The Columbia River cuts a gorge through the cascades and separates the state of Washington from Oregon. Goldendale is a small community a few minutes from the Columbia River. The town appears like it has more than 3760 inhabitants. It has a McDonalds and two grocery stores.
Maryhill Loops Road is about 10 minutes from Goldendale. The region was developed in the 19th century by Sam Hill, trying to create a Quaker community. The road was the first paved road in the state of Washington. The road is owned by the Maryhill Museum and was refurbished in 1998. Normally the road is gated and open to hikers and cyclists.
The course is 1.8 miles long and starts in the shade of the only tree in the area. The first hard left is about 50 feet from the start of the course. While the speeds through this turn, and the next 180 degree right aren't yet very high, the tight sequence makes it hard to set up for the first true left hand hairpin. A short straight leads to the next hard right hand turn which is immediately followed by a right hand hairpin. Exiting the hairpin leads into a chicane named Spaghetti, these leaves you to setup for a long wide Never Ending left hairpin. And the end of the Never Ender is a sharp right leading to one of the few long straights on the course. The straight ends with a hard 90 degree right turn. There is barely enough time to set up for the left hand turn, nick named the Ambulance turn, as that is where the Ambulance is parked. A short straight leads up to another hard left, hard right combo. As you exit the right hand turn you go through a cow gate. This leads into the final long straight. At the end if a left hand turn. The result is a 90 degree turn, but fortunately it isn't sharp, unfortunately it barely leaves time for one of the tightest hairpins on the course, Cowzer corner. It isn't much longer to the finish, although there is a little time to attempt a draft, with a as the road veers to the right before one last hairpin to the left and the finish line.
Monday, September 10
My house is 3.5 hours from Maryhill, as long as I don't stop at the Miner Diner in Yakima. I picked up David Dean from the airport and we drove down. We drove straight to the course. To see who was there and get registered. Marcus and Bob and John and Art were the only people there, still setting up the course. We helped out a bit, mainly putting up some of the fencing and moving the porta potties. They were too tall to put into the UHaul, so we started pushing them.
Tuesday, September 11
Today is the first day of a five day event! Three days of practice, two days of qualifying and practice, and then race day. I got to the course fairly early. Although I was already registered I still need to go through tech inspection. Since today was the first of three days of practice, a lot of people hadn't arrived yet. We finally got underway, about a half hour late. Maryhill is on the eastern side of Washington, and it can get quite warm. Fortunately there was a huge shade tree right at the start line. There was a small water fountain near the tree, but we were warned about drinking the water. We got in a few runs before breaking for lunch. The standup riders would generally start the practice runs off. We would watch them go down the course or try to stay cool. As the day progressed the shade from the tree moved further up the hill.
At the end of the day McIntyre had been filming on his bike. He was kneeling down, past the shutdown area when one of the skateboarders fell off his board, trying to shutdown. The board flew down the road and impaled McIntyre's knee. Even though he was still in leathers, the board hit him hard enough to break the skin in two places!
The first day of practice was over. The course was fairly slow, I was only hitting 40 MPH. The road had been recently sealed for a car commercial. The sealant was odd, it was tacky yet at the same time it was slick. My first run down, I broke a lot. Unless I applied a lot or pressure, it was almost like I was on ice!
A couple of minutes from the course is a full size replica of Stonehenge. It was erected as a WWI war memorial. It does look a bit different than the actual Stonehenge, which I visited just a week ago before the Eastbourne race.
I made my way over the the campsite to hang out. The campsite is a large park in the center of town. There is a baseball diamond, some horseshoe pits and a street park. The skateboard was put to good use. After it got dark Paul Busse set up his projector, aimed at the back of McIntyre's trailer. Like moths to a flame, pretty much the entire campsite showed up. Paul set it up, and turned it on to get a blue screen, he then spent 45 minutes looking for a cable. Amazingly almost no one left! We spent the next couple of hours watching videos and photos from today's runs.
Wednesday, September 12
It looks like there are a few more people today. The format for today was much like yesterday. Ride to the top in the back of the UHaul. Hang out in the shade, staying cool while the multitude of standup riders went. Watch the standup riders ride. And then go when it is our turn.
John decided to try something different for starting this year, and we practiced it a bit. A bungee cord is used. It is stretched taut, and when John lets go, you are off. The cord travels fairly quickly, so it is fair for everyone. It might be possible to get a jump by watching John, and trying to see when he releases it. But then you would have your head cocked to the right, instead of looking forward down the track.
A few more people showed up today. Mostly skateboarders. We were trying to figure out how many standup riders would show up. I figured it would be over 100 and maybe over 125. Dean swore up and down it wouldn't be over 75. I think over 50 had shown up by the end of the day.
After a full day of practice I went over to the camp to hang our before dinner. Apparently while we were out racing, someone came by and postered the campsite. Dinner tonight was at the Mexican restaurant. We took over one entire room, rearranging every table in there. I think we also took over a few other tables in the place. Unfortunately there wasn't any live entertainment.
