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Races
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On 8/14/2004
hugh r
wrote in from
United States
(68.232.nnn.nnn)
Jack... I am getting a few emails a month asking about any skatecar races coming up... any word? Thanks, HR
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Reunion?
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On 7/30/2004
Terry Nails
wrote in from
United States
(4.235.nnn.nnn)
John,
So how did it go? Who showed up? what boards were there? How where the films?
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REUNION
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On 7/25/2004 JOHN HUGHES
wrote in from
(4.177.nnn.nnn)
THANK YOU ALL, HOPE EVERY ONE HAD AS GOOD OF A TIME AS I DID.
JIM O'MAHONY HAD A GREAT IDEA, 29 YEARS AGO. THANKS AGAIN, JOHN HUGHES
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Signal Hill Reunion
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On 7/24/2004
Jack Smith
wrote in from
(172.196.nnn.nnn)
John and Sam, thanks for putting the reunion together. Man, I wish I could be there. Oh well, I guess a vacation beach house on Kauai runs a close second. (just like I did at Signal Hill and Akron...lol)
Tell Russ I would love to see the footage from the 1978 race, I've never seen any footage from that year. I would also glady put all three years footage on DVD for no charge.
Have fun!
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Reunion
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On 7/22/2004 skatewhat
wrote in from
(4.177.nnn.nnn)
Terry, Sorry you won't make it. Book idea is great, we will talk next week. Thank you for the kind words, alot of people out there don't have it in their hearts to be kind to us old guys..
So I gess there is one seat with the name Terry Nails on it... Wait to see who gets it.. The TN- VIP Racers badge will go into my collection, of who's who in downhill.... (?) NEXT YEAR ALREADY IN THE WORKS.....
30 YEAR BIRTHDAY OF SIGNAL HILL. I'LL PUT A REUNION SHIRT AWAY FOR YA.
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Signal hill
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On 7/22/2004
Terry Nails
wrote in from
(4.238.nnn.nnn)
John, Sam,
Goodluck with the Reunion! I wish I'd have known about it a bit earlier, maybe I could have made it. I really wish I could be there with you all. I'm definately there in spirit. Sam you were the inspiration behind that lay down board. The fastest I've ever gone was on that board, 76mph clocked by the oakland police. John you really influenced me by showing me that I wasn't the only insane person building and riding knee boards, your run is what made me decide to do the Signal Hill race. And Guy Gundy in '75! Wow, how cool was that?! Guy was like the Greg Noll of skateboarding to me. You know, it might not be a bad idea to collect all this information and pictures and put it together with some interviews and put a book together about all this stuff before we all get to old to remember our own names (smile). I have a very good publishing connection and have written and gotten some stuff published, so that part of it's not a problem. What do you guys think? It might be really cool. There are so many stories connected with all this stuff that I think should be told... Have a great week end and drink a non-alcoholic beer for me! And if any of you guys see Steve Olson at the race, tell him to call me or I'm gonna' kick his A$$... TN
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1970's
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On 7/22/2004 OGDSB
wrote in from
(4.177.nnn.nnn)
1976 at Signal Hill, a lot of the racers were over 21 and already had a wife and kids. Nobody disapeared. They had Jobs......
Oh yes, don't forget the guy who rode Signal hill on a big wheel with no shrit, AND BIG BRASS BALLS.
And the guy who went 120 mph down mount solodad on steel wheels in 1960,
ha-ha.
Who will be the first skateboarder on the MOON ????
All in fun, see ya all at La Costa, OG-DSB
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Skateboards
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On 7/21/2004 Arab
wrote in from
(65.28.nnn.nnn)
Hughes-Where did you find Chuy at?, I'm really looking forward to seeing everybody, at this point, La Costa is just a side show to the Signall Hill Reunion!
*
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Signal Hill display
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On 7/21/2004 JH
wrote in from
(4.177.nnn.nnn)
Arab, Can you print some of those pictures and bring to La Costa for the picture board ?
