Day Two in the Team’s Show Us Your Map of Tassie tour. In today’s ozzie adventure …

words by Adam Yates
Day Two: tastes like …mmm…west coast.

Woke after spending the night at the crazy haunted feel of the Empire Hotel, fresh and ready to hit some more of the “gold”.

View from the Empire Hotel, Queenstown Tasmania

Hung round town and got our feed on and bought some epic seconds from the local vinnies store. The lady inside was stoked to help out a group of good lookn young fellas from ” the mainland”.

Bennie: Clothes by Vinnies, Attitude by Rocky

The hill didn’t feel like it did the arvi before. No sun and no headwind meant for some fast edging lines with some extra vision leading into some turns. We chilled here, sessioned a bit, filmed, talked to other travelers and basically just jammed on one of the funnest hills I’ve ever ridden.

A few drops and a drive by of one of the local 5-0, the team decided to go bouldering before the journey north. An abandoned mine pit was too much to pass up!! Boulders were rolled and shit got rad! The rain was bout to set in down here. peace Queenstown, thanks.

Sponsor signage done - cnr of Batchelor and Philip before the Lyell

We had a plan to go explore and discover more gold. The drive is absolutely amazing, from one extreme to the other. Massive mountains to rolling hills. One thing was obvious, shit was getting steep, some of these would be great if it wasn’t for the surface. soldier on. Hellyer Gorge. middle bum f$#k no-where. The pavement was sweet butter sweet and a bit of a leg burn of a 7km run. Smooth winding curves mixed with the odd dropping switchback and we were turning wheels and screaming “hell- yer”!! Krew in tassie love it! It’s epic. everyone is stoked to see us coin something so different. again, got a photo with a few local grey nomads, shared the stoke and luny bound to be.

Cradle Mountain National Park was basically at the epic-centre of our south-western journey and there it was, outta nowhere a lookout and a 10% hwy bomb. Looked sweet. “hit it up dawg” was the call and me and Jacko hit into it blind. hitting the 90′s and BOOM. cattle grid. turns out we’d journeyed into cattle country. All was good.

Cops in Tassie have treated us well. no complaints. Tassie cops are rad!!

Into Launceston real late, as usual getting the most outta every hour of light turning wheels. Screwed around getting eats, lurked in Coles’ carpark, hooked up a floor to kip on and there it is. day two done.

This Yatedawg moment bought to you on a Landyachtz

"Hey Jacko, that's Lake Burbury, you fool"

There is a race on this weekend in Tasmania, called King Of The Zig.

Most of the team have never skated in Tasmania, the island is filled with awesome hills and mountains, and it seemed like an a perfect time to share our brand of steez and stoke to the Tassie brotherhood.

Jackson Shapiera has emailed in the Day One of the Tasmanian Devil Tour:

I’m on a computer at a pizza place in the middle of B F nowhere. There shall be no photos today…

A long day and a crazy adventure so far on the little apple island of ozzie. After a couple of months of lurking in Sydney the crew are back on the road on the endless summer skate vacation in search of rad new hills and unskated terrain. This time we have gone south to Tasmania in search of long mountain roads and to race the King Of The Zig race in Launceston this weekend.

Myself, Benny, Gabe, Kelly and Yates all rocked up nice and early this morning in Launy and piled into a nice large skate van and got comfortable for a long journey through the middle highlands west towards the mountain ranges. Our destination for the day was Queenstown on the west coast, however on the way we plotted a route that took us along the windiest roads on the map up and over the mountains. What we found were some incredible views, amazing mountain ranges, and long windy roads. The first few that we stopped at were pretty damn long, however the surface was a little less than desirable and there were a few wet patches due to the morning’s sprinkle, so we decided to power on and cover more ground.

After another hour driving through amazing scenery and crazy mountain terrain we stumbled upon a crazy fast road filled with left and right sweeping corners, fast straights and a couple of long hairpin bends. First we stopped for a much needed sanga break and then proceeded to shred the appropriate amount of gnar. Was good to get the tuck legs working again as there has been so many changes at the shop lately (plus a nice learning curve with some of the groms 2 weeks ago) its been hard to find time to bomb long hills. It was even better to be in another new place with some of ozzie’s best skaters and great mates.