When I got back to the campsite the videos and photos were already being shown. Whenever someone was down showing their footage, someone else would step up to show theirs. We watched videos until the wee hours of the morning.
Thursday, September 13
And even more people showed up today. John wanted to try a new format, we would practice in the morning and then get one round of qualifying done in the afternoon. We got a half dozen practice runs in, in the morning. The local school had a field trip to come out and watch us.
After a morning of practice we broke for lunch. Several of the sponsors set up near the finish line. Northwestlongboarding.com, a website local to me, also had a booth set up. A DJ was setup as well.
Standup was the first to qualify. Most of us just hung out in the shade of the trees, waiting for our turn. Or just rested. It was fairly late in the afternoon when it was our turn. Fortunately with only a handful of luges and buttboards, it wouldn't take too much longer. We had about twenty lugers, and only seven buttboarders. This hill is very hard on the abs on a buttboard. With a 1.8 miles, a top speed of 38 miles an hour, it takes over 3 minutes to get to the bottom, and almost constant turning. I decided earlier in the week to take one run a day. I got two practice runs in, and then my one run for today would be my qualifying run.
After qualfiying was over it was time to go to McDonald's. McDonald's provided all of the racers with a $5 coupon book, plus they were sponsoring a signing event. The interior of the McDonald's is fairly small, plus there is an indoor playground. The guys doing the signing looked like they were having a blast. Dave Dean is featured on the McDonald's cup, so he signed his cup. The signing was also being promoted on the radio. It was pretty cool to hear about it on the radio, on the way back from the race.
After stopping my McDonald's I went had an all you can eat Spaghetti dinner a local Church was putting on. I took to long at dinner, and missed the world premiere of Living Free: The heart of longboarding. These guys also had a booth set up at the race. After dinner it was off to watch more videos on the back of McIntyre's RV.
Friday, September 14
The town of Goldendale has really been getting behind the race. To start the morning off they've provided a free pancake breakfast! I missed it yesterday, but swung by the campsite today. The pancakes and bacon were very good, and a fine start to the day.
There was a quick riders meeting, as all of the riders had finally made it. Dean lost, there were 99 standup riders. Today's schedule was identical to yesterday's. Practice in the morning, followed by lunch, then round two of qualifying.
Early in the week, we had mostly been practicing solo. Well not exactly solo, we would sort of leave in a large group of eight, but spread out. Today we were practicing in tighter groups. We had some pretty incredible runs through the morning, some very tight riding.
The wind had been blowing all day. Not far away, there is a world famous windsurfing spot on the Columbia River. They are also installing some large windmills nearby, the wind can really blow. The wind was blowing hard enough, some people thought the EX tent would blow away and were busy tying it down. EX Drinks was one of the major sponsor, and were providing free energy drinks to the athletes.
Maryhill is located in eastern Washington, a dry arid region, and it can get quite warm. This week has been a typical week, hot. Water was a precious commodity. Fortunately plenty of water was being provided. McDonald's donated the use of their coolers, filled with ice water. By the end of the day, we had gone through most of the water that was delivered at the top.
Qualifying was going a bit quicker than yesterday. As soon as a few skateboard reruns done it would be time for streetluge. Telemundo was on hand and was doing a few interviews before we started. And lastly was buttboard.
After stopping off for some gatorade is off to the campsite for dinner. More people showed up at the campsite, I guess to watch the race. Rob McKendry made a wonderful dinner on the small stove in the RV. It took a while to get dinner going, and so we were eating pretty late. At one point, as most of us were finishing dinner, someone knocked on the door. He looked in forlornly, holding some cables in one hand, a camera in the other, and asks if we are setting the projector up. At some point, someone drug some bleachers over to Theatre Busse.
A couple of live bands were playing at the bandstand just outside the park. Ok, I am horrible with names, but the headliners were fronted by Bryce of Coastlongboarding..
I spent the rest of the night going between the live bands and the home videos. There was a lot of great videos shown, but perhaps the best was one shot by Mr. Lang. Läng records every run he makes using a POV camera that is inside his helmet. One of our luge runs today he started behind Fryer and I. For the first half of the video he shows Fryer and I battling it out. Läng passes me entering Ambulance corner, and is inches off of Fryer's read end the rest of the way. Everyone loved it. I don't think I've seen so many standup riders cheering a luge run before.
Saturday, September 15
After another sumptuous free breakfast it was off to race day. A local Boy Scout Troop provided some open ceremonies
along with a blessing from a minister. We had a short riders meeting, with Marcus making some announcements. Primarily Festival of Speed would be the World Championships in 2008 and would take place Labor Day Weekend!
Racing started off with gravity bikes and inline. We followed it up with buttboard. A few of us lobbied to run one eight man final, but instead we would run two four man heats. Fryer, Rylie, and Läng had the fastest times, with Eliot and me about 10 seconds back. Since Eliot and I were fourth and fifth we raced each other. He joked that we were fighting for last place in the finals, or first place in the consolation. I managed to get out ahead of and transferred to the finals. In the finals, Riley, Läng and Fryer just left me on the start line. My only hope was the three would get tangled up in one of the tight corners. But they hit each corner fairly cleanly, and pulled further away from me. I finally lost sight of them about two thirds of the way down. As I rounded Cowzer Corner, I saw Fryer sitting on the side of the road! I managed to squeak onto the podium!