Chuy and Waldo have been contacted and will be there. Racers V.I.P. Reunion badges will be handed out 10 am till 2:00 pm. any racers seat not taken by 2 pm will be added to the guest list. Thanks to all for your help,
P.S. Dillberg was a master of design, way before his time. He will not be here, but he will, just look at the display.. LONG LIVE DOWNHILL
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Street luge
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On 7/21/2004 OGDSB
wrote in from
(4.177.nnn.nnn)
Jim, First of all. Sam Puccio was riding a LUGE, yes it was made of wood, but it wasnot as you say, a long skateboard. It was the first Luge ever raced. It could not be riden standup and was made to lay down. ie;LUGE was born. As for Rodger, He did it all, just ask him. No disrespect here, when we all left, Roger took the bull by the horns and ran with it.. Anyone in todays sport owes a thank you to Rodger. Just don't forget those before you, facts are facts...
Come to La Costa and see Sam's 1976 LUGE, the first...
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Stroker Stuff
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On 7/21/2004 Arab
wrote in from
(65.28.nnn.nnn)
Posting this pick for Terry, interesting note, the laydown board is a Dilberg Tri-Wave Banjo board, I new that there was a Black Banjo built, I never knew where it ended up, I use to own the Blue one pictured in Ed Economys garage, Randy that owns Safari Surf owns a Red Bottom, yellow top Banjo, and Dilbergs step son has the Red one that had the shaped surfboard that mounts to it that you lay down on your stomack on, Dave was a fricken mad scientist and so far ahead of his time.
This is what Terry had to say about Dave and this board.
"The open lay down board is one Dave Dilberg made for me and I modified it for lay down, it was originally a stand up."
"That board was actually much faster than the skatecar and that's what I wanted to race at Signal hill but my sponsers had other ideas. If you hear from Dave, tell him I said hi. I never even wore a helmet when I did down hill until I met him. I was doing a demo at Calsbad one time and he came up to me and put his helmet on my head before the run. He said it was better to be safe. I caught an edge some how on that run and went into an out of control roll, hitting my head about 10 times in the process. I'd never even met him before that and he basically saved my ass. While there were some great racers at Signal Hill in '77, in my mind Dilberg was the Man. He still is as far as I'm concerned... Terry Nails"
Thanx for sharing that Terry, all of you guys were inovators of something that was so new and radical that even today, what you guys did is almost inconcievable, Kudos to Hughes for stepping up and putting this whole thing together, You Guys Rock!
On a side note, I had built a board for the last Signall Hill race that didnt happen, on top of that, I wasnt 18 yet and wasnt allowed to race it anyways, I dont know if I would have had the balls like you guys did anyways, Todd from skatelab has the board in his museum now.
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more stuff
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On 7/20/2004 Arab
wrote in from
(65.28.nnn.nnn)
As for Hickey-if it wasnt for him, alot of us probably never would have gottin into downhill, I seen an article about him in the paper about a race he was putting on, I showed up with my dad who is the full gear head, next race I showed up with a homemade luge.
Speaking of Hickey, I stumbled accross the body of his old T.O. car, its a long story, but I was happy to return it to him after all the years that he thought it was long gone.
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Stuff
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On 7/20/2004
Arab
wrote in from
(65.28.nnn.nnn)
Terry-If you want to email me the photos, I'll be happy to post them for you.
Hughes-I'm so sorry, I never got my old computor up and running again that had all my contact info in it, but it looks like you got the ball rolling, anybody else your looking for?, Does Waldo know whats up? I'll stop by his work and let him know if not. Did anybody find Chuy? Last number I had for him is out of order, try "Merrilees Boutique" in Huntington Beach, thats his ex wifes bikini shop on main street, she may be able to help????
Grundy-Whats up with your little sis Gina, we went to FVHS together
Don-Yes, Eric it is, Hows your brother Mike doing, wheres he at now, I'll go one further, whats up with all the Janazuski Brothers?, I seen Curt in Mikes old shop on Walnut years ago, he taught me how to play guitar in 1970. Good luck in Upstate, theres no waves there though..........
I got some killer footage of Signal Hill that was shot by Don ? that owned Elasco Urethane, its all done on super 8 but I got it on Video, it has the first year when Guy did signal hill on Stokers.
