Volcanic responds to Vandalism in Goldendale
John Ozman posted,
Maryhill Loops Road!
What a beautiful piece of asphalt, smooth, banked, perfect and right now it is the icon for Longboarders around the world. We have raced it, we have carved it and we have just plain stared at it because of its beauty. If Sam Hill knew what is taking place today he would be a very happy man. Just go to the Overlook and admire it someday. If you are a Longboarder, then you want to ride this hill. If you have ridden it then you want to ride again.
When we leave Maryhill we leave it just the way we found it. Why? Because we have respect for it and it should always be that way.
But, then there is this town above her, its called Goldendale. The Maryhill Loops Road was built to get to this town. This town once was a big aluminum mining town. Well, the aluminum went away and the town is struggling. The citizens of this town welcomed this big fancy event called Maryhill “Festival of Speed”. Although reluctant, they open up their house to us. They paid for us to sleep, they fed us, they showed us a good time and then we leave. Just like that we are gone. The problem is we left a mess. We didn’t bother to clean it up. We broke things and displayed foul language on their property. Why? We left Maryhill spotless but not the hand that fed us, we slapped them in the face, laughed at the situation and then crapped on a great bunch of people.
Now I have been sitting back reading all of you complain, threaten and even cry about what’s going on.
“They are making a big deal”, “Those are lies” “The Daggers did it”, “Everyone took part in it not just me”, blah, blah, blah. It’s all of are fault, we didn’t care enough to realize what good we had in front of are faces.
Hundreds of posts and emails are taking place as I write this. 10,000 hits a day on Silverfish. I posted the letter from the Mayor on Silverfish and many other sites. In a matter of hours there were hundreds of responses. Many of the discussions are not even worth reading. But, there are many that I have taken to heart. But the problem is that we are just all arguing about what took place instead of coming up with solutions.
When I first thought about organizing a race at Maryhill never in my wildest dreams did I think things would turn out like this. All I did was go all out trying to organize an event that we could all have fun at. Hell, I just wanted to do it so I could see some kick ass racing. Now everyone in the world is talking about Maryhill:
“We can’t lose Maryhill; I haven’t been to MFOS yet”
“This is f$*#% up”
“It’s the ##### fault”
“Screw Goldendale they’re backwards”
The only one I listen to is
“WE CAN’T LOSE MARYHILL”
This is one message that has opened my eyes:
I am a little confused. The hay bales were spray painted on the first night, and I spoke to some members of the Daggers who felt really bad when they found out they were not MFOS property (not that that would have made it okay!). When everyone was informed of the bales at the awards ceremony, we donated what appeared to be a generous amount to the city. I guess that wasn't enough to cover the damages. I left the campsite on Monday and used the women’s bathroom... both sinks were definitely still attached and there was no spray paint on the walls. One of the Zoobomber girls was busy cleaning mud and flour off the floor that was left after the insane night. As crazy as the Zoobombers were, they definitely did their part in cleaning any mess that was left behind (even if it was not their own).
I am really disappointed that the town wants nothing to do with us after what seemed to be harmless partying. I am not trying to deny the accusations in the letter because things did get a bit out of hand, but I can't understand how we could have left such a horrible impression. Everyone I spoke to was so stoked on the locals who were there to feed us every morning and night. The night of the spaghetti dinner, everyone around me was in such high spirits because of the treatment we were getting... the food that night was amazing!! Maybe I was just starving after a day of practice, but that was the best vegetarian lasagna I've ever had and there was an adorable old lady at the cupcake table to tell you which flavor each one was! At several meals we got up and gave the volunteers standing ovations to show our appreciation. I went out of my way to thank each and every one of them. All in all, I only ever saw positive interactions between the locals and the racers. Every morning, the coffee lady wished me good luck out on the hill!! They all seemed so happy to have us there and to be a part of such an amazing event! Writing all this is actually bringing tears to my eyes (maybe I'm just over-emotional) because I am dumbfounded at the outcome of this year's race. Happy feelings and good vibrations aside, I guess this is all a matter of damages to physical property and, apart from the hay, I witnessed no other examples of vandalism for the rest of the week. That seemed to be the one fuck-up, which I thought was semi-resolved when certain people took responsibility for it and we all donated to Lorraine. When and how did things go so horribly wrong?!
I truly hope that the letter from the mayor was just a big mistake. It can't end like this. I would like to write to Mrs. Parton to express my apologies (although I don't feel at fault for anything) and ask what could be done to remedy the situation, but I fear that I will be ignored. JOHN, if you can think of anything we can do to help get the city back on our side, please let us know! I want to THANK YOU SO MUCH again for all of your hard work in organizing such an incredible week! I do hope you will change your mind and decide to stick with us, despite these unfortunate circumstances. As a family, we have to stick together through thick and thin.
Read the last sentence, “As a family, we have to stick together through thick and thin.”
This sport has seen its high and low times. Just in my past 2 years of organizing events I have seen many highs and lows. When Scoot crossed the finish line this year it was the most exciting scene I have seen in the history of the sport. But then when we had the Awards Ceremony, I was completely disappointed. This “antiquing” that takes place is just lame. Here we have a World Champion on stage with flour in his eyes and can’t even fully enjoy the moment. That’s going to look real good in photos and film. A bunch of kids throwing flour all over the place, you should have bought champagne.
So, for all of you on the internet ranting and arguing it time to do something! Let’s do something right here and now. There are a few people behind the scene putting together a fund to be delivered to the City and Fairgrounds. This fund will never repay the cleaning of crap we dumped on the City of Goldendale, its residents and most importantly its supports of the event. But it will show the community that we are a good group and we will not put up with a few bad individuals.
Some of you think it’s my fault because I didn’t plan for this and I should have used all the so called money I made to take care of it. Well I will tell you what. So far all I have gotten is a bunch crap for the things I have done.
“It wasn’t fair how the registration went”
“You and IGSA are at fault for the staph issue”
“You should have planned for this”
blah blah blah
Why do we as a society always find things that we think are wrong and then crap on the people that do the work? Let’s change it right now. I know what can be done differently next year. I learn from listening, thinking and then implementing. So if this event happens next year I will have to do some things that I do not want to do. Security! That is the last thing I want to do but it will be necessary since we can not keep our family in control. I am the first to say have a kick ass time. I never ask for the athletes to throw a haybale, drive a post or built tents. All I have asked for is to have some fun. But now I have to police and secure so my name and event does not get so tarnished that no town will want the event.
So, here is something that I would like to present to the City of Goldendale. This tread is for recording all of the positive things about having the Maryhill “Festival of Speed” return back to Maryhill and to be supported by the City of Goldendale.
I would also like all of you to list all the positives about the 2007 Maryhill “Festival of Speed” as well.
So you know ahead of time, any post that is negative in any way will be deleted.
It’s our time to make a footprint in the sport of Longboarding. What is taking place will be remembered in history. People are watching this sport; they are waiting to see how we will handle things. This sport took a step back, but we can now take two steps forward and show the world what this sport is really about.
John Ozman
Volcanic Promotions
Maryhill “Festival of Speed”
By the way, I was really hoping to see if we would have a three time winner.
2008 September 12 11:37 PM
Orchid0 replied,
Props To You Guys And Everyone Who Set Up The
Event. It Shouldnt Of Turned Out Like This