Third leg of the Conehead Cup in Canberra. It will be a huge weekend of awesome skating. Dont miss out.
Ditch slalom on Saturday. Head to Head slalom at Stromlo Bike track on Sunday.
This is a reminder – Conehead Cup number two is on tomorrow, Saturday night. Practice from 6pm, racing starts at 7pm.
The new ASRA website is up and running, you have all probably found it, if not get on there, sign up, get involved. www.skateboardracing.org.au
There has been lots of questions regarding the different Orangatang wheels. Loaded Longboards has answered some of them, we have copied their answers and expanded on a few.
What sort of skating are the Orangatang’s designed and made for?
These wheels are intended to be grippy, with high rebound lips for energy generation. Loaded have made the wheel they want to longboard on. They are not a sliding wheel, though once broken they will slide. They are going to be easier to get traction with, and pump for speed. Grip through corners. Skaters are finding they suit many applications like slalom and downhill speedboarding. Check out the pictures from Maryhill, there were a lot of orange wheels there.
What is the difference between the Orangatang In Heat & 4President 80a and the 83a versions
The 83a wheels are a harder duro. The wheels will have less grip than the 80a’s, more prone to losing traction and will be faster on most surfaces. The 83a’s should also wear better due to the harder duro.
Which duro should I get?
If you want more grip go with the 80a. If you want more speed and less grip go with the 83a. This all depends on your riding style. In slalom uses the 83a on the front and 80a on the back. Hopkin Racing sell the wheels in sets of two to give skaters this option without having to buy 8 wheels.
So the new Orangatangs are in the house and on the website. There is good news and bad news. What do want first … the good or the bad? Yeah bad news first, it will make the goods news seem better.
Prices have gone up. Why Hop? You’re killing me. Well, the Australian dollar has dropped, the import costs were a bit more this time, and Jackson is spending way too much money overseas. (Only joking about Jackson, he is sleeping under that big tree near the Maryhill finish line to save money!!!).
So that is the bad news, prices are a bit more. $70 for a set of four 70mm and $77 for the 75mm.
The other change you will notice is we are selling in sets of two. And this leads me into the good news.
We now have two duros in Orangatangs! Yes, the purple Orangatangs are in stock. We managed to get a shipment out of the first batch from the factory.
Orange is 80a
Purple is 83a
Sold in sets of two so you can play with dual duros on your setup. Hard 83a on the front, and 80a soft and grippy on the rear for traction.
When we say 83a hard, they are harder but still very grippy. I think these wheels are going to be a sensational slalom wheel. Just in time for Conehead Cup number two!!
The results are in, still a bit hard to work out how all the racing went down today.
1 Scoot
2 James Kelly
3 Martin Siegrist
4 Mike MC
5 Mike Zeitsman
6 Pat Switzer
7 Mischo
8 Kevin Reimer
9 Meatball
No word on how the Australian went today.
Scoot is now the new World Champion. And has a lock on the World Cup race. There is an Australian connection with Scoot’s win. An Australian company is one of Scoot’s major sponsors Upgradeable.com, so in a small way, Australia has helped him get there. Plus Jackson is travelling with Scoot and Team Green – I’m sure it will be a big party tonight!!!!
So the final qualifying times are done. The top 96 racers go through to the finals
34. Steve Daddow AUS 3:16.331
43. Adam Yates AUS 3:17.614
48. Jackson Shapiera AUS 3:18.058
There were some big movers on the 4th day.
Bryce Brady from USA moved into 88. improving his 3rd day time of 3:36.664 to 3:24.782.
And Brett Nelson from USA moved into the top 70. improving his time of 3:37.791 to 3:20.789.
This all did not help Ben Lukoszek chances of making the finals. Ben on Day 3 was sitting on “the most unluckiest man on the hill” position. Which is 97. Remember only the top 96 racers go through. So Ben needed to improve his time and hope there were no faster racers that would bump him down (like that is going to happen). This is why in racing this part of the field is called “being on the bump” because if someone is faster they can bump you down and out of the finals!
So all those racers on the bump on Day 3 were in trouble on Day 4 if they did not improve their times.
92 Danimal Wehner USA 3:26.027
93 Ryan Sorenson USA 3:26.202
95 Jp Rowan CAN 3:26.851
96 Kaleb Haddish USA 3:27.204
All those racers did not improve and have been bumped out of the finals.
Ben Lukoszek placed 103, out of finals contention. He could not improve on his first time of 3:27.219 by getting a second time of 3:32.518. At least he is not the unluckiest man on the hill!
So who is the unluckiest man on the hill?
Danny Conner USA was placed 130th on Day 3. A big time improvement on Day 4 took his first time of 3:41.247 to 3:25.969. It would have been an anxious wait and those extra hundredths of a second are a killer. He sits on place 97. The unluckiest man on the hill.
And so we have to have the luckiest man on the hill.
That would be Billy Meiners of USA. He was on the bump on Day 3 sitting at 94. He got down to business, tucked hard, took the fast lines and posted a 3:19.496, a 7 second improvement!! Pole vaulting him to 56. on the finals list. If an Australian can not win Maryhill this year, I want Billy to win. He is my tip. If he can improve another 7 seconds he’ll be up there with the big guns, fighting it out. That my friends is racing, and why we love it so much.
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