Events

50 mph in a straight line down a chip sealed road. This is how they used to race in the 90′s. 2012 is a new day an age and skateboarding has come a long way since the 90′s. Downhill skateboard races nowadays aren’t considered exciting unless there are turns and what not.

Not dump road though. The race has been running for quite some time and is part of the infamous Cali Outlaw Series. No sponsors, no permits, just a group of friends both old and new meeting up to race a road nestled in the Badlands of California.

The race is exciting and each finish is a photo finish. The packs are so tight and it actually takes some strategy to win.

Some try to push out to the front of the pack and stay there while others try to get into that persons draft in an attempt to pass them somewhere along the way down the almost 1 mile stretch of road.

Riders pay their entry fees, run a few practice runs followed by the race runs. Heats are run, riders are eliminated and finally it becomes time for the finals. Everyone cheers on their friends and a champion is crowned.

Open Class

1st- Tim Del Rosario

2nd- Daniel Luna

3rd- Key Dougherty

Groms

1st- Ethan Vinograd

2nd- Chance Gaul

3rd- Roger Jones

Luge

1st- Mike Mc Intyre

2nd- Key Dougherty

3rd- John Rogers

Bonelli is always a fun time but as far as all the racers are concerned it’s a super lame race…..yet they still come.
The course used to be a straight line until quite a few years back now they added the right hand turn into it.
The turn is kind of technical though. It is pretty flat after the turn so riders must hold their speed as much as possible through the turn to win it.

This causes many crashes since everyone is trying to take the line as fast as they can but not so fast that they slide or crash into the hay bails.
The hay bails lining the turn are the best 3rd basemen in skateboarding. I call it crash corner due to the large amount of crashes.

This actually makes for a very entertaining event for the spectators also.
There seemed to be a lot less crashes this year compared to the 2010 or 2011 races we attended. That’s not to say there weren’t a lot of crashes, but there weren’t as many.

For those who don’t already know Bonelli is a sanctioned IGSA race. It is actually the U.S. Nationals. The race is not just downhill skateboarding but also includes street luge, classic street luge and inline rollerblading.
The big story of the day is 18 year old Daniel Luna taking 1st place in the open division. Great job Daniel!

Team Movember soars to first place at Red Bull Flugtag San Francisco in McCovey Cove. Photo By: Garth Milan, Red Bull Content Pool

An entertaining day full of cheesy dance skits, colorful costumes and many unsuccessful attempts at flight. The Red Bull Flugtag event brought 116,000 spectators to McCovey Cove, right outside of the San Francisco Giants stadium.

Thirty-five teams lined the streets getting ready for their turn to launch their homemade crafts off a 30 ft tall ramp. These crafts had requirements to be under 450 lbs including the pilot and to be less than 30 feet wide.

The Red Bull Air Force Team skydove in and landed on the dock. Soon after that a song that must have been named “jump” started playing. All I could see was orange hair and pom pom’s bouncing around everywhere as the team danced around their float.

“Extra long, super talented, their sweating. Time to get into your pizza tub. ” said the announcer.

The pilot got into the craft as the other 4 members of the pilot crew pushed the craft off he end. The craft flipped off the end catapulting the pilot off the top. He ended up in the water at about the 30 ft mark.

Team Sugarskull shows that freeing your mind is a good thing through their craft. Photo from:Garth Milan, Red Bull

Each team had their own little skit they performed. Everything from men painted in full body paint as different cats, to guys in American flag speedo’s. There was a banana float, a Nyan cat, a flying Dia Del Muerte style skull (2nd place) and even a flying dragon.

Team Movember decked out with fake mustache’s won the contest flying 58 ft. “The superior engineering of the most distinguished of mustaches cannot fail,” said team captain William A. Hinkamp.

The Californauts won the people’s choice awards flying a huge surfboard into the sea.

