It’s that time again everybody, I hope youre all SUPER stoked! This year the King of Clermont has returned and will feature 2 days of pure skating GNARNESS! This year we plan on having a slide jam, biggest air, kick the can aka longest slide, gnar slalom, and of course the main event downhill skateboarding.

Riders may either register for both days or just one
Both day registration: $50 (Oct 28 – Nov 13) or $60 (Nov 14 – Jan 14)
Single day registration: $30 (Oct 28 – Nov 13) or $35 (Nov 14 – Jan 14)

*If you pay for single day freeride you are registered for ALL events but are not obligated to participate in every event.*

Registration will be as follows:
Open (17 and above)
Grom (16 and below)
Womens

Schedule:
Saturday January 14th 2012

9:00am – Rider meeting and registration
11:00am – Hill opens for freeride (MUST be registered before riding)
12:00pm Gnar Slalom
2:00pm – Hard Wheel slide comp (30 min Jam Session)
2:30pm – Soft Wheel slide comp (30 min Jam Session)
3:00pm – Kick the Can AKA Longest Slide
3:30pm – Biggest Air
4:00pm – Hill open for freeride
6:00pm – Hill closed

Sunday January 15th 2012

9:00am – Rider meeting and registration
10:00am – Hill open for practice (MUST be registered before riding)
12:00pm – First heat begins
3:00pm – Finals *Hill closed for riding after finals*
4:00pm – Awards

*EVENT RULES*

-ALL RIDERS AND RACERS MUST HAVE SIGNED WAIVER AND BE WEARING A HELMET AND GLOVES!!!! NO EXCEPTIONS! IF YOU ARE SEEN NOT WEARING A HELMET YOU WILL BE ASKED TO LEAVE!

-No Alcohol, Beer, Booze, Moonshine, Liquor or anything of that nature is allowed on, around or near the race course. This is a family event and I DO NOT want to deal with underage drinking or drunken idiots. I am liable for what happens so if I or anyone of the volunteers sees you drinking we will ask you to leave!

-No Weed, Marijuana, Pot, Dope, Yoda Broccoli, Devils lettuce etc. Same as above…I dont need to deal with this at the event.

*Please stay tuned for more details as they are subject to change*

Hope everyone is STOKED!

Cam Brick from Onterrible land started this site. At first I was skeptical about it but it’s actually really cool. It’s made me watch a lot of videos that I wouldn’t have seen otherwise or would have not paid any mind to before. Props on the site dude!

Heavy in the Streets (HITS) Longboarding was created to fill a
void. We noticed there were no other sites where people could come from all over the world to share videos. Sure, there are other sites with skate videos, but ours services as a massive archive that is constantly being updated. When the site launched just a few weeks ago, we had 2500 videos, and now we have over 4000. We don’t care if you’re sponsored or not – we care about the progression of the sport and that’s how we pick the videos for the front page. We want people to have an easy way to post their videos and get exposure while being able to check out other skaters from around the world with new tricks and different styles.

First I need to thank Dan Oliver for his time and effort into putting this on. It means so much to the entire community that you are willing to put this on again regardless of losing money last year and getting yanked around by the town. We all appreciate your hard work and the work of all the other volunteers so much.

Bainbridge, Ohio is a town you’ll never visit ever in your life. You have absolutely zero reasons for coming here other than Soldiers of Downhill. But that is the best reason you could ever have for going to a tiny town that offers nothing to passers by. Soldiers is the fastest race course in the U.S. and one of the most technical. When you combine those two aspects it is probably the most gnar race course in the U.S. So why weren’t you there? It’s a little hard to get to but I drove 9 hours by myself through the night and then 9 hours home. Needless to say I didn’t make it to work on Monday but this event is that worth it.

Bainbridge is typical small town America and it’s an eye opening experience for people that aren’t used to it. The Virginia downhill guys spend the majority of our skate trips in places like this so we’re kind of used to it but man I love the Queebs reaction to Murrrica. The town doesn’t even really like the race particularly. Someone almost started a fight with Buono outside the bar after calling the racers “queers.” Regardless of this we hit the town hard. The skating is great but for some reason this town brings out the rowdyness in everyone. The one honky tonk bar we went to got inundated with skaters yelling and cheersing everything while old locals jumped on the table dancing or humping. Buono made out with a mom and daughter that night. Corn fields were run through, under age kids were fucked with at a house party, it’s kind of insane. Congrats to Georges for not winning the party again this year, I’m proud of you!

