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Last month, I had the privilege of attending Tepe and Tacos, a downhill freeride skateboarding event in near Santa Maria, California. This was my first time at the event and I had heard so many great things, so the expectations were high. I was not disappointed.

First of all, it’s Tepe—short for Tepesque—not tempeh. So many people slipped on the pronunciation, inadvertently pronouncing the event: Tempeh and Tacos, causing everyone to mis-pronounce it occasionally. Tempeh tacos does sound like a healthy vegan meal, but it was Tepe and Tacos.

The event is an annual one organized by Kevin Reimer and sponsored by Powel-Peralta and Skate Warehouse. The event is so grassroots that the only rules are:

1. NO BITCHING – If you don’t like something, please go ahead and fix it immediately.
2. HELP OUT – Events are a huge effort, so lend a hand whenever possible.
3. RESPECT ALL – This is an event for EVERYONE. Respect them, their beliefs, their choices, and their riding ability.
4. LISTEN – If a volunteer, organizer, or skater asks something of you, listen and react accordingly.
5. HAVE FUN – This is a no pressure, pure enjoyment event. It’s not about winning, it’s not about being the fastest, it’s about having the most fun. Do that.

Kevin calls for volunteers to help out with corner marshaling and hay bales. In exchange, they get a discount on their entry fee. Another quirk about this event is that the promotion and correspondence seems to live primarily on Facebook. If any participant had a question months before the event, we just had to hit up Kevin on Facebook. Any updates or changes in schedule? Check Facebook. Where event posters and web advertisements have been ways that other events get there name out, Tepe only needs word of mouth and the world’s largest social media platform.

Another extraordinary aspect is that this event fulfills the ultimate dream of camping at the bottom of the course. Wake up in the morning and simply walk to catch the Uhaul to take a run. You feel safe leaving your camping and skating gear at the bottom during the event. At the end of the day, everything you brought is conveniently where you left it and you can get right to cooking dinner and letting loose.

The Sk8Bus at the Shasta skatepark with Mt. Shasta in the background.

Landon Jackson lands in a backside nosepick at the Shasta skatepark.

The Sk8Bus crew at a gas stop on our way to Tepe and Tacos.

I traveled to the event in the PDX Sk8Bus, with Pat Haluska, JP Rowan and I switching off driving. At about midnight on Thursday night, I finished my evening driving shift at the entrance to the campsite. Excited to get settled in for the night, I let JP take over the steering wheel and he drove us into the camp. A narrow dirt road led us past various temporary “campgrounds” until we got to an even narrower section of cars parked on both sides of the road. Because the Sk8Bus has a long kick-tail, a few of us jumped out to help guide JP through the tunnel of cars without scraping our nose or tail. We made it through clean, only inches from touching the parked cars. Triumphant in our success, JP pressed forward to drop in on lil’ creek shaped like a mini-ramp. Unfortunately after our front wheels made it past the bottom of the creek and started climbing upwards, our “longboard” kick-tail performed a tail stall on the down slope behind us.

We spent an hour or so arguing and hypothesizing how to get ourselves unstuck before we resigned to the fact that we were stuck for the night. It wasn’t all that bad. I mean, how often do you get to sleep in a cap spot with a creek running underneath? Pretty plush.

The Sk8Bus with its tail stall.

Free Cascadia!

On the morning of the first day, things started at a leisurely pace. Luckily that gave the Sk8Bus time to get out of the mini-ramp we were tail stalled in. We stuffed firewood and rocks underneath the back tires and we got a bunch of guys to push from the front while Pat put the petal to the metal in reverse. Before riding even started for the day, we were unstuck! We asked some people to move their cars, backed up until we found an appropriate place to park, taking up most of the dirt road and causing other campers to drive around us. Perfect.

Push!

Push!

And we are good to go!

Cascadia is free!

The pavement overall is pretty butter, with only a few holes or scars to watch out for. The course starts on a part of the road that is exposed to the sun and had the only cellular reception in the area. As you descend into the tree covered area with the walls of the hillside on your right, you pass through many sweeping, banked corners. The right-hand corners are mostly blind and lead directly into a left hand sweeper, but there was really only one or two righties you really had to slow down for. Eventually, you come upon a left-hand hairpin that had EMTs and a porto-potty that some called the porto-left. At that point, the wall is on your left, the left turns are blind and it gets easier to spot your lines on the rights. Keep descending until you reach a right-hand hairpin and you’ve pretty much come to the end. With no reception at the bottom, it made people more social, talking about their awesome experiences on the hill.

Miles O’Connell from the Maryhill Freeride crew helped organize the course worker crew.

Head Honcho, Kevin Reimer.

