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In This Issue...
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History
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Capitola Classic Once Welcomed Skaters to the City’s Streets
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Capitola Classic Once Welcomed Skaters to the City’s Streets
By Linda Fridy
Today Capitola is trying to catch up with other cities in Santa Cruz County that have constructed skate parks, but a quarter century ago Capitola Village was well known in skating circles for its annual downhill race, the Capitola Classic. This head-to-head speed competition drew top names in the sport, many of whom were local talent with international reputations.
Held at the steep incline near the end of Monterey Avenue, spectators would line Depot Hill for a view of the action, complete with a breathtaking backdrop. The race was often held as part of the Begonia Festival, helping to draw crowds to Capitola at the end of summer.
NHS founder and Capitola resident Richard Novak ran the Classic for a number of years after the original promoter backed out at the last minute. He brought his experience putting on Southern California’s three-day televised Catalina Classic and streamlined it to one morning for Capitola.
“It was a fun event to do in your own backyard and show off to the world what you’ve got,” he remembered.
It drew an international group of competitors, but unlike many other skating events, the viewing crowd was made up of more non-skaters, he said.
The spectators made the event special for local skate legend John Hutson, who won the Classic most of its years.
“The thing I remember the most was the crowd �" it was really large, probably 400 to 500 people,” he said. “The streets were lined with people, right close to the race. … That made it more exciting, to do your stuff in front of a new crowd and see they were genuinely impressed.”
All About Speed
The mid-to-late-1970s were the heyday for skateboard racing in the United States, said Novak. The company that would become Independent Trucks was developing new suspension, and speed was key.
Posters for the 1980 race invite spectators to “See the thrills and spills of high-speed professional skateboarding” and boast a purse of $1,750. Hutson claimed the title that year, only two years after he had set the world speed record for standing skateboarding at 53.45 mph.
Another competitor was a local teenage girl, Judi Oyama, who had already made enough of a mark in skating to earn a Santa Cruz Skateboards sponsorship. She won the women’s event in 1980.
Promoters changed, and Oyama was disappointed when the event was made an invitational and she was left out.
When she asked why, she was told, “When a chick [goes] down the hill, it doesn’t look as gnarly.”
Pushin the Limits
Yet gnarly it was, regardless of gender, especially since protective gear had not caught up with the advances in boards. Looking at pictures her father took while she raced at Capitola, Oyama laughs as she points out her gear.
“I’m not even wearing elbow pads,” she said. “That’s a bandage. And now we have real knee pads, not these little soccer pads that when you fall they slide down your leg.”
Over the years, the Classic moved its start up into Depot Hill, giving the race a hairpin turn, and added slalom and even car jumping, Novak said. The crowd continued to grow as well. He estimated that by the early 1980s, spectators numbered more than 1,000.
“There’s a point where you feel the pressure of the crowd, where you think it would only take one incident to start something,” he said. “It got to that point.”
Yet too much success wasn’t the reason Novak pulled out from the event. Rather, it was a dispute with the people running a festival volleyball tournament, who accused skaters of putting glass in the sand.
“I finally said, ‘I can’t play that game,’” Novak said.
Time to Repeat History?
Judi Oyama thinks the Capitola Classic’s time has come again. She has talked with officials at the city, who were interested enough to ask if the event could be put together for this fall. Oyama said it will have to wait for 2008.
She is leaning toward a slalom event, since that is where she has the most experience and connections. Pro skaters have already planned what events they will enter for this year. Oyama would like to try the spring, again using the race to entice visitors outside of the busy summer season.
One stipulation is that Monterey Avenue would have to be repaved, she noted. Although she has never produced a race before, Oyama has already got the plans from events on which she would like to model the revised Classic. Demonstrations and kids would play a part in addition to racing, she added.
Her former sponsor and Classic promoter Novak thinks it could be just as popular as the original.
“If you did something like that, you’d draw a lot of people out of the barn to do this race,” he said.
Classic king John Hutson agrees.
“I think it’d be an outstanding event to see return. It’s a great atmosphere, a great venue to have it,” he said. “It fits with Capitola.”
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