RACERS READ
kate or die posted,
so i just watched dubes vid (siiick by the way) and all this talk about racing that hill has opened my imagination and get me thinking about something that i've wanted for the racing scene for a while now...its how i was raised, and i think others would be into it. i know its already kinda goin down...but if it was a little more legitimized, i bet that alot more people would be committed to showing up to race at all these gnarly places this world has to offer!
so i know we have the bc race series, igsa, and outlaws...but what if they were a little more structured?*maybe thats the wrong word but i cant think of another right now*
WHAT WE ARE MISSING is a series of races that is just LONG FAST bombs. hey, racing that lasts longer than 45 seconds! or 2.5mins tops at maryhill!!! what do you think?
think of it this way,
*REGIONAL/"CLUB" RACING (aka, bc outlaws, cali stand-up series, or any local racing scene you have going on no matter where you are) where entry fees are paid, but not paid out to the winner. instead, why dont these entries get banked so that at the end of a point collecting season (say if 20 people show up, 1st gets 20 points, last gets 1 point) the overall winner gets to take home a travel fund! the more races you go to, the better chance you have at the travel fund...and you'll get some bad ass motivation to keep rippin. pass the key until the overall winner is decided! i personally think if you are a local champion you by all means deserve to get sent to a race via the people whos asses you just kicked all season!
PROVINCIAL/STATE (danger bay, sully)
keep em how they are..its badass...
NATIONAL (this is what i feel we are missing!...LONG RACES!)
what if each province or state hosted a LONG BOMB race. make up some dumb shit rule like the hill cant come in under 6 minuites or something! do what you want, just get to the bottom of the hill. nothing but fast, long, technical shit that only true champions will conquor! this would be a bad ass series...seriously!!!
and last...GOLD CUP (aka igsa)
they already got their shit figured out...
so basically what im trying to say is we need another series similar to IGSA but the next step up. longer, faster and built for the crazies of this sport. fuck igsa no touching rules though...touch people if you want...you just have to get to the bottom of the hill! team members and friends in the same heat should be allowed to WORK TOGETHER and strategize their way to a win down a long ass hill. plus, if there was more than one desirable series to hit, different kinds of champions could be crowned...people could build their travel plans based on what kind of racing they prefer and it would give more options for those that just love to pick up and go racing for the fuck of it. there could potentially be a race every weekend for those that wanted to be at all of them (no matter what "series" the race falls on) this way, if you feel like being a series champion but cant get yourself to europe, south america, south africa and all over north america as well...you only have to worry about making it around north america. establish a couple people to organize these and BAM 12 months equals 12 new races! hit canada when its dry, and places like cali and arizona through the late fall-spring months
! once again, i think that entry fees should be paid, banked, points collected and a series champion gets the travel fund at the end of the year.
i fuckin love racing, i have since i could walk, and will till the day i die. i might not beat your asses down the hill...but at least this way i can have more oppourtunities trying!
and as far as the banking funds goes...if the OUTLAW champion got his first PROVINCIAL race bought and paid for...the PROVINCIAL champion got their first NATIONAL race bought and paid for(you win db..you get enough to go somewhere), then the NATIONAL champion gets help getting somewhere like south africa or europe paid for (or at least partially..i know its fuckin pricey! plane ticket or something...) things could be great and i think it would open up alot more travel oppourtunity for those who want to.
whatever...just a rambling thought, and it might not make sence in the way i wrote it...it makes sence in my twisted mind...but i still would like to know what you think! or ways that we could build this idea into a useable one.
LONG LIVE THE LONG BOMB!!!
2008 December 11 11:26 AM
brandon bean replied,
i agree with the different circuts.
however, i dont know what the additional benefits
of having marathon DH races over the shorter ones
would be.
i think shorter races lend themselves to easier
organization and much easier spectator
involvement because the heats will be quicker.
just my thoughts
but i am happy to say that several people here in
alberta have started working on putting together a
provincial outlaw series next year, with a similar
format to the one you have suggested.
maybe we could incorporate the two?
and if this will work, then there needs to be an independent, not for profit sanctioning body with
little or no fees, whose sole purpose would be to
operate a website ranking with a standardize point
system that could be applied to all races held
(organizers permitting)
2008 December 11 2:32 PM
kate or die replied,
keep provincial by province! bc races bc, alberta races alberta and so on, im talking outlaw here though. if you guys are planning some bigger events in alberta by all means throw them in to match up with the long existing bc circut. i just say this as a way for each individual community of riders to get the motivation to start more events in thier area. if people see this post and get stoked on it, who knows...you could have an abundance of alberta outlaw races to choose from. announce it as a race that counts for the series, charge 10 bucks and bank the pot. if this kind of thing goes down though, some sort of treasurer would have to be established.