After a great day of riding, I set up my DJ controller and PA system for some evening music. As it got dark for the night, I noticed someone starting a fire right next to the creek. Alarmed, I went over to try and help control the situation only to find out that it was Tyler Howell and Kevin Reimer. The landowners approved of them having a fire and they were moving the fire to an island in the middle of the creek. We enjoyed the ambiance of music and campfire and shut things down at a reasonable hour.

Mama Reimer and Papa too helped all weekend.

The second evening brought a bigger fire, larger group of people lurking, and a larger dance party. I started the evening with some reggae, moved into some hip-hop/rap, called for a small freestyle rap session, and played some hyphy new music. Soon, it was on to moombahton and until rocked some 80s electro to finish of the night. The drinking crowd was just getting started and wanted more, but there was still one more day of riding to get a good night’s rest for.

The final day of riding was bittersweet since the Sk8Bus had to leave in the afternoon to get started on our journey back to Oregon. We said our goodbyes and headed out on our long journey back home. After experiencing such a smooth and well-organized event, I would have to say  that without a doubt, it is a must experience event for anyone looking for three days of radical riding and chill camping. If you missed it this year, make time in your calender for next year. For all the photos from the event, check out the Facebook gallery I posted.

A big thanks to Kevin Reimer, Powell-Peralta, Skate Warehouse, and all the hard-working volunteers for the fun three day event.

The Jet Luge: a modern marvel that married Bob Swartz’s engineering expertise and passion for gravity sports. Tyler Topping visited Bob in Southern Maryland last July to find out more about the Jet Luge and how it came to be.

Since the 1970s, street luge has been a tight knit community
of gravity sports enthusiasts who want to push the sport and science to a
faster and more technical playing field. 
In 2004, Bob Swartz took street luge to the next level by creating the
first jet-powered street luge.

Bob Swartz has always had a knack for speed.  Starting as a child, he was always known as the neighborhood’s extreme snow sledder.  He would take anything from a Flexible Flyer to cardboard down his local hills trying to reach a new top speed.  Fast forward to the Mid-1990s, Bob was sitting in his living room watching TV with his wife and getting his first glimpse into the world of Street Luge.  He saw people like Lee Dansie blasting down hills powered only by gravity and he knew he had to get started.  After this pivotal event, he built his first luge based on the sleds he saw on TV.

Bob found out more about the sport and gained some early insights from websites like Tim Novak’s Skate Luge site and streetluge.com.  After building his first luge, he started practicing in local neighborhoods in Maryland.  He hit 50mph for the first time in these neighborhoods and was craving higher speeds.  At the time, X-Games was hosting luge races which set a challenging but possible goal for Bob.  Bob started to travel to places like West Virginia and the Appalachian Mountains in Western Maryland.  From this time training, Bob was able to attend his first X-Games Qualifier as a competitor.  This was a big deal for Bob, having not excelled in traditional sports growing up.

After attending his first few events, Bob found himself being mentored by people like Bob Pereyra, Lee Dansie, and Darren Lott – all legendary street lugers of their time.  Despite finally lining up against some of the same people he first watched in his living room – Bob was failing to qualify for races and did not know why.  Bob Pereyra gave him a bite of wisdom at the top of the hill that would stick with Swartz for the rest of his days on a luge.  Pereyra told him, ‘Relax because all of the preparation was already done during practice and at home.’  Bob just needed to focus on making it through the hill clean.  After receiving this message, Swartz finally started to place in his races.

Years passed and Bob was still looking for the next best
thing on his luge.  Bob had become known
for his crazy street luge adventures amongst his friends and family but was
never able to show them the sport he was so passionate about due to the
topography of his hometown in Maryland. 
Being so passionate about street luge, Bob needed this to change – he
needed to share the good times.  Bob had
brought his street luge with him wherever he traveled.  He took his luge to Ascension Island,
Singapore, and Guam among other countries he had traveled to for work.  He had seen how readily these communities
embraced luging and knew it was time to bring it home.  This is the origin story of the Jet Luge.

In 2004, the technology had advanced to the point where
buying a small jet engine to attach to his luge was a (somewhat) reasonable
reality.  After endless research, Bob
found a small jet engine manufactured in Germany that had an output of 52lbs.
of thrust.  It had a light price tag of
$6,000 USD.  Having never been done
before, the idea of the jet luge was still quite abstract.  Bob wasn’t sure if 52lbs. of thrust would be
enough to push the weight of himself and the luge.  This is where things got creative…

To test whether or not the engine would suffice as a means of propulsion, Bob took a deep-sea fishing rod and equipped it with heavy fishing line and set the drag to 52lbs.  He took the rod and anchored it to his truck and held on to the line while laying down on his luge.  He was towed behind the truck and if the 52lbs. wasn’t enough to pull him and the luge – line would let out.  This test proved that the small jet engine from Germany would be the one for his jet luge project.

