Here with an essay on the state of skateboard racing, a veteran of the 'fish with a reputation for stepping up ask us all, "what are we doing for ourselves?"
THE NEXT EVOLUTION?
by Justin Metcalf
Recently discovered on a cave wall...
It's a weird experience to go skating at your local spot and bump into a longboarder that you don't know. It's an even stranger experience to go out and bump into a group of skaters in full leathers that you don't know. After months of speculation, it is now safe to say that both of these experiences are going to start becoming more and more common. The 2008 season is here and the shifts and changes so many of us have been expecting are finally starting to happen. Longboarding and racing is at a pivotal point. By next year, we're going to have a very clear idea of where it’s heading for years to come.
No one can deny the recent explosion that longboarding has experienced. Until very recently, it was very rare to go out riding and to bump into someone else on a board that you didn't know. Now, it's almost a daily occurrence for many of us. College campuses across the county are becoming hotbeds for longboarders and longboarding clubs and crews are popping up all over the place. Shops are starting to branch out with their inventory and some are even starting to sponsor and promote longboarding teams.
Justin didn't know it, but it was all about to get worse, as far as big events go...
PASKAPOO JUST CANCELLED:
May 13. 2008
Dear Longboarding Community,
In the fall of 2005, a young man named Jamie Mcbrian was struck by an SUV in an intersection, because of lack of experience, and poor safety standards. The Calgary news media was instantly focused on outlawing longboards in the city. As a Canadian racer and a member of our growing community in Calgary, myself some other passionate longboarders and I held a meeting. In attendance were Paul Kent, Rachael O’Neill, Ross Baradoy, Tyler Martins, Jared Drake, Andrew MacCannell and myself. This is where the Speedboard Longboard Association of Calgary (S.L.A.C.) was formed. We promptly issued a media release defending our sport and explaining that it is usually a safe activity. The media and city responded very well and we saved our right to longboard in Calgary.
In the early spring of 2006 the S.L.A.C started seriously contemplating the idea of holding a downhill skateboard race in Calgary. Noah Wesche and I both living in Calgary pooled our money, approximately 2000 dollars, and spent 3 months working on nothing but the race. Our team that year was made up of Roger Weiwel, Ty Cook, Dave Carrutheres, Paul Kent and Danny Chamberlain. We worked our asses off. Our first hurdle was getting COP to let us use the road, and we got lucky. COP had just hired a young Events Marketing Manager named Chad Hason who was looking for an event to bring COP back into the public eye. Our first race in 2006 cost almost $47,000 to hold. That doesn’t include the 2000 Noah and I put into it organizing it from our basement, or my maxed out personal visa.
Despite our best efforts we still came up almost $5000 short of covering all of the expenses. Roger Weiwel, a huge supporter of the community in Calgary, and co-owner of Ground Control Longboards, gave us the funds. Almost immediately our team, along with some new members, began planning for the 2007 event.
We were very ambitious. We wished to include downhill, streetluge, slide, inline board and slalom. Everything looked very promising as far as sponsor support for the event, we were in talks with the national office for Coca-Cola and were promised a lot of money. Closer to the event we realized that we were not getting any support from the slalom community, someone started a rumour about the slalom portion of the event, and with the cost of the Slalom event alone somewhere around $30,000 (more than half of that prize money) we were forced to pull that discipline. Our sponsorship deadline was June 30th, it was half way through July when we got the call from Coke saying they were pulling out, it was one of those throw up in your mouth kind of phone calls. We held an emergency meeting and decided that we couldn’t give up, we all love the race too much.
Race day, I remember it very clearly, I remember being at the venue around 4am, after 2 hours of sleep in my small apartment full of racers sleeping on the floor and in my bed. And I didn’t get to bed until one am because if anyone needs a ride from the airport I go get them personally. I picked up Adam Auger and Will Brunson (Brunson’s plane was late…oh well still got more sleep than the first year) that night before the race. When I Arrived at COP the whole group was there ready to go, COP gets this fog over it in the morning and the sun coming up on the hill is something all of you should see some time. When the racers started to arrive I started to get excited. I was very happy with the turnout from the standup riders, one hundred and eleven, and pretty good for our second year and thank you all for your support. Streetluge I was really disappointed in, only 12 riders, but all of them were legends of the sport and I was amazed to have them at a race I was a part of, even though we were losing $7450 dollars, assuming they only did streetluge and paid a full $100 dollar entry fee, most of them were double category and only paid $150 to race standup and luge.
