In January 2006, Marion Karr (Dixie Cup organizer) and Gary Fluitt (High Peaks Drifter) decided it was time get slalom race organizers together in the U.S. so that they could pool their collective purchasing power for things like insurance and infrastructure. Other promoters agreed, and about one month ago, a
"With event insurance in hand, we went to the slalom manufacturers and asked if they would partner with us to support the ASSA. The response was not surprising; within a couple of weeks we had a dozen sponsors step up with support. The founding sponsors of the ASSA are:
Abec11 www.abec11.com
Concrete Wave Magazine www.concretewavemagazine.com
Gravity Skateboards www.gravityboard.com
Insect Skateboards www.insectskateboards.com
Khiro Skateboard Products www.khiroskateboardproducts.com
Oust Bearings www.oustbearings.com
Radikal Trucks www.radikaltrucks.com
Roe Racing/Roe Slalom Skateboards www.roeslalom.com
Seismic www.seismickate.com
Skaterbuilt www.skaterbuilt.com
Asphalt Playground www.asphaltplayground.com
Subsonic Skateboards www.subsonicskateboards.com
Tracker Trucks www.trackertrucks.com
Each of these founding sponsors of the ASSA have given signficant support, demonstrating that these companies are willing to step up & support slalom racing with the money necessary to move the sport forward.
The ASSA is a "Group Purchasing Organization". Essentially, this GPO is a group of individuals putting on races out of their own pockets but coming together to buy insurance and to develop sponsors for the program. Our purpose is to grow the sport and provide racing opportunities. The members are race organizers and we think our joint efforts will make existing slalom races better, while paving the way for an expansion of our sport across the country.What ASSA is NOT: we don