Skateboarding Pictures

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!

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.

Please visit our sponsors who help make it all possible

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

Hey kids! Justin here – bringing you a quick rap-up from the Gnar Path skate race put on by Nathan Marton in a cool little park in Yorba Linda on August 4th.

The even featured four different mini-events, including (from the event page):

Intermediate Course – For skaters of an intermediate skill level and above. Does not require pre-drifting. Includes a grass-romp as part of the course. 1 man timed trials, fastest man wins

Advanced Course – For skaters of an advanced skill level. Requires medium speed drifting or LOTS of footbraking on a very narrow sidewalk (stand up drifts highly recommend). Utilizes all 5 corners on the hill, riders will stay on the sidewalk the entire time. NOT FOR BEGINNERS. 1 man timed trials, fastest man wins.

Butt-Board – Requires basic buttboarding skills. Riders will be going down the Advanced course including all 5 corners which requires lots of braking (but isnt all that hard while buttboarding). 1 man timed trials, fastest man wins.

Freeride – Steeziest run competition down the advanced course. Speed is not important, style and awesomeness is. Sidewalk is narrow so slides will need to be on point (stand up HIGHLY recommended).

The park was choice, and plenty of shade was available throughout the day, making for a very nice venue. Most of all, since it was in a public park, the event was entirely legal, and no cops showed up atall throughout the entire event. The hill was intense, with 5 almost-hairpin turns, and butter pavement with only one or two ‘lips’ in the concrete to watch out for. The grass-romps for the intermediate level were perfectly placed to allow you to cut speed, but still made it challenging for riders to hook back up with the course. A solid number of people showed up, including Kyle Chin, Dave Rogers, the infamous Dubes, and some fine ladies from One11.

The event went off without a hitch and is definitely one to look out for next year!

You stay classy So-Cal,

Justin

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Edit By: Leecifer Eisler

Filmed by: Tye Donelly, Leecifer Eisler, joel Smith, Vin Bone

Music By: The Expendables

Song: Party at the Moontower

This SDDRL (San Diego Downhill Racing League) was fun, as they always are, but each SDDRL creates a new and exciting story and this was no different. The hill was on the other side of the mountain from the other hills we race and it was unraceable and hardly even rideable a few months ago. Thanks to Tye and the city the rough dirty left was patched, repaired and was actually the smoothest section of the race track.

The race began on a smooth little downslope where riders would take a sharp right and start speed tucking as they slowly and gradually picked up speed as they flowed through some floaty wide lefts and rights. Riders then hit a little left that dropped down giving riders a little extra boost of speed, they swooped back to the right passing the shaded spectating area and then swooped through another left to a downhill drop where riders hit the finish line at speeds that I would guess to be around 40 mph after the very last drop.

The road was awesome, it was a hot but beautiful day and the scenery of the road was amazing. The humidity had everyone dripping sweat and the racing was close and tight. I watched photo finish after photo finish fly through the finish line. The end of the race never means the end of the awesome day at an SDDRL, but it does mean podiums are about to happen.

Open Class

1st- Drew Edwards

2nd- Max Capps

3rd- Nathan Marton

Grom Class

1st- Judson Vandertoll

2nd- Shamar Jackson

3rd- Danny Ronsen

After podiums were done the crew continued on to friends of SDDRL that lived in the area. A slide session and battle was held on their sweet driveway which we raced at SDDRL #32 Bombing Party after getting kicked off the church run. A pool party awaited at the house which was much needed after a hot, sweaty exhausting day of racing. Everyone had a blast and we can’t wait for full moon fever happening August 31! See you all there! – Leecifer

(E-mail SDDRLinfo@gmail.com)

Huge thanks to Edge Boardshop for helping us get there!

Thanks to all the sponsors Gravity Skateboards, Never Summer Industries, Skater Socks, Globe Shoes, Dekline Shoes, Abec 11, Seismic, Wheelbase Magazine, Holesome, Rayne Longboards, Pig Wheels, Khiro Hard Core, So Cal Skateshop and Edge Boardshop.

Related Posts

SDDRL # 38 “A New Beginning”

SDDRL # 37 “Road Signs”

SDDRL # 36 “Lessons Learned”

SDDRL # 35 “The Stand”

SDDRL # 34 “Spill Hill”

SDDRL # 33 “Talegadega Nights”

SDDRL # 32 “Bombing Party”

SDDRL # 31 “Mob Rules”

SDDRL # 30 “Boardstock”

SDDRL # 24 “Another brick in the wall”

SDDRL # 23 “Pin it to win it”

SDDRL # 22 “Pump Station”

SDDRL # 18 “Talega”

LADRL # 1 “The Great Mountain Race”

The Need For Speed downhill reunion at The California Surf Museum(link) was nothing short of incredible. OG skaters reunited with old friends, reminisced to their race days and looked back at the boards they used to ride.

The Downhill Skateboarding Reunion, held at The California Surf Museum in Huntington Beach, Ca was one very memorable night for all who attended and it was witnessed by only a couple hundred people.

Legends of skating and people who helped start it all were in attendance along with some legendary surfers. Basically the event was a meet and greet and it was a showcase for their newest display called A Need For Speed. It was a tribute to downhill skateboard racing and there was a whole section dedicated to Signal Hill, which is where the first sanctioned race ever was held.

Hey there boys and girls – Justin here, giving you the low-down on IDGR #4 – Curvy Canyon, the fourth event in the Irvine Downhill and Garage Riders Downhill Race Series. We had a little difficulty with my permissions on the site, so this is a bit late, but we got it figured out!

