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IGSA Downhill Skateboard World Championships 2009 - Newtons Playground Mount Panorama - Bathurst - Australia 27. - 29. November 2009 The climax of the 2009 race season is happening down under on a short but intense race course called Mount Panorama. The 1.3 km racetrack features a variety of unique corners which lead into a steep straight towards the finsih and has been described as a roller coaster... Check out the map and course video below. IGSA website ASRA - Australian Skateboard Racing Assn. I'm in Australia from mid November until the end of 2009. On the way back home I will stay two weeks in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to check out the climbing wall manufacturer Blocx. I will be back in Switzerland on January 14. |
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I got the chance to go to Bathurst before the race to check out the racecourse. Here's a short video of the track. |
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Here are some rough trackfacts: Length: 1.3 km Vertical drop: 110 m Gradient: max. 16 %, average 8.5 % Downhill Skateboard trackrecord: 2008 Scott Smith (CAN) 1:04:168 |
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The Dipper: Pictures don't show how steep it is... |
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Forest's Elbow: Look at this drop! |
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A quick interview 2BS Bathurst with Haggy Strom, president of the ASRA (Australian Skateboard Racing Assocciation). Listen |
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This is the floral emblem of New South Wales, NSW. The flower is called waratah. |
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The grand canyon of Australia! The landscape in the Blue Mountains is breathtaking. |
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All around the world, longboarders skate parkades. Rob McWhinnie took me to the best ones in downtown Sydney. |
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Impressive architecture |
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The restaurant in the opera house. One can barely see 70ies design chairs inside. |
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5Dock Skatepark This park has been remade a few years ago. A big bowl and some creative features have been designed around an old, existing halfpipe and a snakerun. Unfortunaely the park is getting swamped by kids on scooters lately... |
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some random factory building in Sydney |
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This is a sign I saw up on Mount Keira... Riding the hill was good fun, we were a big crew including international riders Josh Weisfeld, Scoot, Chris Schütz and a few other boys. The session ended after two separate crashes including Blackwood who dislocated his shoulder and Alex who lost a wheel and slid into a guardrail! CARNAGE! |
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In case you don't recognize it, this would be a tennis court. Progress? Where? |
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I saw many kangaroos, unfortunately the big majority of them was dead, laying on the side of the road! |
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Mount Panorama in Bathurst, the racetrack starts just behind the T. |
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Just as Maryhill, the road on Mount Panorama used to be a scenic drive. |
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Shooting out of the dipper. This felt like riding a roller coaster. |
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Check out my trackdata. Click on the image for a better view. The hin green line shows the calculated speed whereas the thick green line shows the smoothened average speed. Dipper: entering 60 km/h, exit speed 70 km/h Forests: entering at approximately 80 km/h, lowest speed 60 km/h Conrod Straight: topspeed around 93 km/h |
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Somewhere before Forests Elbow |
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The times of he second timetrial in reverse order of the first timetrial. Ranking timetrials, top 8 of 100 competitors: 1. Martin Siegrist, SUI 1:00:81 2. Mischo Erban, CAN 1:01:40 3. Scott Smith, CAN 1:01:58 4. Andrew Chapman, CAN 1:01:88 5. Kevin Reimer, CAN 1:02:03 6. Erik Lundberg, SWE 1:02:96 7. Olivier Bareaud, FRA 1:03:43 8. Stephen Daddow, AUS 1:03:99 I'm really stoked to smash Scoots track record from 2008 by over 3 seconds! Thanks to Abec11 for sponsoring a big cheque for the fastest qualifier! |
| This is the first run of the third round (best 16 / quarterfinals). Note the guy following me, it's 16 year old Junior World Champion Evren Ozan... Thanks to Jackson Shapiera for the camera, thanks to Adam Yates for filming. |
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| The semifinals. Wow! Listen to Bricin! Thank you for doing an awesome job on the mike. Videos of all heats with Bricins live comments are available on the ASRA website. |
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I gave it away! I didn't footbrake enough and slid pretty much straight into the wall. It was a big impact on my back and I got a feeling that the backprotector saved me from getting hurt badly. My head hit the bales, luckily not he road! Awesome pictures by futurekill |
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The small final was me, Evren Ozan, Erik Lundberg and Georges Sidiqui. Erik pushed out in front and his line made passing impossible. Congrats Erik on winning the consi!
