ISSA - International Slalom Skateboarding Association

DaveG,
That sucks. Prayers for him and his family...

Q

Cupp Run rules! Is that UFO-looking house still at the top of the mtn, DaveG?
-dillon

Jack Q,
I've got to go up a day early..a 14 yr old hit the post and died! Cupp Run is the proof in the puddin' That mandates youngsters riding where they don't belong!! What is soo hard for parents to "parent" their offspring??

I usually don't wonder any further than Cupp when it's open! The year they replaced the lift was a monu"mental" move for skiing! (east or west) The fast icy shtuff and a double fall line and 1500 + ft. ! The back side of the mountain is newly repaved and will be an epic venue for some slalom courses in the "off" season Ohm and I spoke of this last year and I plan to persue it! Vlad..I can probably get you lifts for Canaan and Timberline as well
Merry XMas all!

Vlad Popov wrote:Canaan, Timberline, Wisp and Seven Springs.

Cup Run (gasp) & Widowmaker are 2 of the best trails on the East Coast.

Happy and Merry!

haha WV! well 2/4 anyway...

Cupp Run from top to bottom, what a blast! Takes me back to my days @ WVU.

Q

Canaan, Timberline, Wisp and Seven Springs.

Cup Run (gasp) & Widowmaker are 2 of the best trails on the East Coast.

Happy and Merry!

Vlad,
Are you @ Snowshoe? I'll probably be staying on top weds. thurs maybe fri as well! I've got "connections" But will be on planks.

No, Mike, not yet. It's too cold to skate

Snowboarding in WV till next year.

Happy Holidays.

Vlad, did you find the new hill? Did you like it?

Merry Christmas!

Slappy i saw that run at robinson you were talking about when i had to go play pepband for our horrible defeat in the regional game i think it was whenever it was oakton went and played them and it was a big deal but i said to a friend this would be a great hill to ride and now i see this. Small world eh?

They have also closed the right side ramp of Union Station parking garage. It faces the front towards the Capitol. It has a decent pitch and length.

congrats LBK,

and SLAPPY! funny that you're emerging from hibernation right now... I've been meaning to give you back your indies.

Another spot which is pretty fun is 16th and Hamilton (sort of)--the parking lot adjacent to the tennis stadium on Rock Creek Park. It's right down the street from my house and sports many possibilities for skate terrains. the lot is pretty deserted on the weekends except for the Ethiopian and Latin American folks practicing their parking. Slope is not that great, but the surface is okay, and would be fun for mellow runs and duals pumping-type practice course. Also a staging ground for street skating --lots of cool little grindable spots and ledges, and there's a corkscrew downhill run to the bottom of Rock Creek park. Looks like fun, but I haven't fully scouted it yet. Mellow spot, but tons of fun.

Cheers,

Rene.

hey way to go dave thats great dude. Congrats

congrats LBK!!!

Q

Slappy,

We are in Guatemala City and I thought for a second that the NHL was back in play but then I noticed the year on your prior post.

Newest DC slalomer is heading back to town Tuesday, 2 month old Juan David Riordon.




DR

I knew if I went back far enough there would be a semi-useful thread that is post appropriate.

I found a spot at Robinson Sec. School (Home of the Champions). The road that goes around the school is a giant U. The part of the road that goes to the back has a gate that is closed off to cars. Pretty nice pitch and very wide (enough for quads). I'd say its about Walker steep but longer and and up hill runout. It is also lit with street lamps but I wouldn't advise until its run a few times during the day.

I don't think its a bust. There is usually a bunch of Indians playing street cricket in the back of building on weekends.

I can't tomorrow evening. I'm seeing the Caps play the Ducks.
Thursday is cool.

Let's explore it this week. Tomorrow?

Hey Vlad (and interested NV'ers),

We were discussing covered winter spots to practice cyber slalom spots at Manassas over the weekend. I found, actually remembered, a spot behind Fairfax Station Shopping Center right off RT.123 by the intersection of Burke Centre Parkway (and the Fairfax County Parkway). The strip mall has a second hidden parking level underneath it with an auto shop. The parking section is hardly used since it's hidden. It's also very well lit.

