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2004 AJSA Dual Slalom

Posted: Tue Nov 02, 2004 5:56 am
by Michael Gira
2004 AJSA Dual Slalom

Date: Sunday 14th November

Time: Entry at 10.00 am, Racing at 11:00 am

Location: http://www.s-n-p.jp/skatepark/ (Kugenuma Skate Park)

Course details: Straight dual slalom on a flat course. Two events - 160 cm cone distance and 210 cm cone distance.
Click here for all the details:
http://www.customtruck.jp/04kugenuma.pdf"

This will be my first ever race. In fact it'll be the first time I've ever seen anybody pump a skateboard other than on video, but I'm hoping to be competitive. I can get my 27.5 inch wheelbase board through 210 cm cones OK, but I'll need a shorter board for the 160 cm race.

Wish me luck.

Posted: Wed Nov 03, 2004 12:18 am
by Hans Koraeus
Great news! Make sure we get to know the results. And some more info/pics would also be very interesting.

Race report

Posted: Tue Nov 16, 2004 3:54 am
by Michael Gira
The race was split into two divisions (Open and Beginners), and there was a long-span (6'11" cone spacing) and short-span (5'3" cone spacing) race in each division. The Open division had a start ramp while the Beginner division had a push start.

The course was flat, with 23 cones for the long span and 30 cones for the short span. The winning times were about 9.8 seconds for both courses. Cone penalty was 0.2 seconds per cone, with a maximum of 3 cones down before disqualification.

Seeing as I've never skated vert, the ramp was a bit intimidating. I swallowed my fear and Just Did It. I now think ramp starts are cool.

Nevertheless, I opted for the push-start Beginner division where I came 7th in a field of 13 in the long span race.

I tried to check out people's equipment - I saw a lot of Gus trucks, and most wheels where narrow Hyper Stradas (?).

There were about 25 racers in all, and most of the fast guys were aged late 30s/early 40s. There were a bunch of 20-somethings and a few teenagers, but they were generally the slower guys.

Conclusion: Japanese slalom exists! It was a pretty friendly environment and people seemed happy that a foreigner like me had turned up out of the blue to compete. And I gotta buy a slalom board. Wrestling my 27.5" wheelbase board around seemed very non-optimal. Well, that's my excuse anyway.

Photos to come...

Posted: Tue Nov 16, 2004 2:10 pm
by Hans Koraeus
If you can get hold of the results from the Open division it would be great. Would be cool to have some Japanese slalomers in the World Ranking. :-)

Posted: Mon Nov 22, 2004 3:55 pm
by Michael Gira
I didn't manage to catch the names of the winners, but I did take a bunch of photos and some video:
http://www.doco.net/snow/kugenuma/index.html

Posted: Wed Nov 24, 2004 3:46 am
by Carsten Pingel
Nice ramps and starting techniques ! :-)

Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2005 7:52 am
by John Gilmour
- just misssed the slalom event this weekend 10/07/2005

when is the next competition?

I have until midnight today to lock in the low airfares sale.

JG

Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2005 7:54 am
by John Gilmour
Corky I have some results from the 2003 race, but the names are in characters..