Street luge en Pologne

Big thanks to Marcus Rietema for sharing his story illustrated by awesome photos which had never been published before!

1- First, could you introduce yourself?

Hello, my name is Marcus Rietema. I was been born on January 17, 1965 and raised in Glendora, California. My father was born and raised on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia. Later he went to the Europe where he married my mother. My parents emigrated to the United Stated from the Netherlands in 1957. I spent 13 years as a competitive ski racer competing in Giant Slalom, Super G and Downhill. After that I worked as a ski instructor and was the Race Director at a local ski resort (Bear Mountain)

I'm single and currently I work throughout California as an equine dentist on some of the world's finest horses. I reside in Mountain View, California in the San Francisco Bay area.
My hobbies are varied but my greatest passion is auto racing particularly Formula One and Champ Car.

In 1987 I began pursuing my auto racing dreams. This is a kart that I raced.

This photo was taken in 1988 at a racing school in Ontario, Canada.

I have really no interest in NASCAR except to learn from their marketing and promotion. Juan Pablo Montoya is my favorite driver in F-1 and Sebastien Bourdais in Champ Car. I also enjoy karting, cycling, pool and pipe skating, collecting diecast f-1 models, racing slot cars and racing artwork. I'm really excited about getting a 125cc-shifter kart in the next few months. My strengths are my strong work ethic and problem solving ability. I have a hard time ever giving up and I'm very stubborn.

2- You play an important role in the Gravity Sports community since you are the President of the International Gravity Sports Association (IGSA), how did you discover the existence of these sports? When?

I began skateboarding in 1975 at the age of 10. I started out skating in the streets and doing freestyle but soon I discovered bowl and pool riding and that is what I ended up riding all of the time. Downhill was just a natural progression of skateboarding for me. We used to bomb the hills while skating home from the empty reservoirs that were located in the local mountains. In 1978, I heard about people making downhill skateboards from old snow skis that they were laying down on and riding Glendora Mountain Road (GMR).

My first street luge. The photo was taken in 1978 at age 13. The luge was made from an old snow ski with Gullwing trucks and Yoyo wheels.

Soon my friends and I were buying old skis, attaching a seat and taking the trucks and wheels off of our skateboards to make our own lay-down boards (street luges). My first ride down GMR was soon after that. This is also where I met my best friend Bob Ozman. I entered my first competition on Glendora Mountain Road in 1979. I finished third in stand up behind Roger Hickey and Beau Brown and I was only 14 years old! In lay down (street luge) I finished 7th.

Marcus Rietema and Brian Ross

May 1981- Report in a Finish magazine
"Tekniikan Maailma"

Summer 1981 - aluminium luge

1986 - I was using the chassis with large fairings front and rear. Behind it was a next generation, very complicated luge that I never finished.

3- On a more personal view, which events have you ever taken part in?

As I said earlier I competed in downhill skateboarding and street luge in the late 70's and early 80's.

Photo on the left: This is my first downhill race November 11, 1979. It was an outlaw race on GMR. That is Darren Lott next to me with the red pants and yellow shirt and Bob Ozman next to him in the jean outfit with the long blonde hair.

I got back into street luge in the early 90's competing in Roger Hickeys AGRO / FIGR races and also in the RAIL series.

	At Bonelli Park 1994 racing our aerodynamic Eagles. I’m in the lead with Roger Hickey and Perry Fisser following close behind.		My best friend Bob Ozman is just getting back into the sport in late 1995. He doesn’t even have leathers yet!
	A nice picture of my Eagle in 1995. In my opinion these are still the most beautiful street luges ever built. The handling left a lot to be desired.		This was a special board we built just for the Extreme Games since my regular Eagle was not legal. I finished in 6^th place with it.

My biggest events were the 95' and 96' X Games Street Luge competitions with a best finish of 5th.

Group photo at the 1995 Extreme Games in Providence, Rhode Island. I met some really cool people that week who became my very close friends.

One of my favourite shots - Xgames 1996

4- Which reasons have pushed you forward to found this organization? Could you recount for us how it happened?

