COMET Rides Bonelli ‘09

bonelli corner

This years IGSA US Championship at Bonelli Park was an amazing and inspiring event for all riders who came out. Some of the best riders in the nation came to compete and skateboard with old and new friends. After a long 6 hour trip from the Bay Area to San Dimas, California, the Berkeley hill’s COMET riders reached their hotel and prepared for Saturday morning practice runs and prelims. After everyone got signed in and passed tech inspections, riders geared up and loaded in the back of 2 UHauls to start bombing the hill.

bonelli

Bonelli Park is basically a straight curvy drop, filled with cardboard boxes (for hopping over?), and one flat 90 degree righty that led into a mellow 50 yard drop to the finish line. Racers could get up to speeds of 40 - 45 mph easily on this hill, but taking the Abec-11 corner at that speed usually resulted in a mouth full of hay. Most riders found that either carving before the turn or throwing a quick foot break would help their line and give them a much faster exit speed out of the turn. After many gnarly spills and practice runs the officials marked the starting lines and queued up riders for prelim times.
During prelims you did not need to make a certain time to qualify. Riders times were used for bracketing the heats for race day. However, having a better prelim time would help your heat placement and gave you bonus points in the end. Team COMET riders Davis Vanessing and Blake Smith raced down with their times of 1:07 and 1:08 respectively. This put both team riders in the top 15 fastest prelim times, only seconds behind racers such as 2007 World Champion, Erik Lumberg, and 2008 US National Champion, Zak Maytum.

Prelims finished around 2 o’ clock and left a lot of daylight for the COMET team to do some exploration of the surrounding valley hills. After riding up GMR and trekking across miles of mountain tops the team made it to Mount Baldy. After bombing enough back-to-back hairpins to make you dizzy, the COMET Bomb Squad raced back towards GMR to make it before sundown. With just enough time for one epic bomb, team COMET charged down GMR while catching the end of sunset and a beautiful view of the city lit valley. After getting to the bottom of 9 mile GMR, it was time to go back to the hotel, enjoy jacuzzi "Story Time" and prank calling of old girlfriends… err, I mean lots of rest, especially for waking up at 6am to dawn patrol GMR.

Race Day: Tensions are high and excitement buzzed in the air as riders began mentally preparing for the race, literally visualizing every line they will take to hopefully win their heat. Blake was placed in the first heat against Sector 9 rider Erik Lumberg. Both riders had a by and raced down in a 1 v 1"End of Thrashin" like fight. Team COMET amazed everyone as Blake took first in his heat, capitalizing on an amazing starting push and a tight line around Abec-11 corner. Team rider Justin Bryant advanced 2nd in his first heat, following closely behind 2008 Champion Zak Maytum. After a few heats Blake Smith made it to the quarter-finals where he raced Rylin ‘Raggy" Englisher, Jeff Budro, and Erik Lumberg. As all four riders came hot into the Abec-11 corner, Raggy lost his balance and fell off his board, grabbing Jeff Budro on his way down. Blake came in 2nd behind Erik, however his position was given up to Jeff Budro who would have likely came in before Blake had he not been pulled down. Blake agreed to the ruling honorably and was just plain stoked to make it as far as he did. Blake was later officially placed 11th in the US National race. The final race was held between riders James Kelley, Micah Green, Andrew Chapman and Erik Lumberg. IGSA Spectators were stunned as Junior II racer Micah Green came in 2nd place, milliseconds behind Canadian rider Andrew Chapman. James Kelly and Erik Lumber raced down not far behind receiving 3rd and 4th respectively. COMET team rider Liam Morgan got first place in all of his Junior I heats and won the US National Junior I division. Congratulations Liam Morgan and everyone else who raced.

The entire weekend was an amazing success and everyone from spectators, to racers to pumas (a young Cougar) had a blast watching as skaters from around the world came to do what they love. More than winning the race itself, the friendships and bonds gained between racers was the most amazing thing that could happen. Everyone was stoked on skating with friends and seeing how much this sport has grown. This really bespeaks of where the heart of this sport lies. We are a community, a band of brothers and sisters, who all share the common goals of skateboarding, having fun and making new friends. I am honored to say that I am apart of this amazing community and that it is because of this community that our beloved sport is thriving and growing exponentially. If you are a skater and reading this, go out and thrash, do what you love. If you are not skater, give us a wave and a smile some time. We will undoubtedly wave back and do what we love to do to put a smile back on yours.

bonelli uhaul

This entry posted on Friday, November 20th, 2009 at 10:13 am and is filed under Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.