I'd like to go, buy i have classes tomorrow till 5:30. What time were you guys planning on going?

Hey Michael,

Call me if you want to ride some hills around Adams Morgan / Kalorama. Myself, Doug Dupin and Ricardo Meade are hitting it tomorrow. My # is 202-607-1495. Anyone else is more than welcome. Nothing too heavy. Fun runs w/ no cars.
Also guys, Ricardo is going back to Mexico in a few weeks, so it would be fun to get a crew together one nite to ride and watch video from the race. Ricardo is one of the most skate-stoked people you will ever meet and is a pleasure to ride with. How about it??

I just got back from a trip on my board. First of all, i was crossing the key bridge and about 3/4 of the way across my front truck fell off... gotta love sector 9 quality. Haha, anyway, so i put it back together and found the biking / running paths that follow the river up towards downtown. The paths dont have many hills but it was ok for cruising. I crossed the river after a while and went to the jefferson memorial and then the washington monument. I came home the same way. All in all it was a pretty good ride. It could have used a lot more downhilll and a lot less pushing tho.

Michael, I'd check out the area around Dumbarton Oaks and the area that borders Rock Creek Park. K street under the Whitehurst Freeway is a good night and rain spot for flatland stuff.

Parking garages are also great spots to ride. I haven't ridden too much in the Georgetown campus so I'm not sure which ones are good.

I do know the George Washington University parking garage behind the hospital has excellent pavement and a nice spiral ramp in the center.

Michael--

Georgetown has some pretty okay hills... My advice would be just go out and explore in your neighborhood. Half the fun is the discovery!

Hey, I'm in D.C. too. I'm at Georgetown. Come October, I'm gonna be replacing my weak comet 2 with 44 inch fibreflex pintail, so I'll be itching for some good places to ride... do you guys know of any good places within walking/riding distance from Georgetown campus? thanks

hidy folkses,

well--I checked out the ft. dupont parking lot. Very nice surface, very very mild slope, not as big as the satellite picture made it out to be. Bummer.

However, there are a ton of kick-a$$ mountain bike trails winding around the woods. And the Ft. Davis Drive road is just a blessing for downhillers. about a mile and a half of smooth downhill, and the mass ave. intersection now has a four way stop. Bonus!

vlad was asking about smooth concrete in D.C. before he took a header into the long cheesegrater known as RFK--

The smoothest surface that I can think of would be the open-air roller skating rink in Anacostia waterfront park. I can post directions if you are interested. It's about ice-rink size, maybe bigger. Probably not big enough for 100 cones, but more than ample for a pump-fest. And if you fall, you might not need stitches.

If I don't work tomorrow, I'm back on the hunt for a proper DC slalom spot. This time, I will pace off the finds so everyone knows the exact dimensions.

slappy's spot sounds really cool, though.

Hey Anthony!

Sure would love to take you up on your offer, but I'm afraid my downhilling ineptitude and lack of body leathers/full-face helmet might be kind of a drag on ya. I posted on the NCDSA "Riding Locations" about Fort Dupont drive starting from Pa Ave. --it is a sweet, and really, really long downhill. I was riding my bike, and had to turn around--just seemed to go on forever! It's a bit on the narrow side at one lane per direction, maybe, but the pavement is surprisingly nice, winds through beautiful parkland, not too too much traffic--and the major intersection is taken up with construction. other bonus is a shorter but equally nice branch road (left) through the park shuts gates at dusk (night riding and no cars!!) For all you slalomers, I was trying to find the aforementioned parking lot, but I got lost. I will try again with a map maybe this weekend.

