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.
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.
Perry Fizz struts around in his Cape, he is ready to fly.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
