Race Report: Houwteq HDX

Details: Published: 08 December 2011

Houwteq HDX: Race day the riders were greeted with no wind in the morning, sun shining and a beautiful day forecast, which was a much needed change from the strong tailwinds of day one. Riders quickly got ready for practice and took advantage of the many runs that can be had on the Houwteq course. After dailing down the new conditions riders were ready for racing as the afternoon rolled in.

First up was street luge followed by classic luge, Russel Naude had the fastest time in qualifies for both divisions and was the man to beat. The Joburg lugers, Andries Haasbroek, Marco and Nicky Carombo tried there best but Russel kept all the riders at bay to win both the street and classic luge.

Up next was the ladies skateboard division, Rebekka Gemperle had been riding solidly the whole weekend and took the top spot in qualifies. In the finals it was Gabi Murry-Roberts from Cape Town, Anni Lindenmaier from Germany, Tamara Prader from Switzerland and Rebekka also from Switzerland. Rebekka had a good push and got out in front of the pack and lead from top to finish taking the ladies division with a well deserved win. Next category was the juniors, they had been riding hard all weekend with huge smiles and stoke amongst the groms. The junior category had grown to fifteen riders all kitted and ready to race, Adam Lincoln-Lewis was the top qualifier from Saturday, making it into the finals with Sam Jakins, James Jager and No.2 qualifier Nick Hook. It was a tight race to the finish and Adam kept his form from Saturday to win the junior finals and winning his first SAGRA race.

It had been a long day with lots of riders pushing hard and a lot of riders coming short bailing into carnage corner, this drew out the day and in the late afternoon after beating the rest of the pack, riders TB from Norway, Stefan Ruefli from Switzerland, Justin Reading from Canada and Richard Dweza from Cape Town found themselves at the top of the hill ready for the finals. TB had gotten the top spot in qualifies, Justin Reading had just landed the day before the event but gave it horns all weekend, Stefan had also been skating on top form while Richard Dweza gave his usual balls to the wall approach skating hard. Even though Richard had bail in the heat before the finals and hurt his ankle he did want to give up his spot in the finals. As the finals began and the riders pushed off TB took the lead and showed why he got the No.1 spot in qualifies by not holding back and charged down the hill to take first place in the skateboard division at Houwteq HDX.

All in all it was an awesome weekend with plenty of stoke and new faces. Big shout out goes to Monster Energy drink, Baboon Longboards, Fibretec Skateboards, First Nature, Fat Ant Bushings, Butlers pizza, Rafiki’s and Ubiqua water for their support and the event organizers for their hard work and dedication.

Images taken by Sharon Le Grange.

Open Skateboard:
1.Torbjorn Sunde
2.Justin Reading
3.Richard Dweza
4.Stefan Ruefli

Women’s Skateboard:
1.Rebekka Gemperle
2.Tamara Prader
3.Anni Lindenmaier
4.Gabi Murry-Roberts

Junior Skateboard:
1.Adam Lincoln-Lewis
2.Sam Jakins
3.James Jager
4.Nick Hook

Street Luge:
1.Russel Naude
2.Andries Haasbroek
3.Glen Phillips
3.Marco Caromba
4.Nikki Caromba

Classic Luge:
1.Russel Naude
2.Marco Caromba
3.Andries Haasbroek
4.Glen Phillips

National News

Race Report: Houwteq HDX