The second annual Mt. Tabor Downhill Challenge on Sunday, June 24th. This is sanctioned downhill race in Portland. Big prize money. If I can scrape up the entry fee and it doesn’t rain, you may get to see the Ski-Skate in some open class action. All sorts of fun.
The MTDHC is a one day event featuring a downhill skateboard race, slalom race, classic luge (buttboard) race and a mini-bike race. All of the races will be held on SE Resevoir Loop Dr. of Mt. Tabor Park in Portland, Oregon. The winner of the downhill skateboard race will recieve $750 and the winner of the downhill mini-bike race will receive $300. Cash prizes for other classes will be determined later. Awards ceremony and after party will take place at the Mt. Tabor Theater.
Entry fee is $60 for downhill classes and $30 for slalom only.
Go to Tabordh.com for more info on the event…
– Thanks for the heads up from Billy Bones.
51 comments
DickCancer
PHuck, sorry! Free beer says a lot I mean that….
DickCancer
Boo Hoo… bones says I’m slow as FUCK! Hay bales can be donated, everyone’s time is worth money but give back and ye shall receive, it’s called volunteering for the good of the EVENT, permits, give me a break, shit like that can be waived, whooo insurance UH!!!! let me think, How many skate contests, do insurance? How bout PUCKING non that I’ve known,and they are held in public parks. yeah, Xgames, Dew Tour. How many Kicker Races went down with out Exorbitant entry fees? Oh!!! They didnt have fees. It’s like you’re having a fractional Marryhill for half price. Is that the thinking?
I love downhill, I love calling longboarders, SCHLONGBOARDERS. It’s funny and I don’t give a PHUCK, The fee is overpriced, and that’s mY opinion and I’m calling that fee out. Thank you, and have a nice day my four wheeled amigo.
MyWar
Race fees keep it exclusive for a good reason. If you’re putting down $60 you better be expecting to place.
I'm Dumb (but ingenuous)
*I meant “that that’s the ONLY things I like”… which isn’t quite “quite the opposite”.
mttaborstudio
If anyone cares, here are a bunch of my photos from the race (Inluding the mini-bikes): http://www.flickr.com/photos/mttaborstudio/sets/72157630275673804/
mttaborstudio
Weird. Not sure what happened to the link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mttaborstudio/sets/72157630275673804/
Craig
No coverage of the proposed ban in the NW hills Randy?
Thor
The design on a lot of those DH trucks look like they would be sweet for mall grabs.
Fitz
I hear they have a lot of malls in California…
Hey-O!
We miss you already.
K.C.
I participated in The Mt. Tabor Downhill Challenge last year. I actually advanced to the next heat, but being in the hot sun that day, and riding up that hill in an oven disguised as a U-haul, packed full of DH guys, well, pretty much gave me heat stroke. Those DH guys got skills, and downhill racing is a blast. Try not to confuse them with those kooks carrying their longboards around town.
Fitz
They had that same Uhaul this year. Looked sweaty!
Wtf? Guy
i like how there’s more posts bitch’n about the bitchers than posts bitch’n bout the actual event = classic P-town, everybody get’s their feelings hurt…
that being said, there’s some good points made here that I (& others) obviously failed to take into consideration. I’ll keep these things in mind when check’n out these types of events in the future.
Go inter-webs!
Fitz
Right on!
The way I see it: Classic P-Town is essentially a very narrow-minded view of skateboarding. Follow me here: The same thing that made our scene great is the the same thing that makes our scene suffer.
We don’t tolerate disingenuousness in any form, and the result is pure unadulterated ripping skateboarding. Yet, the same knee-jerk DIY/gnar/traditional perspective is a very limiting–and divisive–lense. Downhillers are rippers, no doubt about it.
I’m as guilty as the next person of dismissing various factions, and if I got anything from watching the races last weekend, it’s that the only thing I should dismiss is preconceived notions. Skating is limitless. I’ll bet every skateboarder on here would get a massive kick out of taking a downhill stick for a ride.
eh
My brother has hit a piece of spilled gravel while travelling over 50 down a mountain highway and rode out of it, so speedsters and all that, sure… but “rippers”? …No. I mean, that’s just disingenuous, man, and I for one shan’t tolerate it.
Fitz
Be sure to keep clowning stuff. Heaven forbid one of your friends might think you liked something out of the ordinary.
Al Franken
No, no; you’re not trippin… I remember that session.