...of course, riders from anywhere are welcome to join any races. haha, im not trying to stop that, so of course working together is nessesary!
this LONG BOMB would accomplish alot. it would allow those that are capable of racing at those speeds and skill level the ability to do so with others. it is not about spectators...it is about racing. yeah its easy to organize heats that last 30 seconds, but its also easy to have checkpoints on the hill...a with a hill the size im talking about, you could have 3 or 4 heats keeping the road hot at all times. if spectators are an issue for some...imagine within 6 minuites, you would see 3 or 4 heats pass where you are standing. all meet at the bottom...and all ride back to the top together. i would think they would have to be 2 day events though, one day for qualifying followed by raceday. i can think of many people who would like to involve themselves in a series of just long fast roads, becuase thats what they not only like to skate, but excel at.
there is a difference between fast, and quick. there needs to be a new series that recognizes people want and are capable of racing at FAST speeds on long drawn out courses, to compliment the talent shown on the QUICK short courses.
whats better than a hill where your legs are ready to fall off by the bottom? now thats a competition!
2008 December 11 3:02 PM
kate or die replied,
and as far as points go...easy way to do it would be to have a points thread on here!
they would have to be labeled as a points thread where NOONE can post except the person responsible for posting points.
example:
race 1: 24 people show up; 24 points to first place 1 point to last place
and so on and so on
however many people show up, is however many points will be available. this will push for attendance at every race, becuase if you are in 3rd place mid season adn you miss one...and that one happens to have a huge turnout...your fucked~!
haha!
giver!
2008 December 11 3:32 PM
kate or die replied,
and with this too, there are more races with the oppourtunity to hold classes like, jr1. and jr.2 (best fucking thing in the world by the way. when i grew up racing it was jr.1 from 7-13 and jr.2 from 13-16...12 and 15 are "option years" where you could either move to the next class, or stay in the same class) womens and an adult novice.
think of how nice it would be to have classes...it would be the same as sending 10 heats down a hill, only thing now is that it would be 4 mens/open heats, 1 adult novice, 2 jr.2 heats(all them damn speedy 16 year olds!!) a jr.1 heat (quinn, mike ect.) and a womens.
send the fastest down first, slowest down last...and bam! you have it all done at the same time by rotating the classes. NOT by running all the mens heats, then all the jr heats then all the womens ect. you pick ONE class to race and thats it. so if your a youngin and your fuckin fast...choose open if you want, but you will not be able to race jrs. as well (this is where that "option year" comes into play)
now there is not only a champion for opens, but the kids and the ladies get an oppourtunity to fight for a title locally as well! not only would it be a major confidence booster, but i beleive turn outs would be CRAZY if people knew that there were actually classes. they wouldnt be so intimidated, and would actually come to race people in their skill level/age/weight bracket. next thing you know, BAM! everyone is better becuase they are getting great experience challenging themselves against people who ride on the same level and produce a FIGHT! not destruction and guranteed elimination for most!
haha
this is me saying i want more than one heat cause you guys are fucking fast...and maybe it will be a good way to get some ladies out too that would otherwise be too intimidated to do so.
ladies? what do you think?> would you show up to more outlaw events if you knew there was going to be a womens class? kiddos!? would you start showing up as well if you knew you were gonna be racing 9 year olds...not 29 year olds? im sure more parents would be comfortable with this as well, haha!
you think your fast now? imagine what it would be like for you to fight tooth and nail with 3 people in a battle for 1st becuase your all on the same skill level?!? that doesnt get to happen for everybody, and as soon as it does...MY GOD will we be producing racing MACHINES!!!
hahahaha
2008 December 11 4:17 PM
kate or die replied,
haha! 30 min run, god daaaammmmmnnn!
so all we need is people to post prospective long hills, set some dates and have a LONG BOMB SERIES hahaha
2008 December 11 5:43 PM
kate or die replied,
the whole points thing is for a series completley unnattatched to things like danger bay and sully.
all the races that you have, where "noone shows up" are the races im talking about for points. its a way to come up with local "clubs" if you wanna call it that, as a way to motivate and encourage local participation. fuck, you guys could even hold the same race, once every 2 weeks for an entire season if you wanted too and just gave points out for that one track.
long bomb series wouldnt have to be a big event or anything, nor would it be till it gains some popularity. i understand the logistics are way more difficult to work out, but its all good! haha
3 day events...optional practise day, 1 or 2 warm-up runs right into qualifying and bracket racing on the third. all to the top at once, all to the bottom at once. yeah there would be 30 min breaks in action while they got shuttled to the top again, but whatever. long races are nessesary now!
