Mt Tabor Downhill Challenge 2016 Photos

This last Sunday, 80 riders came to bomb down Mt Tabor for the 6th Annual Mt Tabor Downhill Challenge presented by Daddies Board Shop. Four different classes of riders raced: Open, Women, Groms, and Masters. Enjoy my photos from the event.

View of downtown Portland from Mt Tabor

Up at Mt Tabor City Park, it was a bright and sunny day with very little clouds in the sky. At the top, people shared the shade under trees as they waited for their turn to cruise down the hill. Riders stayed cool on their runs, tucking under the shade of the forest as they wrapped around the the top of the mountain. After sweeping right and left under the big fir trees, riders reach speeds of about 35 mph into the straight with a view of downtown Portland and the west hills to the right side. Back into the shade, they tucked through a final right sweeper and the final straight to the finish line, right next to the reservoir.

Last year was announced as the fifth and final race. It turns out the previous years’ organizer, Billy Meiners, wasn’t ready to give up on it though. Resurrected from the dead by Eric Hoang and Daddies Board Shop, Billy helped Eric make the event a success. Volunteers kept the course clear, no one was seriously hurt, and the event ended around 5 o’clock.

Riders push off from the top.

The whole idea for this race is to race down the hill wearing a full face helmet and spandex suits in an old school tuck. In fact, we used to call it: Don’t be a pansy, tuck like Lee Dansie. Though I no longer feel like that language is appropriate, it was quite appropriate that Lee Dansie showed up and raced the Masters class this year.

Lee Dansie, OG downhill skateboarder, leads a heat.

Another modern downhill pioneer who raced was Kurtis Head. Kurtis was the first downhiller to “find” Maryhill and he showed it to Biker Sherlock, who organized the EDI races earlier this century. Kurtis brought the sickest old school tuck and was really fast. He advanced through the open class rounds, and when it came time for him to choose Masters or Open class, he said, “F@#% it, I’ll do open.” (not a direct quote)

Kurtis Head and his old school tuck.

There were definitely more women competing this year than I have ever seen at Mt Tabor in previous years. Many of the ladies advanced in their open class heats, but when semi-finals came around they started the first heat of the Women’s class and they all competed in that class. It was awesome to see such tight races with the ladies.

Paloma Acha films Anna O’neil for her video.

Racing was fun to photograph and exciting to watch. Congrats to the winners; Pat Haluska, Victoria Waddington, Brendon Corrao, and Martin DePass! Here are the results. Big thanks to Kevin Carlton, who photographed these podium shots since I had to leave early.

Masters’ Class:
1st Brendon Corrao
2nd Dennis Manougian,
3rd Gordon Miller
4th Mike Shaughnessy

Women’s Class:
1st Victoria Waddington
2nd Kaylene Beatty
3rd Mariela Santiago
4th Paloma Acha

Grom’s Class:
1st Martin Depass
2nd Joel Battistoni
3rd Andrew Geromel
4th Cyan Erdita

Serious business on the way to the podium.

Open Class:
1st Pat Haluska
2nd Mack Wacey
3rd Robin McGuirk
4th Trey Denham

I want to thank Eric Hoang, Daddies Board Shop, Billy Meiners, all the volunteers, and all of the competitors for making this event happen. Also, thanks to Brass Tacks Sandwiches for the lunch and the Boiler Room for hosting the karaoke-free-beer-for-racers fiesta later that night.