West LA College
LA, CA
A small skateboard get together was held at West LA College in Culver City, CA. The college is about 10 minutes from LAX. In fact the hotel I stayed in, only a couple of minutes from the college, is an airport hotel.
The college is situated on a hill. There are several roads running through the college that provide some nice courses. Two of the roads, that weren't that steep were used for inline and skateboard. But one road was about two tenths of a mile long, and fairly steep. The road was a straight shot into the parking lot. The parking lot had several islands in it, after hitting the bottom of the hill, the course made a right after the first island, and then a left hand U-turn around the next island.
Sunday, Nov 19
The festivities started at 9, sort of. Since the event was low key, people were just started to arrive.
Chris Chaput debut the Old School Bus. I tried to get a couple of shots of the inside.
Chris took a while to unload the bus, now I know why he needed a HUGE bus.
Some people brought their equipment in a slightly smaller vehicle.
As more people showed up, everyone tried to show off their boards.
Darren arrived, he came prepared for the butt board race.
Slalom practice started fairly early, so I was able to get a few shots in.
Then butt boarding and bike practice started. This was only my second time on a butt board. I kept reaching forward with my hand to turn, much as I do on my streetluge. This is not a good idea on the butt board. The second time it happened I ended up hitting the island in the center of the parking lot. These islands having about a three foot pile of dirt in them. I knew I was going to hit, although I was still trying to turn. I figured I would slam into the dirt. Well I hit the island, and moments later I saw pavement flying buy underneath me. My first thought was "Wow I cleared the island." My second thought was, "wow this is going to hurt. "
The board was broken, the trucks were shattered, as were my grade 8 bolts.
But thankfully Darren was there with an extra board and a trucks.
I didn't last very long in the race, in fact I don't think I ever managed to pull the entire race off. The last turn was a bit hairy as there were roots growing under the pavement. I got a few shots of some of the racing. Gravity bikes were there in full force.
Darren led most of his heats.
The final with Dave Rodgers, Bob Ozman and Darren Lott was pretty exciting. Dave was in the lead going around the final turn, but was going wide.
This gave an opening for Lott and Ozman to squeeze in.
Darren won the event hands down, but Dave and Bob were neck in neck, it took several of us and a video camera to decide it. Dave takes second, barely.
Scott and Marcus came through with some great trophies.
Yeah there were a lot of them, a butt board race, a couple of bike races, inline and several skateboard races.
At the end of the a bunch of gathered for a group shot, both of my boards are in there somewhere.
WLAC was a blast. It was a mellow race, without any stress. Fun was had by all. I can't wait to go again.
