West LA College, California, November 2000

(Scott Peer courtesy of USA Roller Sports)

"Racers were greeted by warm and sunny weather at the final races of the 2000 International Gravity Sports Association (IGSA) Westwood Ski and Sports Club race series. "
-Scott Peer

"Practice started in the morning on all three streets, with riders being able to choose which event to practice first. Then the races started just before noon, with practice continuing after the races on each street. "
-Scott Peer

This Buttboard course features a steep, straight, fast start. At 40+mph racers drop into a parking lot where they "coast" the rest of the ever tightening turns around parking islands and cones. Every turn is fast enough to require braking or sliding.

Photo from Dave Auld's event coverage

Chris McBride recounts his experience into the first turn:

"This was only my second time on a butt board. I kept reaching forward with my hand to turn, much as I do on my streetluge. This is not a good idea on the butt board. The second time it happened I ended up hitting the island in the center of the parking lot. These islands having about a three foot pile of dirt in them. I knew I was going to hit, although I was still trying to turn. I figured I would slam into the dirt. Well I hit the island, and moments later I saw pavement flying buy underneath me. My first thought was "Wow I cleared the island." My second thought was, "wow this is going to hurt. "

A safety lesson can be learned from the high speed impact which threw Chris several yards.
Because the buttboard is not dropped, it was high enough to slide Chris's tailbone OVER THE TOP of the curb. Chris was smart enough to get his hands and feet above the curb line as well. The "burn" seen on the deck is from the sudden acceleration of his leathers. His metal trucks snapped off when they hit the concrete, but Chris's spine did not.
Merely dazed, Chris was able to continue racing on a replacement board.

Photo from Chris McBride's event coverage

"The field was exceptionally strong, with riders coming from as far away as Boston and Washington State to enjoy the friendly racing atmosphere and pleasant southern California weather."
-Scott Peer

This was a great event for sport cross-overs.

(Right) John Gilmour (Slalom King) leads Dave Rogers (Street Luge King )and Lee Dansie (Speedboarding King) across the transition boards.Lee shocked everyone by winning practice rounds on his giant slalom board!
(photo by Dave Auld)

So I decide the loosen the trucks, but still did not have a good idea on the line required. I had the hole shot again....and psyched I hit the wooden transition boards at the bottom, but had over loosened the trucks and caught the wobs...took about 20 feet to fix that, but now I was late into the turn..... that would make me go wide at the end-----but to my horrors everyone was to the outside of me already. My apologies to the guy I took out- thankfully no injuries for the both of us as we really smacked hard along the whole sides of our bodies and he was launched off his board. Not wanting to be a dick, I didn't sprint to the finish- and apologized as I really shouldn't have entered- but I did have a lot of fun- and this did inspire me to get back into Luging/butt boarding again. I choose D. Lott's LUGE SURVIVAL GUIDE for one of my prizes. You can imagine me chuckleing on the plane ride home reading it when I got to the rules section and saw EXACTLY my crash outlined graphically in the book. For such a short book there is a lot of useful info crammed into it. Thanks DL. Mental note to self---read it a couple times more..and actualy practice and run the course at low speed first. ;
-John Gilmour

"It would be hard to pick a faster group of riders for a classic skateboard (buttboard) race. The difference between advancing and being eliminated was often a few feet.
In the end,
Darren Lott, the tireless promoter of the sport and world speed record holder triumphed, with Dave Rogers squeaking ahead of Bob Ozman for second place."
-Scott Peer

Not only was the finish determined by inches, the lead swapped places several times as the finalists went through the last turn.
(photo by Chris McBride)

John Cazin felt a little rusty during practice and so volunteered to shoot the racing with Darren's video camera.

Darren edited the digital footage in iMovie, producing this Quicktime file. (It's a big download - 3 meg) Click on the picture to the right to download it.

It shows the very close racing and the few fun non-inury crashes.

(The "Interesting Special Effects" sounds are the actual sounds slowed with the footage. )

1. Darren Lott
2. Dave Rogers
3. Bob Ozman
4. Jason Johnson

5. Pat Moody
5. Bazzle Baz
7. Chris Chaput
7. Rob Ruhman
9. Dave Auld
9. John Rogers
11. Lee Dansie
11. John Gilmour
11. Chris McBride
11. Scott Peer
11. Earle Ross

DNS. John Cazin
DNS. Brad Edwards
***17 competitors*

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Darren Lott ©2001