ISSA - International Slalom Skateboarding Association

Dudes,
It looks like, based on a conversation with the boss (re: wife) Saturday the 11th would be the best day that weekend for me. The 12th is my youngest daughters birthday but as of last week we were not going to celebrate it that day but a different day. Guess what? That has changed

Just let me know.
Thanks for the invite!

Dudes,
Either day works for me. 66, you can bring the timing gear as long as you turn it off for me. Heck, it will probably time out before I get to the finish anyway. ha ha.

Wes, I was looking at that hill. The board I am setting up is a tight slalom set up but I will just bring my quiver with me. I think I will have to take a carving run down that thing on my Bozi for sure.

Talk to you later.

12/11 or 12/12 - I'm down with that weekend

WT I'll leave it up to you to call it a race, I'll haul all the timing gear if you want to hold the South Carolina State Championships.

NCL,

Glad you checked in! If this thing takes off and we get some positive feedback in the next couple of days, I'll start a new thread with directions, some suggested time and that sort of stuff.

Since I asked, I'll answer with my preference: DECEMBER 11 or 12. That's two weeks after Thanksgiving and two weeks before Christmas. Plus, the temp averages for that day are:

Dec 11: Average high - 62°F; Average low - 39°F; Average mean - 50°F; Record high - 77°F (1970); Record low - 22°F (1981); Sunrise - 7:20 AM; Sunset - 5:16 PM.

So unless it rains or there's an unseasonable cold snap, it should be decent for a full day of skating.

OH! One last thing: anyone who tunes into this and wants to participate, be sure to add what YOU would consider a good time to start. Personally, I think 10:00 AM would be great, but then again I'm not driving from East Egypt to get there. Let us know.

Do we need to create a new string for Exit 46?

Dudes,
The newbie has arrived. I can come down to Exit 46 any weekend in December except for Dec 4th and 5th. Got to take my 16 year old daughter to a soccer tournement in Wilmington. Otherwise I am good either on a Saturday or Sunday any time in the month.

I hope you guys don't mind a complete freakin' newbie. I am just now putting my board together. I got my deck from Attila. Jason Mitchell sold me some stock Trackers X/S's w/wedges , and I am ordering wheels from Chicken. I have some wheels I am practicing on until they get here. If I get in the way too much I will just cone head and watch. But I am up for Exit 46....and I can put away some BBQ~

Just let me know!

66,

I just e-mailed NCL and let him know all the details about this site.

As far as scheduling, ANY DAY is good for me. Carolina-Klempsun is this weekend, so there's no more football til New Years and whatever Bowl we go to.

Also, since this is a DAY TRIP for everyone (down and back,) it might be safe to say a Sunday is as good as a Saturday. So, what might work best is if everyone let it be known what days AREN'T GOOD and we can determine a good day for skating.

Hey, one other thing: this is a DEMOCRACY: majority rules. If everyone is cool on a date but just one skater, then I suggest we go ahead. I know someone might miss it, but that's probably better than putting it on hold for another month or more.

Everyone cool with that?

Thompson - you up for exit 46? Let's pick a Saturday between T'day and Xmas, if the weather looks good we're there. I bet Byron would be down with it, and maybe I can convince Low J to come. Hey Wes, can we get the NC Longboarder to register here?

Yes, I too am sorry. Ga. Tom was packed up and ready to hit it when the phone call came at 5am sat. effectively cutting my "all day skate" in half(don't ask....). Had to phone Stanz and bail.....damn....Decided to phone Patio and drag him outta bed for a morning Vans sesh. So despite traffic jams entering AND leaving Atlanta, my washout of a day was saved. Now I'm jonesing to hit that park again. Neglect tranny and it'll tell on ya....Glad to hear nobody drove up to the 46er only to find out it wasn't going down....

hey wesley,
Sorry it didn't work out.
I know what you mean about skating alone. Although there's a handful of skaters here in Athens, I rarely have anyone to ride with. It's hard to push too much when you don't have an "emergency driver" or anything. especially with driving stick-shift.
Lately, I've had times riding slalom where I pack it up early and go home, rather than push it and risk slamming and laying in the road until some construction worker finds me the next day!
I was at Picnicville last week, riding the concrete bowl alone...I had thoughts of laying in the bottom of the bowl..."hello?....help?...". that made me slow down and then go home.
anyway, maybe someday they will all flock to the foteysixx hill...heck, I can't get local riders to come to a local happening, most of them sure aren't gonna drive 4hrs!(ouch, truth!)
p

Patio,

Simple. It didn't happen. I was packed and getting ready to leave when 66 called me from the road. He said that Ga. Tom couldn't make it and he was coming alone. Driving four hours, skating an indeterminate number of hours and then driving home without support didn't really appeal to Rick, so he decided to head back home.

I thought long and hard about going anyway, but decided instead to head to Folly Beach for the day. Since no one else had confirmed their attendance, I felt pretty confident I would skating alone. Normally, this wouldn't bother me, but with my level of limitations, I felt a little apprehensive about taking a fall and maybe being incapacitated. Sure, I could probably drive, but clutching and shifting with a bum arm and shoulder? Not my idea of fun.

Anyway, it's no big deal. As I told Rick, it's not like this hill is going anywhere. We can skate it anytime. Hey, no one even needs me to be there. I've described where it is and posted the pics. Anyone who wants to ride it anytime is welcome to make the trip.

Rick and I also talked briefly about a reschedule. 'Da Farm is August 2nd, there's an outlaw race in DC sometime in August and the Gerogia State Race is August 30th. Maybe one of the free weekends in August we can plan on a warm-up race/practice session before racing in Athens? Probably more advance notice would make it better for more people making the trip.

