Cathlamet Downhill Corral

Sick Video! Can't wait to see the pics

For anyone who didn't get to see the writeup in the Longview sunday paper: http://www.tdn.com/articles/2009/08/30/area_news/doc4a9a104b36c63252243520.txt

Love Tad Drysdale's quote about what has now been nicknamed "Coffin Corner".

damn... glad to hear it went down relatively problem free! i will not be missing next year's race for anything.

That was an awesome article, thanks for finding that for us!

Did you notice the fantastic comments from the locals on that article? and I got a couple emails back from Chamber of Commerce folks:
Sandi: my husband and I were just looking at Casey's video on the Coast Longboarding message board -- give us a day or two and you'll see some messaging from us -- also, I will get you the contact info for the Shuttle driver and Dave Hicks from the PUD -- we should also send thanks to his boss --- he was not so sure until he saw the action and then made it work for videographers to go up. I am still grinning -- you are amazing as are your kids --- thank yous from us in progress. stay tuned, more to come.
Jennifer: Thanks so much for all of your hard work - people around here are already talking about next year! I had a blast and enjoyed talking to the racers...they were polite and interesting and probably have no idea how much they entertained us. Addison was fun to watch, too.
Please let us know when we can get together and talk about how we can make it even better next year. For now, I'm sure you would like to relax.

Now that I’ve had some time to catch my breath a little bit, I wanted to send out some thank you’s. Thanks to Billy, Skip, Alie, Eric, Jp, Jay, Robin, Rob McKendry for announcing (people raved about you), all the racers, all the sponsors, the town of Cathlamet. The Wahkiakum Chamber of Commerce was so amazingly helpful and supportive, they made this run much smoother than Billy and I could have done without their help. Billy ran an amazing race, kept everyone safe and organized. Skip did an amazing job with the trophies for slalom and ran it so smoothly! Btw, you’re hired for all the trophies next year! Thanks to Robin for all the schwag and for all the promotion help with front page on Eastside, and general advice. Jay and Eric for dealing with Mercado's fish guts and the composting toilets, Deano for all the advice in getting this off the ground, and my friend Alie for keeping me calm and wrapping up loose ends! Jp for the sound system and all the help with the website, and monitoring the hairy corner during the race! All the volunteers who helped with corners and hay, you were awesome and I can’t begin to thank you all enough. Of course all the sponsors for the prizes and their generosity.

Everyone seems to agree the course is better than the pics I took made it look. I can’t wait to see more pictures and video. Hopefully the stuff from the PUD truck will turn out (I still can’t believe they provided that for us!). Obviously all you goofy guys need to practice your toe side pre drifts for next year. Any suggestions for next year are welcome. I know we’ve talked about a slide competition, maybe making the downhill a two day event, possibly using Columbia as a giant slalom course, a dock dive of some sort… Feedback about both campsites has been pretty positive, but the Chamber would prefer we use the marina – they say they will cut us a group discount next year. Oh and I think you all believe me now about everything in town being within walking distance!

After we finished with hay Saturday night, Addison went by the firehouse on the way back to the cabin. By the time Alie and I caught up, they were asking him questions about the race and equipment, but at least one of them said they didn’t think this was a good idea and didn’t endorse the race. However, towards the end of the race, that same paramedic tracked Addison down and said that she was a convert and she could see how much control you all have of your boards and all the efforts we all take to keep safe – from equipment to hay bales and corner marshals. He also had a conversation with a local kid who was really stoked, but kept asking ‘why Cathlamet?’. Addison gave him a couple answers and finally went with “well, you’ve got a really sweet hill!”

Oh and I found out why Addison’s board was making so much noise on his last run, and why I radioed for someone to have him check it. Turns out he had lost the nut to his kingpin. Kind of amazing the whole thing didn’t come apart on him mid run. So once again, thank you all so much for your help!

No, Thank you Judy.

This was an awesome race and it was mega cool to see the community so stoked about it.
Definitely liking the slide comp next year, and I'm already putting a couple bucks aside for next year.


word up from the turd up.

and yes.
Those toesides for me were terrible.