Andrew Chapman and Krimes met Olivier Bareaud and Scott Smith in the final. Kevin pretty much dominated the run from the start and won with a safe distance ahaed of Scoot. Congrats champs! Top 8 (complete results): 1. Kevin Reimer, CAN |
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I'd like to thank ASRA president Haggy Strom and his crew for the hard work they invested, making the World Championships an unforgettable event. It was a big pleasure racing on a real racetrack. It's short, but super intense! Thanks to Robbo for making the first ever live video system and big ups to Colin for his unique google docks live results! We need those two things on all events!!! |
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Street art in Sydney |
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Skating the fullpipe in Elanora skatepark, one of many nice concrete bowls at the Goldcoast! |
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Nathan Aveyard took Kevin Reimer and me to Dorrigo, one of the best roads in OZ: 10 km of smooth pave with countless sweepers lead through a nice forest past two waterfalls... |
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On the way back to the Goldcoast we drove through a massive thunderstorm. I saw many nice lightnings but couldn't catch a single one. |
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Found on the beach #1: This trunkfish has a nice exosceleton consisting of hexagons and pentagons. The pattern on its belly is nearly symetric. Very impressive! |
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On Monday december 19th the Early Skateboard crew and some international riders taught kids from ages 3 - 15 in skatebarding. Check out the article in the local newspaper. Swedish...? |
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Stephen Daddow, Torbjörn from Norway, two Swedes and I drove to Double Island for a three days 4x4 beach trip. This here is Rainbow beach. The sandbank can be accessed during low tide only. |
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Found on the beach #2: Sailfish approx. 1.3m in length |
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The sun rises shortly after 4 o'clock. As soon as the sun hits you, there's no way to sleep any longer. |
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The island has some nice sandy cliffs in all kinds of colors... |
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Found on the beach #3: What a nice jeep! And this is the proof for all 4x4 amateurs that wet sand can be dangerous, indeed! |
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Found on the beach #4: Back of a dead crab. Crabs can be seen all over the beach especially during nighttime. They sometimes walk sideways which looks very funny. |
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This young cangaroo was really curious. He walked towards us when we picked mangos right from a big tree. We fed him some mango and he smelled at our hands. Then he hopped away... |
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It's december 21st and I got a rental car until the end of my trip. The first stage of my trip took me from Surfers Paradise to Girraween National Park. |
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I booked two nights at the Castle Rock camping ground for only 5$ per night. The next day I hiked and climbed to the top of Mt. Norman and Castle Hill. I have never seen as many boulders and bold rocks before. The landscape is epic! There are many wild animals such as kangaroos, iguanas, birds and apparently snakes. However I haven't seen one yet. And on my 10h hike I only met two people. |
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The second day at Girraween National Park I hiked to the top of Pyramid Mountain. Its top is a massive bold rock. I was happy to find this huge free standing, egg-shaped boulder! I didn't get much higher than the picture shows... Once again, the landscape is epic!!! Not too far from the big egg is a small and very steep cave with lot's of holes and a nice roof boulder. |
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How cool is this kangaroo? |
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On the road to nowhere to see nothing! After dinner I drove another 200km in the dark... I crossed two road trains and got to see and smell way too many dead kangaroos, the result of big trucks plowing from A to B as fast as possible! I was driving slow and successfully made my way to Mitchell. |
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The change in landscape was my main purpose for driving west. The next day I drove past Charleville and as far as Quilpie where I experienced temperatures above 40° celsius. I hiked on top of a small dune to check out the view. On the way back to the car, the wind blew some sand into the lense of my camera. I was afraid of not being able to take any more pictures! So I took it apart and tried to clean it as much as possible. And, what a relief, it works again! I cooked a nice steak that evening and continued my way to Longreach where I stopped for some sleep. It started raining during the night. And the next morning I got stuck in the mud. I couldn't get out by my own and was happy somebody came and helped me. Trying hard make it out of he mud filled the wheels with lots of dirt. The car didn't drive very nicely and vibrated horribly. I ended up taking off both front wheels to remove the dirt. |
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It continued raining as I drove towards Hughenden. The only thing to see here is grass, a few kangaroos and cows every now and then. The drive was rather boring, but exactly that emptyness is what I wanted to see, so I can't complain! I was heading towards Porcupine NP in the evening, however heavy rain made it too risky to continue driving dirt roads. Back again in Hughenden I cooked my new favourite quick meal, pasta with onions and beans. The beans have been roasted in the unwashed pan from last night... I'm now heading to Townsville where I'm going to meet Ado from cre8ive sk8. |
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On Sunday the 27th of December I got to ride Mt. Stuart with the Townsville streetluge crew. The hill is about 2.5km long and features a variety of different corners and good speed! It's a dead end road and traffic is stopped legaly at the bottom of the hill! We did 10 runs and my 76mm flywheels were way less than 70mm at the end of the session. I'd like to thank Ado and his crew for inviting me to their Sunday morning ride! It was a big pleasure and I wish I could ride a hill like that on a more regular basis! |
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On the way back south I went to check out a few coal mines. Everything is just massive. Picures can't show but believe me those mines are huge. The big customers are China, Korea and Japan! |
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These tires are approximately 3m in diameter... The trucks in the background are as big as a house, and probably cost like a few hundred thousands of dollars... |
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Unfortunately I was going a bit too fast... I was pretty sure the speed limit was 110 km/h, but apparently it was 100 km/h. |
It's December 31st and 2009 is pretty much over. I'm leaving OZ tomorrow morning. On the way back home I'm going to stay two weeks in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I'll be back in Switzerland on January 14th 2010. |
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