Update on the former democratic national committee/ national democratic club on Ivy St.
The sweet little spot is open for business. Skated there two Sunday nights in a row, have the blessing of some of the neighbors and the cops. Capitol Hill police cruised up to me and said he doesn't mind the skating as long as we don't do "any crazy things like grinding or anything." If you go, just try and use common sense and respect--be somewhat civil, mark the cones with chalk, not paint, etc, and watch out for snowplow damage on the right. Make it a bust, and I will kick your bum.

LBK, I would visit RFK lots for sure. It is rough, but it's also pretty fun, esp. with soft wheels. If only I had a digital camera...

Damn, It's my first day up here and I'm reading a discussion on bombing hills in S.E. Let's go! I'll show you every run I know and we'll find some others. For starters, take Naylor Rd. down from the top and make the right down to Minnesota Ave. That run is a blast. Also, find Moten School on the map and follow that down to Stanton Rd. Many others that have not yet been catalogued. Call me @ 202-607-1495. Also, I've got some good contacts at DC Sports Commision which is based at RFK. They asked me the feasibility of having an event in the parking lot. I was obviously looking for a stand-up spot, so I passed. Right now though, they are in a good bit of hot water over the Grand Prix flap. They might not be feeling very progressive. Still, we can try.

Jeff, sounds good to me. There has to be some good hills nearby. The only thing I ever skated in Annandale about 20 years ago was the Annandale Ramp.

Hope to see you at the first Outlaw Series Race next weekend at the G-burg P&R.

David I don't have a street address.But it's on Ravensworth rd which runs between 236 (Little River Turnpike) and Braddock rd in Annandale(just east of 495). I know you live in Fairfax co. If you want to meed some where I could show you all my old hot spots. Just starting to get back into skating after a 25 year hiatus.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Jeff Boswell on 2003-04-20 19:36 ]</font>

Jeff, can you post up the address of that hill in Annandale? That way I can drive by it or at least check out what it looks like via the Fairfax County web page that has property parcel maps photos from the air above it.

See the we page for yourself:
http://www.co.fairfax.va.us/dta/re/propadd.asp

I know a good hill in Annandale Va unfortunately they have installed speedbumps at the bottom. They have a gate at the top of the hill so traffic from behind is not a problem. It still is good for longboad carving. It's at a church but they have never ran out before.

The other week I got an aerial view of DC by helicopter. I took some videotape of the metro area. Other than a good bird’s eye view of RFK (place has potential), I did spot a huge empty left hand kidney pool in Great Fall, VA.

Off topic but this is funny, I was out snowboarding Summit County, Colorado a few days after my DC helicopter ride and an old friend of mine, David Clark, says to me, “problem is there are no hills to skateboard, Denver is flat”. Dave then schooled me and Steeb on the mountain. The way he charges it on a snowboard, no wonder he thinks Denver is “flat”. I guess one man’s hill is another man’s mellow slope. By the way, Dave is an old DC skater that would kill it on a slalom skateboard if he tried it.

hee hee!

well, well, well, there is a *huge* parking lot at the top of fort dupont park. Don't know about pavement or grade--I will go scout it out and report back when I have the time.

Just thought I would share this little scouting tip with y'all that I didn't know before--Mapquest has a neat little function--when you call up your map of whatever, click on the "aerial photograph" tab, and lo and behold--if not high resolution, at least enough to make out major features, and even maybe the discerning eye can catch pavement quality.

went by the now defunct Democratic National Club HQ sweet butter lot just to see what the winter had done. It wasn't too bad. Downgraded from A++ to maybe A-/B+ due to crud on the surface and it looked like snow plow damage, but still a hell of a lot of fun for a nightime skate/slalom. Ivy and New Jersey (I think) SE. Ivy St. SE for sure. Check it out if you're in the neighborhood. Hell, check it out during the day, too.

Will report on Anacostia spots soon.

The RFK racetrack is a good spot for a very mellow longboard race.
The rest of the lots there are a little too rough for my taste.
The one bonus about using the track is that even if there was a soccer game at RFK you could still have a race because of the barriers.
Anacostia is nothing like it was in the late '80s. I've scouted it out alone a few times and never felt sketched. I've wondered about the area near the fire academy. There is also a trail used by mountain bikers that connects all the historic forts in SE. There could be a paved road that goes up to one of the forts.

