SLIDERS

No, I don't mean the little hamburgers or the baseball pitch or the patio door. With the Winter Olympics in full swing, I was reminiscing about our brief time as "sliders". A slider is the term used to describe people who lay flat on their back on a sled & hurtle themselves down a steep, twisting, turning ice track at speeds up to 90 miles per hour!

The luge event is often referred to as "The Fastest Sport on Ice". Most people call the men & women who participate in this crazy endeavor "lugers" which is okay, but technically they are called "sliders". Or crazy people with no sense!

My son, Darrin, has always had an interest in Winter Olympic sports starting when he was 4 years old. After watching the 1980 games in Lake Placid, he announced that he wanted to go ice skating & do a sit spin. We did go to the ice rink for a family outing but, alas, no sit spins were performed by anyone.

A recent Olympic favorite of his is curling. Once you know the rules & scoring, it really is quite exciting to watch. A few years ago Darrin took curling lessons at a local ice arena in Roseville. He even participated in several of their matches. He was pretty good at it & they wanted him to join their team permanently but he just didn't have the time to devote to it. Hell, he could have made the Olympic team & we could be in South Korea watching him right now!

Anyway, during his teen years he developed a real affinity for the luge event which fascinated him. One summer we saw a notice in the newspaper that the U. S. Junior Luge Association was holding tryouts in our area. I'm sure you're thinking, it doesn't snow in the California Bay Area & certainly not in the summer. True! They had luge sleds with wheels on them & temporarily closed one of the cloverleaf freeway ramps for the tryouts.

Of course, Darrin, who was 16 & driving, insisted on heading over there by himself. After some brief training the participants made several runs down the ramp under the tutelage of the luge instructors. Low & behold, a month or two later he received a letter inviting him to a tryout camp the following winter at Lake Placid.

Unfortunately, he would have to miss six weeks of school & it was all at our expense. After much discussion we decided it just wasn't feasible. Darrin wasn't too disappointed since even our most successful U.S. sliders didn't make any money or win medals back then. Plus he was just starting his flying lessons & income was limited.

Fast forward to about 1995. Darrin was 19 & we were on a family vacation in Canada. One of our stops was at the Olympic Park in Calgary. We took a tour of the facilities, looked down the ski jump ramp & saw the bobsled track. Amazingly, we discovered that you could experience sliding on the bottom third of the Olympic luge track! The cost was only $9 USD per run. Of course, we HAD to do it!

Darrin & his dad did two runs each & I did one. We were given a heavy jumpsuit & a helmet to wear. The instructions were to relax & not do anything, just go with the flow & the sled would get you to the bottom. We would reach speeds of 25-30 MPH, far less than the Olympic sliders but I'll tell you what, it sure felt like I was going 90 miles an hour! They stressed that keeping your head back, feet up & relaxing was essential. Otherwise you would have a good chance of wiping out.

Okay, got it! The ride would take less than a minute. As I started off, I thought this isn't too bad but as the sled picked up speed my natural inclination was to tense up & try to "steer" the thing. I went up one side of the track, back down & up the other side. Every expletive I knew (& a few I made up on the spot) ran through my head as I told myself do what they said or you will be upside down careening down this track!

Sure enough, I put my head back & forced myself to semi-relax. The sled instantly straightened out & I thought, "I'll be damned, they're right." It was a fun, scary, exhilarating & crazy ass ride! I made it safely to the bottom & decided I was glad I did it, but once was enough! I can't even imagine what 80 or 90 MPH would be like & quite honestly, I don't feel the need to ever find out. Enjoy the Winter Olympics from the comfort of your couch!