Centre of Gravity | downhill gravity sports history | Relentless Energy Drink

Downhill gravity sports could be set to have their first dedicated global base, thanks to one man’s passion and determination

What do you do when the facilities you need to pursue your passion don’t exist anywhere in the world? Simple: you build them yourself.

While most people would shy away from such a potentially monumental undertaking, Will Stephenson is someone whose uncatered-for passion burns strongly enough to overcome any such adversity. He’s an aficionado of downhill gravity sports; a term used to bring together various pursuits defined as sports practised on “anything without an engine which rolls downhill”. It’s a pretty dangerous set of hobbies, and ones for which there exists no dedicated training centre or course in the world. Will aims to change all that with an exciting, ambitious new project.

Illicit roots: the history

Stephenson traces the history of downhill gravity sports back to one of action sports’ key blossoming grounds: 1970s California. Some sources say that it stretched back to the late 60s, but it’s in the following two decades that it achieved notoriety. The legendary Signal Hill Outlaw race saw skateboarders battle it out down a straight hill, and from there riders experimented with sitting on boards – a position that was eventually adapted to create streetluge.

The notoriety that these emerging pursuits engendered led to an effective ban, tiklar.com recalling a law that was passed in Los Angeles, stating: “You cannot ride a skateboard faster than 10 miles per hour, or on a grade steeper than three per cent.” How anyone was supposed to measure something so precise, we’ll never know. Following this debacle, the popularity of streetluge increased, and its presence in legal, controlled and competitive form led to its inclusion in the X Games in the mid 90s – a high point in downhill’s history.

"I want to move forward with the sport and really get somewhere safe for us to go."

As the Games moved towards more profitable, arena-based spectator sports however, it fell out of favour and was eventually dropped, inspiring one Marcus Rietema to set up the International Gravity Sports Association. As the aforementioned article also states: “Media outlets have made huge contributions to the sport in the past, but the profitability never worked out as the logistical nightmare of gravity sports was shown by needing an extensive course.” Clearly, Stephenson faces no easy ride in his mission.

The birth of a passion

“I used to do shortboard skateboarding when I was younger and I wasn’t very good at it,” he tells us, “so I used to sit on it and roll down the hill! I called it buttboarding and I thought I’d made my own sport up. I typed in butt boarding on the internet and it turned out there’s a big world cup series that goes all round the world which people compete in. I started chatting to people on the internet and started going to events and it just grew from there. I went from competing in buttboard class to streetluge and entered my first race in 2004.”

Although the world is your oyster, Stephenson is keen to stress that if you’re looking to practise downhill sports, there’s nowhere you can guarantee safety while doing it. “One of the huge problems we have is that when we go out and ride, there’s obviously risk of traffic and being hit by vehicles – which has happened. Also, things like roadside objects, such as kerb stones and lampposts, can cause major injury. This is why I want to move forward with the sport and really get somewhere safe for us to go.”

Since Rietema founded the IGSA some 10 years ago, downhill gravity sports have burgeoned in popularity, with more than 1,200 riders competing in its official tournaments across the world. Stephenson has competed in events as far as Brazil and Australia and all over Europe, and organises a race in Eastbourne, East Sussex, called the Bopeep: Crash & Burn – but the time has now come for the scene to have a permanent, bespoke home.

"Whereas a lot of skateboarders will just go out there and buy a board, these guys have to design and build it from scratch."

The art of gravity

There are a surprising number of ways to hurtle down a hill at breakneck speeds, with a serious level of technology and craftsmanship therein. “The main differences between buttboarding and streetluge is that in the buttboard class, there are a lot more restrictions on the equipment,” Will explains. “You’re limited on the amount of wheels you can have, the type of bearings, the size and so on, so it’s more of a stock class. Streetluge is a bit more about letting your imagination run wild. The luge can be up to three metres long and it can have up to 16 wheels on it.”

Household names are involved when it comes to the seemingly innocuous soapbox carts – major car brands including Lotus and Vauxhall have designed their own racers, and the practitioners of this age-old sport take their vehicles very seriously. “Those guys spend the most money on their machines out of all the gravity sports. I’ve seen fully carbon-fibred soapboxes. They are very, very competitive as well. Seeing the amount of time that goes into the design and building of these carts is fantastic,” says Stephenson.

“Whereas a lot of skateboarders will just go out there and buy a board, these guys have to design and build it from scratch. There is a lot more time going into the building and manufacturing of these soapboxes than there is with the skateboard side of things.”

Bringing the dream to life

Centre of Gravity is the name of his proposed hub for all things downhill. He’s keeping the location secret for now, but reveals that the patch of land it’s on is home to a 5,000-year-old Iron Age fort and burial ground, and is covered by English Heritage protection. “They’re really happy about us doing it,” he explains. “I’ve lived near the location all my life and I never knew it was there, so we’re hopefully going to open up the site so we can bring people in and they can learn about the location and the fort.”

The plan is to run international events alongside a training centre for professional competitors and amateurs alike – catering for enthusiasts of all experience levels – with training sessions and workshops. “You can take the sport wherever you want to take it, so if you just want to do it for fun once or twice a month you can. And if you want to take it seriously and train for three weeks before a World Cup race you can. You have the flexibility to make it how you want it.” The course will also provide a place for established riders and manufacturers to test out new equipment.

"It’s a huge amount of money that we’re having to put into it"

As well as the time, energy, emotion and dedication he’s pouring into this project, Will has much more at stake. Aside from match funding from a rural-focused European grant scheme, he’s the one funding the entire project. In the current economic climate, that’s a serious undertaking. “I’m trying to get personal loans and bank loans and stuff like that. I’m going out myself looking for these grants and I have someone filling in the applications. It’s a huge amount of money that we’re having to put into it. The banks aren’t really lending at the moment, so I’m trying to find alternative routes of funding, which is proving difficult. But I’ll soldier on and keep my head up.”

An application is currently being considered by the local council, with Stephenson required to address various points of concern for a second round of feedback, and the historic environment planning officer has given consent for the project to go ahead with regards to the site’s heritage significance. So while the project is getting support from all relevant quarter, it will be turning it into a financial reality that will prove the biggest stumbling block.

Sibling rivalry

Given how niche and relatively small-scale downhill gravity sports are collectively, it’s no surprise that the relationship between riders in different pursuits is reasonably convivial. They are all bound by the shared frustrations concerning the issues of safety and legality and a general lack of facilities, meaning that the Centre of Gravity’s mission to bring them all together makes even more sense.

“We’re all friends at the end of the day. We always wind each other up – so nothing too serious,” Will says of rivalry between the sports. “A lot of them switch sports. Some guys do the classic and the streetluge, and a lot of the standard guys will also give buttboarding a go.”

Only time will tell if this dream becomes a reality. If you want to show your support, click here and join their Facebook group. With any luck, the UK will soon be seeing gravity in an exciting new light.