After a couple of runs we got back on the road and continued through the mountains and the ‘no reception no maps’ zone until we arrive closer to Queenstown.

The road into Queenstown was shit. absoluteness shit. never skate there ever in your life. its not worth skating. they call it 99 corners however we called it 99 spews…

…..just kidding. It was bloody epic. Raddest hill around for sure…. more stories tomorrow!

Good to their word, Orangatang have released worldwide, their new freeride wheel called Balut. Which means we have Baluts in our shop, ready to buy at the same time as US skateshops. In fact, due to timezones, Australia is one of the first places in the world you can buy them!

These wheels have been in protype for a long long time. Orangatang never releases something early just to capture quick sales, they develop and proto until it is worthy for your hard earned cash.  We saw the new core in the Hopshop early last year, and Jackson was really enjoying skating those early protos. While the urethane was getting perfected, other companies have released centreset wheels, such as Tunnel, Seismic and ABEC11. Now Orangatang can show us why it was worth all the wait: a new urethane mix they are calling Euphorethane. It offers increased durability, less flatspotting, and a smooth and predictable drift.

The direction Orangatang have taken for this wheel is Freeride Slide. A wheel you can pull off big drifty slides but also bust out lots of rotation quickly.

The two key elements in the development was the core and the urethane. A big core lightens up the weight. It is also centreset so it will wear evenly and can be rotated or flipped to prevent coning. The other benefit is a rigid contact patch across the whole wheel. Combined with a rounded edge, these wheels will slide smooth with a predictable release and hookup.

And the urethane? You going to have to try them to find out. There are three duros:  80a orange, 83a purple and 86a yellow

Diameter: 72.5 mm
Contact Patch: 35 mm
Width: 44 mm
Durometers: 80a, 83a, 86a
Weight: 133 grams (per wheel)
Bearing seat: centerset

Making of the Sunny Side Up video

When you are mobbing a big hill in a group, what is important is staying out of the lane of oncoming traffic and maintaining a safe distance from riders around you.

One of the biggest rushes in downhill skateboarding is skating safely with other riders in a tight pack, however it can add extra risk and cause an accident if not managed with the right skills.

Being able to simply hold another rider at a certain distance from you without giving him an extra speed boost or slow you down can get you out of those tricky tight situations. Barging through and hoping for a gap is always going to end in carnage.

Camera: Jackson Shapiera, Tim Day
Skaters: Caspian Baska, Ben Westover, Jack Glenn, Liam Bemrose
Edit and heroic camera save at 0:43 : Jackson Shapiera

Always stay in your lane and respect YOUR limits

At the end of the year, Jackson has served us up a rad video on Hot Heels 2011.

Enjoy the escapism, as Jacko and Luca discover South Africa for the first time.

It got everything, freeriding, awesome scenery, IGSA racing and Baboons.

If you doin 9 to 3 at school or 9 to 5 in an office or cramming for Uni exams = dont read these words by Rob McWhinnie.

We’re hanging out in Mancora at the moment.

Its another world from Tarma and Lima, close to paradise huh, yesterday a whale breached 100m off our balcony, it was just awesome.

We picked up Marisa and Ishti this morning and have been relaxing and drinking by the pool all afternoon. It’s Teutonia weekend and we are all stoked to be chilling and having a good time instead of shit scared and in race mode over there, good luck Jacko!!!!

Before the sun went down we drove to El Alto to check the Epic run out, its f’n radder than I remember, super turny and grippy as it gets, we also found a new run of equal height but completely ruined because of these mega rough patches, also went to Organos for a solid drain session on the way home, the locals really liked watching Luca hit the banks.  This entire city is crisscrossed with drains so we need to go exploring soon.

That is a Taxi in the background ... to take you home after ditchin

The reason there is no Rob skating photos will be explained below

Recap on Tarma race

My shoulder popped out in a crash at Tarma, and was out for 26hours while I waited to get back to Lima and see a good doctor. I was railing this right hander so fast with Switzer, I just tapped the ground with my puck and then I started sliding. Shit happens. I didn’t have any pain and was pretty relaxed about the whole thing. I remember being in the hospital at Tarma and being laid on the floor while one dude stood on my under arm, 2 nurses held me down  and 1 beefy security guard pulling my arm. Where was the doctor?  She was on her mobile phone getting instructions from a hotline!! Memorable to say the least. Bummed I missed out on the huge party but had to rest.

