1st is Kevin Reimer (K-Rimes) from Canada on 2:48.894
2nd is James Kelly USA on 2:50.906
3rd is Jackson Shapiera (Jacko) Australia on 2:51.076
Rest of the Australians
17th is Corey Leeson (Leeso) on 2:55.094
50th Merrick Wildash on 2:59.201
130th Daniel Hawes (Danni) on 3:19.320
Merrick’s email report is in, giving us the scoop on today’s racing (even before results on IGSA!!)
[Merrick]
Today was the second Qualification 2. It was hot on course, temperatures hitting 35! Overall it was a smooth day.
All the Aussie radness only got better today.
Jackson did not race today. Dani, Leeso and myself all bettered our times.
Dani = Unsure (but better), ended up at 119th, an improvement but misses the cut.
Leeso = took 2 seconds off his time! Nudged him up two places to 15th
Merrick = got 2:54, placed me 26th overall and second in the juniors!
Well now I’m off to grab some salami and a drink. Catch ya later.
[Hop's notes]
The top five men’s downhill are now:
1st K-Rimes
2nd Douglas (Dalua) Silva
3rd Patrick Switzer
4th James Kelly
5th Jackson Shapiera
Jackson sitting out today’s racing might have been a mis-calculation on his part. Letting the competition get more practice runs, more time to work out their lines. No word on where Louis sits, he was 105th on Day 1, obviously having a bad first qualifying. With Louis lurking at the bottom of the bracket will be interesting, not fun for the top qualifiers to find yourself in a heat with one of the top qualifiers and Louis!
There is a definite pattern emerging out of the results.
All the top 5 five fastest racers are Team Orangatang. You would have to say Orangatang wheels are the fastest on the mountain this year.
The Australian stand out result is definitely Merrick. Qualifying second in the Junior category. Juniors race is first thing tomorrow morning with the open racing after that. You never know, we might have an Aussie on the World Championship podium tomorrow.
Day Two, and Merrick the traveling grom, representing all things Australian junior sends us a quick email to give us a taste of all the days action.
[Merrick]
I woke up today, Day Two, thinking it was all sweet so I skipped morning practice and went into town and bought some new skateboard shoes. New shoes suck! (hop’s note: obviously not Dekline or Gravis…coming soon)
When I got back from town, I managed to sneak in a run before lunch so It was pretty good. All going smoothly
By the time lunch had finished it was semi overcast, the sky’s bearing small amounts of rain. We all went up for qualifying and it rained. Good thing classic luge were first to run!
By the time it came round for the stand up qualifying, there was still a bit of rain around. However the road was warm from the hot weather we have been having, and the rain hitting the road was immediately evaporating. We got to do our first qualifying run on a dry road.
Here are the Aussies first times
Dani: 3:19.320
Merrick: 2:59.301 (I kooked it)
Leeso: 2:55.???
Jacko: 2:51.076 (finished in 3rd or 4th)
Merrick is the maundering Aussie junior. Having learned valuable racing lessons in Maryhill USA, we are unleashing him in Europe. Merrick is a real chance to become Australia’s first Junior Downhill World Champion or collect enough points to be crowned Junior World Cup Champion, which I believe is the inaugural year for the Junior title.
Here is Merrick’s email
Today is the first day of skating for Almatrieb, It’s 35* Celsius and No wind.
The road is so fast, 90km straight down through the forest into a left hairpin.
We have done 5 runs before lunch. Hopefully we’ll get another five after lunch. I’ve been checking out the competition for the Juniors race, looks like there will be four or five real competitors.
Today the Almabtrieb Downhill IGSA World Championships started.
Here is the quick overview of the event.
Almabtrieb has a rich history of IGSA racing and the world championships have been held here in 2004, 2005 and 2007. World Cup races were held in 2003 and 2008. The last Almabtrieb race was in 2008, with Jackson finishing 20th in his rookie year.
This year Almabtrieb has a new course. 3.5km long, the longest on tour this year, and one of the fastest with average speeds of 85km/h.
It promises to be fast, technical and beautiful. The race is big and fast. The technical sections will arrive like a punch in the face to the competitors. Sliding, foot braking or railing at speeds of 95km/h to get through the most difficult corners. All the time wrapped up by big German mountains, that will be throwing racers into the beautiful Bavarian Forest. Giving a whole new meaning to the word Schwarzwald.
Schedule
Wednesday Thursday 15th and 16th July are freeride and practice.
Friday 17th is qualifications. Two timed runs, one in the morning the other in the afternoon.
Saturday 18th is race day. All the World Championship events will be decided.
Sunday 19th is held has a reserve day in case of unforeseen events.
Rain will not stop this event, see Jackson’s video via the link above!
