Slalom St. Louis X has received a MAIN status from the International Slalom Skateboarding Association.
Click one of the buttons below to pay online via PayPal or Dwolla (new!). "Early birds" who pay before May 1 get a $10.00 discount! If you pay on or after May 1, or at the race, it'll be the full $60.00.
Tower Grove Park in South St. Louis. Both Saturday and Sunday races will be on the "Turkish Pavilion" hill, an S-shaped street with a mellow slope but plenty of speed. We’ll also have our usual Friday late-afternoon fun session (not a race, just a session for those who are interested) for anyone who just wants to meet up and hang out.
COURSES SATURDAY SINGLE-LANE: somewhere between 40 and 60 cones. Standard start ramp, but those who need it will be allowed a limited push start. SUNDAY DUAL-LANE: Tight-ish slalom, 70 cones.
NOTE: The race hill is NOT steep. This race will reward anyone who can generate his/her own speed. So practice your pumping skills, cuz you’re gonna use them!
FRIDAY, MAY 23, we have two things going on:
1. An afternoon/evening outlaw session at "Spot 2," a slightly steeper hill near the east end of the park. Single lane, no timer, just for fun. To work out the kinks after your travel or just hang out, stop by any time after 5:30 p.m.
View of Friday hill (from top):
2. Or, if you prefer, come hang out at the new Peter Mathews Memorial Skate Garden!
For a cost of absolutely nothing, you can hang out and enjoy BBQ'd burgers, hot dogs, etc., and for a donation of $10.00, you can skate the park before its official opening! Check out Peter Mathews Memorial Skate Garden Preview Jam and Yard Sale!! for more details.
SATURDAY, MAY 24, we plan a single-lane jam. Course will be a sort of loose-ish slalom, with spacing anywhere from 7 feet to 20 feet, emphasizing speed and fun--makeable for newbies, challenging for experts to go fast on. You’ll get a minimum of three runs; the combined times of each racer’s two fastest runs will be used to determine the winner.
SUNDAY, MAY 25, we plan a dual-lane 70-cone race. Cone spacing will be tight-ish, between 6 and 7 feet.
Here’s a brief video of what the hill looks like:
TIMING Trackmate timing system, using RANDOM beep for dual-lane racing.
AMENITIES Free food for racers on both Saturday and Sunday!
As in the past couple of years, we'll have a DIY food spread where you can make your own PB&J sammich, or grab a donut, a banana or other fresh fruit, ice water or Gatorade-type drinks. Sunday every racer will get a box lunch from Caruso’s Deli.
Portable restroom (with sink) at top of course, plus public restroom about 300 yards away; plenty of shade from the park's many trees; event-only pavilion with picnic tables and water pump 50 yards from top of the course.
PARKING There's room for about 8-10 cars near the barricades at the top of the course, and there's plenty more room to park on South East Drive, just on the other side of Central Cross Drive. See map for details.
SURFACE Decent asphalt, good runout at the bottom--no footbraking required. The road is very slightly crowned and not particularly steep, but you won't be hurtin' for speed.
CASH PRIZES & SWAG Top three Pro finishers in each event will win ca$h money as follows: 1st place: At least $200.00 2nd place: At least $100.00 3rd place: At least $50.00
Top three Women finishers in each event will win ca$h money as follows: 1st place: At least $100.00 2nd place: At least $50.00 3rd place: At least $25.00
Top three OVERALL*** finishers in each division will receive a custom trophy, handmade by one of the Daggers. And of course we will have numerous other prizes from many amazing companies that support slalom and other forms of skateboarding – and maybe even a surprise or two. Stay tuned...
***OVERALL placing (total of both Saturday and Sunday) will be calculated by official ISSA rules, which assign a point value to each racer’s placing. Note: We're working on creating an automatic calculation of the overall results so we don't end up finishing in the dark. (D'oh!)
LODGING The "bad" news: There is no "official" race hotel. The good news: There are two "unofficial" race hotels, and they're right next door to each other. Both are owned by Drury Hotels; the main differences are the amount of amenities included.
It's about 10 miles west of Tower Grove Park. But it's a quick 10 miles, straight in on I-44. It's $66.99 per night if you enter the FUN promo code. That's for either two full-size beds or one king bed. Includes continental breakfast (pastries, toast, cereal, fresh fruit, coffee, tea and juices) and free wi-fi, and an outdoor pool.