Again, schedules, babysitters, out-of-town guests and short notice led to a no-go. What the heck? Asphalt lasts forever. The hill will always be there. We'll do it again.

so where's the tales of exit foteysixx?
inquiring minds want to know.
p

Twayzer,

Nope. That's Maurice Bessinger, not to be confused with his son, Thomas Bessinger, who also has a few restaurants here in Charleston. By the way, the confederate Battle Flag still flies at Maurice's store in West Columbia and Lexington.

The place I'm talking about is Ray Lever's Bar-B-Que, or just Lever's BBQ. It's a place sort of out in the country known mostly to locals and a few people in and around Columbia. It's also a big hit with the college crowd coming out of USC.

By the way, I think Levers is better Que than Bessingers. First of all, Bessinger's ain't got no All You Can Eat. Secondly, I prefer Lever's Pit Cooked taste over Maurice's. It ain't got nothing to do with Politics, it's just better Que!

Wesley, Is that the place where the owner has about 1000 rebel flags flying all over the property? His response to the states ruling a few years ago.

TSWRA

WEather Update:

Looks like a great day to skate all day Saturday until maybe late in the afternoon. We've been getting pop up showers after 5:00 PM all week, so it might happen Saturday also.

Highs are expected to be in the upper 80s. Not stifling, but enough to keep your wheels and bearings warm.

For anyone who's interested, there is a FABULOUS BBQ joint on the way back to Columbia in Blythewood. It's about 20 miles back up the interstate and maybe five miles off I-77. Ray Lever's is legendary in the Midlands as an all-you-can eat place with all the good stuff.

Anyone else up to some Que after a day of hard riding?

viaduct? we call them "ditches"

keeping an eye to the sky, hope to see you all next saturday

my folks will be visiting the weekend of the 12th, so I'm out.
or else I'd be the one to bomb it yo.

Dave,

If everything goes well next week, then what the heck? We'll do it again in August. Maybe a session between Da' Farm and the Georgia State race?

Unfortunately, as I said in the other topic, the only bad time for this hill is the fall (at least on the weekends.) Deer and turkey hunters are constantly coming and going. So it's between now and Labor Day and then a hiatus til after New Years.

The good news is that this hill will ALWAYS be here and I doubt there's much chance it'll go away because of developers. Who would start building houses in the middle of no place?

July 12th isn't do-able for me. Gotta work at the FD.

Too bad its not on the 19th of July as I would definately be there.

Ricky,

If everyone is getting excited about this, then I'll go ahead and "re-run" some other pictures I have of the hill. I posted all these on NCDSA last summer, but here's a refresher of what's in store.

Just for the record, here's the lowdown on the surface. This was the final stretch of I-77 completed back in the very early 1980s.



I believe the viaduct there in the distance has a date of 1980, so that's probably the approximate age of the asphalt on this hill. Its 20 years old, very little traffic, but its never been touched with any maintenance since completion. As a matter of fact, you can see along the edges that the grass crew rarely gets up that way.



Anyway, the asphalt has very little wear, just 20 South Carolina summers of baking in the sun. It's about a 7 out-of-10 in terms of rideability. I'd suggest wheels in the 80-86 range. This is definetely an Avila hill if you got 'em (I don't,) but Avalons would also feel completely at home. Hell, Flywheels would get a workout if anyone wants to bring leathers and drop in from the top

Man! I gotta check my schedule and my cash flow. That hill looks FUN.

I'm checkin'

JAM.....

Rick - lemme ride over with you, Patio and that bastard 66....or if your planning to bring ramps, i gotta ball on the back of the led sled and a big motor....

Rick,

You don't

Oh, and for calculating your drive time, I can tell you it's 105 miles from the SC-GA border to Exit 46.

Oh, and just in case you're scared, I can tell you that you really don't go "to" Columbia. I-20 kind of skirts around the north side of town, so you can avoid all the nastiness of the City.

66? the bastard

I'll be there, I'll bring my timer (in case "66" doesn't show up), cones, money and Herb Turner.

How the heck do I get there without driving to Columbia?

Ok,

Some folks ARE planning on heading to Ricky's race in Mississippi. So that means we'll run the Outlaw Race on SC I-77 Exit 46 on July 12. That's a week from this Saturday.

Tentative schedule:

11:00 Arrive on hill (at least I will)
11:00-12:00 Set up course and Timer

12:00 til sundown: skate like hell

After dark: go your own way.

Again, this will be a combination practice session for Giant Slalom and also a timed single lane race (see other Exit 46 topic for details of hill and proposed course.) 66 has said he will bring a timer, I will bring cones and at least one cooler full of something cold.

Seeing as how this will be a single lane GS course, there will be no need for bracketing. All we really need is a piece of paper to record elapsed times. My idea is to set the course, everyone who shows up get a little practice time, run the course three times and FASTEST AVERAGE TIME will be the winner. Example: 20 secs, 18 secs, 22 secs, average time: 20 secs.

If we get that over with soon enough (I doubt there will be a crowd of thousands wanting to race?) we can reset the hill to dual lane, another GS course, a 100-cone course or whatever. My plan is to just skate til I'm too tired to walk back up the hill and then head into Columbia and get something for dinner on my way home.

Post any additional thoughts or ideas. This is an outlaw event and only outlaws will attend. Please don't think I'm "in charge." I'm not a promoter, just a guy who knows a good hill when I see one.

See y'all later.