International Tunnel Slalom Skateboard Championships

Slalom Skateboarding in Sweden

Moderator: Hans Koraeus

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Hans Koraeus
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Post by Hans Koraeus » Sat Nov 02, 2002 11:50 pm

So once again Jani is the only swede in an international slalom competition. Let's hope there will be changes on this for next year.

Well, once again he have not been standing on his skate since Morro Bay. Maybe he thinks he's too old to practice. That he has done enough of this in his youth and will not get any better anyway. Just as well saving ones breath for the real thing. I don't know.

First day giant slalom was to be a good warm up for him. This is not his best discipline. After a first ride he thought the cone distance was really too long for his old board. So he took a chance and put together a new one (Turner GS board, New tracker Race trucks and Avalon 68mm wheels). His first run with this was ok. But he has never in his life before changed board like this before a competition. But since it was GS he had nothing to loose and the risk was well worth taking.

In the mens discipline there were 41 riders. Not bad. After the qualification runs he was in 4:th place and he was really happy. If he could just keep this placement until the end he would be happy.

In the first head to head run he met a very low ranked skater so he could advance with no problem. Second run was against long time friend Gianluca Ferrero that had come with his family. Gianluca's speciality is not GS either so Jani could once again advance. Quarter final. It was now starting to get tuffer. He was up against one of the better swiss guys (Rafael). But Jani started to get better and better with his new Turner board and on we go to the semi final. Here he was up against the best swiss Marios Strobel. It was going to be tuff. And it was. Marios beats him with 5 hundreds of a second. But he had one cone penalty and suddenly Jani was the leader with the 5 hundreds. Ohee! He was in the final. At first everybody thought that it was Paul Price to meet Jani in the final but when they where about to start the race for 3/4:th place someone came up to one of the swiss guys on the start ramp and told him he was in the final. He just starting to scream and jump and no one understood why. And soon Paul Price was doing the same but in dispare. Well the final was between Jani and this swiss guy. And here Jani had a mental advantage. It was the best ever result for the swiss and he was already in heaven. But Jani was only thinking "This guy I should be able to beat". And so he did. Jani took a very surpricing victory in GS slalom and he said it was all thanks to his new board. "It's way better for these kind of courses. No doubt about it."

Tomorrow is the special slalom and now he don't know for sure what board to take. It will depend on the cone distance.

More last minute rumours very soon here in the swedish forum.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Hans Koraeus on 2002-11-02 18:12 ]</font>

Glenn S
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Post by Glenn S » Sun Nov 03, 2002 2:51 am

Hans,
Thanks so much for posting the story of Jani's vitory riding a new Turner setup. It speaks volumes for his ability to take a new board to victory, or maybe it was the Turner :wink: It is great reading about slalom races as they happen on the other side of the planet. Keep them comming. Very well written. And congratulations to Jani!
Glenn

Vlad Popov
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Post by Vlad Popov » Sun Nov 03, 2002 4:10 am

Congratulations Jani! Don't even think about retirement now! Waiting for the next race results and the GS champion's complete story with all the details and impressions.
Where are Radoli and Luca?
Vladi.

Hans Koraeus
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Post by Hans Koraeus » Sun Nov 03, 2002 3:04 pm

If I remember correctly it seems like Gianluca had stayed at Ridolis place on his way up to the competition. Ridoli is not very happy about the course settings these days. They don't fit the old european boards that are made for tighter courses. Though this may be correct the good news are that there are one more solution to this problem than the one Ridoli has taken (waiting for the courses to get tighter). And that is to set up a longer board. So Ridoli if you read this. Get up your wallet and buy yourself a present for christmas. Have a talk to Jani. I'm sure he got something for you.

Luca have not been skating for a very long time but he's fit to get going again. He is managing this climbing hall or something so nothing wrong with his physics I guess, which is a problem for many of us oldtimers taking age. The problem with Giammarco is that someone have to drag him along to a competition and put him on a board.

Hans Koraeus
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Post by Hans Koraeus » Mon Nov 04, 2002 12:29 am

Second day special slalom.

This was the day that we could have had some hopes for Jani. Special slalom is more his thing and the course setting was almost as tight as in the old european days. I.e. it was a perfect one for him. It was a little bit to hard for many others though and there was only 16 skaters entering today compared to 41 yesterday. Yesterday and todays courses have been set by Christian Eggers by the way.

Jani being in good mood since the giant slalom board tactics today continued this strategy by putting together another new board for the special slalom. I don't know what has got into him. He's been riding the same "Skoldberg" like board almost since he was born and his not famous for middling with his board. He got a Roe Racing board in Morro Bay and today it was time to give it a chance.

Another difficulty that was very quickly noticed by the skaters today was that the course was very slippery. It cannot have been rain since the competition was in a tunnel. But brandnew asphalt and some humidity in there made the surface "sweat". In the first qualification run Jani was going for it right away and very soon slipped out of the course. Oops! Was the board strategy wrong today? Well he didn't think so but he changed his wheels for softer ones to get better grip. The second qual run he made a safe run and was very surprised that it ended up the 2:nd best in the end. That looked promising for the head to head final.

Since he had a good rank from qualification the first final run went on with no problems against a low ranked swiss. Quarter final was against Christian Eggers. Chris did his best to try and give Jani a fight but ended up loosing. Semifinal was against one of the top Swiss riders, Chris Hart. It was starting to get really tuff and you couldn't pump too hard because the wheels slipped. Actually they did several times for Jani and put him in some really dangerous situations. When it happened he just had to let go on the gas and stear through the ports until he got back the balance to start pumping again. It was very cloose but the millimeters seemed to be on Jani's side this weekend and he was once again in the final. And today Paul Price took some revenge for missing yesterdays final and was eager to take on Jani for the first place. It was once again a hard race with wheels slipping now and then but the weekend was Jani's. The warm up in Morro Bay had done him good and he could return from Switzerland with 2 first places on two new board setups. What board will he use next one wonder.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Hans Koraeus on 2002-11-03 18:37 ]</font>

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Post by Vlad Popov » Mon Nov 04, 2002 1:36 am

Ok, NOW you can retire. Yeah, RIGHT!
Congrads Jani! May the force stay with you.
Vlad.

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Post by Chris Eggers » Mon Nov 04, 2002 3:34 pm

Jani, you rock!!!!!! Big time! I will, I promise watch the videos over and over and try to learn from you, and when we face again in a match up in the future I will once again try my hardest! It was fun and an honor for me loosing the race against you!
What an exciting race yesterday!
I hope for more of this in the future!

Let me explain a little bit about the courses I set since Corky mentioned me as the person being responsible for them. Saturdays course was meant to be a course everyone can make (and 41 entrants in the mens show that this was a good decision made by the organisers). I made it flowing, so you could go as fast as you wanted to go and to me it seemed to work.
The reason for the surface getting slippery was the humidity brought in by the spectators on their wet clothing from the rain outside and their breaths. The surface was colder than the air and there was some kind of sealing on the asphalt which prevented it from sucking the water in. So the humidity condensated on the floor. Sometimes you could see fog in the tunnel. It was grippy when dry but got very very slippery with a little dampness.

I tried to have that input on my Sunday course and held back with the offsets. I would have done it a little harder and faster if the road would have gripped right. It got slippier than I thought, so it was a little scary. In the end I think there were 2 injuries.
I hope nothing serious.
Chris

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