Silverfish Longboarding - The Longboard Skateboard Community

Front Page

Paskapoo Downhill Rodeo

Monday, 06 August 2007
The Speedboard and Longboard Association of Calgary are proud to present the 2nd annual Paskapoo Downhill Rodeo at Coda's Canada Olympic Park on Aug. 11. Last year's Paskapoo Downhill Rodeo was witnessed by 4,000 spectators despite having to compete with Slam City Jam. The event is free to the public and will run from 9 AM to 9 PM Saturday Aug. 11. The Paskapoo Downhill Rodeo includes speedboarding competition, streetluge racing, inline board competition and a downhill freestyle slide contest-the latter will be held offsite on Sunday Aug. 12. There will also be an outlaw slalom race on Sunday afternoon as well. Slide and Slalom will be staged at locations to be disclosed at the Paskapoo Downhill Rodeo event. Last year's event saw speeds of 84.6 KPH (52 MPH) in stand-up speedboard qualifying. It's expected that speedboarders will exceed 90 KMPH (56 MPH) this year while streetluge racers are expected to be running at speeds of 100 KPH (62 MPH) and above due to the elimination of the first corner/hairpin turn-racers will be starting further up the hill. The 2nd Annual Paskapoo Downhill Rodeo has already registered 149 racers from across the world to date (it is expected that that number will more than double as the event date arrives). An IGSA sanctioned World Class Event, the Downhill Rodeo will very likely be the one of the largest competitions in the history of skateboard gravity sports. Of the 149 athletes already registered, there are racers from 5 Canadian Provinces and one territory (Alberta, BC, Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, North West Territories), as well as racers from the 8 United States (Washington, Oregon, Illinois, Texas, California, Colorado, Hawaii, New Mexico), and seven other countries including Germany, Switzerland, England, Norway, Africa, Brazil and New Zealand-so far. Notable Racers While those signed up are a who's who of the top racers from around the world, we've had several legends of the sport come out of retirement for this event. The following is just a short list of some of the most notable talent competeing: . Honolulu, Hawaii's Darryl Freeman (World Champion, 1st place 2002 NBC Gravity Games-also voted "Favorite Downhill Racer" on the Gravity Games website. . Canadian downhill legend Thomas Estrand (IGSA 2005 Downhill Skateboard World Champion) . Californian Sean Mallard (1997 overall downhill Champion with 2-first place finishes, 1-third place finish, 1-fourth place finish in addition to being a Gold Medalist in luge in the Inaugural NBC Gravity Games, the 1997 R.A.I.L. Champion with 3-first place finishes). . Jimmy Flindt - X-Games vet. . Mischo Erban - voted Top Speedboarder for 2006, Concrete Wave Magazine. . John Rogers - top qualifier at the 1999 X-Games. . Jim Ziemlanski - Canada's top recognized racer internationally. . Alexander Von Glasow (Aki) - 2006 European National Champion. . Ross Baradoy - IGSA 2006 National Champion in Streetluge, Classic luge. . Chris Chaput - Red Bull Champion, world ranked in slalom, luge, Downhill. . Cliff Coleman - Grandfather of Slide competition. . Mike Zietsman - Top African racer. . Chris McBride - Gravity Games and X-Games Veteran. . Will Brunson - world ranked, slalom, downhill and banked slalom. . Lee Dansie - 1999 Gravity Games Gold Medal, 2003 International Gravity Sports Association, 1st place, downhill skateboarding, San Francisco Event World record for speed skateboarding at 73MPH in 1988 The only athelete to compete in three different X games events and earn medals in all three. . Paul Bussie - GSI 2005 champion John Fryer-Gravity Games, X-Games Vet. . Darren Pinuea - local Gravity Games and X-Games Vet. . Michael "Biker" Sherlock - Gold ESPN X-Games, 2000 EDI Downhiller of the Year and 2000 EDI World Champion Downhill Skateboarder and held the title of EDI National Street Luge Champion from 1996-1999, Broke World Record 90 MPH (144 KPH) on NBC Stunt Junkies in 2005. The Paskapoo Downhill Rodeo will be fully serviced with vendors of food, drink, and beer in the beer gardens and VIP areas. The event also has its own private campsite 25-minutes away from the site which, at $25 per person for 3 days, includes tent space, food vendors, beer sales, human chuckwagon, bull riding and more-the after party will be off the hook. The Speedboard and Longboard Association of Calgary -a not for profit society-promotes safety and competition in all skateboard and gravity sports. The association was formed by a group of professional speedboarders two-years ago after the death of a local longboarder in order to educate inexperienced riders on safe practices. Since then, the SLACalgary has put on many events in the community including the Paskapoo Downhill Rodeo which is held annually at Coda's Canada Olympic Park in August and SLACalgary's Greenskate event in April.
Last Updated ( Friday, 10 August 2007 )