News
Båstad Skate Games
Mikael Hadestrand, Peter Menke, and Jonas Wikström along with the city of Båstad on the west coast of Sweden are preparing an event for us all August 6-8 that surely merits your attention although it can no longer merit a true World Championships title.
Due to COVID no events in 2020 or 2021 will have the usual status assignments (Major, Main, Prime ...) instead we're doing national rankings 2021 from the events that are held. Our logic is that people can't really travel freely thus we cannot encourage international participation and potentially put people at risk of this pandemic. If you feel safe (vaccinated, taking appropriate precautions, ...), then go out and skate, travel to races, and get back to the pleasure of slalom racing!
Registration is now open at: https://wcsbs.com/event/wcsbs-2021/
See you in Båstad!
ISSA 25-cone World Series 2021/2022 #1
First weekend session of the second season of ISSA 25-cone World Series!
Note! Organizers of local spot events need to pre-register. Check deadline!
25-cone session weekend.
Saturday-Monday, Jun 19-21.
It is still hard to hold regular international slalom events. But with the 25-cone slalom discipline there is a way around this. It is the next best thing we can do for the moment to gather everybody and compete virtually. We compete together the same weekend, running the same course but on different places around the world.
1. Before event - Sub spot organizers:
Connect your local race to the "ISSA 25-cone World Series".
Note for organizers! Be aware of registration deadline!
2. Event weekend:
Racing the standardized 25-cone event and slalom course format at your local flat spot according to the common rules.
3. Register times and cones for all racers.
Note for organizers! Be aware of on-line result registration deadline. Time deadline is according to the time zone of each spot.
Top 3 results: Monday 23:55.
Complete results: Tuesday 23:55.
4. After event:
Tuesday evening, after last official event result registration, all racer results from around the world should be complete.
Rules, Results, Pictures and more info on the homepages.
Event homepage #1 - Event leaderboard #1
This year we're suggesting two courses, the first one being the original (unchanged) course set up first started by the NCDSA forum 20 years ago. The second course is a special slalom alternative that is challenging and requires additional skills, yet is easy to set up starting from the regular 25 cone course. Here's a description of how you set it up:
ISSA 25-cone World Series 2020/2021 #4
Fourth session of the ISSA 25-cone Slalom event!
Note! Organizers of local spot events need to pre-register before 1-month deadline.
Fourth session weekend.
Saturday and Sunday, Jan 23-24.
In these pandemic times it is hard to hold regular international slalom events. But with the 25-cone slalom discipline there is a way around this. It is the next best thing we can do for the moment to gather everybody and compete virtually. We compete together the same weekend, running the same course but on different places around the world.
1. Before event - Sub spot organizers:
Connect your local race to the "ISSA 25-cone World Series".
Note for organizers! Be aware of registration deadline!
2. Event weekend:
Racing the standardized 25-cone slalom course at your local flat spot according to the common rules.
3. Register times and cones for all racers.
Note for organizers! Be aware of on-line result registration deadline. Time deadline is according to the time zone of each spot.
Top 3 results: Sunday 23:55.
Complete results: Monday 23:55.
4. After event:
Monday evening, after last official event result registration, all racer results from around the world should be complete.
Rules, Results, Pictures and more info on the homepages.
Event leaderboard
Facebook event homepage
ISSA BOD 2021
Jani Söderhäll (SWE) - President
Maria Carrasco (USA) - Vice President and North America Status Marshal, head
Hans "Corky" Koraeus (SWE) - Ranking Supervisor
Joe McLaren (USA) - Secretary
Michal Subrt (CZE) - European Status Marshal, head
Janis Kuzmins (LAT) - BOD member
Bruno Silva Da Oliveira - BOD member
North American Status Marshals:
Maria Carrasco (USA)
Jack Andros (USA)
Chris Cousineau (CAN)
European Status Marshals:
Michal Subrt (CZE)
Tezzan Redman (SWE)
Lukas Mehler (GER)
South American Status Marshal:
Bruno Silva Da Oliveira (BRA)
Australian Status Marshal:
Bernie Griffiths (AUS)
ISSA Volunteers and specific responsibilities:
Jonathan Harms (USA) - Treasurer
Jonas "Yoda" Wikström (SWE) - ISSA YouTube Channel
Jean-Philippe Bouckaert (BEL) - ISSA Video Manager
ISSA 25-cone World Series 2020-2021 #3
Third session of the ISSA 25-cone Slalom event!
Note! Organizers of local spot events need to pre-register before 1-month deadline.
Third session weekend.
Saturday and Sunday, Oct 17-18.
In these pandemic times it is hard to hold regular international slalom events. But with the 25-cone slalom discipline there is a way around this. It is the next best thing we can do for the moment to gather everybody and compete virtually. We compete together the same weekend, running the same course but on different places around the world.
1. Before event - Sub spot organizers:
Connect your local race to the "ISSA 25-cone World Series".
Note for organizers! Be aware of registration deadline!
2. Event weekend:
Racing the standardized 25-cone slalom course at your local flat spot according to the common rules.
3. Register times and possible cones for all racers.
Note for organizers! Be aware of on-line result registration deadline. Time deadline is according to the time zone of each spot.
Top 3 results: Sunday 23:55.
Complete results: Monday 23:55.
4. After event:
Monday evening, after last official event result registration, all racer results from around the world should be complete.
Rules, Results, Pictures and more info on the homepages.
ISSA event homepage
Facebook event homepage
ISSA 25-cone World Series #2
We're repeating the June Covid-19 ISSA Cyber Slalom event! Let's make this even bigger and better.
Second virtual session weekend.
