The 20th annual Sullivan Challenge Longboard Race went down on Sunday, Jul. 18, with a total of 33 competitors flying down the steep streets of Kimberley for a chance to win this historic local event.
Last year, the contest was altered due to the pandemic. Alicia Tynan of Berley Skate Snow Retro in Kimberley explained that what they did last year instead was an online contest, where anyone who raced in the previous years could enter as long as they could find a photo of themselves going down the hill.
The number of competitors fluctuates year to year, but there was a decent amount here on Sunday, partially due to the fact that this was the 20th iteration of the race.
“It went great, we had a blast it was great to see all the guys come back this year and yeah they had a blast,” Tynan said. “It’s a pretty tight-knit group of people that do the races in Canada, everybody kind of goes to all the races.”
This year they decided to try out a new timing system, where the racers had an ankle bracelet on that would activate sensors at the start and finish lines giving them their exact times
“Just because we are kind of coming out of the pandemic we didn’t want to send groups of five down like we normally do,” Tynan explained. “So we found this timing system that gets their time from start to finish line and then that way it’s not a group of people that crash into each other and stuff like that.”
This year Pender Harbour’s Dane Hanna took down the victory. Hanna has taken down major championships all over the world throughout his career.
“It’s pretty cool,” Tynan said. “It takes a special type of person to be able to do these crazy downhill courses and they are really good at what they do.”
paul.rodgers@kimberleybulletin
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