I'm Dumb (but ingenuous)
Dude, you’re trippin! But anyway, if you MUST know, just google ‘CNN Money Fast and Furious’, and read the stranger-than-fiction article “The Truth about the Fast and Furious”, from Fortune magazine (seems like you’re not the only one that has things upside-down). And, those “say anything” politicians are, of course, the seriously, reprehensibly “disingenuous” ones. Which is no doubt why you vigilante Pee-towners ran Issa and Grassley out of Burnside that one time, when they showed up to session… or am I trippin….
Fitz
Okay, or the post before this one… WTF is up with my PC? S’N’A is fucking with it–everything appears upside down?!?!
Fitz
In an attempt to respond to the post beneath this one, from “Eh?”
What on earth are you talking about with that rambling metaphor?
eh
I shan’t tolerate your continued disingenuousness, sir, I just shan’t. I RESPECT them for their flying. I do not respect them for their ripping, cuz that ain’t what their doing. And you seem extra self-tolerant of disingenuousness, if you think heaven COULD “forbid” ANY of my friends from thinking quite the opposite. You sound about as honest with yourself as the guy who appeared on CBS, “whistleblowing” that the “Fast and Furious” operation was gun walking, when it turns out HE was the only agent walking guns, and not as part of that operation. Difference is, he seems to be a sleazy ex-undercover-drug-squad type, whereas you seem like you’re just too eager to believe what you want to believe.
K.C.
That’s it Fitz. I’m totally de-friending you on Facebook!
Fitz
Just be sure to refriend me on the Big Kahuna Stick forum, and we’re all good.
miles
way to go billy! come race some hawaii races dude!!!
Bones
Also: Kilwag, if you would have busted out the ski-skate I would have let you race for free.
Fitz
Bones: Shoot me an email? Randy can patch us through… I want some pointers about equipment, etc. Been skating for decades, and DH looks fucking fun!
Bones
Fuck yeah. My email is pdxdownhill@gmail.com. I can point you in the direction of some good dh equipment that will get you rolling. Glad to hear you were stoked on the event!
Fitz
Thanks!
Bones
Wow. I’m surprised there are so many people hating on this event. But then again, this is the internet is it is a good place for jerkoffs to speak their minds (as narrow as they may be).
As the organizer of the event I think it’s safe to say that there are many costs involved with the event that you probably didn’t take into consideration. $60 for entry fee is probably the cheapest you will find for any downhill event. Some races charge $100 for one day and that doesn’t include lunch, free beer or a shuttle up the hill. To organize a race at Tabor you need permits, hay bales, insurance, uhaul, porto potties (surprisingly expensive), radios, and many other small items that are very important for the success of this event. On top of that we put up over $2000 in cash prizes for the tops racers of the day, provided free beer and an after party at the Mt. Tabor Theater.
If you’d rather spend $60 on something other than a downhill race, by all means go for it. You are probably slow as fuck anyway and would get schooled by a “schlongboarder.”
To those of you stoked on the race, come check it out next year. It’s gonna be rad.
Devilman
I wasn’t hating, just wondering why the entry was $60. But comprehension via the internet is really the question. I didn’t have an extra $60 that day or I would’ve tried your event, next time maybe.
Michael
Damn,I missed it! That would have given me an excuse to get off of my lazy limping ass and out off my “Luxury” condo out here in the numbas,instead of hanging out with the new cat I “rescued” yesterday. I just got some new indys and 54mm STF so I am good there but 60 bucks would buy me 2 boxs of .357magnums and 2 boxs of 7.62*39(on sale). 😉
Wtf? Guy
Permits? Isn’t that part of tabor always closed? And where is it steep enuff that hay bales are needed to keep people from falling to their death? 60 bux plus I have to stand a certain way or risk disqualification – I was stoked for this before I realized it was for hipsters.
Fitz
I live near Mt. Tabor, and bomb it quite often, though I use my regular skateboard. It’s more than fast enough to require a hay bale to stop errant boards and/or riders. An ounce of prevention, as they say…
The stance thing is pretty silly, but you DH guys have your own scene, and your own style, so it’s up to you to decide what’s what.
Have fun.
skip
Rain or Shine for the DH events. Probably not for the Slalom.
Fitz
Sick! That’s a hairy hill to bomb in the rain.
