pavedwave longboarding

pavedwave · Joined: 22 Oct 2007 Posts: 1114 Location: seattle wa usa

On May 10th, at 7 a.m., as a warm-up to Shane's Seattle Push Race (northwestlongboarding.com) -

We're holding a quick, informal, but OFFICIAL...

DUAL MILE at the Redmond Velodrome

The current contenders:

The race will be held in Individual Pursuit Race format: two racers as evenly matched as possible will start a half lap apart from each other. One starts at the Velodrome's official (track bike) start line, the other starts at a line halfway in, that we measure out and chalk. We'll start two manual stopwatches independently and each racer will be wearing a GPS unit that will automatically log a time when each hits the one-mile mark (I will provide two working units.) Then we will compare the automated + manual times and average, to sort out any minor differences.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Individual_pursuit

One exception to the traditional format: In our longboarding version of the Pursuit, in the event that one boarder overtakes the other before the 1-mile mark is reached, the race should NOT stop. The winning racer should continue through to the 1-mile mark, to clock an official, full mile time.

This is outlaw, so the only wild card will be if there are any track bikers training there, but from my experience, they don't usually start until about 8 a.m. at the earliest. And I think if we tell them what we're up to, they'd be open to either let us take turns or maybe even just drop in at the same time as their ride, since we're only using the bottom-most apron, which bikes use only to slow down at the very end of a ride.

stocago · Joined: 14 Apr 2008 Posts: 220

So did this not take place?

pavedwave · Joined: 22 Oct 2007 Posts: 1114 Location: seattle wa usa

yeah the eastside guys from Portland were pretty fried after a week of skating the Ditch Slap, plus we had the Seattle Pusher that day, so we decided to move this out. it'll still happen, maybe later in the summer.

pavedwave · Joined: 22 Oct 2007 Posts: 1114 Location: seattle wa usa

There has been some more talk about this recently, down at Salem this weekend one of the guys in that list below was talking about how they tried their times in Portland over the winter, and found that after some earnest attempts spread out over a couple weeks, their times were improving. I'd be stoked to set up a mid- or late-summer event like this.

I also noticed that there hasn't been a dedicated Cyber Mile thread on pavedwave, and I think with Greg's and Ian's times just recently posted from Florida, it's about time!

Ian the Groove Worshipper · Joined: 03 Dec 2008 Posts: 79 Location: Largo, FL

This is so cool - it would be awesome if you guys could shoot some video.

I'm still so amazed by Munson's 3:33, but even more by the setup that he did it on. Is he still using the CX and stock Carver rear truck? I've played with the CX on my Mermaid when I first got it, and I have no idea how he manages to pull that much speed out of it. I have to see some video of that for both inspiration and a lesson in functional pumping technique.

I stumbled upon the Munson GPS w/HR monitor readings that are on the "Rides" link and noticed the average 175 over a mile, and max over 180 so the dude is definitely working at a high intensity level, with a very functional pumping style and effective setup.

I hope you guys can arrange this soon. The pool of riders focusing on the Cyber Mile still seems quite small, so it's intriguing to think about how far this could go if the pool of people grows and the community shares their set up and technique observations freely for the benefit of the sport in general. For the time being 3:33 seems pretty tough to beat, but something tells me that if enough people start going after this that the current record will be shattered, and the most effective set up will become pretty apparent. It may even totally change the current gear "heirarchy" as we know it.

I would encourage everybody to get out there to your local high school for a quick timed session. Even if you are not into turning your skating into a competitive pursuit, focusing on Mile efforts for a while will only help you improve your technique, and that will carry over to all other pumping modalities you may enjoy. As an added benefit, you'll get a great workout, and might even find it addicting.