Jacko and Luca bombed Mt Ticlio in mad fashion on the way home, topped Jacko’s previous highest altitude skateboarding by like 1 and a half thousand metres, so he was stoked. Luca was just lucky to survive the hangover on the way down.

Overall Tarma was rad, a great hill just poorly organised, it was epic to ride again on the world level and we had an amazing time. Maga had a great weekend, I caught some of her runs early on Sunday and she was taking the cleanest lines and dominating the apex, getting really low and railing the hairpins. She was a bit shaken up after hearing on the radio that I popped my shoulder, so her heat down the hill she got smoked, I’m glad she kept skating till the end instead of following the ambulance down the hill but wish she had a clear head to kick some ass. Never been prouder of my wife than watching her push hard and tuck like a bomb off the start line down into easily the most gnarly road she’s ever riden.

Enjoy the video of the Hopkin Racing Team bombing Tarma in the practice runs, and look out for the additional film of the run home from the event into town, it is mixed into the edit. One of the local dogs even tries to take out Luca! Tarma: it is just one huge mountain all the way to town. Bonus photo below after the video.

(Hop’s notes on bonus Pic below)
I think this one is of Rob’s slide to switch he was so stoked about at Casuina’s

….right on the last hairpin, the road had been lifted up and only dirt remained except for a 1 foot wide gutter patch around the inside of the corner, it was so gnarly but so worth the effort, after an half hour I managed the corner sliding in heelside right to the edge of the gutter then locking it in switch and riding the gnar path around the final corner.

Slide to Switch

Words by Patrick Hurel
Skateboard review by Ken Gilet

I meet Ken Gilet in Manly a few months back, just before he went to Bali with one of my long time friends.

Ken used to be amateur pro skater back in France. Before he left I lent him my Tunnel Baldie Pipeline and got another from Hop so that they had a mode of transport around Bali when they were not driving. When he came back he had found a new interest in cruisers, so I decided to take him to Bondi so that he could ride the Bondi Skatepark and the hills around, which even he had heard of from his friends and father back home.

When we got there we skated down from Bondi Junction, as we got half way it started to rain, but we continued. When we finally got to the skatepark we found it not to be that crowded which was a lot better than the park in Manly earlier that day. Ken had a quick look and started to muck around with the Tunnel; after a little bit he decided to try out the board I was riding, the Hillstreet Nirvana. He found this more suited to the park and started to take on the bowl, as wet as it was he had a blast on the cruiser and was carving some serious lines and landing most of his usual double kick tricks.

When we got bored of the park as everyone does after a while, we decided to go for a cruise around Bondi and see what it had to offer. Ken couldn’t believe how much fun the cruiser was just on the flat land. He couldn’t stop himself from finding the nearest set of stairs to jump to test out his theory that the cruiser would snap if used in the “real world” application. Much to his despair and much to my relief nothing broke even after some serious punishment.

After trying to break the boards, Ken was having a rad time on the beach side walk way, at one moment I had completely lost him, too find him lying down in the sand with a big grin, he had decided to jump off the ledge to fly into the sand. As we went along the beach front he would do this periodically when he saw ramps and ways to accelerate himself down so as to get the longest jump possible.

Boardwalk Ollie to Bondi Beach

We continued on and found a nice side street where we able to just carve down the road. In his usual fashion Ken decided to do his double manual all the way down the road, this consist of him getting on two boards and ride the nose and tail at the same time. Much to our surprise the locals enjoyed watching every moment of it.

When the light started to fade Ken decided that he had to go see Coogee to visit. As soon as we got there he spotted this narrow set of stairs with a wall on one side and a railing on the other. After playing around for a bit we went down to the beach and started skating down some of the roads that are nearby. When the sun had set we went for a beer to finish off a gorgeous day of skating beach side in the eastern suburbs.

Patrick Hurel

Words by Rob McWhinnie

Here’s a run we took at Killmana, a 90km/h hill.

About 40+ downhill riders turned up for the weekend session, it was intense to say the least.