The course demands your respect though. I’m not sure how many people I saw go into the hay but I’d guess all of them or at least close. Niko probably didn’t crash all weekend but he’s a beast and that’s why he ended up on top of the podium. I never hit hay at all on Saturday but because of stupidity I fell trying to look good for the Team Quebec camera at the fastest part of the course coming out of the chicane where you should not fall because of how bad it could be. Sometimes you need those 55mph crashes to keep you in check and remind you of the consequences of your actions. Sometimes that shit goes worse like it did for Jraw. Hitting hay head first at 55mph is no way to go through life and it was the scariest speedboard crash I’ve seen in person. The eruption of hay was incredible and it gave Jeremy the worst concussion I’ve ever seen. Having to explain what happened to him every five seconds was so painful. Hopefully this new head trauma will get his sense of smell back though. Send your love to Jraw as he heals up, but I also heard that he skated the Harrisburg gnar on the Monday after like a fucking lunatic.

Racing happened and was fun. There’s probably awesome highlights that should be mentioned but I don’t really care about racing that much. Racing this run in general is gnar as shit no matter who you are, going into these turns in a pack is heavy. Things that you should note though are that: 1) Will Royce is from Florida and faster than you plus shreds street harder than you can skate downhill so check yourself. 2) Will Seal stepped shit up and put on his big boy leathers and got a couple rounds further than I did and I can’t wait to see that kid skating next summer and blowing minds. 3) Jraw has been killing it at races this year and needs to travel off the east coast and go show his steezy ass off else where and get some recognition. No one was sliding as stylishly as the mofo.

To see all the awesome photos and where that video came from check out www.teamquebec.org

Results:

1. Niko Desmarais
2. AJ Haiby
3. Mike Jakoop
4. Will Royce

Broadway Bomb weekend was incredible. Ohio was…insane. Recaps of those will be up soon but in the mean time check some of the slide action from before the Bomb. Take note of how much more style Steve Kong has than anyone else you see ride a skateboard and I don’t just mean in this video.

I’m not sure how many headlines have gone through my head while thinking about writing a recap of this past weekend. Best Event Ever is pretty up there but in the end it all comes down to how grateful I am for having such incredible people as a part of our community as Will, Jake and Tom (in no particular order). They set the bar so high with this event that I don’t think Dean would want to top it and his freerides are probably the most hooked up you could get. Anyway, you guys rocked it so hard and if there is anything you ever need I’m sure anyone will take care of you.

photos: Olivier Seguin Leduc via Team Quebec

I got out of work at 5:30pm on Friday and had a load of laundry in the drier from the morning but nothing packed. While halfway out of town, on my way to borrow a gopro case I realized that I had no sleeping bag or quality sweatshirt or jacket. I was smart enough to remember extra clothes, socks and shoes because of rain in the forecast and that was more crucial than anything else. I said fuck it and went on my way. Hell, I made it through a week in New Mexico with just a backpack and a weekend in Portland/Washington with that same backpack so I should be fine with a car and great friends that are more like extended family than acquaintances through skating.

The six hour drive from Ithaca, NY to Burlington, VT landed me at Will and Jakes at 1a.m. with the party slowly dying and just in time to say good night to Jake. Jraw was on the porch with a beer to greet me and that turned the night into morning way quicker than you think is possible. I think we got to sleep around 5:30 and in the blink of an eye the gray, overcast light burned through the fog of my eyelids as morning shuffling flooded my ear canals. Two hours of sleep after a night of consumption is rough to skate on although fairly standard it seems but then throw in the cold rainy fall day and you’re just kind of pissed. But not this time because after a wonderful breakfast at a local espresso bar with the French Canadians there was coffee, muffins, cheese and clementines waiting under the cover of popup tents on the race hill. There was a selection of coffee at that, and not shit that tastes like ass that you get from the gas station or 7-11, but the real genuine indulgent coffee that my tastes are acquiring from the northern regions.
read more… (more…)