s then showed up and ripped it.  The usual suspects, Carrasco, Fluitt, Hollien, Pirnack, Mitchell, Regnier and more were deadly on the downhill and laughing on the walk back up.  In the end, nobody could beat Barker on his course, and he took home the big money.  The legendary match-up between Judi Oyama and I went down again, and on I managed to get my head together and take the win.  It’s great to race with Judy and all the women were stoked to race together.
	All of the Juniors took to the big course again, and there was some great cone carnage going on!  Kyle McLaren was the only one of the Juniors that completed the course.  The experience fueled at least two new tight slalom careers, those of Kevin Longwell and Kirby Cox.  The Legends raced hard and competitively with one another, although Yandall was out after a tumble during practice on Saturday (he raced all day then) left him hurting when the adrenalin wore off.  Gib Lewis really jammed!
The “most improved skater” of the weekend went to Johnnie Miller.  He took 14th place Friday in the Outlaw Open, 10th place Saturday in A Division, and 3rd place Sunday in B.  The CCMF skating program is keeping it real in San Luis Obispo.  Other up-and-comers included LCB's Clay Westling, with a 9th place Pumpstation finish, and Kevin Dunne, with an A qualification on Saturday and 2nd place B on Sunday.  Greg Fadell came back from a knee injury inflicted by the Pumpstation to get a much deserved 4th place on Friday and raced fast on Saturday and Sunday before breaking out his camera. [See the Encinitias Open TS Gallery, HERE .]   [See the Encinitias Open TS Results, HERE .]

I know there are plenty of racing stories to go around, and we had spectators on Sunday that included Tony Hawk, Bad H, Larry Bertleman, the Logans, the Bennetts, Kim Cespedes, Randal Fuller, Peggy Turner, Dale Smith, Buddy Carr, Chris Chaput (recovering from surgery), the Carrasco clan including Mama Delia Carrasco, Lance Smith, John Bostic and Larry Balma…to name a few!  Our great volunteers included Pat Chewning, Denis Shufeld, The LCB, Brian Hall, Scout Troop 271, Colleen McLaren, Ick Stick's Rick Howell, Sarah "Ick Sticks" Harris, Carin Howell, Jayne Sherman, Craig Jackman, Isabelle Caudle and others that jumped in to conehead or help clean up.

On behalf of the entire La Costa Boys Racing organization, we extend special thanks to the sponsors of the event: Chicken and Pocket Pistols Skates for the Legendary T-Shirts, Skaterbuilt Skateboards for your generous and much needed donation, Abec-11, Sk8Kings, Dan Gesmer and Seismic for the spreadsheets, Bell Helmets for the helmets that I forgot to give away, Bones Bearings, Pleasure Tool Bearings, Khiro, the ASSA, Roe Racing, Fibreflex, Oust, Splitfire, TimeShip Racing, Tracker Trucks, and Erik & Malakai from Silverfish Longboarding.com!