In this run is: Luca (camera), Fico (t-shirt), Andres ( Argentina ), RobDog at the bottom.

This road is so new and so awesome. It even has a lady’s side = half the speed and twice the length!

It is amazing where this sport is going. For me, it was the first time I have seen a car full of girls + skitchers sessioning a hill in the same fashion as the guys. RAD.

We got heaps of video and photos from the 3 days we have spent there so keep an eye out yewwwwwww.

If you want this see the large size photos, they are in this album

Words by Rob McWhinnie

After a solid week shredding hard everyday with Luca, Maga and the locals its time to pack the van and head skywards towards Tarma for the South American leg of the World Cup. Jacko is flying in on Thursday and misses the boat, he’ll jump on the bus and we will meet him there.

This afternoon we plan to stop at Mt Ticlio and have a quick bomb down the highest highway in Peru before driving to Chupaca. Last year I stayed for 2 months in a bed in Chupaca and its a bit of a funny feeling going back there again, we are traveling with a female rider called Micku from Central America and her bff. Here’s hoping for a safe drive with out avalanches, wild llamas or bad weather.

Yesterday we returned to one of my favourite spots to skate Casuina’s Lima. It’s a super tight , turny and 10 gnar bars road on the top of a mountain looking over city in one direction and the favellas on the other. Luca and I got axed a couple of times trying to master the 4 corner run, a local photographer that I’ve commissioned from Choro Longboading, Christan Salmon was out taking rad photos and at sunset some epic footage.

The icing on the cake yesterday was making the impossible look easy. Right on the last hairpin, the road had been lifted up and only dirt remained except for a 1 foot wide gutter patch around the inside of the corner, it was so gnarly but so worth the effort, after an half hour I managed the corner sliding in heelside right to the edge of the gutter then locking it in switch and riding the gnar path around the final corner. STOKED on an epic day but sore as.

Maga has been shredding wheels faster then ever, getting sideways and having a ball. She competed on the weekend at a small outlaw and even though she didn’t come first she never fell and got some great photos. Shes been training with Marisa alot, (last year’s Tarma winner) and her confidence keeps growing, lets hope she rides hard at Tarma and has an amazing first World Cup experience.

Maga outlaw racing in Peru

There are heaps of photos and videos coming, but I’m too busy at the moment to find some time.

Rob

Robdog on Killmana (more on that tomorrow) PEACE OUT

This email is a few weeks old. Rob and Maga arrived in Peru at the start of October. And the music goes a bit like this:

Words by Rob McWhinnie

We have landed in Peru, been catching up with the family and settling in, eating heaps of tasty food and enjoying the weather.

The local riders here are getting so amped for Tarma, everybody is frothing and skating everyday.

Maga has been riding constantly and has been sessioning with Rayne rider Marisa Nunez and local girls Giorgina and Daniela. Like they did online in in Australia, the girls are providing solid support for each other.

Maga and Giorgina styling on Lagonas Hills

I’ve been riding and catching up with local louts, Cesar Sandoval, Felipe Malaga, Jr , Jose Cortez, Naif and DHorDie crew. They are hard in training for the World Cup, taking the 7 hour bus ride to Tarma once or twice a week to get practice runs in.

Luca Colman is arriving in a couple of hours and we are driving up there mid next week to let Maga have a go and have a few relaxing bombs ourselves, if you remember last year I had an accident at high altitude and got majorly fucked up, so this year I’m taking it totally easy, gonna peace out and acclimatise first before hitting the gnar.

Recently we went to new road in Quilmana 150kms south of Lima. This road has been built to no where, its an absolute gem in Peru, most roads around here are damaged or dangerous one way or another but this 90+km/h road is long, turny, grippy and fast, bombing down the side of an arid dry mountain in to a desert dont get any better than this, unless of course your in Mancora.

Gropu photo at the bottom of Quilmana

Once again we are going to travel far north on the Teutonia weekend to ride El Alto and party on the fine beaches in Mancora, a solid crew from Lima will join us and its shaping up to be a massive rad freeride weekend, the neighbouring town Organos host a network of ditches as far as you can see ranging from 2 foot high to at least 8ft with bridge bombs and the odd bit of traffic.

cant wait huh.

Ambulance at sunset, Valle Hermosa