Post
by Gary Fluitt » Fri Sep 27, 2002 7:01 pm
Albuquerque is definitely God's Land of Ditches as advertised. Paul Dunn, Chris Barker, and Myself drove around quite a bit of Albuquerque, and the most often heard phrase was "there's another one"! The place is just a freak show of ditches, everytime you look up some gap in the freeway or surface street system, there would be a ditch, and most of them with beautiful transition.
Indian School Ditch is just amazing. The first time I looked at the thing, it felt like looking at a perfect point break with no one out. Same sort of feeling, though my "surf style" apparently doesn't translate well to my skating. One Dogtown legend was heard suggesting that "Fluitt doesn't surf does he..." Must be the dorky helmet (not the lack of style).
Anywho...back to Alb. What an amazing place. Couple of runs in Indian School and your legs feel like jello™. Ric Widenor said he too would have "buns of steel" if only he lived in Alb.
The Bear has been said to be the "Waimea of Ditches". Perhaps it is, no one was claiming there to a bigger ditch with a pitch like the Bear. And the cost of a screw up there could be big as well. We didn't see any one take a digger at the Bear, save Jason Salfi who fell at the last transition on maybe one of the fastest runs of the race. If you were to go down at the first or second cone, you'ld probably be carted off to the hospital. Thank God we didn't see terrible carnage or the race would probably have been shut down.
Hackett was amazing down there, as was Chicken, and Mollica. It was all about line nad pump. I'd like to claim it was about wheels, but Kenny was on the same wheels I was and he was a full second faster.
Big boards were key. I don't think anyone was succeful in that ditch with less than a 39" board. The Gravity guys set me up with a 42" Mini Carve which I hadn't ridden before the race. It was PERFECT.
One of the most impressive things I saw was Yancy Meyer on a 57" Ed Economy, just ripping through the course, having had zero practice. Oh yeah, he was shirtless too. Yancy placed fifth in this "slalom race". You know, these guys with all this natural talent just piss me off. I'm a "professional slalom racer". I should be allowed to dominate my little niche without worrying about vert skaters, but NOOOOO, you've got guys like Edwards, Meyers, Hackett who have to do it all. Can't be happy dominating parks and pools, they have to come take points from my little domain too.
But hey, I beat Paul Dunn. Probably the only time in history I'll do that.
Can't wait till next year.
Sharon, thanks for showing us around!
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