Saturday and Sunday, August 22-23.
1. Set up a 25-cone slalom course with your local friends.
2. Send in the results during the same weekend.
3. By Monday morning official results from around the world.
Rules, Results, Pictures and more info on the homepages.
ISSA event homepage
Facebook event homepage
ISSA 25-cone World Series
In these difficult times it's impossible to hold regular international slalom events. But with the 25-cone slalom discipline there is a way around this. It's the next best thing we can do for the moment to gather everybody and compete virtually.
First event kick-off during the "Go Skateboarding Day" weekend.
Saturday and Sunday, June 20-21.
1. Set up a 25-cone slalom course with your local friends.
2. Send in the results during the same weekend.
3. By Monday morning official results from around the world.
Rules, Results, Pictures and more info on the homepages.
ISSA event homepage
Facebook event homepage
COVID-19 - 2020 World Championships
COVID-19: Given the uncertainty of international travel at this time, there will be no ISSA World Championships in 2020. The event in Båstad is postponed to 2021, the exact date will be announced later this month.
There are still chances though that Båstad may host a race August 7-9 2020, just not the Worlds. Information will be available late June at which time the Swedish authorities are expected to raise the 50 person limitation to events. We are also awaiting approval from the local authorities on the support of this event.
COVID-19 - 2020 World Championships
With an announcement in early May we are giving a 3 month notice for Worlds 2020.
The same advance notice will be applied to any and all other Prime, Main or Major events in 2020, on all continents. As of now, we expect all Main and Prime status events planned for May, June and July will be cancelled and any race status granted withdrawn.
In early May we'll decide about the events in August and in early June we'll decide about the events in September.
For now, stay isolated, be careful and stay safe!
Michael Stride RIP (1964-2020)
The ISSA, along with the entire international slalom skateboard racing community, is deeply saddened at the news that Michael Stride passed away at the North London Hospice on Sunday February 23, following a lengthy and courageous battle against cancer. In a tribute posted on the UKSSA website, Michael’s longtime friend Rob Ashby wrote the following –
April 6, 1964 – February 23, 2020
I first met Michael around 1980 or 1981, when we were fresh-faced skaters at Southbank. Little did I know then what a pivotal role this happy-go-lucky chap, driving around in a yellow Triumph Spitfire, would ultimately play in the UK skate scene. Michael was an enthusiastic supporter of all things skateboarding. In recent years his online skate shop, Octane Sport, sponsored many Slalom and Downhill events, as well as a team of riders of all ages.
Michael’s first love was slalom. The international slalom renaissance of the early 2000s drew him to the annual World Championships in the States and to competitions throughout Europe. Historically the Brits have always been very good at tight slalom – where the cones are closely spaced together. In 2003 in Morro Bay, California, Michael beat Chris Barker to be crowned Amateur World Tight Slalom Champion.
When Sam Gordon first secured Hog Hill as a race venue, it was Michael who offered help – providing starting ramps, timing gear, speed guns, and prizes. This was a most welcome continuation of the support he had provided in years previous for the Wasteland series at Hillingdon Cycle Track. However he didn’t provide for just one event; Michael and Octane Sport were Hog Hill’s title sponsors for over eleven years!
Michael saw it as his duty as a skater to keep the stoke alive. At the start of the millennium, Michael was a decisive presence (along with Chris Linford and Mog and Barny from Brixton Cycles) at the UKSSA’s inaugural meeting, at the Punch and Judy pub in Covent Garden. Octane Sport was always the organization’s prime supporter.
Michael’s love of gadgets and “Heath Robinson” engineering led him to gradually amass a fair bit of eclectic timing equipment. When the word spread, Michael and kit were in demand. He timed everything – from Joel King’s (and Jason Bradbury’s) jet luge World Record attempts on “The Gadget Show,” to running the clock on Guy Martin’s street luge when he was in training for an attempt on the toboggan world speed record.
But his TV work didn’t end behind the scenes. He appeared as a judge on an episode of “Scrapheap Challenge” that tasked teams to build giant skateboards. Michael also proudly won a “Blue Peter” badge for coaching English television personality Helen Skelton (then co-host of the BBC children’s program “Blue Peter”), so that she could enter the Eastbourne Speed Days Downhill race as part of her very first “presenter challenge.”
Donning his engineering hat, Michael designed and produced a range of CNC trucks for slalom and LDP use. Octane Sport sold and distributed them under the Virage brand, and they were introduced to the international slalom scene in April 2009 at the Tunnel Race in Zurich.
Michael’s 50th Birthday present to himself was a Caterham 7 sports car, which was finished and tuned to an astonishing degree – just as he would have done with a skateboard. Michael joined the “7 Club” and made many like-minded technical friends at the group’s drives and rallies. He would turn up to slalom events with the Octane shop crammed into the Caterham’s passenger seat, with just a few bolts and bushings squeezed into the tiny boot space. In between races he would gleefully take people for a quick burn up round the block.
Everyone who knew Michael well has lasting images and fond memories of him. The news of his passing rapidly spread throughout the worldwide skate community. A testament to his much-loved character, a great many heartfelt and beautifully-written tributes immediately appeared on social media, capturing the various facets of his personality: generous, playful, witty (though never crude), irascible, yet always inclusive and considerate.
Thank you for your kindness, endless enthusiasm, encouragement… and above all for your friendship. I shall miss your terrible jokes and your trackside presence with the Ol’ Jalopy Shop – C7 SKT. Farewell Michael, and enjoy the ride.
Our most sincere condolences to Michael’s mother, sister Susan, and the rest of the Stride family.
– Rob Ashby
