From Kimberley’s skate scene to the extreme edge of skateboarding

Kimberley loves its skate culture, but how extreme can skateboarding get? Spanish daredevil Diego Poncelet has hit a world-record 151.83km/h downhill!Picture: Danie van der Lith / DFA / File

SKATEBOARDING is big in Kimberley, and Skateboarding fans in the city know that mastering a board takes balance, timing, nerve and plenty of practice.

That’s why, when the Kimberley Diamond Cup Championship Final rolls into the city in December, the country’s top-ranked skaters and invited international competitors will put their skills to the test – skills that have taken countless hours of practice to hone and perfect.

The fastest man on a board

But skateboarding has an extreme edge that even the most devoted fans might struggle to imagine: hurtling down a mountain road at 151.83km/h (94.34mph), standing on a board, with no conventional brakes.

It sounds ridiculous, but that is exactly what Spanish downhill skateboarder Diego Poncelet achieved in Canada last month, setting a world record at that nervewracking speed.

Poncelet, a two-time downhill skateboarding world champion, reached the record speed on September 22 on Route des Éboulements in Quebec, Canada.

His achievement surpassed the previous standing downhill speed record of 146.73km/h, set by Britain’s Pete Connolly in 2017.

For Poncelet, 27, the target had been 150km/h. Reaching it was the culmination of a project that had taken four years to develop.

“I never truly admitted to myself that my real objective was to get to 150kph; I was scared that it wouldn’t be doable,” he told Red Bull after the record attempt.

No room for error

The road itself presented a formidable challenge. Its steep gradient offered the potential for extraordinary speed, but cracks and bumps in the surface meant Poncelet had to know the course intimately. At those speeds, a small mistake on his part or an unexpected fault in the road could have devastating consequences.

I know what some folk are thinking – this run could never have happened on our city’s potholed pathways.

And because any miscalculation could prove disastrous, preparation was about much more than courage. Poncelet routinely trained at speeds exceeding 100km/h to become accustomed to the way his board responded, while mentally rehearsing the descent and memorising the road’s imperfections.

Keep that fact in mind: He memorised the entire 2.2km route.

He also adapted his aerodynamic riding position to help absorb the shocks and vibrations. A specially developed set of wheels and a custom fairing on the board helped reduce resistance as he accelerated downhill.

Beyond skill lies instinct

The mental demands were just as significant. Poncelet described entering a state of intense concentration in which instinct and preparation took over. His challenge was to remain composed while travelling faster than many motorists would feel comfortable driving.

There was little room for improvisation. The road had to be memorised, the equipment tested and his body position refined before he could attempt the record safely enough to make the run.

The result was a speed that few skateboarders have ever approached. Guinness World Records confirmed Poncelet’s 151.83km/h run as the fastest speed on a skateboard downhill in a standing position.

And downhill speed is only one way skateboarders are pushing the limits.

Skateboards go fast, and drop down buildings

Just on a side note, Brazilian skateboarding great Sandro Dias demonstrated another extreme in September last year when he dropped down a specially constructed ramp built against the curved façade of a 22-storey building in Porto Alegre, Brazil.

To put that speed feat into a Kimberley perspective, Dias went down a ramp built against a 22-storey building in Porto Alegre – a structure far taller than Kimberley’s 14-storey, 52.92-metre Harry Oppenheimer House.

The 50-year-old reached a speed of 103.8km/h during the eight-second descent, setting two Guinness World Records: the fastest speed on a temporary quarter pipe and the tallest drop into a temporary quarter pipe.

The project followed months of preparation and involved a purpose-built ramp and, as could be expected, extensive safety measures.

Skateboarding: more than rolling, kicks and flips

The two feats are very different, but both demonstrate how far skateboarding can be pushed through skill, preparation, engineering and a willingness to test the limits of what seems possible.

For Kimberley, the December Diamond Cup will bring the focus back to competitive skateboarding at home, with athletes battling for honours in their own disciplines.

Be assured that even now skaters are honing their skills with the December competition in mind.

And to motivate them, they’d do well to remember that Poncelet’s and Dias’s records offer a reminder that the sport stretches far beyond the skate park – and that, at its outer limits, even a small board and four wheels can become instruments of extraordinary achievements.