My personal favorite was Team Skyjackers which was the third place team. The team all dressed up as Jack from Jack in the Box in all suits and a big white bobble heads. They all started bouncing and dancing around “kinda in coordination” to a popular rap song….”Poppin’ bottles in the ice. Like a blizzard. When we drink we do it right getting slizzard……” After shaking their buts around and dancing like corporate geeks the pilot climber up a ladder and into the taco pilot cabin on top of the aircraft. “You gotta go faster then that, you gotta go faster than that. Go, go!” Yelled the announcer. They pushed the craft off the end and it soared to about 60 ft. The pilot didn’t even get wet, still safely on top of the craft in the taco he sat.

Winners celebrate at Red Bull Flugtag in San Francisco, California, USA on November 10, 2012. Photo by: Garth Milan, Red Bull

At the end of all this hilarity Team Movember got the bragging rights and won an unforgettable day of skydiving alongside the Red Bull Air Force team.

The second prize winners Team Sugarskull won a chance to sail the sea’s with ORACLE TEAM USA in ttheir chase boat.

The third prize winner s Team Skyjackers won a chance to go to iFly and participate in some indoor skydiving with a member of the Red Bull Air Force team.

The final heat coming around the first right hairpin. Photo By: Leecifer

Barrett Junction is known for its rough janky pavement full of potholes and cracks. Although the road is super unforgiving, it is also really fun to skate. It’s kinda hard to explain.

I have heard stories from when the road was first discovered many years ago. People did not think it was skateable. These are good skaters we’re talking about too.

Each Barrett junction is different and holds its own story. Memories are made which we will never forget, stories to be told.

Here are our top 5 memories from this Barrett Junction, October 2012.

1. Waldo Autry’s crash with Niko Kroha

Waldo Autry’s crash with Niko Kroha was one of the gnarliest street luge crashes that I have witnessed in person.

Niko was out in front of Waldo, I was right behind them and Tabitha Mitchell was right behind me.

Waldo went for the pass on Niko on the inside. Niko was pretty far inside though and there wasn’t much room for him to pass.

Instead of throwing his feet down and braking Waldo was trying so hard to pass Niko two of his wheels left the road for a second. As soon as this happened he got the speed wobbles and wobbled straight through the right hand turn before Docs corner.

As he wobbled through the turn he clipped wheels with Niko causing him to lose his line.

Waldo hit the rock and dirt covered wall at around 45 mph and the wall exploded around him.

After his wheel was clipped Niko was also headed to the dirt and rock wall. As soon as his luge left the road the front dug into the dirt and catapulted him into the wall.

Me and Tabitha Mitchell threw our brakes down because we were right behind them when all this went down and the crash looked pretty intense.

I looked up to the crash scene and waldo was laying on the side of the road not moving. His street luge was flipped upside down on top of him.

Niko was also walking towards Waldo. “Waldo? (no response)…….Waldo are you there?” said Niko.

All of a sudden Waldo started shaking around and shoving the street luge off of himself. “I was just checking everything out, making sure I was alright” said Waldo.

“I just want to see them coming in” he said. he watched everyone come in then turned around and left. Photo By: Leecifer

2. Having the border patrol stoked on us being there and coming to watch

It’s pretty cool to be 5 miles from the border of Mexico and have the authorities let us mind our own business.

Not only do they let us mind our own business but they come and watch sometimes.

We’re all sitting and chilling in the shade under a tree at the bottom of the hill. The van took a load of riders to the top not long before.

A border patrol agent drives up on his atv and just parks facing up the hill without saying a word.

“How’s it going?” we ask him.

“Good,” he replies. “I just want to see these guys coming in fast.”

We had border patrol officers coming by throughout the day to check it out. Even guys on the night patrol would come to ask if there were any cool crashes or anything.

“A few years ago this girl dressed like freaking (lets use cat women for the sakes of the story and the fact that I can’t remember exaclty which superheroine he compared her too) catwomen crashed into the wall. It was some crazy stuff. How’d it go today?”

“It went well,” we replied. “You should come by tomorrow and check out the race.”

“Negative,” he replied.

“Why not?” we asked.

“Because you all are crazy,” he replied.

With that we all laughed and he told us good luck and to have fun.

