Streets of San Francisco
San Franciso, CA
The second Red Bull - Streets of San Francisco event took place
on De Haro street. Remember the old tv show Streets of San Francisco with the
car chase scenes, and the cars catching air as they went down the street! Thats
what this event was all about. The race course was about a half
mile long with three intersections.
 There
was an opportunity to catch air on the first two. The first jump led into what
was called the Cheese Grader, as it was some fairly chopped up cement. This was
a straight shot down the course, with no time for drafting. It was all about who
had the cajones not to break before the jumps. Friday, July 7
I flew down to SFO with Danise and Lugenstien. Dansie felt it
was an omen when his luge arrived first off the baggage claim belts. Lugensteind
hoped it wasn't an omen when his luge got stuck and blocked the rest of the
baggage. We stayed at the Red Roof Inn, which wasn't too far from the airport.
Lee takes a nap while we waited for the hotel shuttle.
 People
were arriving all afternoon Friday. Chris Chaput was showing off in the parking
lot.
I spent some time
putting my luge together. We were given numberplates and some nice XTreme Wheelz.
 Some people complained
that the wheels were not true. That may have been true, but you didn't notice
this one bit on the course. Red Bull fed us Friday night, and a
hotel across the street. It was a fairly nice spread of food and beer.
 Saturday,
July 8
Red Bull provided us with a couple of buses. The buses were
going to leave early. We gathered in the parking lot and waited for the busses.
Scooter Swartz was the youngest rider, and showed his enthusiasm.
Our boards were loaded up into some pickup trucks,
while we piled into some air conditioned busses.
 We
arrived at the race location. We saw the "pit area"
 ,
which was right next to where the live band was going to play .
But our boards were no where to be seen. Turns out they dropped our boards at
the top of the course, because that is where we were supposed to pit! We said
no, the live band and food is down here, we'll pit down here. The mountain
boarders were just finished up practicing. We all jumped into the pickup trucks,
and they took us up the course to get our boards. As we drove up the course we
passed a jump that was about three feet high. I said "Ok I'm getting my
camera, and I'll watch y'all jump that" pretty much everyone in the truck
had the same feelings. Turns out that the jump was the mountain boarders, ours
was a mear 4 inches high! We all got on hour boards, and rode down, sitting up.
This did not amuse the cops as they weren't expecting it. They thought we had
gone haywire. I don't think I've been to an event yet that didn't
have a delay of some sort. This time we were told that we were "waiting for
paint to dry." Turns out they tried to fill the pot holes in with
something, and they were waiting for that to dry. In the meantime Waldo decided
not to take a break from work.
A shot from the top of the course (the white stuff on the right is what we were
waiting for).
The
starting gates are currently setup for the mountain boarders. While we waited to
get started, the boards started to pile up.
 The finish line gets set
up.
Perry Fizz struts
around in his Cape, he is ready to fly.
Mike Collabella shows off his new suit.
 We
finally get some practice in. My second run down I catch air! I was stoked. But
I hit the cheese grader, and was very squirrelly. I put my feet down to slow
down. As I approached the second interestion I still had my feet down. I did not
realize that I was still going fast enough to catch air on the second jump!
Having your feet down at this point is not a Good Thing. I run back up the road
after my qualifying run to try and take some snapshots.
I couldn't get much closer because there were so many media people there.
 About
half way up the course was a church.
Someone had a wedding that day! Apparently they didn't mind sharing the road
with us, I saw some of the wedding party in the starting gates. After
lunch we started racing,
I landed on the Cheese Grater and got very squirrelly. Turns out I busted a a
truck. Next run down I got squeezed out. Lee was on my right moving left, and
Eric was on me left moving right. I slowed down, figured I could still draft and
pass. I landed hard, and got so squirrely I slowed almost to a stop. Turns out I
busted BOTH trucks.
But
MOE to the rescue. I was able to purchase a Moellenium truck, which allowed me
to compete in the Big Air Contest. I wasn't the only one that had problems.
Darren's board broke in half. But it was fairly easy to repair.
 John
Reed brought a couple of his creations, including a suspension luge.
In the finals, the cameraman couldn't get out of Dennis' way.
 Its
finally Big Air time. As you can see, we can't see the big air ramp from the
starting gates.
Freeman heads down first, standup style.
Waldo prepares to be the first,
but discovers a problem with his trucks, and performs surgery.
Digger managers to be the first person to jump a ramp in a contest.
 A
few of us ran half down the course to see the Big Air. We got there just in time
to see Bob fly of, an amazing 66 feet, land wrong, and hit the hay bales. Let me
tell you, this is NOT what you need to see before your first jump. I did it
anyways. I didn't come any where near Jeff's winning jump of 83 feet! We
were all stoked after the event.
But our boards are ready to go back to the hotel. As was foretold at the airport
Lee won the event.
Red
Bull provided the champagne.
 .
The guys sit down for a photo op.
Lee with his trophy.
Jeff wins the big air event, with a World Record jump.
Bob is awarded the best wipeout.
The trophies
were
provided by Tahoe Longboards. The first place trophy was huge, as Pam shows
here.
 Red
Bull took us back to the hotel to get cleaned up, so they could take us to bar
for the party.
Most of
my pics didn't come out, it was too dark.
There was another short awards ceremony, and Lugenstein stole one of the
pedestals.
Jeff accepts
congratulations.
The
party was a raging success, and most people managed to get back on the bus to go
home. The bus had a VCR in it, we watched the Hot Heels tape on the way back to
the hotel. What a way to end the night. Sunday, July 9
It was time to go home. John shows off while everyone else is
busy packing.
Beagle is ready to board the bus and his long cross country flight.
But a few of us headed down south to try and ride. We first hit John Reed's
place. Reed loves to make boards.
He also built a luge ramp, that shoots him back up his driveway.
It will shoot you back up the driveway past the pub.
We spent quite a bit of time standing around and chatting, mostly about the cool
toys that John owns.
Reed has an interesting idea for a bumper.
 Before
we took off Ozman tried to make it down the road and into John's place. This is
a pretty tight corner.
There was some question about what wheels Bob was using that day. As you can see
they are Cherry Bombs.
A few of the guys continued on to Dinosaur Point. It was getting late, I had to
get back to SFO for my flight out. Red Bull put one a pretty
decent event, I can't wait till next year. | 
