ASRA - Australian Skateboard Racing Association

The most important "events" in the history of downhill and slalom in Australia

Well, what do you think - what are the most important events in the history of downhill and slalom? This question has been asked by a friend who's making a skate documentary, and I said I'd help, and now I'm asking everybody to help.

Here's some guidelines:

* an event can be anything - a race, a person, a website, a shop, a bust, an organisation, a death, a discovery of a spot, a visit by an overseas pro etc.

* the event can be positive or negative

* I need a date for when it happened.

I'm particularly interested in things that happened prior to 2005, cos I wasn't around then.

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So there is some truth in my memory then??? ha and some muddled bits as well.

Sakamoto said:

If it was a French guy, it would of been Manu at the Arthurs Seat/Melbourne X-Games, Adam. From memory I don't think Manu did the Mt Cootha event. These events were in the late '90's, with Biker, Todd Lehr, Waldo Aultry, Lee Dansie, etc. These guys were lugers doing cross-over, pushing the DH scene.
 
Adam said:

ooh i remember another one, back in the day of 9 wide world of sports there was coverage of a downhill race, i think it was mount cootha from memory. i ws still in early high school maybe late 88-92 ish, i can remember the house i was in but not the year,

i can remeber that there was this french guy with a low center of gravity tuck with hands out in front of him and the rest doing a standard bent at the hips tuck., they were all trying to air brake into corners and eating it and the french guy was staying low grabbing rail and sort of sliding around them. 

my memory is sketchy as i was a real grom at the time and all we were interested in was surfing and vision streat wear....hahaha.

I realy like the Forum TOPIC !!    and the way it will bring us ALL back together as racers ................ its not about what we ride ITS how we ride it and the respect we have for other racers  !!!   Thanks guys ;)      c u all soon

Well said, Brad.

Bugs, this is an excellent topic, and with the various post by the various riders, if somebody put pen to paper and wrote about how each of the disciplines developed in Australia it would make one hell of a book.

Each of the disciplines have some pretty wild stories to tell, would be very worthwhile.

Trav, being a journo, this would be right up your ally, a project that everyone could get behind.

It may not be a pivotal point for the whole community, but for me the X-games in the late 90's hold some significance. I saw the street luge on the saturday morning TV when I was in Yr.7 and for the next week or so me and my mates were buttboarding on our K-mart double kicks down a local foot path. After I destroyed my shoes I didn't really do it it again but it certainly raised an awareness of gravity sports which helped me get into DH a few years back. Am I the only one that had this?

I also remember seeing one or two episodes of F1 skate at some point along with a special feature on one of those extreme sports shows about longboards. I remember being fascinated by these weird big boards, but never investigated further.

just as the scene started taking off,.skate australia hit the road and travelled the east coast filming and hooking up with local skate crews to film a documentary about the lifestyle and the underground scene,.Anton tragically died towards the end of production whilst skating and filming,before he could finish his dream,a few members of the community got together and finished his work,.
pretty special story in itself.

Anton for sure, I think his accident really brought home (to me at least, but I suspect many in Australia) that what we were/are doing can actually kill us. We all kept going though.

Jacko's first trip to Radelaide. He beat us all down Eagle, I was so mad! He was just a kid and that was our hill! What a cunt!

The freeway debarkle in Radelaide. Such a shit show when it happened but didn't change a thing in the end other than people in SA having some sort of idea of who we were and what we were doing.

The release of Orangatang at the end of 2008 or beginning of 2009. A wheel that isn't green and not made by Abec 11?!?!

This video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkDznmi5V78 blew the minds of thousands around the world and showed that there was room for evolution in longboarding and even style! IMHO I believe this video is one of the few that changed the way people rode and wanted to ride.

Louis Pilloni winning 2009 (?) Peyragudes by only sliding.

So many!

Another one from the Ncdsa archive.
Abecs invade Oz On 4/29/2002 Kanufi wrote in from 144.134.xxx.xxx:
Just the other week i recieved a big box from the states.I went nuts when i opened it up for there they where 10 sets of abecs,all the sizes and duro,s of the rainbow.I was looking at something special ,unique as these where the 1st abecs to set foot in oz.A mad flurry of spanners and bearings flew around as 4 guys franticly tried to be the 1st to ride them in the country.My spanner skills where not as quick as some so i settled for 2nd the 1st roll of the wheels went to stewart mercer who bombed the lounge room to the kitchen.Now the road test was on.1st push on tar and off they went.Smooth fast grippy predictable and damm fast in a staight line,all that i have read about these wheels is true.What was going to be a short ride ended up going for a few hours but as the night went on there was drama,s and pain lurking around the bend.In our frenzy to go skating wheel nut tension must have taken a back seat.So as Ado went sreaming down the road and entered another classic no hands break away his rear wheel flys off(yes it was a flywheel)the guy fully bounced on the tar and was,nt happy.Then realised that he was missing a wheel which could off bounced anywhere and it was late at night.We looked for well over an hour but could,nt find nothing.The next day (6.00am)we went back and found it.Everyone is very happy with the wheels performance and are madly saving for some more.
Three things standout as significant for me

August 2006
the birth of ASRA
http://www.charliedontskate.com/bb2/viewtopic.php?t=1126&highli...

October 2006
Eddie Spearing's outrageous suggestion that Mt Panorama Would be a good spot for a downhill race.
http://www.charliedontskate.com/bb2/viewtopic.php?t=1270&postda...


Neither of which would have happened without the establishment of a website forum that got so many more of us all together in
October 2004
http://www.charliedontskate.com/bb2/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&am...
Cheers Braden!
we all knew panorama would be good. we'd already been riding it. the outrageous thing was the 1/4 million price tag that had been quoted in the past. what eddy did was call council and ask again and to our delight they wanted us!
The other cool thing was Bradens open mind toward skateboarding in general.
After hearing stories of Oldskool team and myself riding panorama he wanted a picture of me screaming down the straight in full leathers on his CDS site. It might even still be there.
That helped open up the sport to videos online which was as Hop mentioned another big turn point in history.
We need to bring back the "Eddie Spearing" slalom race!

The first time Bathurst was considered as a race venue was in 2000. The IGSA World Championships were going to be staged, all infrastructure and necessary paperwork was organised for it to go ahead, and at the last minute Bathurst Council raised the track fee's by 400%. Financially this situation killed the event. A small festival style of event, similar to Newton's, however not as big, was planned, with PowerHouse looking after the festival side of the event.

The event was Streetluge, Classic Luge and Standup, with Inline going to be a demo discipline. At the time the event was cancelled, the organisers were going to talk to the G-Bikers to see if they would be interested in coming. Unfortunately it didn't happen.
 
bernie said:

Three things standout as significant for me

August 2006
the birth of ASRA
http://www.charliedontskate.com/bb2/viewtopic.php?t=1126&highli...

October 2006
Eddie Spearing's outrageous suggestion that Mt Panorama Would be a good spot for a downhill race.
http://www.charliedontskate.com/bb2/viewtopic.php?t=1270&postda...


Neither of which would have happened without the establishment of a website forum that got us all together in
October 2004
http://www.charliedontskate.com/bb2/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&am...
Cheers Braden!

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