Yours truly actually hosted this race, and we had a location set in the North Fullerton/Rowland Heights area for last Sunday the 24th. Everyone showed up bright and early, ready to race, but not 2 practice runs in and the Sheriff rolled up! Some type of wedding event was taking place up the road, so lots of people were parked along the sides, and I assume someone walking to or from their car give Johnny Law a ring for us. Luckily, the Sheriff was super cool, and was telling us that apparently he used to luge up at GMR back in the day! Legit! Unfortunately, since people had complained, he said we had to go. He even suggested other roads to go ride, and that in the future, we start earlier in the morning to avoid him having to come out. If you’re gonna get rolled, at least that was the way to do it. I’m definitely still looking forward to holding another race on that hill, and those lucky enough to get some runs in seemed to really enjoy it – luck just wasn’t with us that day.

We kicked around the idea of skating anyways for a while, but decided it was best to just be respectful and ride the backup hill. I actually had two in mind – one that was a lot closer, but just a mellow bomb, and one a little further north that had more turns and more speed. A vote was taken, and the gnarlier hill was chosen! A 40mph-ish bomb through 4-5 sweepers in a scenic little canyon kept everyone on their toes, but was safe for all skill levels. Everyone who came out  drove the extra 15 or so minutes out to a secret spot in West Covina (except a van full of 5-year-olds from Laguna whose dad didn’t want to drive anymore – we didn’t miss em!), where the race went off without a hitch! Neighbors there were stoked to see us and the hill was prime.

Heats were assigned at random, and a four-man, top-two-advance format was used, including a consolation bracket that let everyone race at least twice and gave people a shot to get back in to the semi-finals. About 13 people raced, and the final heat came down to Drew Edwards, Phillip “Swagmaster” Crow, Nathan Marton, and Markise Gladney. Markise showed up in his bright green super-suit and half-shell, but still managed to put at least two solid body-lengths on the other riders, and took an easy first. The rest of the podium was hard-fought, with Nathan pulling off second, Drew snagging third, and Swagmaster rounding out fourth place.

Some epic, custom California-themed trophies were provided by Brian “Hernan” Vigil of Unmodern Industries/Black Velvet Slide Pucks/Never Grow, and 1st through 4th took one home. We managed to give out over $120 in cash money to the winners from the entry fees plus some extra dough provided by sponsors Icaro Aero Helmets and Unmodern Industries. Black Velvet/Unmodern also sent out a bag of their famous collaboration Cali toe-stops that a couple people were able to snag, and Rayne Longboards sent a package out that didn’t make it in time but will be included in one of the next events! Also, big ups to Axl Dyer and Katie Fredericks for helping me run the event, to our guest photographer Caylin Schutz for the great pics, and to everyone who helped shuttle. Word on the street is that IDGR #5 is going to be a slide competition, so be on the lookout for that and lots more from the IDGR and Adrenaline-Fueled!

You stay classy So Cal!

- Justin

Talega, a popular skate spot with every local company and their moms throwing slide jams and races there so walking up the hill was a familiar scene. Skaters sliding their way jamming down the hill and spectators hanging out at the hairpin left where most of the crashing takes place.

With a small ramp set up and a group of skaters and many familiar faces a good time was to be had. Pizza was delivered to the hill ordered and consumed by the Laguna kids and there were people from L.A all the way to San Diego that drove out to attend the event.

For those of you unfamiliar with Talega it is a pretty gnarly hill not to ridden unless you know how to slide or a ready to learn. The bottom half of the road consists of 3 big hairpins and a fun lefty at the beginning. Skaters usually start just above these hairpins. The straightaways to them is steep forcing you to have to drift each one and the pavement is super buttery making it a great hill for free riding.

A good group of shredders showed up to the event and lots of skin was left at the hill.

Video Edited and shot by: Tye Donnelly
Each SDDRL (San Diego Downhill Racing League) is a story of it’s own and this one was a story of legends. I mean both both Dave and John Rogers were there, Dave Hackett, Chris Yandall, Lynn Kraemer just to name a few. The raddest part of the whole thing was seeing Jay Adam’s show up. Jay Adams is the first skateboarder ever. The original. He was from before the dogtown era and helped pioneer skateboarding.

The hill was mellow and fun with speeds topping off around 40 and some good racing. Live music was being played on the drums and guitars and everyone chowed down on some burgers. All in all it was a totally rad and awesome time. An SDDRL to remember. Another chapter in the book.

Groms

1st- Ethan Vinograd

2nd- Jesse French

3rd- Elijah Vinograd

Open

1st- Gregg Kent

2nd- Ben Hryn

3rd- Nathan Bryant

Masters

1st- David Rogers

2nd- Jonny Miller

3rd- John Rogers

Related Posts

Hard Times With Jay Adams

SDDRL # 38 “A New Beginning”

SDDRL # 37 “Road Signs”

SDDRL # 36 “Lessons Learned”

SDDRL # 35 “The Stand”

SDDRL # 34 “Spill Hill”

SDDRL # 33 “Talegadega Nights”

SDDRL # 32 “Bombing Party”

SDDRL # 31 “Mob Rules”

SDDRL # 30 “Boardstock”

SDDRL # 24 “Another brick in the wall”

SDDRL # 23 “Pin it to win it”

SDDRL # 22 “Pump Station”

SDDRL # 18 “Talega”

LADRL # 1 “The Great Mountain Race”