The fires department was so stoked after they got to watch us bomb the hill. Photo By: Leecifer

3. Having the fire department post 2 trucks full of firefighters on some turns so they could watch.

It was the middle of the day and we were taking a break. Everyone was kinda relaxing and eating when a big fire engine pulls up.

The firefighters got out and came over to talk to us.

“We’re just here out of curiousity,” said on firefighter.

“Where can we go to see these guys hauling ass down the hill?” chimed in another.

Once he said that it was on. Art started rounding everyone up for a run and everyone started grabbing their gear.

While everyone was grabbing their gear a second fire engine full of firefighters rolled up.

We all packed into the Muir van and Art told the firefighters to follow him.

Our first stop was at docs corner. Art directed the first fire engine to park off the side of the road on the left of the corner.

The next stop was the first right hairpin turn. Art directed the other fire engine to pull off the side there.

We proceeded up to the top of the hill and geared up. Going down the hill is always fun but coming up to the first corner you could see all the firefighters standing on top of their fire engine and on the hill recording the action on their phones.

Coming up to the second fire engine in docs corner was a similar story. They were all on top of the fire engine stoked as hell.

We got to the bottom and they came down giving the sirens little blares.

“That was awesome! Who was the guy on the bike?” someone from the first engine said.

“That was me!” replied Andrew Schumaker.

“That skid into the turn was awesome!” said the firefighter.

“Thanks!” replied Andrew.

“Who was the guy in white out in front?” asked some one from the second fire engine.

“That was Mike McIntyre,” we replied and pointed him out.

We talked to them a bit longer, then they left to go take care of their business and we continued taking runs down the hill.

4. The crazy lady who lives in the house at the bottom

Every time I go to Barrett Junction now I will remember this. I can not tell you the whole entire story because I don’t know it, but for the last few years at least we have always camped out at the bottom of the road right next to it. We take moonlight runs and wake up ready to ride.

For some reason this time she was really worried about us starting a fire. So worried that she told us we couldn’t camp there.

The land doesn’t belong to anyone so we didn’t oblige.

She called the cops on us and when he came he was totally on our side.

He pretty much told us that dealing with her wasn’t worth it and so we starting breaking down the tents in the dark and getting ready to move them to the cafe down the road. It sucked but what can you do?

Standup Podium. 1st place- max Capps (white Ronin shirt in middle). 2nd place- Levy Green (right). 3rd Place- Scott Lembach (black muirskate shirt, left center) 4th Place- Mark Barfield (left)

5. Max Capps winning the race.

Ok, so even though there wern’t necessarily a lot of the faster riders there it was still rad. Especially watching the footage from the helmet of Mark Barfield who took 4th.

That was a race heat!!!! So exciting!

The final heat was close and super intense.

I know how much Max hates that road. Racing it sucks and unexpected things WILL happen there. Even though he hates it he still troops it out and gives it all.

In this case it was all worth it. Congrats to Max Capps on taking 1st place!

Here’s video footage of the final heat from the helmet of Mark Barfield.

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Related Posts

 Barrett Junction October 2011- Cali Outlaw Series

Smooth Rolling

Jesse Swalley, 50 from Palmdale, Ca finishes the 26.2 mile Adrenalina Race pushing the whole thing on his hands and sitting on his knees. Swalley can’t stand up while skating due to a paralyzed leg. Photo By: Lee Eisler

The Adrenalina Skateboard Marathon. 26.2 miles consisting of 6 circles around Fiesta Island in San Diego, Ca.

Riders arrived at 5:30am decked out in spandex pants, sweatbands, water and skateboards, ready for a 6 am starting time. The misty cool drizzly morning left the path nice and wet making pushing a little more difficult.

Before the sun was even out the race was on.

4 laps around Fiesta Island in San Diego, CA made up the 26.2 mile marathon.

With around 100-150 competitors, traveling from all over the US and some even from other countries as they competed to win $5,000 in prizes.

The 1st place winner Andrei Hippix, NY took home $1,500. 2nd place took home $1,000 and 3rd place took home $200.

There were more cash prizes awarded to different classes and everyone seemed pretty tired and beat by the time we arrived.

