The Kelowna Longboarding Alliance and Kamloops Longboarding Club worked hard with event organizer David Befus to ensure the two-day event ran smoothly, who was on the course Saturday for qualifying day. “We did a full day of qualifying and practice here on Saturday. We have all our times, going into tomorrow we will have four-game tournament runs until we have a winner at the end,” Befus said. The riders used Saturday to practice the course in preparation for Sunday’s showdown, and according to one of the riders, the downhill course at Knox Mountain is a lot of fun and does not disappoint. “It is amazing. The straights are good for the heavier guys, but then you have these fast corners where if you’re lighter and can’t catch the heavier guys on the straights, you might have a chance to catch up or whatever. Today, with our qualifying times, it’s a perfect example of how weight or what you ride can really make a difference if you’re in the top percentile or not,” explained Longboarder Jacob Muller. The event is free to the public and people are encouraged to come out to Knox to watch the hard-fought race fought at extremely high speeds. “We have a really, really challenging track. There are plenty of places with opportunities to pass and some pretty high speeds down, looking north from 85km/h. It’s really good competition. The qualifying times are very close together, so it will be a very tough race for them,” said Befus. The Knox Mountain Downhill Longboarding competition concludes on Sunday with a small number of riders qualifying for the World Skate Games in Argentina later this October.