Standup raced next. 96 riders, 16 heats of 6. The races start off with quite a bit difference in skill level. The first few heats the leaders were way out in front. Between heats Silverfish and the EX Girls tossed goodies to the crowd. Jon Ozman lined up a few sponsors for the race. Dean announced between heats While Bryce did play by play over the radio from the top, cause you could see almost the entire course. The viewpoint, off the main highway was also a good spot to watch the race. You could see almost the entire race, except for the last couple of corners. At one point in the afternoon, Dean announced that due to insurance reasons, spectators would not be allowed on the hill, making the overlook the best place to be.
As the heats progressed, the competition got stiffer. The finals were almost three wide! Scoot wins by helmet and was stoked. The celebration continued for a while. Meanwhile the rest of us were trying to get the truck moving, we luge still had a race to run.
They tried something new today. I think colorful hair ties to be used as arm bands or garters. Each lane got a particular color, the finish line could look for the color instead of the number. The girls standup raced before us. Street luge was run six wide, which I think is generally too many on almost any course. My semi final heat was probably one of my best, or most interesting runs ever. I had Beni in my heat, I started off with an ok start, I think I was in fourth. Beni had a good start, but had hurt his ribs earlier in the week and had troubles in the turns. I was pretty happy I think I moved into 3rd place, and had a good bead on the two in front of me. When all of a sudden McIntyre barrels past me like a freight train. We all caught Beni, and in one of the turns I dove on the inside and pulled into the lead. I didn't get quite set up for the next turn, and let McIntyre and I think Eliot passed me again. I fell back into third place, and as we approached the turn before Cowzer's, I tapped, which gave Eric the opening he needed and he passed me. I tired to get him back in Cowzer, and almost pulled it off, but I think I made qa mistake after Cowzer and took a longer line. So I was in the consolation. This time once I got out into the lead I didn't look back, and handily won the consolation. Meanwhile Läng continued his impressive riding and edged out Riley and Toleman at the finish.
Many of the standup riders had already blown out, the rest of us were cleaning up when we all heard an explosion. We looked up to see a truck jump over the guardrail! Amazingly no one, include the truck was hurt, and the truck drove off. I stayed and watched the juniors, which Riley was dominating. Some of the guys were pretty excited when Riley won.
The Festival of Speed was one event in a larger Festival of Wheels. Yesterday and today several other events were going on in town, including a car show, and lawn mower drag racing! Unfortunately I missed the last mower race because the junior standup race was run fairly late. I did make it in time for the cheap steak dinner.
After dinner most of us went over to the bandstand for another live band. Martin was awarded a large check for fastest standup qualifying time. After the band played it was time for a raffle and the awards.
Earlier in the week one of the Canadian female standup riders, Haven got seriously injured. She fell in front of another rider, and he fell on top of her, puncturing one of her lungs. Apparently she didn't have insurance that would cover her outside of Canada. Someone decided to hold a raffle to raise money to pay for her ER bill. All of the companies were asked to donated some swag, and a lot of tickets were sold. We were told that enough money was raised to pay the bill. The money left over was then donated to the city of Goldendale to maintain the skate park. It was finally time for the awards.
Gravity Bikes: McIntyre, Shaw, Williams
Inline: Wohrle, Peer, Tacchini
Women's Standup: Davies, Poscente, Richardson
Junior Standup: Meehan, Peck, Brinson
Buttboard: Meehan, Läng, McBride
Street Luge: Läng, Toleman, Meehan
Standup: Smith, Erban, Reimer
After the awards were given out, there was still some swag, and it was tossed into the crowd. I managed to get a set of wheels, when they landed at my feet while I was trying to take pictures!
While the last band was setting up to play, EX Drinks was doing some interviews. EX is an extreme sports channel in Europe. They were filming an episode that may play on the channel. Almost everyone who was on the podium were interviewed. Riley looked like a natural, and took home the most hardware. I even got a chance to be interviewed!
After the interviews were over, many of us hung out at the gazebo. Unfortunately the problem with the gazebo, it was the beer garden and was 21 and older. Unfortunately about half the racers are under 21, so it made it difficult for mingle with everyone. When the last band stopped playing, relatively early. The party died. Some of the guys went to a local bar, most everyone else went back to the campsite and hung out. A few people were watching the movies at Theatre Busse.
John Ozman pulled together an amazing event for his first event. The town really got behind him, with talks of making the event even bigger next year. The road was slow, but still a lot of fun. I don't know how the standup guys lasted through 5 days of riding on the hill, but it was a lot of fun. It would have been nice if the local swimming pool was open.
We had one serious injury on the hill, that wasn't related to the hill. Because the speeds were low, the accidents were less likely to be serious.
