ASRA - Australian Skateboard Racing Association

Radelaides senior skaters are stepping it up a notch. Groms beware!

 

This was posted on our Adelaide thread yesterday after Mikey Rivers had a horrendous crash. After what happened in Sydney on the weekend to with Matty Ado has asked that I post this on here in the hope that senior skaters all over will think about it and maybe put a similar plan into action. Mikey is still in hospital with a broken shoulder, arm, ribs, vertebrate and a punctured lung. He is lucky to be breathing and he is lucky to be walking (or he will be anyway).

 

''Ok. Mikey had a really bad crash today on hayward. He ended up in the guard rail shoulder first at 60 or so. He likely has a broken arm, ribs and something wrong with his hips/pelvis. Thank someone that his back seems to be ok. It was probably the worst crash I have seen and I have seen many.

 

Mikey is an experienced racer/rider from England. He has ridden and competed all over the world and is a very capable skater. Still though, this shows that one mistake can really have a huge impact and everyone is capable of making them no matter the experience they have. Luckily for us we had phones to call ambulances, we had friends around, we have first aid knowledge and we had the common sense to call the Ambulance instantly. If this was two kids walking up the hill with no car, possibly no phone, no water, no medical supplies things could end a lot worse.

 

Leigh, Bow and myself are now stepping things up a notch. My stomach turns just thinking about what could happen to young, inexperienced riders on certain roads in Adelaide. I think many or most of you take this sport much to lightly. If you bugger up a turn and hit a car, post, cliff edge, pile of rocks or anything else you can and most likely be seriously injured. People have died riding downhill and unfortunately, more will in the future. I would be absolutely sick if anything like this happened to anyone in our community.

 

We now have a list of roads.

 

1.Hayward

2.Corkscrew

3.Mt Osmond

4.Norton summit rd (not the pins, they are fine)

5.Pole rd

6.Greenhill

 

These are roads that we know you grommets have been skating. We have people telling us who skates roads they shouldn't and every video you post up we watch. We will recognise these roads and from now on we will pull you up on them. Anyone caught riding these roads in the future or if we hear of anybody riding these roads in the future, will be banned from future South Australian events such as races or freerides. You will never ride with any of us, we will never invite you to sessions with internationals or interstaters, we will never reccomend you for interstate races that require our approval (such as BTS) and we will encourage others not to ride with you.

 

Skating down a hill is one thing. Most people can do it. Skating in your lane is a step above. Skating safely when something unexpected happens is something you will only learn over time. Cars in your lane, trying to pass you or tailgating you. Animals jumping onto the road. Someone crashing in front of you. These are all things that very few of you have the skill or knowledge to deal with.

 

If you think this is unfair, tough. Laws prohibit kids and teens from smoking, drinking, driving, film and television content and a lot of other things. Your parents prohibit you from certain places, activities and other things. This is the way the world works. Kids and teenagers have an opinion that they are invincible. You are not. I believe that the 3 of us are obliged to look out for your safety. As far as the law is concerned, we put ourselves at risk for under age kids every week. 

 

The RAG's were all selected (have to talk to intense squad who we overlooked with the list) as groms we skate the listed roads with regularly and believe are up to a safe standard. If you wish to skate these roads with us I would suggest hooking up a session with a few guys from RAG's and they will let us know of people who are skating at a high level. It will then be up to us to invite you to a session and see how you go. You will not get to a weekend session with us by sending us facebook messages.

 

It is shitty that it has come to this but we have a lot of things riding on the line currently. The Willunga boys are still in the midst of their court case and it is predicted to carry on until June. Daily Grind and myself are finalising our council proposals for regular road closures in Adelaide and Duff is currently working on having a particular road closed also. Not only is seeing a friend crumpled up in a guard rail screaming at the top of his lungs with unthinkable pain one of the worst experiences ever but it put's many other things and risk.

 

Skate safe, skate within your limits, wear your helmet, do the clip up and watch out for one another.''

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best wishes to mikey.. cant imagine how scary that would be..

