ABC News has a small gallery of pictures from the practice session for the Skateboard Downhill World Championship held on July 11, 2007. Don’t start to whining “That’s not skateboarding, that’s extreme kooks! Wah wah wah!” Yes, it is skateboarding, and before Thrasher Magazine used to make fun of street luge and professional downhill racing, they used to have recurring spotlights where they talked about it in very revered tones. The guy on left has good fashion sense. The guy on the right looks like he’s got the racing suit but without knee pads. Full face helmet? Sure. Downhill in the rain? Count me out. There are some good shots in the gallery if you hold your breath through a couple of unfortunate buttboarding and skeleton pictures. It looks like there are too many disciplines in downhill these days. I would say that’s not skateboarding but my two year old son would disagree. Getty Images photos from ABC News. After you are done looking at the pretty pictures, check out this ABC Wild World of Sports clip featuring the World Championship of Skateboarding from 1976 after the jump.
Skateboarding on ABC Wild World of Sports: 1976
Dennis: As you can see Bud, the skater’s arms, knees and ankles must all really work together well to get down that course fast.
Bud: The coordination is quite similar to ski racing, I think.
Dennis: It does have some similarities, Bud.
Dennis (Dennis who? Martinez? They don’t say.) says “bud” with a faint hint of Jeff Spicoli. Dennis does come through with a dry delivery of a classic after Henry Hester gets wheel bite and eats it hard at the finish line:
Bud: Tough fall. that would really skin you up good.
Dennis: Yeah, the asphalt never forgets, Bud.
More highlights include Bud with his arm around a young Tony Alva, giving him a fatherly hug and a gratuitous shot of a female spectator in full Stevie Nix effect. Speaking of fashion, Tonly Alva races in some sort of sleeveless disco jumpsuit. Enjoy.
9 comments
Rich
Wow, that WWoS clip brings back memories. I agree with lil’ K’wag, it’s skateboarding.
billy the kid
i think i know a couple people that went to that race. sounded like a pretty gnarly weekend. downhill in the rain is where it’s at!
Estes
Why do I get a Euro-nerd feeling from this post? Because its very French.
Dick Cancer
billy the kid… win the next kicker race. If I have to hear rob wins again, I’m going to think all you can do is go down fast, scary, gnarly, hills…
Conahan
Probably Dennis Shufeldt I think they used to say he was the fastest skateboarder alive in the early Skateboarder Magazine and he parlayed that into color commentary. I think he applied his mystic yoga skills to his downhill form.
Conahan
I’m going to go out on a limb and say that if street luge is skateboarding then so is a guy using a mechanics creeper to work on a car. Not to belittle the accomplishment but I think it
concretin
Luge is definitely something different, but I think it’s still pretty burly. But just because I think downhill (standing up) IS skateboarding doesn’t mean they’re NOT kooks! 🙂 Sorry, goin’ 30, 40, 50, 60, 70+ miles an hour with nothin’ but leathers and a helmet keeping you from being a splat or a smear… it takes some balls, or lack of common sense (perhaps a bit o’ both)…
“Yea, but can he do a ho-ho?”
Dick Cancer
Luge = Buttboarding…doing 60,70,some claim brazillians are going 90mph is flat out gnarly, but it’s laying down like a little “bits”. Now, I like the new technology from drop boards and drop throughs. It’s really better than just having a long skateboard. Land Yatchz, Eastside (local) subsonic,and a few more are taking stand up longboarding to another level…it’s really getting big. I see little packs of kids up at Tabor on WEDNESDAYS , and out in beaverton lots of kids on drop boards. I LIKE IT! They cruise and for some trying to get the similar sensation of snow, or surf it’s there. I’ve picked up one and feel like a KOOK because it’s almost as tall as me. It is pretty cool to go 30 and not have one worry about a speed wobble. They claim again brazillians stand up and doing 70 plus. It’s not kooky, it’s phucking RAD.
michael brooke
great stuff, Kilwag…what a find!