TDC13 is decided

The 2013 Swedish Downhill Championship has now ended and it was a super cool weekend. New Boardlife's very first event and we are quite satisfied. A brilliant turnout for the event and many eyes got to see downhill longboarding for the first time. Audience and riders felt connected and the audience cheered loudly every time the riders went down or when they went up in trucks to the top again. It was pouring rain at times but despite this, the mood of anyone who was there never wavered. A Swedish longboard race has never had such audience interest as we got at TDC13.

Erik Lundberg had one of his famous spontaneous ideas and decided to swing by Sweden and TDC to participate. What fun!

Adam Persson took the gold in the Senior Men's class after stable runs in both wet and dry conditions. In the Senior Women's class, Fanny Ahlm the winner after a final run that was probably the worst rainstorm of the weekend. The junior class was won by Benjamin Tillius.

Photo: Felix Windolf

Saturday started with wet freeride

The competition began with Freeride. The start had been moved down due to the wet surface. The decisive right-hand corner caused many skids as the surface forced extra long slides and the corner was difficult to take. But slowly but surely more people found the technique and braked earlier to accelerate at the beginning of the right and bring the speed out again.

The competition heats began

It dried up around lunchtime when the real competition heats began. The speed through the curve doubled and it was a really awesome show. The riders competed in random heats to get their ranking in their current class. The last rides on Friday were extremely stylish as many riders had found the perfect cornering where they touched the hay bales a little lightly on the way out of the curve.

Photo: Felix Windolf

Tagged gang

The first day ended at the top where a delicious meal was served, some sneaky rides on certain parts of the slope, general minor damage was patched up and the super nice atmosphere continued well into the night.

Sunday started with dry freeride

Sunday started with freeride and then the final heat. Based on the slope the participants had chosen the day before. The forecast promised rain so we wanted to speed up the ride as much as possible, which meant that the schedule changed slightly.

After lunch, there weren't many rides left in the final heats. Then the rain came and the podium places were to be shared out in the worst downpour of the weekend. The women's showdown was decided when it was at its worst. The crowd stood resolutely and the rain didn't seem to affect anyone. It was a decent finish after all when the sun came out just in time for the awards ceremony. The complete results list can be found here.

Photo: Felix Windolf

Bonus prizes

Honorary award in the form of a Sector9 board to the youngest rider, Emil Franzén, who rode the race at only 10 years old. Impressive courage and great potential.

Mauriz Armfelt also won a Landyachtz board for the best cornering in the course's main attraction – the long right turn. If he hadn't won for that, he would have received the prize for the best-looking and most well-trimmed mustache. Impressive symmetry and luster.

See the ride from Ville Hietala's helmet

Ville Hietala, one of Finland's best riders, came third in the Senior class. He rode his final races with a helmet camera. For those of you in the audience who thought it looked fast... Check this out and you'll realize it actually went faster.

A new audience

Usually, similar competitions are made up of an audience that largely consists of other board riders. But this time the audience was completely different. Very inexperienced and completely ignorant in the field. Something we thought was super fun, the audience seemed to be too. One reason the audience loved the event was probably that they were not used to seeing a competition where all the competitors hang out like good buddies. After crashes, they did buddy starts (where you line up next to each other and continue the rest of the race at the same time). When the trucks drove up the hill again, riders were sitting on the roof and hanging out through the windows and bed. All with happy faces and joking jargon. In board culture, that's how it always looks, but many in the audience had probably never seen it before. The audience seemed to take all the riders to their hearts and cheered in unison every time the overcrowded cars drove up the hill.

See you at TDC14

The first edition of the Taberg Downhill Challenge has ended. Jönköping's very first official downhill race – and certainly not the last. In 2014 everything will be even better. There is a lot to improve on. For us, TDC13 was about giving the riders the best safety and experience possible. There are lots of things we need to fix for next year. But overall we are quite satisfied.

A very tired Boardlife team humbly thanks everyone who participated in one way or another. At the same time, we fall asleep completely exhausted with a wide smile on our faces and dream, most likely about the Taberg Downhill Challenge 2014…

PS Pictures from the event are coming soon! And one more thing, if you managed to capture some super cool pictures and want them published on the site, please get in touch.