Come celebrate the queens birthday in style by driving/flying/skating to wellington and partaking in the second ever longboarding race in New Zealand.
Meet at the wellington train station 11:30am, Saturday the 31st
We will have a 10km point-to-point race along the waterfront followed by some slalom and perhaps some down hill for the adventurous.
Prizes: 1st place: Bear grizzly carver/speed trucks, with some extra prizes thanks to Bombardier Longboards and possibly cheap skates. contact me if you are able to help.
Accomodation: You can most likely stay at a flat in wellington - just need to confirm numbers and availability.
Race day will be sunday with the saturday and monday available as backups or some casual cruising.
Tell all the longboarders you know about this - the more the merrier.
Main Event
Helmet required
The main event is the 10km point-to-point race along the wellington waterfront stating at 12pm saturday. Depending on the wind direction, we will start at the bottom of nauranga gorge and make our way down the old hutt rd, hop accross to the waterfront via the westpac stadium, then basically keep to the left and make your way around the waterfront through oriental bay and continue around the coast.
The surface is rather varied and really quite rough near the end - I would recommend 75mm wheels or larger.
There is one major obstacle along the way, which should make things interesting.
Westpac stadium provides us a ramp over the train tracks. Take the stairs up one side and skate carefully down the other side. I normally do a bit of a drift round the corner of the down ramp then a slide to stop myself at the bottom, but you may prefer to foot break or even walk down. There are train tracks to cross at the bottom so you do need to stop.
You can see the ramp in a bit more detail in the attached picture
Slalom
Helmet required, pads recommended
The slalom will be fairly casual, but I will time those who are keen.
Will set up two rows of about 25 cones outside te papa, 6 foot separation.
If you don't have a slalom board, you may be able to borrow one and I would recommend practising on a mini with loose trucks if possible.
Down hill
Helmet, pads, slide gloves required + proof you can handle your speed. And if it's dark I think it's illegal to ride without lights
This is a very mellow gradient hill (2.7%) but is a nice long run at 4km. Max speed is about 50kph but if you're standing & carving I can't imagine getting speeds much above 25kph - I'll test out that theory at some point. Again this course is a bit rough so 75mm wheels are required.
Early morning/late at night is best for this - 10pm sunday if it suits.
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race times
Richard what time on saturday is the racing starting and what time will everything be wrapped up? Just looking to see if I can find cheap flights that work with race times
Hi Dan, I was thinking race
Hi Dan,
I was thinking race day should be sunday, but I could change that to saturday if it suited better.
It's likely people will drive down from tauranga/hamilton so you might be able to catch a lift.
If we race on saturday, i would make the start time for 10k race about 4pm, slalom @ 5:30pm to give people time to travel but if it's on sunday I would start at midday.
all good
richard thats sweet. Just wanted to make sure so that if I find cheap flights they work in so I actually make the race.
AWESOME
This is going to be sweet!
Gutted
AH well. Sorry guys, wont be able to make this one. hope it all goes well and let me know what the outcome is like!! cheer
:-(
Bugger, I wana be oversea on those days :-( !!! But I which I can manage to find a cheap flight and some days off to catch up with you on a futur race/event...
Anyway, I'm sure you will have a lots of fun...
cheap flights
if your coming from auckland check out pacific blue for cheap flights. If you dont mind early mornings you can get Auckland to Welly $39 early Sunday morning.
Slalom
just wondering if the slalom is on flat ground or a small incline?
Hi Dan, there will be no
Hi Dan, there will be no incline or start ramps unfotunately.
time to practice
cool as soon as it stops raining im out to practice
Prizes!
Ok, so there will be some prizes, not sure of specifics yet.
Prizes will just be for the point-to-point race.
1st prize: pair of Grizzly
1st prize:
pair of Grizzly Bear Trucks
There are some other prizes thanks to bombadier longboards and possibly something from cheapskates.
Two more maybe
Longboarders are showing up everywhere. It used to be I was the only one on the coast. Saw a couple of young guys today, one with a vanguard an the other with a landy wedge-flex. Told them about the race and they might be in too. Stoked to see longboarding starting to take off!
