In light of the meeting to be held this saturday (26th) I have taken the liberty of putting something together to sumarise my knowledge and understanding of 'things' gravity related. Please comment as you see fit
Gravity Sports in the British Isles
February 2011
Gravity Sports participation began in earnest in 2001 (Aviemore Highland Wheels Extreme & Roundhay Park, Leeds with The 1st Redbull Soapbox Race), building upon established, local (primarily fundraising-based) events with a lower profile.
Ten years on, a huge number of participants and spectators are now aware & enthused by the ethos & thrill of throwing various contraptions down a steep, metalled surface to see who can get to the bottom first !
For competitors, the awareness of the number of events they may attend has grown massively, mainly due to the internet. Indeed, the websites of UKGSA and the SCA (Scottish Cartie Association ) are, anecdotally, the first point of ‘contact’ for many landowners, local authorities, the media and competitors, alike.
A significant divergence from the ‘thrill seeker’ approach has been the encouragement of educational establishments to use the medium to cover a wide curriculum. From publicity, design, engineering, mathematics, the list goes on…….and emphasises both the accessibility of the sports to the general public and it’s broad appeal to society.
Presently, there has been a waning of the non-soapbox disciplines whilst their public profile remains high (Famous & Fearless, Blue Peter etc) whilst the Soapbox media profile has grown significantly, through such portals as The Gadget Show (CH5), local news reports(BBC & ITV1) & BBC Alba.
Internationally, Gravity Sports are well represented. The International Gravity Sports Association (IGSA) sanctions & publicises many events, worldwide. But does not, sadly, include Soapbox in it’s repertoire. A short time on the internet, will, however, reveal a thriving Soapbox related community, from the USA, through Brazil, Spain, Australia and around the world. We are not peculiar in our love of steep hills !
At various times in the last few years, good use has been made of gravity sports by various multi-national companies. Motor manufactures compete regularly in soapbox racing at Goodwood (til 2006), in the UK & at Laguna Seca in the USA. Braun sponsored the IGSA World Championships in 2003 whilst Go Fast have been on the UK sponsorship scene since Bournemouth in 2007.
Thankfully, the sport has not directly suffered from ‘bad publicity’ but convincing land-owners & local authorities to grant permission for an event is often an ‘up-hill’ struggle. As has been obtaining robust 3rd Party liability Insurance. Certainly, it is these areas that seem to cause most heart-ache to would be event organisers. There is much geographical potential for many more events to be held on our Islands !
In the ten years that I have observed the sports, the technology has moved forward significantly, as has the riders skill, notably in downhill skateboarding. Hills that were once viewed as un-rideable are now ridden with relish ! This has implications for new people entering the sports. The learning curve will be that much steeper & the requirement for more expensive equipment could have a serious negative impact for us all. The appeal of the sports has, thus far, been it’s non-elitist values !
The range of age groups taking part is, perhaps a little surprising. Despite the logic that, for instance, streetluge, would be ‘a young man’s sport’, to be competitive requires not just skill and determination, but crucially, experience. This is also notable in the top Downhill Skate competitors, who you might imagine would be young, fool-hardy chaps, are frequently your more pragmatic individual, with a healthy sense of self-preservation & by no means exclusively male. Whist, with schools groups taking part in soapbox racing, alongside father-and-son teams and some extremely advanced ‘works’ & ‘ladies’ teams, gravity sports are refreshingly diverse.
Valuable co-operation has been achieved in the past with similar organisations and sports (British Pedal Car Club, United Kingdom Slalom Skateboard Association, Mountain Board riders, Dirt-surfers etc) and not just from a shared attitude to risk assessments & insurance. Valuable contacts have been made & shared to the benefit of all.
UKGSA, in it’s previous incarnation (2004-2008), enabled a ‘point of contact’ for the reassurance of landowners, local authorities & the media to make informed decisions about what could & could not be done with their involvement. It also provided a resource for individuals to progress potential events & to voice their opinions on the various procedures that are required to make events relatively safe & fun.
Ian Round February 2011