A couple months passed and Bob received the engine and
finally fabricated his dream project.  He
could now show his passion for speed on a sled to his friends and family. 

The Jet Luge was born.

The small engine, about the size of a watermelon, engulfed his small Southern Maryland neighborhood in a piercing scream.  All of his neighbors came out to see what the crazy next door was getting into this time.  On his first run on the jet luge, Bob hit 60mph… This wasn’t enough.  On his second run ever, Bob hit 89mph on the residential, mile-long strip of road leading to his house.  The theatrics of this event pushed Bob to make a show of the jet luge.  Bob contacted his local quarter mile drag strip to see if he could take his creation to the track.  The drag strip told him to come down to the IHRA President’s Cup; the largest event of the year.  Despite never showing off his jet luge to the public, Bob accepted and prepared to blast down the quarter mile in front of 20,000 people.  He added two small tubes behind the burner to create an afterburner effect.  This allowed his jet engine to shoot flames and smoke to create a more impactful spectacle for the people watching.  Bob successfully went 80mph at this event and the rest is history.

Since the inception of the jet luge, Bob has performed all
over the East Coast at car shows, air shows, drag strips, and gravity sports
events.  Last year, Bob even rocketed up
the Top Speed Challenge course, reaching speeds of 75mph on an 18% uphill
incline.  The jet luge has provided Bob
with the tools to learn a lot more about different aspects of gravity
sports.  For example, Bob has found that
at speeds over 90mph, aerodynamics play a much larger role than they do below
90mph.  The flywheels he uses on his
sleds explode somewhere between 120mph and 125mph – he has a collection of
exploded wheels to show for it. 

Being someone that believes good things should be shared, Bob has put this knowledge to use in a way that benefits his community.  Bob goes into high schools on occasion to teach the physics of the Jet Luge.  This provides students with a hands-on and captivating demonstration of the theories they are learning in class.  Additionally, Bob brings helmets to give away at all of his events to help raise awareness for safety.  He wants people who have never seen luging to know that it is easier and safer than it looks.

Bob Swartz holds his faith as an integral factor in his adventures in gravity sports and in life.  Bob says, “God is my pilot and I’m just along for the ride.”  While Bob credits much of his success to his beliefs, his message can be appreciated by all.  “If it doesn’t feel right and you aren’t having fun – stop doing it” says Swartz.  He recounts all of the people he has met and the places he has been as a result of gravity sports.  “Gravity sports not only opens the doors for an amazing sport to participate in, but also a spiritual connection to the created wonders of the world for each rider.”

After sitting down and talking with Bob about the Jet Luge and his history in the sport, we took to the neighborhood street to try something that has never been done before: towing a skateboarder behind the Jet Luge.

I suited up and tightened down my Flywheels, which felt proper for being towed behind a luge from the mid-2000s.  At first, I was a bit skeptical about standing a mere five feet behind a jet turbine that reaches temperatures of over 700˚F (370˚C). Bob had just shown me a video of the Jet Luge melting a children’s Power-Wheel car just from the exhaust alone. After explaining how the heat quickly dissipates, I was assured that there was nothing to worry about.

As this was a new experience for both of us, we took it easy the first few runs in order to feel out the situation. After warming up, we decided to hit the gas.  We reached 50 miles per hour in just a few hundred feet with no signs of slowing down. 

The sensation of acceleration while being towed by the Jet Luge was unique and something I had never experienced before.  Off the line, it feels as though you are crawling.  The engine is consuming air at a fast and steady rate and the tension on the tow rope starts to increase.  Before I knew it, we were going 40 miles per hour.  The acceleration between 20 and 40mph is so smooth and constant that it is hard to tell that you are, in fact, accelerating.  There are no jerking motions, hardly any increase in resistance and the sound of the screaming engine remains the same.  It is an experience that I believe is unique to the Jet Luge.

By the time we finished our runs, half of the neighborhood was out on their driveways watching.  Surprisingly, the banshee-like howl of the engine comes as a welcomed sign of Bob, that crazy neighbor, doing what he loves; putting on a show and going fast.

I thank Bob for this special opportunity to become the first person towed by his luge and for giving me a glimpse into his world.   

If Bob wants you to remember one thing, it is to, “Shut the video games off, put your phone down, and go outside and experience this beautiful world with your friends.  You won’t enrich yourself in front of a screen but you will in the mountains”, or on the drag strip in his case.