Ian Jackson

Medic! Medic! | Not everyone made it past the first steep curve in Rundle Park in the recent ROGUE longboard race.

The chilly morning air didn’t seem to bother the dozen or so teenaged boys wearing extra-short athletic shorts and white undershirts on Sunday morning in Hermitage Park. They sailed down the parking lot on unusually long skateboards to join the ever-growing mass of people milling about under a banner. All around was the distinctive sound of sneakers dragging on concrete as groups of skaters braked and found their place in the starting line-up. Onlookers and supporters mingled on the neighbouring grass, and several dogs ran back and forth between the racers and the crowd until an announcement broke through the chatter. “Please put your dogs on a leash until the race starts,” it hollered. “We don’t want a bunch of injured dogs and injured riders.”

Following a quick rundown of the rules, two riders emerged from the trees and ran to join the pack with seconds to spare. Both were wearing what appeared to be the preferred uniform of the day: knee-high sweatsocks, a bandana, and an ironic T-shirt. “Move to the back,” someone hollered from the pack. “Hey, mom, take some sweet photos,” yelled another. Suddenly, 10 a.m. arrived with a blast of an airhorn and the thunder of hundreds of wheels on asphalt.

Such was the scene as 145 longboarders converged on our river valley trails for the third annual Ribbon of Green Ultimate Endurance (ROGUE) race. It’s the first of its kind in Canada and the only longboarding endurance race in Alberta.

Longboards aren’t your typical skateboard. To state the obvious, they’re longer than the boards used for tricks or half-pipes, and they’re heavier. Longboards also tend to have lower decks, which contributes to the fluid ride. For someone unfamiliar with skateboards in general, longboarders look like concrete surfers, or asphalt boarders; movements are graceful and turns alternate from wide arcs to short carves. The ROGUE race was born along a 20-kilometre stretch of uninterrupted asphalt between Hermitage and Government House parks — no crosswalks to break the flow, no gravel to disrupt the rhythm.

Cruising 20 kilometres on a set of wheels doesn’t initially sound too difficult; after all, there’s plenty of downhill to take advantage of, and it’s not like you’re continually pushing the board along with your foot. But in reality, the longboarder is basically doing squats for the entire ride to keep momentum going. For 20 kilometres. That’s a lot of squats.

“It’s really, really long,” says Alec Chomik, a 15-year-old competitor who’s completed all three ROGUE races. “It’s a lot of pain.”

Chomik and his friends, Steffen Senchyna and Brad Rogers, were competing in the junior category. “I think I ranked in the 50s or the 60s,” says Rogers. “It’s my first time racing.” According to Senchyna, the race itself is fun but there’s an element of personal achievement that comes before winning. “You pretty much go for 20 kilometres on a piece of wood with wheels. It’s hard. But next year, we’re going to push even harder.”

Less than an hour after starting the race in Hermitage Park, the finish line was gearing up to welcome the first pack of riders off River Valley Road. Of the 145 riders, about 30 are considered elite; their times were expected to be in or around the one-hour mark. By 10:45 a.m., the timekeepers were set up 20 kilometres down the line, anticipating the arrival of this year’s expected winner, Calgary’s Paul Kent.

They weren’t disappointed: at 10:52 a.m., the shirtless Kent made his appearance at the top of the last hill of the course. He set a new ROGUE record this year, breaking his previous time by two minutes, coming in at 52 minutes, 53 seconds. His closest competitor, Robert Collinge from Red Deer, crested the hill nearly four minutes later.

Kent took home $1,000 and a custom board. He made his way up from Calgary by hitchhiking and longboarding along Highway 2 a couple of days before the race. Earlier this year, Kent skated 403 kilometres in 24 hours, setting a new world record. Not surprisingly, he’s considered one of the best distance longboarders around.

Not everyone completed the race. One kid got lost somewhere between Rundle Park and the LRT bridge (don’t worry: racers have to carry a cellphone with them in case of emergency), and there were a couple of wipeouts. Of the 145 registered racers, 117 made the results listing. But overall, the race was a feat in both fun and athleticism. For the organizers, this year’s turnout bodes well for the future of the ROGUE race and the sport itself. “There’s definitely more riders and more people looking for longboards,” says Tim Mercer, one of the race coordinators. “It’s just going to get more popular.”

The competitive side of the sport has seen a significant upsurge in recent years. Downhill longboarding is serious stuff, with participants reaching speeds over 100 kilometres an hour. In B.C.’s lower mainland, hundreds of longboarders participate in high-velocity races down the kilometres-long hills and valleys. There, downhill longboarding is reminiscent of Olympic snowboard slalom races, with sponsorships and big prizes.

Edmonton’s lack of mountainous terrain pushed the folks behind Local One Twenty Four skate shop to start a different kind of race, one of endurance rather than pure speed. “Our river valley is perfect for this kind of endurance race,” says Mercer. “ROGUE is different because it’s not about the ups and downs, but the length. There’s no other race in Canada with this distance.”

The inaugural ROGUE race took place three years ago and attracted about 60 participants. “It’s doubled every year since,” says Mercer. “It’s now one of the biggest in the world.”

RACE RESULTS
Overall
(1) Paul Kent, 27, Calgary: 52:53.77
(2) Robert Collinge, 21, Red Deer: 56:09.97
(3) Graham Buksa, 28, Vancouver: 56:18.30

Female
(1) Anna O’Neill, 17, Edmonton: 1:09:37.48
(2) Dylan Hardy, 15, Edmonton: 1:12:59.98
(3) Rachel O’Neill, 22, Edmonton: 1:24:53.75

Junior
(1) Denis Brooks, 14, Edmonton: 1:05:52.58
(2) Evan Tonack, 13, Edmonton: 1:06:17.47
(3) Curtis Pangrass, 14, Edmonton: 1:07:24.50