With the unexpected loss of our timing system Noah was scrambling to get the race going, for our second race, probably 50% of the racers bitching at him, and a little help from Jody Willcock, we came up with a game plan to make it happen. I was the money guy, the guy who left the race after registration was complete, and came back with a little slip telling us how ####ed we were. After I visited the bank, and depositing the entry fees, I knew we were in deep, I didn’t want to go back. I drove home, threw up and lay on my bed until about 1, at which time I took a deep breath and drove to COP. When I drove up I was immediately confronted by Rachael O’Neill who was attempting to keep the finish running smoothly and was asked “Where the #### were you?” I smiled, grabbed her pen and wrote on her clipboard $21,624.00 Then I put a negative sign in front of it. I began informing all of the organizers, and each of them had the same reaction as I did, ####.
When we gave away the checks over the rest of the weekend we knew some would bounce, we didn’t know whose. Paskapoo 2007 Cost $67,400 dollars, $22,000 of that was prize money. John Fryer has all of my respect, when we were writing him his cheque he looked at Rachael and knew we didn’t have it. He refused to take the cheque and told us he hoped we would have luge in 2008. Thank you Mr. Fryer.
Over the next 2 weeks we nervously watched as cheques were cashed, wondering who would be left without their prize money. We pooled as much as we could, Rachael O’Neill and Paul Kent, the wonderful parents of Annika “danger baby” Kent – O’Neill, laid there credit on the line and extended our line of credit, and visa limit to as much as the bank would give us. They also contributed over $3400 dollars of personal cash, right now Paul is a stay at home dad, and goes an entire day eating nothing but a spoonful of peanut butter some days so his daughter can have everything she needs to be the amazingly smart healthy and happy baby she is. Rachael works for Shell Canada in the IT department. Noah Wesche gave us $2400 of his savings, Ross Baradoy maxed out the rest of the credit on his visa and gave us $400 (he’s a student), Jennifer O’Neill (my partner and roommate) contributed $400, she worked running a bed and breakfast, Dave Carruthers couldn’t even pay his rent and was evicted from his apartment building at the end of August and Ty Cook couldn’t contribute cause he could barely make mortgage payments on his house because he gave up his steady job in order to get sponsors. I had barely been to work in the weeks before the race, and my visa was almost maxed from paying gas for hay trucks and buying supplies for the race, so I gave everything I had to my name, another $2400, to S.L.A.C. We still didn’t have enough.
After a few weeks of waiting for the call we got it, from John Rogers. His cheque bounced. And we sent him what we could. It was almost half of the $5000. Since then, we have done bottle drives almost every weekend, raising over $2500 to pay down our debt. We have an interest payment of about $300 a month, and Rob Lewis from Push For the Cure stepped up and personally made arrangements to pay John Rogers the remaining funds out of his own pocket.
So here we are, May 13th 2008 , and I am announcing officially that the Paskapoo Down Hill Rodeo Will not be taking place this August. There is a group of individuals including myself that have put a lot of work into this race. However, with lack of organizing volunteers, sponsorship from the community, (you all know who you are, you who thought two boards was a significant sponsorship from a major board manufacturer) and mounting debt (still over $21,000) this is our reality.
This does not mean the rodeo will not happen again, however allot of hard work and fundraising needs to take place to avoid more personal financial penalties. Our group set out three years ago with this race to try and make sure the rapid growth of the sport stayed loyal and that if the corporate game was going to get involved in our community we were going to take as much of the funds as we could and give it back to the racers. We bit off a bit more than we could chew, and the difference is that unlike Danger Bay and the Sully when we messed up (cause most races have) we messed up $21,000 and for a bunch of kids in their 20’s we did pretty damn good considering the obstacles in our way.
Feel free to contact me via e-mail or phone if you would like to talk about the future of our event, or if you have any ideas to help us with our problems, our resources in Calgary are tapped and suggestions are welcome. Thanks again everyone for your support.
I think Aaron gave you a pretty long post there... I think the direct answer to your question would be to point out that the prize money was offered prior to the event, during advertising, and the SLAC crew realized the extent of their financial troubles on Race Day. At that point, the "offer bell" had been rung. That may be many things, but perhaps not a sinister conspiracy.
Either way, in the context of Stinee's article, there's another major event with major draw that is now off the calendar.
__________________ Relax, Don't Worry, Ride Your Longboard.
I talk to Paul K. on a semi-regular basis.
When Coke pulled out as the title sponsor it really f_cked up their finances!!