Rene Carrasco said he got a call from Dilberg the other day, he's still working on his wings!
see ya there, Todd from skatelab is bringing the White Lightning, I'm gonna call Kelly Belmar who owns the Eppic car that was driven by Jack Lee Smith and see if he'll bring it down.
meanwhile enjoy these never before seen pics of guy at SH
Anybody get hold of Bob Ballou?, he still works at Toyota of Orange, he's there daily, I'm sure he would love to come.
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StreetLuge Inventor
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On 7/19/2004
JL
wrote in from
(198.81.nnn.nnn)
I find it amazing that after all of this time the man that supposidly started it all dissapeared after Signal hill. I started riding at GMR in 1977 and Roger Hickey was the one inventing everything and dumping his own money into having the road blocked and having races for us. Sam might have been the first to race laying down, but StreetLuge, meaning going through corners at 65+ , and actually holding races and advancing the sport plus it's vehicles that were invented by the master, Roger Hickey. He even set and reset StreetLuge World Records 6 times in the Guiness Book. The he went on to dominate in Stand Up for 18 years which he has always given John Hutson the credit. Every interview I have ever seen of Roger on TV he has always given Sam Pucio credit for giving him the idea by laying down on a long wooden Skateboard at Signal Hill. It is a shame that you guys don't do the same for him.
Jim
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Skatecar
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On 7/10/2004 Don Baumea
wrote in from
(198.81.nnn.nnn)
HC, the stopping technique Roger Hickey used was for laydown. The term laydown was what it was called before the term street luge was coined. The first time I tried to stop like Rog my shoes hooked up and I almost flipped, one time was all it took to get it clear in my mind not to ever do that again. when Signal hill was happening layown was not done by but a few and if you raced you knew you werent going to place well against skatecars so what was the point. I felt I had an advantage and , as delusional as it seems now, believed I was going to anialate the skatecars. What was my secret weapon, you may ask? I could push like a mad dog while standing on my laydown board and then at max speed smoothly change to a laydown position. I was told no pushing would be allowed for the skatecars in 78 but the rule was never changed. All I wanted to do was make the cut to go to Akron and only the top ten would be invited. I did not make it in laydown but I took eighth in standup and went to Akron anyway. The only reason I did stand up was because Powerflex would not sponsor me unless I did as they already had Nick on the team and really just needed a stand up rider.
Anyway, when the sport died, I just kept riding but what I was really into was developing the high speed run stuff and I resisted the road racing stuff for a while. Then I went to GMR and if that hill did not convert you , nothing would. But my heart always has been with the speed run aspect of the sport. When street luge came into being, nobody wanted to race me with the streamlined bodywork and fairings, like I was cheating. So for a while the only people who understood what I was into were Roger Hickey and Perry Fisser. When I retired from skateboard racing I still wanted to race and take what I had learned in 13 years of downhilling. I was looking for the next thing. One day I found it. To describe how I created the gravity car, or as Roger named them, GF1 Cars is a very long story. Virtually no one knows that I created these cars. I designed the body, made the tooling and laid out the critical features of the design based on my indy car background and other influences as well. But I could not fund it and so I gave Roger the project to continue on with. The cars bore both our fingerprints. Strangely, I only drove a GF1 car one time. I attended a race and it was exciting but I thought unnesesary risk were being taken that were not a part of the original concept. To design the car only one sketch was made and I still have it.
EE, I did nothing for the sport other than doing the underground thing and keepin it alive, like many others did. By the way the Challenger was in complet form and if you fit in it dont be shy to run it, with out the top. There is a reason why the top had screws in it. I knew I would take it out and run it by myself and thats just dangerous. I ran White lightning many times when no one would come out to help.
Duane, you mentioned your bodies are Carbon Fiber. This material was not available to skatecar builders then and when in 1981 I built the new body for the Green Machine, renamed the Challenger, I considered carbon fiber. But perhaps you might recall that there was some concern in Indycars, which at the time I was building, was that in a crash the cockpit could be inundated with a heavy cloud of carbon firbe dust and people were concerned about the health risk. As I fully expected to crash at some point I had to weigh the advantages of such a material. In the streamliner, during one such crash, i was stuck inside for 20 minutes breathing dirt and fiberglass dust, just a baking in the sun.
