If you were looking for somewhere new on earth to bomb a hill and you spun a globe of the world, and ended up with your finger on Cape Town, South Africa, fortune would have led you to a good place. For a start, the city has got some craggy, sheer mountains towering over it, many of them plunging straight into the cold sea. Secondly, and most importantly, in this city of six million, there are plenty of steep, winding runs. For a modern downhill skater, this combination makes for the sickest selection of choice hills. You can bomb the narrow, twisting vertigo-inducing coastal highways with million dollar postcard views.

Or to go to the smoothest hills you’ve ever rolled on, found hidden, beyond the city limits in farmlands, open bush and forests. From way back in the day runs were found and conquered by those who followed the gospel of the Z-Boys. But it wasn’t always idyllic, as deep in the darkest days of apartheid, surfers and skateboarders were considered subversives of the communist kind and having a board under your arm was grounds at least for a fascist strip search. So these crews naturally wanted to avoid the cops at all costs and would hunt for newly paved streets in foothills earmarked for development, and skate these empty, forestlined, buttery inclines for days on end without seeing anyone, except the odd rambling hiker. Despite the odd bust, mostly though, these downhill days were sublime moments of skating purity and the roots of a scene that whilst small, is now one of the strongest in the world. Times have changed though and all the hillside developments are full and growing by the day, some fenced off as a defence against crime. Traffic has also become insane in what is one of Africa’s most industrious capitals, nicknamed the Mother City. Yet the local downhill scene has endured and produced some of the world’s best speed freaks.

In South Africa, like anywhere, there’s something pure about speeding down a steep hill in the mountain zone, where you can absorb the scenery around as you push off. The air itself is also kind of intoxicating. The Cape mountain area is home to a family of plants and flowers called fynbos. These often emit strong fragrances and many are used in balms, tonics and teas. It’s no wonder you feel revitalised after a skate on one of these, hills as the positive ions leave you with a chilled aura. One such place is Kogelberg, a nature reserve where they hold an IGSA world cup event every year. The entire course is set in a Biosphere Game Reserve among the indigenous fauna and granite outcrops. The competitive aspect in Cape Town has a short history. Despite some informal meets before it, downhill racing truly descended on Cape Town with a heap of hype, with the Red Bull Downhill Extreme. First run in 1999, the race fea- tured stand up, luge, inline and an early prototype downhill bmx. The Bull’s marketing machine made sure everyone knew about it, and the most of the Mother City turned out to witness the freak show, which was dominated by South Africans, including a 17-year-old called Stuart Bradburn who won the inaugural event with ease on a regular street set up. There’s always been a serious downhill underground in the city, but over the years this event drew some of the world’s top riders and the previously cut off local scene tapped straight into the source and evolved far more quickly. The following year, everyone had full leathers and sleek racing boards. Burly Frenchman Manu Antuna took out the stand up for two years running, followed by Chris Chaput in 2002. And although they never won an event at his race again, perennial local contenders included Dallas Oberholzer, Stu Bradburn and Mikey Zietsman, among others. Any of them could have taken it at anytime, but such is racing and the experience of the overseas contingent was too much.

The DHX was eventually cancelled in 2003, but by then our skaters had been taking it to the internationals and attending their events. Stu eventually won the world title in 2004, and a handful of others have placed consistently in the top of the rankings over the last few years Beyond the relative hype of the events (which barely register on the general radar anyway), there is also a deeper underground of purists, who ride only for the essence alone. They are phantoms of the boardriding clan who often skate after hours and couldn’t conceive of racing for points instead of for pleasure alone. For all though, the scene is too small to make a living if they tried and, like all of us, it’s ultimately just something they do to take the edge off the real and connect with like-minded humans, on the street. This includes people who would have been marginalised by the old regime. Due to the accepting ways of the skate matrix, there have always been riders of every creed at events and just skating, be it in a rich suburb or in the urbanhood, and everyone gets along as best they can and has a good
time, like it should be.

Visiting skaters trip on the place and the culture. They rave about the hills, the waves, and the friendly bros and even friendlier chicks, and of course the landscapes. True, there is a crime here and Capetonians are renowned as bad drivers in a country that loses thousands to road deaths every year, but then again life in here is not for the fainthearted. Like bombing a gnarly hill, the fulfilment is fully rewarding, when you make it through to see the end of another glorious sunny day on the Southern tip of Africa. Although the sport is growing overseas and slowly gaining more interest in SA, downhill doesn’t get as much support here. Some like it that way and others not. In the end it’s all about the glide, and I can promise you if that matters one iota to you, there are worse places to stop that finger on the planet.From way back in the day runs were found and conquered
by those who followed the gospel of the Z-Boys.

(A Concrete Wave Magazine Article)