Whilst everyone else was going to places like Cancun, Panama City, or South Padre for Spring Break (how typical can these college
guys get?), my team rider Korny, my 2 future housemates, and myself went to Dinosaur Point to luge our minds as they had been rotting thru classes, boring lectures, and painstaking lab reports.
On March 9th, 2002, Fahmi, Chieh Min, Adli (Korny), and myself checked in for our flight from Indianapolis to Los Angeles with a stop in Minneapolis. We were all looking forward to a good vacation of luging, snowboarding, surfing and doing a little bit of sightseeing in Hollywood and the surrounding vicinity. I was kinda worried about checking my luge in as it exceeds allowable dimensions and that I may be subjected to oversized baggage fees. Luckily, the people behind the Northwest counter were friendly as they were saying stuff like "What is that?" "It's one of those, you know, EXTREME sports." "You guys must be going 50,000 miles per hour on that thing!" We all laughed and I was glad that it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be as I got my luge in without any extra charges. After our luggage was checked in and received our boarding passes, we set out to get a late lunch at McD's. Then, it was time for boarding at the gate!
"I wonder what the pattern of screening the passengers is like," said Fahmi. "You, come here please," said one of the security guys. "Sigh," Fahmi uttered. We all laughed. After going thru the gate and started to find our seats, I happened to look out the window and saw my luge being loaded. Cool, these guys put my luge in last after everything else.
As our plane took off, I leaned back and thought to myself, we're gonna have a great time in LA. Indiana weather was just starting to warm up, but it still didn't give me the feeling of spring. To my amazement, when we landed at Minneapolis for a plane change, it was snowing hard outside! The baggage handlers took at least an hour to get the bags out, as the strong winds and slippery pavement made it very difficult. Plus, they even had to have the plane move to another position to ease their job! And this is spring? Man, I'm glad I don't live in Minnesota! After the ordeal, we set out to Los Angeles. Upon touching down, I noticed the beautiful weather. Good sun, good beaches, good people, what more could I ask for? Hey it's time to ride their hills now!
Our host in LA is Shake. He's a Malaysian surfer dude and we had already planned to meet up. The deal was that I'd teach him to luge and he'd teach me to surf. Well, we were all pretty stoked about going out. We had dinner at an Indonesian restaurant called Batavia after Shake picked us up at the airport. When we got back to Shake's place in Malibu, we only had 2 hours to sleep before getting up at 4:30am and heading out to Pacheco State Park which was about a good 5 hour drive. Poor Shake, he had to drive the whole way to go and back since the other 4 of us don't have driving licences and don't wanna risk getting a speeding ticket or whatever. But after we arrived, he didn't feel so bad. When we got there, it had just finished raining from last night. The time was almost 11:00am and the road was starting to dry up. We finally met Steve Pearl of Wild Fro Racing and Guy Morrow, one of his apprentices and riders I believe. We lay out our equipment and started to get ready to run. Fahmi and Chieh Min didn't ride for today, they're not too interested in riding. But thank god we have them come along as I needed Fahmi to shoot us for some video footage, and he did an excellent job with commentary. Chieh Min and Fahmi also used the 2-way radios to communicate with Steve.
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Shake and Korny took the 2 hour and 3 hour option, complete with luge, leathers, helmet, and gloves, respectively. I took the quick fix all-day riding option since I brought my own luge and protective equipment.
Just as everyone was starting to get suited up, more riders came. I was stoked when Dave Auld showed up, along with John Fryer.
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I wonder if it was pure coincidence? Just my luck, I thought. Finally, I get to have a fun ride with the pros and learn from them! I've met John at the Bainbridge race last year, and he was the fastest qualifier. Damn, and he sure showed me how fast he was today!
It was pretty funny to see Korny in that 1-piece AGV suit (the one seen on the Luge Store). It was too big for him! Someone even mentioned he looked like a monkey in that suit! But I trust him as a good rider since he and Shake will be learning some solid lessons courtesy of Wild Fro. |
 
As Shake and Korny were getting suited up and ready for their first lesson, Guy took John, Dave, and myself to the top of the hill. Here, Korny is being tested for fit to see if the boom needs to be adjusted. In this sport, you wanna be as comfortable and relaxed as you can on the luge. After everything was set up right according to their weights and heights, Steve showed these two guys how to ride starting from the basics, which is learning how to push off, brake, and turn. They were taught in the parking lot because there's gravel on the ground, and gravel acts like little ball bearings. So they have to get used to braking on surfaces that don't allow for effective stopping so that they can be prepared when riding on the road, although the road doesn't have much gravel except at the runout section. So it's relatively easier.
We had a very fun time here at the Dinosaur. This was truely a Malaysians day. You got good weather, good folks, good runs. I'd recommend anyone looking for an epic and scenic run to contact Steve Pearl and ride. Click here for the same story written by Dave Auld.
Guy, Chieh Min, Shake, Steve, Korny, Furlong
(Fahmi not pictured coz he's the cameraman) |
