Town prepares for longboards

Plans for Cathlamet's first professional longboard racing weekend are coming together.

The community will host longboarders from around the world August 28, 29 and 30.

Veteran longboarders will present clinics on August 28 at Wahkiakum High School.

Longboarders will compete in two races on August 29. At 9 a.m., they start a push race on Puget Island. At 12 noon, they'll participate in slalom races on River Street.

On August 29, streets will be closed intermittently as the longboarders compete in a downhill course starting at the high school and ending on Commercial Street near the funeral home building.

Organizers are planning the logistics of holding the races and still allowing people to have access to houses along the course.

"We're planning to go door to door in town and explain what's happening," Jennifer Hanigan, president of the Wahkiakum Chamber of Commerce, said Tuesday.

Cathlamet Mayor Dick Swart added that town officials will work with the Chamber and help with logistics. The town will post affected streets for no parking, Swart said, as it does for the Bald Eagle Parade.

Event Chair Sandi Benbrook-Rieder said the races will pause to allow residents to drive to and from homes. Longboarders will provide course monitors with whom residents can coordinate trips.

The course for the downhill race will head down South 3rd Street, turn left to Spring, right on Columbia, cross Main to Broadway and then turn left to Commercial Street for the finish.

The push race, which reportedly is similar to cross country skiing, will start at the Stockhouse Farm on West Birnie Slough and head down the slough to Ostervold Road, then to North Welcome Slough Road, and then turn left onto School House and again left onto West Birnie to finish.

The slalom was originally planned for South 3rd by the schools but has been moved to River Street.

According to information from the Chamber, the courses will be set up by Skip Marcotte, North American Tight Slalom Champion.

"The idea for this event came from Judy Edmondson and her son Addison Fox, daughter and grandson of Ruth and Cameron Edmondson of Puget Island," Benbrook-Rieder said in a press release. "They partnered with Billy Meiners and Casey Morrow to propose the idea to the Clinic Governing Board, the Town of Cathlamet and the Chamber of Commerce. The proceeds from this event will be contributed to the Wahkiakum Family Practice Clinic."

The town is planning for 300 visitors, Benbrook-Rieder said. Registration for the races is being conducted on-line by Rip City Skate in Portland (www.ripcityskate.com). The downhill is limited to 100 racers, the slalom to 30 racers, and the push race is open to an unlimited number of participants. Most of the racers will be camping nearby.