Switchbacks Slippery-Slowfest Race

9AM December 7th, rain or snow it's still a go!

Newly Repaved Switchbacks from Casey Morrow on Vimeo.

You know, I just may have a chance if it's a slow race...weee!

We rode it in the rain today for the first time and holy shit it is going to be so fun! Soooooooo slowwwwwwww but the corners are hilarious! You have to drift quite a bit at full speed (6.5mph) surprisingly but it will take like 5 minutes to get down the whole run, I am stoked!

Switchbacks in the Rain from Casey Morrow on Vimeo.

sounds like an appropriate name.

hellz yes! this should be fun.

The starting line will be right at that opening where you can see the finish line, which will be halfway across that big cement square with the manhole in it. You can see that spot from all the major view points on the road. It will be one push and then you're only allowed to push if you go off the road, once you get back on the road. And if there are any disputes over that still not being enough handicap you can rematch.

It will probably be a group format, where you are put in a group with 3 other guys and you each go up and race 1-on-1 at your own pace in whatever order you want. 2 riders advance from each group.

THERE WILL ALSO BE A STANDUP CATEGORY, HAND DOWN, YOU'RE OUT! The course is literally so slow in the rain that I think the majority of people will be able to try this comfortably. None of the $$$ will go towards this, sorry Billy!

If there are 4 or more people that want to race sitting on their ass there will be a buttboard category. Also no money towards this, sorry Jon!

If anyone can't race it would be nice to have someone to say GO and someone at the finish line.

I was considering doing qualifying to get everyone in some sort of seeded order, so the groups aren't as stacked hopefully, but I don't know if it's necessary. It would take longer and you'd have to do a run alone and wait for every person ahead of you to get all the way to the bottom every time. Does anyone care enough or do you just want to get to riding?!

Can anyone provide a couch or a floor either the 5th or the 5th and 6th for Shaner and I? We're trying to come down and make it as cheap as possible? call me up if you can. Appreciated! 360.440.8958

Here are some more specific directions to the race on Sunday.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&saddr=45.52,-122.687931&daddr=SW+Sacajawea+Blvd&hl=en&geocode=%3BFSmXtgIdW7mv-A&mra=dme&mrcr=0&mrsp=0&sz=15&sll=45.52018,-122.688274&sspn=0.022401,0.038624&ie=UTF8&z=15

Basically if you're coming from I-5, (N or S, doesn't matter) follow the signs to I-405, which is just a alternate that breaks off of I-5, goes through downtown Portland and then rejoins.

When you're going through downtown, from the North, take the Burnside/Couch exit
stay straight off the ramp until you get to a T, which is Salmon
take a right on Salmon and follow it all the way to the top to where it splits into a 1 way in Washington Park. At one point Salmon does a right-left kink, just keep following Salmon up the hill.
At the top of Salmon the hill ends and it flattens out to a T, the left in oncoming traffic, stay to the right
take the next left at the T, parking spots are all along the right side of the road here, this is the top of switchbacks down the embankment
Go a few hundred feet farther down the road and on the right there will be a road with do not enter signs and fresh blacktop, we'll be there.

If you're coming from the South on I-405, take the PGE Park/Salmon/14th exit, take the next 2 lefts that you can and then a right onto Salmon, follow it to the top the same as the directions above. It's really less complicated than it sounds but I really want everyone to make it!

If worst comes to worst call me, 503 936 6525,

- Casey

nice job casey! kudos to jeremy and julian too. good times in the rain!

That was way fun guys!

The Seattle Crew was slaughtering everybody and almost all of them ended up in the finals, big ups to Kyle who I don't know but was knocking guys out all day, big ups to Julien who MADE IT TO FINALS WITHOUT RAIN WHEELS ?!!!!!!!!!? Big ups to Evan who was a newb yesterday that made it down the hill once, and today was smoking people left and right without rain wheels. Big ups to Dave Hendrickson for bombing down the hill on a roller skate, I didn't see it in person but I just saw it on video and holay shiat! CORY POOLE, HAHAHAAHAHA! ROBOBOARD! Cory had an 8 wheeled lead tank that he was sailing around on, since when does Cory do downhill?! And same with Larry?! The dude was drifting those corners like he was in it for the money! I could go on and on, everyone was stepping it up, Salem crew, Beavtron crew, Seattle crew, PDX crew, it was sick!

Man I've got a bunch of people to thank I am going to have a hard time remembering all of them...

Thanks Chris and Jon for filming, you guys got some sick footage!
Thanks Skip for the badass board holder/hardware station/sick art piece!
Thanks Robin and JP for bringing tents and tables and keeping everyone dry when the rain started up!
Thanks all who came a long ways to slide around in the rain, it wouldn't have been anywhere near as fun without everyone that was hucking themselves off every corner!
Thanks Judy for hot chocolate!
Thanks Billy for spending his prize money on a bunch of pizzas for everyone after the race!
Thanks Oregon for being sunny and below freezing one day and rainy and warm the next.
THANKS EVERYBODY for doing an awesome job self-organizing, getting things done without any hangup, being cool to each other and the few pedestrians that we ran into, and thank you for coming in the first place!

There are more of you I wanted to thank specifically but I can't remember you all, thanks if I forgot you!

I think the finals was

1. Casey
2. Billy
3. Jeremy
4. Julien

Err wait, did Julien get 3rd? Man I can't remember it was too crazy.

Billy slipped off the push in some pine needles, just like Bonnelli, then Jeremy with his magic rain wheels and Julien with his NOT RAIN WHEELS took off on us, 2 wide into the first left. Jeremy caught his hand on the inside gravel and came to a stop, Julien carried all his speed and was hauling into the 2nd corner, me and Billy were close but a bit behind Julien, and he was doing nothing but accelerate away. Julien couldn't hold the right hander and went off the road, me and Billy carried our speed through and were all alone for the last corner! At this point I realized how fucking soaked I was and yelled something at Billy about it and he acknowledged that it was unpleasant as we crossed the finish line. Then we got pizza.

Good game fools!

I'm trying to take some pictures of all the groups but my camera needs to unfog first.

Top 7 (yeah, 7, don't ask) was

Jeremy
Casey
Kyle
Billy
Shane
Cory
Julien

Then to narrow that down it was 2 heats that 2 people advanced from.

Casey
Jeremy
Kyle

and

Billy
Shane
Cory
Julien

After I take pictures of the brackets you'll get more of an idea how everyone else did.

This is the original groupings. Top 2 from each group advanced, bottom two got knocked into lower brackets.



Round 1 of upper bracket, top 2 advanced, bottom knocked into lower.



Round 1 of lower bracket, top 1 advances to merge with 2 that get knocked out of upper bracket.



Round 2 of upper bracket.



Round 2 of lower bracket. Somewhere here I got confused and left Jordan and Cory out, maybe more people I'm not sure. Sorry!



Round 3 of lower bracket. Shane and Julien advance to battle the winners of the upper bracket.



Round 3 of upper bracket and final 4.

Good luck understanding that, you should have seen how confusing it looked when it was just pictures of the whole sheet of paper!

John B. posted these at Eastside Longboards

JohnB wrote:

Those were awesome Casey! Thanks!

Yet again Casey, you managed to put together one hell of a race. McNarly and Switchbacks were my favorite two events this season.

Posted by mikenike605 at Eastside Longboards

mikenike605 wrote:I have pictures from this weekend. If you want me to send you pictures with better resolution just PM me withEmail address.
post them if you got them.

Switchbacks Slippery Slowfest - Finals from Casey Morrow on Vimeo.

i love oregon.