Features

SAN FRANCISCO – Thirty-two men whose only protection between them and the asphalt below is a small skateboard-like contraption and a helmet plunged down a steep street as they competed in a rather dangerous luge competition. 

The Red Bull Streets of San Francisco luge event, held Saturday, attracted hundreds to the run described as one of the most innovative such competitions in the world. The run can hurl riders down the straw-lined street at speeds of up to 60 miles per hour. 

The downhill course includes jumps that can launch riders up to 80 feet over the asphalt. 

“This is the wildest thing we’ve ever done,” said racer John Lewis of Seattle. 

This year the competition’s innovator was also one of its winners. 

The competition is the brainchild of Tom Mason, a professional luger, who has organized four such events in the last five years. 

This year Mason won the downhill race, which pitted 32 international racers against each other. Racers came from as far as Australia. 

“Normally I put so much energy into organizing it, I never have any energy left to race,” Mason said. 

Streets of San Francisco is the only street luge competition that couples a straight-shot, downhill course with three “big-air” jumps, Mason said. 

The same roster of competitors also competed in a Big Air competition, which used the naturally tiered streets of the city to see who could fly the farthest off of a ramped jump. 

Leander Lacey of South Africa won the Big Air competition. 

Both Mason and Lacey took home $2,500 in prize money. 

The competition is not for the novice or anyone without steel nerves. 

Mason said the competitors were hand-picked because those without enough experience could get seriously hurt. 

“I had to pick people that would survive,” Mason said. 

Mason said that this is the last year he plans to organize the event because he wants to stop while the street luge is still a popular event. 

Mason has held the Guinness Book of Records world speed record since 1998 for an 82 mph street luge run. But regardless, no matter how many times he does the Streets of San Francisco run he still gets a little frightened 

“I’m scared to death up there,” he said. “I’m more scared than anyone else.”