Another aspect of running the challenger was that because it had a very raked window whatever I was wearing would reflect on the inside of the window and completely block my view out of the car. So I made a black bib that was laid on my chest and that solved the problem. I ran breathin air from an external source to help lower my breathing rate and to reduce the amount of smoke I inhaled after stopping. It was very hard to make more than 7 or more runs in a day due to the heat and fatigue caused by being in a very confined space. Very little ventilation in that car but after about a mile into the run it got comfortable again, heat wise. The dual chutes were part of the development process. After a chute related crash I consulted an expert and we identified that for the chute area I needed it would nessitate a diameter too large and that would further aggrivate my problem of lifting the rear wheels on deployment. By finding the C.G. in the car, a proper chute dia was found and the area was actually increased but the effective drag line geometry was reduced. The red dual chute are the one I ran for most runs in the car. As you can see, the Challenger was not at all like a typical skatecar.
Ok, This is my final post until I get situated in NY. Good luck to all.
Cheers, Don
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Pictures?
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On 7/10/2004 T.Nails
wrote in from
(4.235.nnn.nnn)
How do you post pictures? I'm befuddled as usual..tn
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stroker add
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On 7/10/2004 T.Nails
wrote in from
(4.235.nnn.nnn)
I found this a couple months ago, I'm still laughin'... I hope this works..
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Signal hill
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On 7/10/2004
Terry Nails
wrote in from
(4.235.nnn.nnn)
Don,
Yes! Thanks for the pictures! Seeing that shot of my old car brought back so many memories. My life took a different turn within a year after that race and i sorta' got lost in the music world. I was playing in a band called killerwatt at the time of the race and shortly there after helped start a band called Tommy Tutone. Some how i ended up with out any copies of the the magazine articles or any pictures from that time, so it's really cool to see that stuff. If anyone has any other pictures of the car and the '77 race in particular i'd love to see 'em. Anyway when we started Tommy Tutone I actually had a broken right hand from a fall i took while doing a 60 mph stand up run in the Persidio in S.F. with two guys who where following me in a jeep checking my speed. It was about that point that I had to make a choice as to whether I was going to be a pro downhill guy or A professional musician. I was making a lot more money playing at the time so that's the way I headed, though I did come back to skating a few years later as the head of Thunder Trucks. The scariest thing about this whole deal right now is that I'd do the whole thing over again even at my age if we had the right hill and a better breaking system. maybe some of us never really learn our lessons (Smile)... T.N.
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SIGNAL HILL
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On 7/10/2004
J. Hughes
wrote in from
(67.248.nnn.nnn)
1976 signal hill race,Please remember that this REUNION is for HISTORY AND NOT E-GO's. Let's show the kids some of the innovations of DOWNHILL SKATEBOARDING,
FACTS ARE FACTS.
The reason for the DISPLAY & REUNION here, BLACK HILL. HOME GROWN DOWNHILL and to bring more KIDS to the other parts of SKATEBOARDING,like slalom....
NO RAILS AND NO STAIRS, JUST THE NEED FOR SPEED, THANK YOU ALL,
see ya at La Costa......
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stopping
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On 7/9/2004
hc
wrote in from
(69.104.nnn.nnn)
Don, you mentioned that you saw Roger Hickey's stopping technique. Was this for standup or luge?
I watched 'downhill motion' before, the standup guys were using slider gloves and some unusual stopping techniques.
I also believe Cliff Coleman told me that slider gloves were first used at Signal Hill.
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Down Hill
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On 7/9/2004 EE
wrote in from
(4.62.nnn.nnn)
Thank You Don!
For what you have done for speed skateboarding in general. Even thou I own the photos of Roger Hickey and others racers at Signal Hill & your lay down & skate car. I know you were the original owner at one time and I only own them with respect,to you and those who gave it there all (no fear).
Growing up and living 10 minutes from Signal Hill , I was at every race right there on the side lines. "At the time I was riding for Sims skateboards" and Tom Sims felt it was unsafe for any of us to ride. With no money to purchase leathers we sat on the side and watched.
