2011 Maryhill FOS: “Up North, Down Hills” Edition

The 2011 Maryhill downhill skateboard race was definitely one to be remembered. This year’s Maryhill FOS was a wild ride indeed. Many new faces, and brands, showed up and made themselves known; the skaters most likely to win did not win; and the campsite mayhem once again set a new standard for debauchery. As for the “Up North, Down Hills” crew, the Maryhill race was the last event on our skate expedition from Southern California to Washington State, and what a wild ride it was.

Some of the most memorable moments of the Maryhill race were the ones spent hanging out with our friends, getting to know all the new faces, and having some laughs. Half of our crew was in the race and the other half was not, so, much of our time was spent at the “Up North, Down Hills” booth hanging out with all the skaters and having fun with our wheel spinning game—aptly named “The Wheel of Misfortune”. Actually, it’s kind of a misnomer because although you were pretty much guaranteed to have to do something lame if you spun the wheel, you were also guaranteed to win some free stuff. All in all, we had many satisfied customers (as you’ll see in the accompanying pictures) and had a grip of fun doing it. We even got the legendary Striker to have a go—Kody Noble definitely had fun giving homeboy a beautiful Fu Manchu. On the fourth day of the race, after all of the crew had qualified, we snuck away and headed down to the Columbia River for some cliff jumping that Cody Shea and the Five Mile crew had told us about. The cliff jump was huge—about 50 to 60ft—but the dudes were game and everybody jumped off at least once. One of the Five Mile dudes hit the water so hard that he bloodied his mouth—not sure how—but he was all right. There were also some new faces at Maryhill this year as well: New York’s Bustin Boards had a booth and some rippers in attendance, Orangatang did there thing to stoke out the all kiddies, it was rad to see the new shop Edge holding it down, the Push Culture dudes did a bunch of interviews and stuff, it was cool to see the Predator Helmets booth, and it was definitely nice checkin’ out all the Subsonic boards at their booth. Ultimately, It was great to see the scene growing.

As soon as we arrived to Maryhill there was already a strong buzz as to who was gonna win it. The name you heard most of all was “James Kelly”. He’d just come off back-to-back wins in Canada, so it seemed a reasonable assessment. Zak Maytum won it last year, so people thought he might be up for a repeat as well. Anyway, as many of you know, neither of these dudes was in the final round of the race. James took Zak and himself out in the semis with an ambitious and unneeded pass that resulted in a crash, and ultimately their elimination. Lame. But that’s just the beginning of all the weirdness: A racer that didn’t make the final decided to call another rider out for taking a few kicks after a crash instead of just getting back on his board and rolling. Subsequently, the IGSA rulebook was consulted and the rider who took a few pushes after falling off his board was disqualified and the racer that told on him made it into the finals. And that’s still not the end of it! In the final stretch of the final run Martin Siegrist made contact with Zen Shikaze and Zen washed-out into the hay bales. Once again, the rules were consulted and many a video camera reviewed. In the end, Martin was pushed back to 6th, Zen shifted to 5th and a couple other riders shifted about as well: 2nd Tim Del Rosario, and 3rd Billy Meiners .To top it all off, some unexpected European dude (1st Ramón Königshausen,) won the whole deal. Crazy!

What went down at the campsite this year you ask? Well, we didn’t really get any pictures of the mayhem and debauchery, but we do have plenty of stories for ya—some first-hand, and some second. Rather than go into too much detail, and possibly incriminate any of our friends, we’ll just give y’all a brief synopsis of some of the key events: 1.) A dirty Texan steals a fire extinguisher from local Mexican restaurant and then later that night sprays the greater portion of the Landyachtz Crew with said extinguisher. He is in hiding for the remainder of the race 2.) Some rich kid gets his dad’s flashy sports car’s windshield blown out by an M-80. The police are called, but no charges are filed. 3.) A local pregnant teenager is shot in the back with an Air Soft pistol. She and her boyfriend spend the rest of the evening hunting down her assailant. The assailant is never apprehended. 4.) Another M-80 is thrown into the peripheral darkness; a young skater is subsequently rushed to the hospital with a missing tooth. 5.) A young girl is said to have been pushed to the ground for playing too close to an angry skater who hates water. Said skater is ostracized by almost everyone for the remainder of the race. 6.) A massive wrestling party takes over the entire campsite, resulting in two dislocated shoulders, some minor blood letting, and one case of temporary blindness. 7.) A very nice man’s tent is heinously vandalized and filled with trash. Said man proceeds to flip-the–hell-out and threaten all in the general vicinity as well as drops a barrage of rapid-fire curses and blasphemies. The tent-vandals flee in a drunken stupor—the man soon regains his composure and falls asleep. Anyway, these represent only a half of the crazy campsite stories—there are many more where that came from, but they’re better told elsewhere, and by others.

Must See: Panoview Super Feature:

Our mad scientist friend from Sacramento, Zach Dougherty, sent us this radical, clickable image of the entire Maryhill Road—skaters everywhere! It consists of a combined 274 images and at full size it is a whopping 159 feet long and 27 feet wide. Simply click on the full-page tap (the one with the four arrows pointing outwards) on the right side of the image and begin searching this vast image. Zoom in , out, and scan the entire Maryhill Loops Rd. It can take a minute to dial in the navigation, but once you get the hang of it it is so badass. Enjoy.

This year’s 2011 Maryhill FOS was the best yet. Like the road itself, the event was filled with many winding turns and nonstop good times. All the new faces seem to reflect how much the downhill community is growing and thriving, the excitement and unpredictability surrounding the race itself will not soon be forgotten, and the wild happenings and stories of the skater’s campsite are sure to grow into the stuff of legends.

The “Up North, Down Hills” crew would like to thank everybody that made The Maryhill FOS possible. We’d like to thank John Ozman for hooking us up with the booth, We’d like to thank Striker, Landyachtz, Orangatang, Bustin Boards, the IGSA, Rip City Skates, Andrew Mercado of Gullwing for having the ramp jam, Tactis Boardshop for all the laughs, Subsonic, and Abec 11; and we’d like to especially thank the “Up North, Down Hills” Sponsors: Paris Trucks, Divine Wheels, and S-One for making this trip possible.