Next year I hope the can get some Oil Company Sponsorship!! Would be sweet.
__________________
"I'm going to Smack your Ash, Boy!"
I talk to Paul K. on a semi-regular basis.
When Coke pulled out as the title sponsor it really f_cked up their finances!!
Next year I hope the can get some Oil Company Sponsorship!! Would be sweet.
Oil is the nectar of the gods; at least here in Alberta it is. Some company could donate say... one hundred barrells of crude oil at $124.00 a pop and you'd have just under twelve and a half grand which is nothing for pretty much any oil company.
Great article justin, it brought up some extremely relevent points
damn im really sorry to hear about all that sht with the DH rodeo, hopefully the community can organize a freeride or sumthing a barrier lake as consolation, it wouldent neccesarily bring in the global level racers, but it would definitly be a fun event...
I'm trying Brother! We have the Blue Ridge Free Ride this weekend near Boone NC (check out the Southeast section) and I'm rather baffled at the lackluster response it is getting. Sure, there is no fancy poster, no sponsors, no prizes, but there are also no fees and some of the most killer hills you will find anywhere. I have invites out to numerous people including Dr. No who wants to grow the sport and is interested in holding an event in the Southeast, but in all actuality, actions speak louder than words.
The Downhillbillies want to broaden the scope of what they/we represent and not be known for just slalom. This event, for lack of a better term, is a litmous test for interest in a DH race in the area. And everyone knows the legendary events that the DHB put on. I am personally trying to grow the local scene and we have several DH'ers in North Carolina who have the 'nads to take on the bigger hills. But it's going to take a lot of effort to make the transition from weekend get togethers to sanctioned events and hopefully this weekend is a positive step towards that elusive goal.
I'm trying Brother! We have the Blue Ridge Free Ride this weekend near Boone NC (check out the Southeast section) and I'm rather baffled at the lackluster response it is getting. Sure, there is no fancy poster, no sponsors, no prizes, but there are also no fees and some of the most killer hills you will find anywhere. I have invites out to numerous people including Dr. No who wants to grow the sport and is interested in holding an event in the Southeast, but in all actuality, actions speak louder than words.
The Downhillbillies want to broaden the scope of what they/we represent and not be known for just slalom. This event, for lack of a better term, is a litmous test for interest in a DH race in the area. And everyone knows the legendary events that the DHB put on. I am personally trying to grow the local scene and we have several DH'ers in North Carolina who have the 'nads to take on the bigger hills. But it's going to take a lot of effort to make the transition from weekend get togethers to sanctioned events and hopefully this weekend is a positive step towards that elusive goal.
IF YOU LIVE IN THE MID ATLANTIC REGION GO TO THIS EVENT!
No joke one of the greatest skate experiences I've ever had. I'd be there 100% this year but I'm going to Vancouver for a few weeks. If you can make it...GO!
So, Justin got me thinking, "why is it that these events are cancelling out, and what are the reasons it can be hard to put on a race?" Why are some events successful, and others a smoldering wreck?
What do we need to do for successful events?
__________________ Relax, Don't Worry, Ride Your Longboard.
Unfortunately the contigent form Canada must bow out due to the high cost of driving a car down there with only 2 people. Maybe we can trek out there for another date this Summer.
I am confused, why was big prize money offered when you can't cover expenses? seems like there is more to the story....
IMO, racing is not the future, freeride events are....
word. to many people (esp young kids on the 'fish) get swept up into the "zomg i need to race!! then i'll be a legit dh-er!!" mindset (at least that's what it feels like to me)
to me, the essence of dh is freeriding. dont get me wrong, i love racing and i love races. what you do get is a kickass opportunity to ride a closed, protected road, and meet lots of awesome ppl.
what i dont like is the lack of hilltime (esp if you only get a few practice runs, then get eliminated first heat and hafta stand around watching), and the nastyness competition can bring out. and let's face it, standing on the starting line waiting to go is not the most relaxing experience in your life
freeriding tho, is where it's at. I'm not just talking about legit euro-style freerides (although euro style freerides are THE #### AND WE NEED MORE OF EM!!), i'm talking bout just getting together with a bunch of your friends and riding. perhaps it's cuz i'm blessed with a plethora of hills, but i truly love this (last weekend i went out on my own, and ended up having to hike up 4 miles b/c there were NO cars going up for me to hitchhike!!). i love just flowing down a hill, you don't have to stress about being fast, you dont have to stress about looking good (for the cameras ), you just relax, slide, drift, carve, tuck, and flow. and nothing really beats the feeling of spending the whole day, from morning till sunset, driving out to all kinds of diff hills with ur friends and just jammin'.
but this is prolly cuz i suck at racing, but love skating waaaay too much. and i'll still spend what i can (in time and money, both of which are getting more and more scarce) to go out to races, not just cuz of the race, but to ride around new hills, explore new places and have fun!
side note: am i mistaken in that there are only TWO legit dh events in all of the USA?? maryhill and mcgf?