(Click here to see a complete list of the results)

Our friend Jesse Swalley who you might remember from our Can’t Stand Skating article completed the full 26.2 mile marathon on his knees pushing with his hands the whole way. He skates this way because one of his legs is paralyzed. “My leg kept falling asleep,” said Swalley after the race.

Swalley not only did the 26.2 mile marathon on his knees pushing with his hands, but he is also 50 years old. Chew on those facts all you youngsters who think 2 miles is far.

Anyways the marathon was a success and everyone who participated seemed to have a lot of fun. – Leecifer

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THRASH! Let me just start off this post by saying that the Bake and Destroy skateboard “riot” was both rad and bad.

Having an event that gets this many skateboarders in the community together is rad no matter what. This video premiere didn’t have skateboarding included in the schedule of events. Nor did it have a riot planned, but that doesn’t mean an adrenaline rush wasn’t about to be experienced by all 500 eager skateboarders waiting in line to see the Bake and Destroy video. The excited skaters lined the streets to see Baker Skateboard’s first video in 5 years.

I’m sure that being among the crowd of 500 skateboarders with 100 cops in riot gear and 3 helicopters hovering above, that had to have been a pretty rad time.

Now with that being said the whole thing kinda makes the whole skateboard world look pretty bad. As far as riots go this was extremely tame. Cops showed up and people for the most part didn’t know what to do.

Usually when you see a riot on TV cars are being flipped, burned and cops are forcing people off the streets with their riot shields. This DID NOT happen here.

Unfortunately people will not look at it that way. They will see the videos of everyone chanting “fuck the police, fuck the police” and just think we are all punk kids. There were also kids running over cars, shop windows were broken and bottles and rocks were being thrown.

Here’s how the day went…

Saturday October, 13 2012 The Bake and Destroy video was premiering on Hollywood Blvd. A crowd of around 500 skateboarders waited outside lining the Hollywood Blvd, some of them there all day. “I got here at 7:30 a.m. If you get here 2 hours before your fucking up,” said the guy in the front of the line.

With 2 showings planned, the first was an industry premiere for all the pros and company owners. As the first showing was underway kids in the back of the line and people who had been waiting all day started to get bored. Unfortunately bored, skateboarders and kids don’t all go together too well.

Laser pointers were being flashed into apartment windows. Someone in an apartment started shining a laser pointer right back. There were then kids throwing rocks and beer cans at cars and buses.

It wasn’t long until police were dispersed. 2 police helicopters arrived to spotlight the happenings and 100 officers in full tactical swat gear arrived making a perimeter and shutting down Hollywood Blvd.

People threw rocks and bottles at police officers and it took officers around 3 hrs to disperse the crowd of 500 skateboarders. No injuries were reported and 2 cars were reported damaged during the incident.

As all this was happening outside the premiere, inside the industry viewing was underway. “This is a fucking skateboard video! You live and die for skateboarding! You want some? Get some! Bake and fucking destroy!!!!” and with that being said the “play that shit” button was pressed and the video was under way.

In the middle of the industry viewing the people inside the theater started to hear about the riots outside the theater. At the end of the video security started to let everyone out the back doors of the theater.

As people filed out the back doors a police helicopter spotlight lit up the back exit. “That’s when we knew it was going down out front.” Police officers in riot gear quickly shut down that exit figuring that letting these people out would only add to the chaos.

After all was said and done this was just another night in the skateboard world. Bake and Destroy will be sent out with the next issue of Thrasher Magazine and it will be available on the internet in a couple months for free. Skateboarding rules! – Leecifer

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Justin here, back again, bringing you the lowdown on the UnModern Industries Mega Mega Mini Ramp Battle Royale, hosted by the legendary Mike Vallely and his Elephant Skateboards brand. It all went down on August 18th at UnModern Industries Skateshop in Santa Fe Springs – $1,000 was up for grabs in a winner-takes-all showdown, judged by Mike V. himself. Dozens of awesome riders came out to skate – from locals, to the shop owner and team members, to Wheelbase Magazine’s own Marcus Bandy, a legend in his own right. The night started off with a crazy demo from Mike V., then progressed to a couple guys on the ramp – mostly shop riders and the homies from Resource Distribution (where your Paris Trucks, Divine Wheels, and other goodies come from!) – but soon, more and more were dropping in until it got almost too gnarly to ride.