It's literally next door to the Pear Tree Inn. Includes a full hot breakfast - scrambled eggs, sausage, Belgian waffles, biscuits and gravy. Plus fresh fruit, bagels, pastries, juices, hot and cold cereals, toast, milk, coffee, tea and more. Free hot breakfast is served daily from 6:00 - 9:30 a.m. weekdays (Monday - Friday) and from 7:00 - 10:00 a.m. on weekends (Saturday & Sunday). Also has free hot food and cold beverages from 5:30-7:00 p.m. every day, and an indoor-outdoor pool. See Hotel Special Services for more details.
For what it's worth, there are two or three other hotels around there too, as well as a bunch of restaurants. So if you choose the Pear Tree Inn or another low(er)-budget hotel and the continental breakfast isn't doin' it for you, you can always pick up some chow very close by.
If you'd rather stay really close to the park, the closest place is the Water Tower Inn. This former hospital (yes, you read that right) is at Lafayette & I-44. Rates are about $79/night. Click the link above or call 314-977-7500.
One other option: You can often get a really nice hotel within 5 miles of the park for less than $100 on Priceline or Hotwire. Just specify downtown or Union Station as the area.
Finally, a small number of racers may be able to find a place to stay with one of the Daggers. If finding a place to crash will make the difference between coming and not coming, let us know, and we'll try to work something out.
WEATHER In the event of the "R" word, we have three options: 1) Cancel the race (nooooooo!) 2) Race anyway (rain or shine), or 3) Move the race to an "undisclosed location" somewhere out of the rain.
In the race organizers' opinion, Option #1 just totally sucks; Option #2 is pretty darn unworkable, so it's not REALLY an option. Which leaves us with Option #3: If we get dumped on, we will attempt to move the race either to a parking garage downtown (location TBA) - or, more likely, to the Kingshighway skatepark (still going!) about a mile away, where we would set up a course through the flat areas of the skatepark. It would result in a much different race than at Tower Grove, but we’d give it a shot. No guarantees, though.
If we get just a little rain, we may be able to dry the course with some help from Mother Nature--and a propane torch, as shown in this photo of the one and only Clifton Jennings:
OTHER STUFF
Free T-shirt for every racer!
Free BBQ immediately after Saturday's race. (Location TBA) The single-lane race should be done by 2 or 3 o'clock, so all you'll have to do is walk or drive a couple of minutes, sit down and chow down!
Once again, Char-Master Goad will be holding it down on the grill.
Location of awards ceremony after Sunday’s race TBA. Turkish Pavilion
Assorted images from previous years:
2012
2011
2011 trophy
2010 Deron “D-Ron” Rehma. Photo: Scott Spaeth
Paul Price and Chris Doan. Photo: Kevin Kissel
David Tolley (almost) gets a trim from his son Evan.
2009 "Best Beef" trophy with its owner, Tom Mangelsdorf
2008 2008 trophies
2007 2007 trophy
2006 2006 trophies
Plus other cool stuff – stay tuned!
1st Place Finisher:
Joe McLaren
2nd Place Finisher:
Chris Barker
3rd Place Finisher:
Jonathan Harms
Overall Results:
PRO OVERALL 1 Joe McLaren 2 Chris Barker 3 Jonathan Harms 4 Steve Pederson 5 Jason Yerke 6 Joseph Kyle Smith
WOMEN OVERALL 1 Madee Prez 2 Sasha Goad 3 Rose Swanson
JUNIORS OVERALL 1 Anton McCampbell 2 Atom Blanford 3 Aliera Soulsby-Monroy
AM OVERALL 1 Matt Franklin 2 Marcos Soulsby-Monroy 3 Tod Oles 4 Alex Kwiecinski 5 Tom Weisenbach 6 Chris Favero 7 Brenden Cerney 8 Jeremy Coffman 9 Paul Graf 10 Nate Favero 11 Brad Burnell 12 Paul Adams 13 Jeff Goad 14 Steven Lewis 15 Dennis Blevins 16 Eddy Martinez 17 Noah Ellison 18 David Tolley 19 Humberto Salcedo 20 David McCampbell 21 Scott Kamins 22 Dave Larson 23 Glenn Bukowsky 24 Mark Lewis 25 Zack Levitt 26 Bobby Thomas 27 Kevin Stallings
Registered Contestants (32) -- Slalom St. Louis Classic