One thing I will always remember was watching Don shoot the hill come thru the 1st stop sigh and lay down the foot brakes and walk away while others were blowing thru at full speed with parachute mal function and brakes that failed with crap boards just eating s#@! big time... ( as he said Roger Hickey was doing 1st) I will try and shoot a photo of A Don Baumea secrete brake in the next few days. I'm off back to Hawaii Wed so I'm out of play time . In my archives I have about 300-600 slides of every Signal Hill Race never seen before. I'm Coming in on a red eye Fri before La Costa and will try to bring them to La Costa on Sat to share with ya all.Thanks ED
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Downhill
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On 7/9/2004 Don Baumea
wrote in from
(198.81.nnn.nnn)
Great photo of Roger Hickey at Signal Hill 1977 on Saturday morning for an illeagle practice session. Race was on Sunday. If you had told me as I took this photo that I would be doing this speed stuff I would have said you are nuts, no way could that evere happen. But i few minutes later when RH made another pass, he did something that changed my lif completely. At the moment he entered the timing area he sat up and stopped so suddenly but smoothly like it was nothing. At that moment I realized a person , doing what he did , could stop at any point on any hill. That was not possible in a stand up speed run. That was the moment I got into downhill Within six months I was exceeding the speed of the fastest official skateboarder and skatecar at La Costa's Black Hill. In 1978, I was the first rider down the hill, because as Jim O'Mahoney explained to me, nobody wants to go first. Imagine to my surprise when my first run down Signal Hill was made, I stopped successfully, and watched the next four riders crash. I did not know what to make of this . Either I was a rookie who was pretty good, or just really lucky. I had that sick feeling I would find out in the second round. My next run , because I ran both Stand up and modified class, was a laydown run so it was quite awhile until I made another Stand up run and by then many big name riders had crashed. Well, as it turned out I was not too bad.
Someone asked if they could have permission to post my photos. Sure, but if you E-mail me ( Voyagerwsr@aol.com) I will give you my best copy. I will be unavailable for about a month as I am going off line during my move. Good luck with the Reunion.
Drafting experiment for stand up and laydown record attempt. psycologically too fast, met and exceeded expectations, by a lot.
My last race and win, 1990 the Daytona was what I called a stage II design. The duct tape betrays what was the fastest crash in 13 years, 45 min prior to the win and retirement from competition. But not the need for speed.....
Cheers, Don
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La Costa
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On 7/9/2004 La Costa Boys Racing
wrote in from
(199.41.nnn.nnn)
John Hughes,
We're excited to have you guys oa the race site on Saturday the 24th!!
This is going to be COOL!!!!!!!!!
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SIGNAL HILL REUNION
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On 7/9/2004
J. Hughes
wrote in from
(4.177.nnn.nnn)
HEY ED, BIG THANKS FOR YOUR HELP, ALWAYS THERE WHEN NEEDED. CELL WENT DEAD, CALL BACK FOR PICKUP OF DISPLAY... JH
BIGGEST COLLECTION OF DOWNHILL HISTORY, JULY 24, 2004 LA COSTA RULES.
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SIGNAL HILL REUNION
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On 7/9/2004
JOHN HUGHES
wrote in from
(4.177.nnn.nnn)
Too All Downhill RACERS of Signal Hill, The first ever REUNION. FIRST I MUST THANK ALL WHO ARE HELPING WITH THIS, Russ Howell, Guy Grundy, Sam Puccio and Big Ed Economy. THIS WILL BE THE BIGGEST DISPLAY OF DOWNHILL HISTORY EVER SEEN IN ONE PLACE SINCE THE 1970'S RACES. IF YOU WERE THERE, YOU NEED TO BE HERE.
JULY 24 DISPLAY 7 am TO 4:30 PM REUNION THAT NIGHT, MAPS AND VIP BADGES HANDED OUT AT LA COSTA, WITHOUT ONE YOU WON'T GET IN. SEATS FOR 90 PEOPLE ONLY....
CONTACT; JOHN HUGHES ufogold@yahoo.com maps to La Costa posted on
www.skatewhat.com under events, see ya there........
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