More Puerto Rican Races: Ponce Downhill

After Guajataka Downhill, I was tired of races. By the time Wednesday rolled around though, I was excited to see and ride a new course near Ponce on the Caribbean side of the island.

With the Guama Downhill race back on the surfy north shore the following weekend, I had my work set out for me. Check out my photos from Ponce and check back on Wednesday for the photos from Guama…

To get to Ponce, I rolled with an entourage of the Caliber crew and the Jon Huey/Will Royce Bustin rental car crew.

Ok, let’s just call it the Calibustin crew.

It was super fun. We checked out the course at dusk, and I got a run in. Then we went searching for a beach just out of town to camp for the night. We ended up finding a nice cutty spot in the bushes to drive our cars into. It was right on the beach with mangrove trees and plenty of garbage. We all hung out sipping rum or water and getting deep in conversations.

I managed to crop out most garbage for this campsite scene.

We woke up pretty early, or at least so I thought for island time. We got to the race a tiny bit late, but most everyone in our crew got at least one practice run.

Racers warm up and practice the hill.

The first corner.

The race course was much more spread out, out in the boonies, and less crowd oriented. Those features alone made it easier to organize. It definitely ran pretty smooth compared to the previous race, Guajataka. The race course was fast, with corners that made you feel like you were gliding across. There were some haybales in the important parts of the course.

Evidence of a car crash.

Down below was even more evidence.

 An odd tangle happened early on in the heats and near the beginning of the course.

Click on the image above to view a GIF of Skate[Slate]’s own Max Dubler, crashing during a race heat on the fast and floaty righty.

Puerto Rican photographer and Ponce local, Axel Rivera, on the left. Check out his photography website page. He’s got some well lit skating photos.

Noishh Boom got ollies in where he could.

Ross Druckery got long stalefish slides in where he could. Later after the downhill race, he got super bummed on the slide comp that ended up not happening.

Here are the semi-final heats from one of the final corners of the race:

The final heat for the Women’s race:

Skatie Nielson leads what I believe to be the final Women’s heat in Kyle Martin’s leathers. Marisa, in the blue striped long-sleeve shirt, won the race. I heard Katie’s board fell apart before the finish line. I’m not sure what happened.

Juniors final heat was led by Charlie Darragh.

And surprise, surprise, for the Men’s or Open class, Kevin Reimer was the first around one of the final corners.

They don’t run consolation finals in Puerto Rico, so the finals came down quick and all of a sudden the race was over.

1st Marisa Nuñez, 2nd Katie Nielson, 3rd Nayhomi Cruz, and 4th Charlie Daigneault – I’m pretty sure…

Marisa Nuñez, our Skate[Slate] ambassador, was stoked to win the race.

I guess I missed it, but Mike Snyder won the Masters and Hugh Johnson got second. Alexis (El Troll) Rivera, I believe, is in 3rd and another local in 4th.

Charlie Darragh dominated the juniors. Three young locals were right behind. Can anyone help me identify the winners?

Jacko Gnar Steez gets his buddies to hold him by the knees for the podium photo opportunities

Kevin was stoked to win another race in Puerto Rico.

Check back Wednesday for my coverage of next Puerto Rican race, the Guama Downhill.