The National Arboretum off of NY Ave does look like a great spot. I've always thought it would have a high bust factor.

Of course FedEx field is probably the ultimate spot for a longboard race.

Really? Well, that is *very* sad about your friends, and I'm sorry that those things happened to people you know.

Having said that, I do have to take exception with that depiction of the neighborhood around RFK as it stands today, especially the streets further south of East Capitol--E St. is what I usually ride. It's more a black working-class neighborhood than a crack-riddled slum or anything. There are some "bad dudes" around (i.e.: dreaded guy I saw fondling a flick knife along 7th) but if you keep to yourself and keep skating, people are pretty cool. One guy even freaked out a bit that his pit ran out to chase my board. I also have to say that I've been living here two years, I skate through that area on a pretty regular basis, often after midnight, my wife who is small and cute, as well as sundry pasty professionals and housewives walk their dogs to the cemetery through there alone pretty often, and I know a skinny big hair white boy who lives not three blocks from RFK. I have never, ever had a problem (knock on wood), aside from being called Tony Hawk, and people asking me to do tricks ("jump over that car!")--the prisoners at D.C. jail were actually really nice about it, they even applauded and said "thanks" after I did a wee boneless for them.

This is not to say you shouldn't lock your car, eh?

Like I said, you should come on down and do a dry run and see how you feel about the spot. For those really worried, you can park at new carrolton or whatever metro is closest in the burbs and take the blue/orange line metro to D.C. armory, which is right across the way from RFK. It's usually deserted.

As for Anacostia, I'll report back on the status of the parks when I get around to going there. The neighborhood around the banks at Carr elementary *is* pretty sketch.

Yeah, well... to each their own. I guess, as more of a suburbanite, I've never really been able to accept that a street two blocks away constitutes a different neighborhood. Bullets, careening nocturnal car thieving joy riders, and the occasional desperately fiending crackhead all have ranges that tend to exceed a few city blocks. However, what would I know? I've only had two dear family friends (elderly) killed in the neighborhood immediately bordering the RFK parking lots, and one permanently disfigured (slashed with a razor) in broad daylight in one of Anacostia's "better" neighborhoods. Not to mention coming home from a late night limo run that took me through Anacostia, to find I'd actually taken a bullet in the right rear fender of the ol' Cadi.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Andy Bittner on 2003-03-28 20:24 ]</font>

Nah, I think it's mostly all good. I know about Anacostia and such. I live in South-East right now, I lived across the street from Potomac Gardens, the largest still-standing housing project in D.C. Good folk and bad folk there just like anywheres. Mostly people are so bemused at any skateboarding that evil thoughts fall by the wayside.

Anacostia has its nice spots and crappy spots. I run my dog in Anacostia all the time with no probs. There are actually some *very* nice spots there. Andrew Smallwood wanted to host the D.C. downhill there as a boost to the area, and I thought that was a pretty good idea. If you look at the crime reports, the deadly stuff, the gunplay, is mostly confined to a few streets, and it mostly seems to be beefs people have with others people they know. Capitol hill, on the other hand, has muggings to spare along posh 8th St.

Of course if a bunch of old white dudes show up wiggling asses all over the place, we will probably get them kicked. Let's put "outlaw" back into it! Just kidding, people. I'm going to check out Fort Dupont park, anyways.

The arboretum is most probably a bust as they apparently don't allow *any* sports other than biking on their paths. A bit strange, if you ask me. I will call to clarify or go do a guerrilla run.

Do us all a favor though, Rene, and don't go getting yourself killed. As a lifelong resident of the D.C. area, I feel I should let you know that you are talking about some pretty rugged sections of town. In fact, life's always been just a little to valuable for me to ever consider doing anything recreational in Anacostia, even golf (and I'm an avid golfer).