Glenn
I watched a bunch of downhillers bombing a hill in the rain (Slalom was rained off). It looked sketchy as hell but apparently the drag of the water on wide wheels, on that day at least, slowed riders so much it was actually easier than the same hill in the dry.
It’s kind of shit that the rise in popularity of longboarding is causing so many ‘skateboarders’ (as if a standard issue street board is the only kind of skateboard) to turn into such judgemental morons. I’ve been riding mostly parks and slalom for 16 years either side of a 20 year gap and reading S&A for several years. I’m sure when I started reading this site Downhill could be mentioned without a baying mob of conformist wankers showing up shouting ‘hipster’
john e
Well said Glenn. I guess wtf guy (below) wouldn’t agree, but I’m mystified by the attacks and also by the whining over $60. That’s what it costs. If you don’t want to enter, then don’t. Jeez.
Fitz
I totally agree. I went and watched, and it was fucking sick! I’m inspired enough to build a DH board and start enjoying my occasional Tabor-runs that much more. Why wouldn’t I? It’s right there for the taking!
To those of you who dismissed this, you have no clue. Those men and women were hauling some serious ass–probaly 45 mph, plus–and as a skateboarder (who digs traditional skating), I was fired right up! Bombing a hill is among the purest stokes going. These people are just taking it that much further. There was one dude in nothing but boxers who mooned the crowd from the midst of the pack, and another guy in cutoff jeans who took a fall to buttslide (on asphalt!) that must’ve been forty feet long. And he jumped right up, rashed to oblivion, and started pushing down the hill anyway.
Great event! My only regret is not entering.
Next year, I am there!
Fitz
What will happen in the event it pisses rain? Do you guys race anyway?
scummer1984
MINI bike race = HIPSTERS. Go figure. Will they have a mustache grooming contest too?
MyWar
Hobbies of hipsters primarily includes looking cool. Anyone on a mini will tell you how stupid they are. Racing them is too fast and sketchy for too cool for school kids.
DickCancer
60 bucks!!! 12 riders at 60 bucks equals 720. 720 was a video arcade game way back in the day. For 60 bucks you can get a happy ending on 82nd avenue or did they clean up 82nd and they are all on Backpage.com now. Anyway, it’s a big purse but 30 bucks would be a Go in my book. 60 bucks is a phuckin rip off! For 60 bucks I would go buy a new skateboard deck and consider myself a winner, rather than giving some schlongboarder my money. For 60 bucks I could buy and new set of spf’s and some bones reds and take a chic out to lunch, And still consider myself a weener. For 60 bucks I could buy 2000 rounds of .22 ammo, take a chic out shooting and get laid. That’s how you spend 60 bucks rather than giving it to some schlongboarder who has rich parents.
Fitz
Come on, give it a rest. I agree it’s a bit steep, but people’s time costs money, and those are some hefty prizes.
There’s way too much ridiculous division amomg skateboarders, and banging on DH, longboarders, or anyone else is a fucking waste of time. Ever hear of divide and conquer?
Like most of us on here, I primarily dig traditional park, pool, street, ramp, and DIY stuff, but I love bombing a good hill, and I respect the people who dedicate themselves solely to that pursuit. I randomly bought a home on the low-rent flats near Mt. Tabor, and I bomb that hill quite a bit. I blow the shit out a lot of flip-flop longboarders, and then every so often, I get passed by an actual downhiller who passes them, me, and the cyclists who train up there–and they pass us all like we’re standing still. They are no joke, and dismissing them as hipsters isn’t remotely accurate. Give credit where it’s due.
I don’t get their particular emphasis on stance, but I imagine it’s every bit as rooted in tradition as our emphasis on a proper indy (elbow behind the knee!), or our collective disdain for the horrors of pushing mongo…
talentlessquitter
I like that.
eBay Lurker
uh…too easy.
Fitz
Not too easy. Thinking for yourself isn’t cool anymore.
kilwag
WINNER: Fitz!
freezine
someone enlighten me as to WTF a mini-bike race is?!
eBay Lurker
Is there prize money awarded to the contestant that arrives at the finish line shirtless and unscathed?
Kilwag
Check out the prize money.
Devilman
My bike races don’t cost that much. Dam- $60 bucks……can someone enlighten me on why its $60 bucks? Do we get a massage with happy ending included?
some kook
Your $60 goes to permits to shut down the hill, haybales for crash protection, prize money, good sandwiches for lunch, and an afterparty/movie screening.