__________________
vive le freeride!!
Rayne!
traveling to australia and NZ - skatingfast.blogspot.com
Georges has it right, we need more of everything. We need the freerides, we need the international races, we need the regional events, and we need the outlaws.
DH and longboarding have the potential to really go somewhere. All it takes is people who step up and make stuff happen. I would like to take the time to single out Bricin "Striker" Lyons of British Columbia. This man knows how stuff works. He knows what the riders want, he knows what the community wants, and he has the drive to make it happen. Danger Bay is on it's 7th consecutive year and there are 190 riders racing this year. We need more Bricin Lyons' in the world.
All you need for a good event is a lot of excited people. You would be shocked and amazed what a bunch of excited people with completely empty wallets can do to make stuff happen. The Blue Ridge Freeride in 2007 was one of the best skating experiences I've ever had and all that it was was a bunch of excited guys who got together and did some skating in an amazing place.
The racing scene was ballooning last year. Races popping up everywhere and the beginning of this season showed tremendous promise. Somewhere along the line though, things got messed up and we're looking at a very lean year.
However, there are some bright points. The California Outlaw Series is a great example. Fantastic job and huge props to the Cali skate crew for making this happen. We all know about the BC scene and what an unbelievable job they're doing to make stuff happen with new events and bigger crews. On the other side of the continent New York and Quebec have put up their fair share of events and the Mid-Atlantic Region is showing some real promise in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and North Carolina.
Keep making stuff happen, keep getting more people into longboarding and skating, and keep doing what you love. It doesn't look like 2008 is going to be the explosion we had all been expecting......but there's always a chance and there's always 2009.
Expect big things in 2009 on the East Coast
Last edited by Justin Metcalf; 05-13-2008 at 02:27 PM..
Why do it at all. Big organized events just blow out places that were previously underground but rideable. Look what happened to Maryhill.
DH skate contests are as bad as surf contests and for many of the same reasons.
are you just naturally grouchy, or did something happen to make you this way?
maryhill is an isolated example, and even then a bad one. I'm sure people still ride it, but just keep it more on the DL. and most races are held on EPIC roads that you wouldnt even be riding in the first place because of police, cars, guardrails etc. I can't see people freeriding down teutonia regularly when there's traffic and no hay bails, same goes with DB, it's a road in the middle of a town, and vernon, and top challenge (RIP), and paskapoo (RIP), and mcgf and all the euro races. those are not hills locals sesh regularly. theyre very high profile, crazy fun hills. hell, i've raced in europe on one of the main ascents of the tour de france. ####### EPIC road, that while people do freeride it sometimes, it's in verrry limited doses.
outlaws on the other hand, are usually run on roads you usually skate, and they can have negative consequences, but usually, ur stoked enough to have people coming to ride your own road that it doesnt matter.
besides, how many dh contests have you been to to make this broad statement? do you even skate? how many "big race" hills do you skate regularly that have been blown out because of races?? if anything it makes the local scene stronger b/c it brings ppl together.
__________________
vive le freeride!!
Rayne!
traveling to australia and NZ - skatingfast.blogspot.com
most races are held on EPIC roads that you wouldnt even be riding in the first place because of police, cars, guardrails etc.
Good then keep them there. Just make sure that in your smugness you exclude ski areas and other limited access roads from your list. We don't need people like you hyping them and therefore ruining them just to satisfy your demented ego.
Quote:
Originally Posted by tomahawk
hell, i've raced in europe on one of the main ascents of the tour de france.
Good for you. Why don't you move to France then.
Quote:
Originally Posted by tomahawk
outlaws on the other hand, are usually run on roads you usually skate, and they can have negative consequences, but usually, ur stoked enough to have people coming to ride your own road that it doesnt matter.
Speak for yourself. Why should I enjoy out-of-towners riding my local spots? The only good outlaws are those that aren't advertised. Advertising and crowds bring unwanted attention from the police.
Skating is an individual activity or something that is fun with a small group of friends. Crowds suck.
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