One summer day, I received an invitation in the mail. It was a postcard with a picture of Lee Dansie airborne at last year's Red Bull Streets of San Francisco. On the reverse side, it says, "You are cordially invited to compete in the fourth and final year of the Red Bull Streets of San Francisco, a Street Luge Event. $10,000 cash purse. This event is by invitation only; 32 competitors participate in the 4-man and Big-Air competition."

My eyes gleamed with excitement. For the first time, I get invited to compete in an event that has got to be the biggest in my life so far. Then, I had to make travel arrangements to San Francisco. Fortunately, Jeff Schonzeit of Streetluge.Net (also the Big Air 2000 Champion) had looked into getting me a ticket from America West Airlines. There would be a stop in Las Vegas before proceeding to San Francisco. After having communicated over the Internet (ICQ specifically) for a few years, I finally met Jeff, as he had offered to pick me up at the Las Vegas airport and show me around the city whilst I was waiting for my redeye flight out to San Francisco.

Upon landing at the San Francisco airport, I had to wait for Jeff who was arriving on another flight that morning. Once he arrived, we went to the airport car rental service and rented an SUV. We traveled to the Hyatt Regency hotel, where J&A Productions had booked free rooms for the athletes. Man I feel like a VIP! I had to wait at the hotel entrance for 2 of my Malaysian peepz driving up from Los Angeles who had agreed to cover my event and be my camera crew. Thanks Shake and Bonne! Shake, Bonne, and I had stayed in the same hotel room as the rooms were very spacious with 2 large double beds with a decent view of downtown San Francisco.

That Friday night, July 26, 2002, there was a Registration session and a Riders Welcome Party at the Parkside Cafe somewhere near DeHaro Street. I met a lot of riders from all over the world. Jogi from Germany, Sparky from Australia, Lacey from South Africa, Hod from the UK (who's currently continuing his studies at USC I believe), and a lot more. This event had to be the most complete with at least one representative from each continent (except South America). During this party, I met my sister's friend who had come to Malaysia to visit with a keen interest on art and exhibition. His name is Jon Loeb, and he's doing his PhD at Stanford and happened to be in town during the event. This world is so small, you'll never know whom you'll meet!

Race day. The morning had seen us getting some practice on DeHaro Street. We had a catered-for breakfast at the bottom of the hill under a huge Red Bull tent, which also served as the pit area. Tom Mason briefed the racers during the riders meeting, telling us to keep things safe and under control.

Now, I will describe the course. The road is only 0.4 miles long and straight all the way, with 4 intersections, but it is VERY VERY VERY STEEP. The first section of the road gave you decent speed; it wasn't too scary. But after you cross the first intersection (which is flat), and continue onto the second section (also known as the Cheese Grater), you'll start to think to yourself, "Oh my god, this really feels like a roller coaster! I can't believe I'm actually crazy enough to do this!" At least that was how I felt. Going over the first intersection, I could feel my heart being left behind at that point. The Cheese Grater section was so teeth-jarring, that my helmet kept getting out of position and I had to readjust my helmet for better visibility. I also had to apply a little bit of the brakes in order to regain control before hitting that huge blue Red Bull ramp situated at the second intersection. Once I leaped into the air, I felt so high and the ecstacy just took my breath away. BAM! In less than a second I was back on the ground, with a not-so shocking impact upon landing, thanks to my Dregs Vibrisorb seat. The finish line was only like 10 seconds away after landing, marked with a huge Red Bull banner.

That was practice. The mass (4-man) format was utilized for the racing, and the super-mass (6-man) from previous years was dropped due to a tight schedule. This was because instead of giving one Big Air jump to each rider at the end of the day, everyone was entitled to two Big Air jumps! In the Big Air format, the ramp height was increased from 1 inch (for the 4-man race) to 6 inches. As expected, this will give the rider a huge leap into the air in terms of height, and also hang-time distance.

In my first race round, I was up against Gerek Maddox, Jeremy Gilder, and John Fritz. I pushed out of the gates in 3rd, trying to keep a straight line approaching the first intersection. When all four of us leaped over the first intersection, Gilder had somehow leaped from my right side right in front of me. I had to take evasive action by crossing over to the right side, and keep behind Maddox. I applied a little bit of the brakes, went over the ramp in 3rd, and passed Gilder in midair. Upon reaching the finish line, I was in 2nd and advanced to the quarterfinals.

In my second race round, I was up against Andy Lally, Dave Fielden (I think), and Gerek Maddox. The first time they let us out of the gates, only my gate opened. We had to restart and the race crew had to make sure everyone's gates opened. Because of that, my push out of the gates on the 2nd attempt was thrown off. I wasn't as prepared as I had wanted to be. I came in last in this heat and got knocked out of this round. But the racers I was up against were fast riders, and I managed to keep up with them till the finish line. At least I get to spectate now!

The finals saw Tom Mason, Andy Lally, Rusty Riley, and Leander Lacey ripping it up over the ramp. Mason pulled a passing maneuver on Lally and took the win. Finally, the man who has been organizing and putting this event together earned his first gold medal in the very last year! Congratulations Tom!

The Big Air format was scarier, in my opinion. Maybe because you're going alone now, and everyone's just cheering you on to make the jump and see how high and far you can go. I almost didn't want to do the Big Air format, but after I went to the intersection and joined the spectators to watch the action, I felt amped and told myself that I can do this. On my first run, I had jumped 48 feet. On the second attempt, I could hear the announcer say, "Here comes the Malaysian Invasion" and what sounds like Bonne saying, "Malaysia Boleh Lah, macam Sanjit" over the sound system as I was quickly approaching the ramp at 50 mph (80 km/h). I had jumped further to a new distance of 55 feet. To me, it seemed like I had jumped quite far a distance. But after seeing how the Big Air winners jumped over 70 feet, I said to myself, man these guys are going way fast over the ramp! Leander Lacy, Chris Chaput, and Erek Shaffer had jumped 82 feet, 81 feet, and 78 feet respectively. Congratulations guys!

After the awards ceremony, Shake, Bonne, and myself left DeHaro Street and drove around San Francisco to go sightseeing. We got to see the Golden Gate Bridge from a distance. After we had taken a few pictures, we drove back to the hotel, and went to eat dinner downtown at a Chinese restaurant.

On Sunday morning, Shake and Bonne drove back to Los Angeles. We got checked out of the hotel, and I followed Jeff to Dinosaur Point for the Fun Run that Steve Pearl usually organizes after the Red Bull Streets event each year. Click here for pictures of the Dinosaur Point Fun Run.

After the Dinosaur Point Fun Run, Jeff and I had to drive back to the San Francisco airport to catch our respective flights. I took another redeye flight with the same stop at Las Vegas. However, upon reaching Las Vegas, my connecting flight to Indianapolis was canceled, as the pilot was sick and they didn't have backup pilots. America West Airlines compensated their passengers by giving us a free hotel room at Hampton Inns and free breakfast at IHOP (International House of Pancakes) for having us to take the next flight out the next morning. I still got home safely in the end.

I'd like to thank Tom Mason for putting on a great show and a great event. Thanks to J&A Productions for the free hotel rooms, Red Bull for the plenty of Red Bull we got to drink, John Lewis for the help with the cordless drill, Shake and Bonne for covering my event, Steve Pearl for putting on the Dinosaur Point Fun Run, Jeff Schonzeit for being my travel buddy, and many others I forgot to name. At the end of the event, I thought to myself, "You aren't a true street luger till you've done Big Air!"