Everyone was respectful and stoke levels were massively high, but some epic bails and collisions were unavoidable. As the night went on, Mike kept a close eye on the shredders until he felt comfortable picking out the top 10 that he wanted to see move on to the finals (with a little crowd input of course!). After that, only those 10 were allowed on the ramp, and one by one Mike picked people off down to the final two. UnModern Riders Eddie Anaya, John Ruzzamenti, Johnny Abernathy, and Jon Trujillo held it down for the shop, but the final came down to two local young guns – Hector Tehuitzil and Steven Palacios.

Hector was throwing down HARD and landing big tricks all night – even going so far as to score a classy finger-flip drop in from the top of the 10ft high restroom in the corner of the warehouse – at least a solid 5ft from the edge of the ramp. But Steven brought his A-game as well and Mike felt that his style and consistency all night won him the top spot, the trophy, and a cool thousand dollars cash.

I can’t thank Adan Garcia, owner of the shop, or Mike Vallely enough for putting this event on. It went amazingly well, and everyone had a great time. Beer, drinks, and snacks were provided and they even had local band The Shrine come out and wrap up the night with some tunes. It was rad, look for it again next year.

Check it out, it even made onto the Ride Channel on TV!

Ride TV Coverage!

You stay classy SoCal,

Justin

See all the pictures HERE.

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We met at the park after security locked the gates. The road closed to cars and it became ours for the night. With the bright moon shining down from above and the trees surrounding the road, visibility varied from turn-to-turn. Unexpected curves, cracks, and bumps waited for riders making the ride scary….and so fun.

If you are familiar with the road leading up to the top of Griffith Observatory, then you know the deal. It is nearly impossible to skate during the day. Police at the bottom and park rangers at the top. Good luck!

The event was pretty loosely organized and no one at the bottom had skated the road before. However, there were already skaters lurking at the top including the event organizers.

A group of around 20 skaters began marching up the hill. Helmets, gloves, and skateboards in hand. Soldiers of downhill ready to bomb the windy mountain road, mostly unaware at how fun and gnarly the road was going to be.

The road wound up the mountain farther than most people thought, and my stoke level and anticipation were growing. The road seemed pretty gnarly and there were several hairpins. I didn’t know what was going to expect, I just knew  I was going to go down that hill on my skateboard really fast-and I was going to have a lot of fun doing it.

We could see Griffith Observatory lit up on top of the hill. This marked the starting point, where we would soon make our speedy descent back down the dark, winding road. Looking out across the valley, you could see all the lights shimmering from the city below. Somewhere up the road orange lights began flashing. 20 skaters dissipated into the bushes, ducked, and waited to see what was going on. A car drove past. Once the coast was clear we continued our journey up the hill. Soldiers marching onto the hill the hill… Ready to bomb it.

We did end up running into some park rangers at the top.

“Park is closed guys, you need to leave,” said the ranger. We started going down the way we came.”You need to go that way,” said the Park Ranger pointing towards the non closed road.

“Um, I don’t know where that goes, my car is at the bottom of this road.” I replied.

“There are no cars at the bottom of this road,” said the Park Ranger.

“Well I parked at the bottom in the parking lot and walked around the closed gate and just walked 3 miles up this road. My car is at the bottom of this road. We’re just skating man, it’s not a big deal. We didn’t want to do it when there were cars on it,” I said.

“Alright but I don’t want to see you guys when I come back around later.” said the ranger.

We started gearing up and we all started bombing the hill. I think almost everyone crashed into the sandy right hand corner with the guard rail on it. That turn sucked. With darkness surrounding us, everything felt faster than it was. Turn-after-turn, we picked up speed… and the night flew by. Everyone made it to the bottom smiles on their faces, some missing skin, but all wanted to do it again. It was an epic bomb, and I hope that we get to do it again sometime soon!

