| Back to mrtn.ch
|
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2008 Downhill Skateboard World Championships - Maryhill Festival of Speed - Goldendale USA 27. - 31.08.2008 Mischo and I had a very tight schedule, travelling from Col d'Izoard to Portland. The flight was quite relaxing. SWISS might be an expensive airline but there are also some good things about it. Everything but one of Mischo's bags has arrived in Portland. We got our rental car and drove towards Goldendale. Jetlag wasn't too bad. We we're really hungry and went for dinner at Applebee's. The plate was huge and I still can't imagine how someone can eat that much food at once. The first day was really windy and with not too many racers we got quie some runs. It felt different with all that tailwind, maybe the tar was also a bit more slippery than the year before. After day two I found my lines again. Friday was the first qualification day. My run felt good, I only touched the road once or twice. The timing system didn't work so I got a rerun. My second run felt slightly better, I didn't drift much at all and touched the road once only somewhere in the top corners. I improved my old track record by 1.6 seconds taking the lead with about the same advantage. Patrick Switzer and Mike Zietsman took place two and three. The second day of qualification was still extremely windy. The times all got slower. I was hoping to improve my first timetrial by using momos and my Beat Engel speehelmet. That decision almost made me crash 3 or 4 times. The wheels didn't work for me at all. At least I made it to the finsih line without getting hurt. I was more than relieved when I heard that nobody got faster times on the second day. 500 $ for me. thanks! Raceday started late. I switched back to bigzigs. The first few runs were not too difficult. I think both Ginger and Jackson Shapiera accompanied me from the first run until the semi-final. In the semi-final I also met Scoot, James Kelly and Chris Chaput. The run was exciting. I was on 4th position and knew I had to attack somewhere. I got my chance in the repeaters and made it to the final. Looking at the timetrial ranking, the top 5 all made it to the final. It took me a while to decide what to do in the final. I had the 2007 final in my mind. Thinking of the headwind before the last corner, I took my new speedhelmet. It might have helped me there, but it hindered my mobility at the start. Well, we'll never know. With my bad start I was on 6th and last place. I tried to attack but was scared of the boys being so close together, pushing and bumping into each other. Scoot got ahead of everybody. I had to wait until cowzer but then took my chance. A quick airbrake made me drift less than the other riders. I passed Patrick and the two Mikes. The last corner was a close call. Take a look at the picture below to see how close we were in between 3rd and 6th place. It hasn't been much different in 2007. A racetrack like Maryhill with no difficult corners makes it really hard for riders to get away. Tactics and race strategies are getting more important on technically lower level hills like Maryhill. Still in most cases, the fastest rider wins! So Scott Smith won with a good lead ahaed of James Kelly. I got third, ensuring a spot on the podium. I'm happy I made it into the finals and more than happy with 3rd place. First place would have been even better but it's hard to win all the time. Prizegiving was hilarious, thanks to wanna be daggers and Zoobombers from Portland (those freaks are real though - somebody make a reality show please). On monday morning we had to get up really early. Sad having to leave but happy and excited about filming in LA we left Goldendale. It was Mischo, Nathan from Australia and I in our Buick rental plus the Orangefiist crew in their truck. Our journey: Maryhill - LA, something like 1600 kilometers. It took us close to 20 hours. Fastfood was the only food available, I hate it. Finally we arrived in LA and slept for 3 or 4 hours in a motel. The next morning we drove up GMR. I couldn't believe my eyes. Marc McCrudden from Orangefiist with a crew of 20 people awaited us at the gate. All the camera equipment made me really nervous. And then both Mischo and I never rode down GMR yet. The day was, without a doubt, one of the best skateboard experiences ever. There's still nothing like being on my favourite mountain pass in Switzerland, but filming on GMR wasn't far away. It was a perfect day, no crash for me and luckily Erik got well soon. We drove to the other side of LA which took us about 1 hour. For the next few days we stayed at Marc's parents house. His wife Christine cooked some delicious food. It was the first time I had real food on that trip. My bed had at least 10 pillows and I slept like a king that night. Unaware of all the hills in Malibu, I was surpised to find that many good roads in a relatively small area. One thing that scared me were the black tyre marks in all corners. Luckily all that car racing happens rather at night so we were fine during the day. The rest of the week we filmed on a few different roads and enjoyed the warmth. We ate sushi one night which was a new experience for me and I like it alot. Before driving up north we hit GMR again on sunday morning. Thanks to Andrew Mercado for bringing his van. It was also nice to ride with John Rogers and Jimmy Flindt, who I haven't seen for many years. So we headed up north on highway 1. Having more than enough time we decided to visit San Francicso. It was cold and windy on the bridge. We found Lombard Street by hazard and had dinner in a nice, italian restaurant. After we found the right way out of San Fran, I drove quite a bit too fast. The cops didn't like it so I had to pull over. «You were driving 86 mph,» the cop said and wanted to take a look at my license. He never saw an old style swiss license before. I told him that I'm confused with speeds in mile per hour and kilometers per hour. He let us go without paying anything. It was totally worthy playing the stupid tourist. We drove the whole night and arrived in Portland two hours before my flight should have left. Mischo and Nathan drove back home to Vernon. I waited for my flight. Through the delay in Portland I missed my flight in Chicago. I had to wait a full day at the airport. Nobody helped me in finding a hotel so I slept at the airport. I was happy when I sat in the plane again. I'd like to say thank you to all the people who made this trip possible. Thanks also to Mischo Erban with whom I spent more than two months riding downhill in Switzerland, France, Germany, Italy and then USA. Filming with Orangefiist was crazy. Our sport needs more people like Marc. It needs a lot of commitment to produce a downhill skateboard movie and I hope we get to see our footage soon! Martin Siegrist, Airflow Skateboards Ranking timetrials (top 12 of 150 riders):
Ranking race:
For additional information visit the websites below: Maryhill Festival of Speed IGSA report day 1 IGSA report day 2 IGSA report day 3 IGSA report day 4 IGSA report day 5 |
 |
Good Morning Goldendale... We we're invited for a breakfast with the Kiwanis Club and then had short interviews at the local radiostation. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
I thought Momos would be a good choice for Maryhill but my second timetrial run changed my mind. Picture from skate slate |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
The new helmet fits nicely. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
The racers introduction (top 12), note the scout on the left, singing the national anthem. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
The first race heat. The rubber band worked great. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
One of many young and fast riders. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
Cowzer. No hands down! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
The semi-final. The difference from the youngest to the oldest rider is about 30 years. After a long time without racing, Chris Chaput made it into the small final. Congratulations! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
Just one picture to show how close racing is at Maryhill. We're all fighting for 3rd place. I'm lucky and happy I made it. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
The final, filmed by Ross Baradoy | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
The podium: 1 Scott Smith - CAN 2 James Kelly - USA 3 Martin Siegrist - SUI 4 Mike McGoldrick - CAN 5 Mike Zietsman - RSA 6 Patrick Switzer - CAN 7 Mischo Erban - CAN |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
Enjoying the banked corners on GMR... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
... together with Mischo Erban and Erik Lundberg. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
Good times! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
Always those road signs. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
A space house somewhere on the Malibu hills. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
A beautiful sunset up on the Piuma Ridge. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
On the way back from LA to Portland we did a quick tourist and dinner stop in San Francisco. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Thanks to all the people who made this trip a crazy and wonderful experience. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Back to mrtn.ch | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||