There are several skateboarders in the club known as ACE. Even our resident Droid was a former boarder, if I am not mistaken. The Quallsinator still has those skateboarding nerves of steel; I can attest to that. For, try as I might, I could not catch him on those long, fast, Georgian descents. I had to back way off. Only the Don descends better, IMHO. Anyway, not long ago we were cycling from Ashland up to Huntington and ran into Dennis in front of HC&S. He was out getting miles on his longboard (?); we stopped and chatted a bit. Naturally, I asked him if he saw that video where skateboarders were passing casual cyclists meandering down an Alpine descent at 40+ mph, probably exceeding 50 at some points. If you havent seen the video it is quite remarkable; it takes nerve, and a lot of skill, to do what these boarders do. A few days later Kenton Claude posted a video showing a cyclist descending Alexander Ave into Sausalito ( ... a road I am very familiar with, by the way), probably doing 25-30 mph at that point in the road ( ... speeds can easily reach 40+ mph at some sections of Alexander Ave), and T-boning a deer. He hit the hoofed animal with such force it popped the stem and bars off of the steer tube; I can only imagine what the front wheel and fork look like. Anyway, I saw this video and thought about the close calls Ive had on a bicycle descending long, fast, descents; most recently this past summer; bombing Rush hill coming back from a ride and taking the apex into the fast left hand bend way too close to the center line. In fact, Im pretty sure I was well over it, for an oncoming Mustang had to brake hard, and I had to swerve to avoid hitting him head on. In the summer the foliage is so thick it is a blind turn. Dont know why I did not go down. Nevertheless, I was totally at fault. But this dude on the skateboard, well, apparently he was in contact with some buds down the road on walkie-talkies telling him the coast was clear -- to damn the torpedoes -- and go all ahead full! Well, see the result ... https://youtube/watch?v=ZWJx0nZL8XU
Posted on: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 14:09:06 +0000
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