Apparently there were multiple groups skating throughout the night even after we left the hill. I hope everyone else had as much fun as we did! This was an epic night I will never forget. Oh, the stories skateboarding makes for us.- Leecifer

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The Talegalympics was a series of events set up very loosely and there was not enough time in the day to complete everything. Races, team relays, slide

Hey it’s me coming around the corner! Photo By: Justin Reed

contests, longest slide and unused ramps stood on the side of the road. It was many kids first times to the road and lots of kids left skin and blood at the hill. If you start to take Talega lightly it will bite you. I’ve been there. It’s a hill that is pretty gnarly. You have to know what your doing there.

For those of you unfamiliar with the road at a place we call Talega here’s the rundown. It’s a service road that leads up to a water tower. The whole road is very narrow. (About the size of a lane on a freeway.) From the very top of the road it is pretty much just a straight bomb down a narrow pathway where you accelerate to maybe around 40 mph. Then it hits a slight uphill section to around a 500 ft flat section. This is where the technical part of the road comes. The road then winds left and then shoots down a steep section into a hairpin right which requires a small pre-drift into it although I have seen riders grip it before. It then shoots down another steep section into an off camber left hairpin turn that causes most riders to crash. “Crash corner” i have nicknamed it. EVERYONE CRASHES HERE! The turn is slanted so as your sliding into it it is throwing you off the road. It is a very tough turn to navigate. After all of that you are shooting down the last steep section (each section just as steep as the last) into a hairpin right turn. This is another turn you have to drift and it shoots you across the finish line. The only easy part of this road is the straight beginning, after that it’s all tech.

Cameron Zweifel gets steezy with his stand up slide. Photo By: Justin Reed

Alex Wu, 20, of Yorba Linda, Ca shows off his road rash. Photo By: Justin Reed

Anyways with all the events it turned out to be a long day on the hill, not that it wasn’t fun. Just looong and the event took forever to get started but once it did everything got going kinda smoothly besides the fact it took us all to walk back up the whole hill again and again. After the racing was done the slide jams and other contests started.
The team relay was the first event and an interesting one because it hadn’t been done before. One rider would bomb from the top to the flat section where he would tag his awaiting team mate who would have to go through the hairpins. Me and my team mate Tim Bogart actually won this event. Go Tim!!!

Everything else was pretty standard, time trials, slide jams, longest slide. Fun stuff.

“I think it went awesome,” said Kye Pirrie, 18, Redondo Beach. “It was definitely worth it.” Kye was the event organizer and he was going just as hard into it as anyone else. During the time trials I watched him high side into the final right which was toe side for him. It was a brutal crash that left him in the bushes. He trooped it out and finished the race only to later on find out his finger was completely broken all the way through on his thumb.

Kye wasn’t the only one to leave skin at the hill. Just about everyone actually left some skin there. Everyone who skated for the most part anyways. “I kinda underestimate it, hit a patch of gravel and that was it,” said Alex Wu, 20, Yorba Linda. Alex left a lot of skin actually as you can see from this picture!

You can find all the pics on our facebook page here! Make sure to become a fan!

Talegalympics winners! Photo By: Grant Kiessling

The Etnies Skatepark Speed Demon race, known to many (or at least me and my friends) as the death race was happening but no one was showing up for it. That just meant more heats and runs for everyone. It was a cool event having riders start near a pole jam, push their way down into some transition, whip around a bank and over a cone, then over the hump whip around another bank, cross over to the next bank and then go around yet another bank. This is the spot where riders ended up crossing paths and collissions were a good possobility although we didnt get to see anyone collide. Crashes did happen though. The race was fun if you were riding in it which looking back I should have done. Watching it sucked. Even video taping and photographing. It took forever and I couldn’t wait for it to end. Another heat, they said…….”shit” I thought to myself. Anyways the next one I probably will compete in and it is a really cool event, just not many people came out to it. The worst part is I know people who could have shredded the shit out of this course but no one was there. Anyways it was all a good time and everyone who entered was stoked.

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