 

leigh, would you have a google map or something that you could post up here showing some good corners to practice predrifts/railing through? im sure it would help a lot of us groms if we knew some good spots to session and improve on. again best wishes to mikey and i hope its not too major..

i agree
yer we did pole ages ago

i agree with you guys in that newbie groms shouldn't go riding crazy roads, in wa we have had a number of groms that have punched above their weight and wore it (not too majorly luckily), but going and banning people is a step above that. Could bring some unseen and undesired effects.

 

"If you think this is unfair, tough. Laws prohibit kids and teens from smoking, drinking, driving, film and television content and a lot of other things. Your parents prohibit you from certain places, activities and other things. This is the way the world works. Kids and teenagers have an opinion that they are invincible. You are not. I believe that the 3 of us are obliged to look out for your safety."

 

sorry to say but that sounds like the police spill to me after i get caught on a carriageway, and you guys shouldn't be sounding like that. You know you have gone too far when you start sounding like the police if you ask me. All you can do is just reiterate by word etc that skating above your ability will end in serious consequences. Because if you ban something, teenage mentality is to defy authority (part of the fun of downhill skating is knowing that its illegal). Just my opinion but u might find yourselves divided in 6 months time when so called groms get their shit together and start skating better.

Get around the U-Parks lads!
Pss
Psss
Pss
Bad jack bad

100% agree with Benbro there. Seshing corners is a safe, and vital way of gaining skill. It may get boring but its the safest way to learn how to attack corners etc.

Raine, fact is you haven't seen the hills we have posted in person. yeah you've seen videos, but they just don't justify the seriousness and danger of the hills. we aren't talking bout a few guardrails on the side of a curvy and wide "bomb" style hill, we are talking about tight, fast, narrow hairpins with lots of traffic. groms should not be learning "control at speed" on these types of hills. it spells disaster for them and the sport in SA.

 

And we aren't saying they can't skate them, with our permission and experienced watchful eye we WILL take the groms who are capable (in our eyes) to these hills. but if they are caught skating them without one of us, there will be consequences.

The guys have got the right idea
Nothing worse than permenant antistoke


sweet beet said:
removal of testicals by t tool ..better still ...no access to asra site...oooohhhh....that'll hurt'em plenty.

Good decision guys, i think some of the groms take for granted just how good our hills are here and under estimate how hard they can bite you when things go wrong. It's not discriminating, its not unfair, its simply our top riders looking out for those coming up through the ranks and reducing the risk of more serious injuries in the future.

 

Hope you get well soon Mikey

Dani,


thanks heaps for posting this and taking the risk of being flamed for it.


It is great to see that, in general, the flaming hasn't happened and that some of the senior riders around the country are commenting positively on this idea.


Benbro, great response mate, I'm with you on this I'm seeing heaps of younger crew who think that DH is riding at 30kph for 50m then chucking a slide to wash off speed then doing it again. A lot of these guys can't footbreak and don't see why they'd ever need to, then they ride in a group or on a narrow road in traffic and it becomes clear why you need to be able to do it.


Having senior riders that the groms (and older newbies) can look up to and ride with is what this sport needs. You don't see new Motox riders sent straight out onto the pro tracks. If our senior riders could run training days for newbies in controlled environments (such as new estates) where they could get the crew to session a couple of corners, etc and teach the good techniques then this sport will go ahead in leaps and bounds. It'll mean that the seniors will have to give up some of their time to run these "clinics" but in the long run it'll be worth it.


Thanks again Dani for taking the stand


Cheers


Ado

No worries Ado, someone has to be the nazi.

 

Raine, the difference between myself and the police is that Police enforce the law for one reason. Because they are paid to do it. Mikey will receive a fine when he gets home. The police have been in touch with him today. They see the opportunity to meet their quota and make some money so they will send an expiation notice the tourist with the broken body. They have no personal interest in his health and well being at all.

 

I know these groms personally. I have them messaging, chatting, calling and texting me everyday. We are not putting rules into place because we can make money out of it. We do not even have to put these rules into place, but because these are our mates, because we know the parents and because these are kids who do what they do because they watch us do it, that is why we are doing this.

 

Anyone who chooses to rebel, best of luck to them. It is still a small community and we, along with 99% of our groms who are a bunch of champions can make the skating life of an outsider pretty shitty. 

 

They will thank us when they are still alive to lose their virginity.

 

Not to say you don't have a point Raine. You certainly do. I am no cop though.

 

 

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