I'm coming
Dad wont be able to make it, but im keen to come, i'll be staying with my sister so no need for acommidation, ill be down thursday afternoon, so im happy to help with anything that needs to be done in preperation.
Cheers Josh
www.bombardierlongboards.co.nz
Sweet josh, give me a text
Sweet josh, give me a text when you arrive so we can go for a skate.
I can't think of any preparation needed unless you can work out a way to make wind proof slalom cones.
bottles
with sand in em ;)
ghetto ways
Full beer /coke cans
Time penalty for knocking one down is as long as it takes to skull :)
Could get messy
my skills would only allow me to do one run as i wouldnt be able to skate after making up my time penaltys
car pooling
is anyone driving down from dorkland?Might come down if I can catch a ridse with someone, I'm in mission bay, so If anyone has room in their car let me know.
Hey speedy, I think nacho
Hey speedy, I think nacho from bestboards may be driving down from tauranga, but haven't heard from him in a while. Hope you can make it!
I have worked out where the finish line will be and there is a nice big free car park there also. Might be a bit busy on a sunday if there is sailing on.
i am entering
I had planned on staying at the back for the 10km race and making sure we didn't lose anyone on the way, but a friend has offered to do that for me so I will be entering. Yay!
I will forfeit any prizes if I get a place...
Plans?
So
whats the plan?
Times etc?
Meet up around 11am for a
Meet up around 11am for a 12pm start.
Once the race is all over we will amble back to the waterfront for slalom, about 2pm.
DH: late.
course
For any of you who are unfamiliar with the course, we can do a slow test-run on saturday..
Genius... pure genius...
Yeah, i agree. a test run would be good
maybe we can get some photos and stuff too. My mum and sister are both photographers...
Also, is anyone gonna need accomodation for this weekend? i need to know numbers so i can arrange mattresses and stuff.
looks like rain....
Looks like its gonna be raining on sunday, possibly reschedule the skate for saturday...
http://www.metservice.com/default/index.php?alias=wellington
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Live life one hill at a time
021 297 4776
Weather.
Agreed,
I don't really want to have to race in the rain. Is there any objections to racing on saturday? When are the out of towners arriving?
I will make a final call on this tomorrow.
Out of towner
I arrive early sunday morning but have no objection to change the race to saturday because of the rain. I propose that if it is changed Sunday becomes The Great Garage Hunt.
Saturday...
I have a friends birthday thing to go to on saturday
I could probably flag that and just go that night though
garages on sunday would be good too
.
Earlier Sunday?
I think the rain on Sunday is meant to come a little later, so maybe we could start early (I can't make Saturday, which is why I want Sunday).
The 2nd level of the stadium carpark could be good for some slalom if it's raining. Also good for slides in the wet :)
Well the forecast has spoken
Well the forecast has spoken and it doesn't look like sunday will be any good.
So, Race day is now definitely going to be saturday.
The plan is to meet at 11:30 am at the wellington train station, where we can ferry people up in cars to the start line which is near the caltex on the old hutt rd.
Apologies to those who can't make saturday but I think it will be better if we do it in the sunshine.
For those of you coming down on sunday, i will make sure you get some decent skating in.
5pm tonight I will be showing josh from bombardier around the waterfront, feel free to join us.
I'll be there...
Probably a bit after 5, since i have to go home and change after work first... we should totally go to the staduim for a bit...
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Live life one hill at a time
021 297 4776
ill be there as well 021 269
ill be there as well
021 269 3813
Wooooooot
good weather for the win
021 269 3813
Woohoo! Congratulations to
Woohoo!
Congratulations to Josh who took out first place! Hope you enjoy your trucks. Well the 'obstacle' i mentioned caught just about everyone out, including myself.
Tyler took out the slalom & Ben took out crash of the day.
We had a professional photographer, Ken George who got a lot of the action on film
Cheers for coming guys, will be out again tomorrow for a cruise. Send me a text!
Ben took out crash of the day
ha ha, man the wounds are slowly healing. ive stuck myself to the sheets the last couple of nights he he, and showers have been a bit of an adrenalin rush, it stings pretty bad, oh well got some nice wheels, which ill probaly use as my sliding wheels for a while. can't wait to see more photos. thanks guys for the race it was fun