2008 December 11 9:44 PM
replied,
fuck 30 minute runs. thats gotta be mostly straight
line shit just because the road bends doesnt make
it a corner i still consider runs like that a straight
bomb.. i rather have fast crazy corners on a 18%
grade throwing me into more crazy corners, still
going above 80k.
i agree widening the race circuit is a good idea, but
i think if people set up more shorter gnarly tech
courses, theyd be easier to fund and you could have
more of them,..
maybe do 3 races on 3 different hills in the same
area or something.
ontario needs some races they have some insane
shit for their lack of mountains. hope to get out
there in spring.
2008 December 13 4:48 PM
replied,
fuck 30 minute runs. thats gotta be mostly straight
line shit just because the road bends doesnt make
it a corner i still consider runs like that a straight
bomb.. i rather have fast crazy corners on a 18%
grade throwing me into more crazy corners, still
going above 80k.
i agree widening the race circuit is a good idea, but
i think if people set up more shorter gnarly tech
courses, theyd be easier to fund and you could have
more of them,..
maybe do 3 races on 3 different hills in the same
area or something.
ontario needs some races they have some insane
shit for their lack of mountains. hope to get out
there in spring.
2008 December 13 4:48 PM
kate or die replied,
hey everyone!
im glad to see so much response to this post...so here is my response after all the responses i just read from you.
once again, im really glad that so many of you responded and seem interested in stuff like this as well...
as far as the comment of :"would you really like to skate 6 heats down a run like silver star mountain?"
my answer to that is: IF YOU CANT, THAN YOUR NOT GONNA WIN.
30min races are more of a chinese downhill thing, as racing heats is pretty much insane, not to mention dangerous at that length (we want people to push thier limits...but if you've done 5 runs and your in the finals, your not pushing the envelope anymore...your potentially putting yourself in danger of collapsing mid run) unless of course you run heats on day one, followed with quarters-finals on day too (assuming there is a large enough turnout of participation of course)
thats why i said the LONG BOMB races would come in at an average of 6-10 mins. this sport has hit a point, and will continue to grow to a point of needing races like this to determine the difference between the pros and the bros.
this is the joy of the series concept though. there could be a series circut where the courses cap at 15min. MAX and another series of courses that go from 15min to infinity. if you cant handle racing runs that long, then dont show. pick the series that suits you best...whether that be dash for the finish line in under a minuite, long weekends full of leg burners, or chinese downhill of 30-45min runs!
all in all, this post brought out one of my more important concepts that i personally could run with more than the long bomb series...that was just an idea that others from the towns that are lucky enough to host these hills will need to get together and organize...wether it be long bomb, little short pathway courses...ANYTHING...as long as it encourages participation with CLASSES!!!
CLASSES CLASSES CLASSES CLASSSES CLASSES!!!
it may take a little time for the ball to get rolling, but within no time, you will find that the pros start showing up becuase they need the races that challenge them, and even if they aren't showing up, a tonne of people that would normally be too intimidated to will come as they are now comfortable racing and competing with people ON THEIR OWN LEVEL
PLEASE GO AND READ MY NEW POST THAT WILL BE GOING OVER THE ISSUE THAT I FIND CLOSEST TO HEART...LOCAL OUTLAW SERIES WITH POINTS AND CLASSES THAT ANY CITY CAN HOST TO ENCOURAGE MORE PARTICIPATION FROM ALL THE BROS...SO THAT THEY TOO CAN RACE PEOPLE AT THEIR OWN LEVEL AND START WORKING THEIR WAY TO BECOME ONE OF THE PROS
peace, love and mad respect for each and everyone of you!
katie
2008 December 15 6:14 PM
kate or die replied,
and as far as logistics as far as money to pay for hay and what not...
we have a HUGE community. is it not about time that each region pooled thier money together for REUSABLE AIR BAGS???
im sure someone here and there works for a shipping company where they could get sent on load to different places if more were needed than available to them.
2008 December 15 6:17 PM
kate or die replied,
one more thing...as i know time is an issue for alot of this...
RUN TOGETHER, SCORE SEPERATLEY.
sorry but im gonna push the shit out of classes at every race from now on
2008 December 15 6:52 PM
kate or die replied,
hey jodi!!!
your race is your fuckin race man...noone can touch that shit.
this class shit is for some NEW races. not badass existing ones like yours :)
see you soon!