Rob McWhinnie, our secret agent in Peru, has done his race report and EVERYONE wants to go to Peru!!
This was the word we received earlier in the week:
Just been recuperating after Sunday’s race, it was the most exercise in months, every one had such a rad time.
Heaps of skaters turned up to race and watch, the Kahas were a big hit, everyone wanted a pair, and I had offers before racing began to just buy them outright.
The riders rode fast and a lot of them broke out new wheels for the race. Felepe Malaga took the 1st place easy, he such a dominate rider,
Maga was race official, we used Nextel for the walky talkies and had a really cruisy day, even when security turned up we just kept riding and were never told to leave.
It was really awsome to organise an event for the lima locals, and to spread the stoke with new riders and mates.
This has got to be the most amazing week of my life.
The festival here in Voss is like nothing I’ve experienced before. The best athletes from all over the world have collected here to participate in some of the most extreme sports known to man. Every day people are pushing the limits and taking their sport to the next level, and to be here witnessing it and even participating is just awesome.
Voss is an epic place, the scenery here is amazing, so many huge mountains, tons of waterfalls everywhere, the scenery is lush and full of colour, and the people are all so friendly and really warm up to outsiders that have come to experience this place. In the past few days we have skated some of the most epic hills I’ve ever experienced, including one hill that was 18%, one way downhill, fresh blacktop and had over 20 hairpins… crazy as all hell. It was the gnarliest road I’ve ever seen, and to be able to rally down it with good mates was just a blessing.
The longboarding scene here in Scandanavia is really blowing up, there were over 80 riders competing at the race, with some as young as 15 years old. You can really tell how hard these guys push the limits of downhill skateboarding as they have some of the best terrain in the world to ride all the time. The top riders here in Norway are extremely talented skaters, they are all fast as hell and hungry for the win, competing against the crew here was rad, and I was so stoked to see so many people ripping it up and getting in the mix.
The race hill was beautiful, it went down this amazing valley with a huge waterfall and had several fast hairpins thrown in the middle. During practice it was hard to stay focused on the track as I was always distracted by the beautiful scenery surrounding me.
I had so many fun runs with the crew I’m traveling with (Louis, Leeso and Robin) and all day we were shredding hard and taking the track to the limits. It was also great to get in the mix with the local rippers and check out the talent that we would be competeing again, and after a day of riding with everyone I knew that this race was going to be a tough one to win.
The tactics for this hill required a lot of concentration, as the pavement was a little different to the other roads we have been skating. It was kinda slippery in the corners and you needed to think carefully about the right line. There were some nice straights in between the corners which allowed people to draft back into the mix if they blew it in the earlier corners. My tactics were to start off in the back and take clean lines through the first few corners and get a mega draft into the bottom section. This was also a ballsy move because if you scrubbed and lost too much speed in the last two corners it allowed the riders behind to draft you right on the line (which actually happened to a lot of people).
The best thing about this race is from the start line you can look down the valley and have a clear view of the entire race track, and it was sick to be able to see the passes people were making and have a good idea of who’s really pushing the limits.
The last two heats I raced were some of the funnest heats I’ve had in a long time. I was up against Louis Pilloni and Alex (Norway) in the semis, both extremely talented riders. Louis and I got out in front off the start and were rocking it hard down into the last section of corners, but I guess Louis got a little to excited and took the corners too fast and nearly took me out. I looked behind just in time to see Louis coming right for me so I had to drift a little bit to give him room. Because of this we scrubbed off a lot of speed and Alex came charging through in our draft and beat us both to the line. I was lucky I have a little more weight on Louis and was able to stay in front and move on into the finals.
In the finals I was up against Alex and Torbian from Norway and Sonne from Sweden. Sonne was the champion from the previous year, and I had not raced any heats against him all day. I was quite nervous on the start line and had to think hard about how I was going to race this final. From the start I let everyone push out in front so I could draft the push and get good speed through the first few corners. This also allowed me to take clean lines as the other riders were battling for the good positions. Coming into the 2nd corner Torbian and Alex got a bit too gnar and scrubbed off some speed, and I was able to slot through the gap right into Sonne’s draft for the long straight into the bottom section. I got a good draft off Sonne and got out in front, but he snuck into my slip stream and went for the pass before the last corner. Him and I were side by side for the bottom section and it was do or die time. I hit the corner faster than I had before and had no choice but to go for it, it was a move that was either going to win or lose the race for me, luckily I kept my line clean and made it through with enough speed to stay in front for the finish line. I was met at the finish line by Louis (he won the consolation final) who dumped a few bottles of water on my head and gave me several hi-fives. I was super stoked to get a victory in an international race, and to compete against some damn talented skateboarders, especially in such a beautiful place like Voss.