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Andy Bittner on 2003-03-28 17:52 ]</font>

uh, okay, maybe this weekend is not so good. Raining today, cloudy tomorrow, rainy again, etc. But any time you want to check it, let me know. I'll be there with board in hand.

The RFK lots vary from steep to not so steep. I use the steep parts for sliding.

Well, like I said, I kind of got booted from the racetrack when I skated it, but since the cheesy racing promoters have fallen out of favor, I don't think the city cares much anymore. Last time I drove by there, there were U-Hauls and sheet parked in the back.

I usually run the lots. They are a lot of fun, not near as nice asphalt as the racetrack. But, there are a wide variety of slopes and wide-open space. As for the surface... I guess the lots are more cheese-grater than asphalt satin, but hey, that's what pads are for.

The parking lots are good to go when there are no events, but that also means they are usually locked. Plenty of street parking nearby, but it's not the best part of town.

As for the bustage, I'm up for a dry run to see what happens in the daytime, especially if it's longboard. I do happen to have several of those... just no slalom rig. This weekend should be good. The only grief I've gotten is from a concert dude who was guarding his sound equipment in the south lot and told us to take a hike.

My wife is also going to go scout the National Arboretum tomorrow, so I'll let you all know what that's like. Looks promising--hills, and there should be parking lots there.

Further targets of investigation: Anacostia parks and public golf courses.

Dear Long-Board Kook,
The RFK stadium seems to be a well-suited place for the venue that you are planning. The slope of the track at that particular place we tried, however, could be a bit steeper. The pavement seemed perfect. 88/92A-durrometer wheels did not slide despite the sub-freezing temperatures. The parking situation was adequate. The only issue was shattered glass covering most of the truck at this spot. And yes, the truck is wide enough.
I would go as far as suggest returning to that place in the near future for training, running a 100-cone course, and further investigating the truck's capacity to hold races.
You/we might want to check out the adjacent parking lots as previously suggested by Mr. Maxwell and Mr. Hayden.
Slappy, Rene, others who know the track, what’s your take on it?
Vlad.

RFK questions:

Would the surface at RFK be safe enough to set a slalom course? If you took a fall, is it that type of surface that will draw instant blood?

Is the hill wide enough to set a mellow GS wide type course for head to head longboard racing?

How is the run off? Could two people coast to a stop after a run?

What would the bust factor be for about 25 racers showing up? Would the authorities think it was some sort of party and kick us out?

How safe is it for parking the racers cars? Can you park in the same lot as the hill to skateboard on?

Any other concerns for using the spot for a head to head longboard race?

Nope, nobody here who skates or has knowledge of spots. I like Drumaldry Drive in Bethesda, MD, inside the beltway not that far from the city, smooth steep hill, little traffic, nice runoff. Where's the race this saturday? I'll probably be working.

Vlad lives in Burke.

When I was a little tyke living in DC, my hill was 49th, from Albemarle to a left runout on Alton. Might not be considered much these days. Try on Albemarle, from 46th to 49th. There's plenty of other hills around there too. These are streets with parking at the curb, so ideas more for bombing than running cones. For slalom practice, take a drive out to the places we mention.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: WesE on 2003-03-10 19:05 ]</font>

Aside from you, Vlad, and Anthony Smallwood and the DC Downhill guys, I don't know of any others.

hey hey D.C. peoples,

don't tell me Vlad and me are the only folks who live in the District who skate and have knowledge of spots...

throw down, y'all.

well, vlad, you might want to try the parking lot as a warm-up to higher speed. Just bring some sticky wheels.

I think anacostia might be a good place for big hills, although there are traffic issues--anthony Smallwood might be a good person to talk to about hills suitable for fast slalom. 30-40 MPH, though? Damn, better hope you don't hit a cone.

I got kicked off by Metro police from the track a bit after the F-1 races ended, but by the looks of the glass, seems like the cops or anyone else don't give a damn now.