From here Louis, Leeso, Robin and myself will travel west to a town called Bergan for some R’n'R and then head south a little bit to skate some of the famous mountain roads. I’m really excited to explore more of this amazing country.
What a trip it was, a big shout out to everyone in Vancouver and Cali for being incredibly rad, no matter where you are from or how bad your hair is [cough...leigh and bowditch..cough] there was always a warm bed, couch or floor to be slept on and plenty of shredders more than happy to show you around and take you to rad hills and parties.
Thanks to Jacko, Yates, Leigh and Bowditch for being awesome team members and helping me out with food, drink, money and love when I lost my bank card. And a big thanks to Hop for helping me out with gear, entry fees and spending money. I couldn’t have done it without the support!
Hopefully next year there will be even more Aussies making the trip over with us, I’ll be going back to skate those hills again for sure, hopefully I’ll even be able to make it to the Euro tour too!
With so many riders all over the world pushing the limits of what can be done on a skateboard the sport is only going uphill (or should I say downhill) from here. Start saving your dollars and booking your airfares Aussies, next year is going to be RAD!!!
While travelling around I saw some pretty crazy new advancements in gear, here’s a few things you might be seeing on the market in the near future!
Mischo Erban and Fred from Knucklenuts are working on a new truck that looked pretty awesome, they are called Ronin Trucks.
They are just like a regular CNC truck but with one little addition. The design is similar to that of the Fyre trucks, but not as overworked. There is a thick metal pin on a ball pivot running from the middle of the hangar (above the bushing seat on the board side) down to the baseplate which takes all the weight off the bushings. This eliminates any chance of ’slop’ from the turn of the truck.
I had a little ride around on Mischo’s setup. He was running 96a bushings and still had all the stability that a harder bushing gives, but at the same time they had the lean that you would get from a 78a bushing. Cool stuff eh?
While at the skatehouse in California I got to know one of the guys who works with Munkae Trucks in Arizona. Zeid was an awesome guy and lent me his setup to thrash on the whole time I was there. I got talking to him one night about what’s happening behind the scenes at Munkae. They are working on some 174mm hangars at the moment (Hopshop will have them in stock in the next 10 days), apparently one of the team riders has been testing them out on some fast hairpin corners and the amount of grip from having your weight right on top of your wheels is incredible. He has been gripping through corners on that everyone else has to slide for, these sound tasty! Also look forward to two new baseplate angles, 49’s and 35’s should be out soon!
I also managed to check out a set of CNC cut Randall 180’s that James Kelly had been given to test out, these looked like sexy trucks. Not sure if they are going to be on the market for a while but keep your ears and eyes open!
While I was staying in Laguna Beach with Evren i had a chance to ride the new Sector 9 Race board that Evren designed. A sleek little topmount with a nice, simple concave (no W-cave), a wheelbase of about 27′-28′ and a sick graphic to boot. He was stoked that I liked it and said he would try and send one out to me when they made a few more. These should be in production soon, YEW!
Along with his new trucks, Mischo is also starting a board company called GMR.
I only saw a couple of their designs while I was there, one of them Mischo’s own board and the other a sick looking top mount cruiser.
Mischo’s board is a drop through design with a very short wheelbase (it looked around 27′) he had built up a multitude of foam gas pedals on the front and back of the board which made for a pretty snug foot-lock. I didn’t get a very good look at the cruiser but it looked like a fun cruising/carving/commuting board.
Evren also showed me some sick prototype Sector9 square-lipped wheels. They were 74mm, 78a and at first glance looked like any other wheel, little did I know that they were a set from the first batch of wheels with a core made from urethane! Evren said they were grippy as hell and perfect for railing corners. He’s going to be testing them out at Maryhill this week, I should have an update on how they went soon!
Jacko came back from the crazy wonderland also known as the Loaded/Orangatang workshop with a set of 75mm Purple O’tangs which looked and felt like an ordinary O’tang. After looking at them for a good 10 minutes trying to figure out what was different I noticed that the core was made from METAL! He shredded them down Tuna Canyon the next day and said they felt goooood!
Hopefully all of these new innovative designs will be out on the market soon, the technology behind longboarding is getting more and more advanced every day!
Its great to be back in Aus, super keen for some Bomb Squad action this week!
Look forward to a write-up and some pictures of my first bombsquad back with the crew!
Thursday Night, 6.30PM, Railway Square near Central station, Sydney. COME AND SHRED SOME GNAR!!!
Peace
Gabe
P.s.
Sector 9 is also starting a Grom team in California, look out everyone, there’s some more crazy grommets about to come into the scene!
Manufacturers