In 1995 there was a lot of political fighting going on between the Federation of International Gravity Racing (FIGR) and the Road Racers Association for International Luge (RAIL). RAIL was organizing the X Games and FIGR was running a series of races in Southern California. At that time the only way a rider could earn a place to compete in the X Games would be by invitation. If you were not on the RAIL "good guy" list you were not going to race in the X Games. There were a lot of really talented racers competing in the FIGR series that were not invited to the X Games because of their affiliation with FIGR. These were people like Perry Fisser and Darren Lott. There were also a lot of suspect things happening regarding rules, timing and fair officiating.

In the Fall of 1995 Bob Ozman, Darren Lott, Alec Schroeder, Ted Schroeder, Perry Fisser, Laurie Fisser, Ron Amos, Brad Strandlund, Stephanie Barger and myself began having weekly meetings to start a new organization. After a couple of months the group realized that we were going in two different directions with our ideas so we decided to split into two groups. Ozman, Lott, the Schroeder brothers, Stephanie Barger and myself went ahead and formed the IGSA. The Fisser's, Strandlund and Amos picked up the pieces of FIGR and started Extreme Downhill International (EDI). I don't think many people know that both EDI and the IGSA had their beginnings at my kitchen table!

5- You brought street luge to the X Games from 1997 to 2001. In which way has it helped street luge grow?

I didn't really bring Street Luge to the X Games. I took over as the Street Luge Sport Organizer in 1997 and the IGSA became the sanctioning body. ESPN was unhappy with the current organizer so they didn't renew their contract after the 1996 X Games. For the 1997 X Games, the IGSA worked with RAIL, EDI, Hot Heels and invited their best riders. The IGSA sanctioned an Open Qualifier in San Bernardino, CA and allowed anybody in the world the opportunity to qualify for the X Games.

The X Games helped the sport of street luge grow enormously throughout the world. They introduced millions of people to the sport who would otherwise have never have seen it. The X Games also gave the riders a big event to rally around and gave rider's incentive to support and build qualifying events. One other major role is that it brought competitors from around the world together and important relationships were formed. I met Gerhard Lanz and Stefan Wagner at the X Games, which is how the European aspect of the IGSA came together. Because of Gerhard and my ties with the X Games, Red Bull brought me to South Africa in 2001 for the DHX where we discussed the beginnings of SAGRA and I met Richard Knaggs and Pieter Annandale. If not for the influence of the X Games I don't believe that the IGSA could ever have been the global organization that it is today.

6- In 2001, ESPN decided to remove the street luge event from the X Games although you had two years remaining under contract. Do you think it has affected the growth of gravity sports in general?

Without a doubt being dropped by the X Games had a serious impact upon the sport of street luge and we are still feeling the effects. In the mind of many marketing executives, the X Games are the barometer they use to judge how cool a sport is to young, action sports enthusiasts (12-24 year olds). By the X Games dropping luge we were no longer on that list and worse yet the sport no longer had the international television coverage it had enjoyed for the past seven years. Sponsorships dried up and there was a mass exit of the competitors who were racing.

What has given me optimism is how many new riders have continued to enter the sport. This shows that during the seven years of the X Games we managed to build and develop a real sport that people continue to be passionate about. The people who continue to be involved in street luge today do so because they love the sport. No one is getting rich and no one is getting famous at this point. The contract I had with ESPN was very restrictive and I was not allowed to work with any other television network without their approval. Now I am free to work with anyone I want. In many ways I believe our sport is stronger today than in the past when it was almost artificially built up by the X Games. We have more races today in more locations around the world than ever before. The sport is gaining events, participants and strength. We have developed a strong relationship with the United States Luge Association (USA Luge) that will continue to reap rewards in the future. I believe it is only a matter of time before street luge is back on major international television. When this happens it will not be for a single race, but for an entire series of races and everyone will benefit.

7- ESPN bought out the contract you had signed with them according to an interview you gave in a newspaper. If you want to reveal it, can you tell us the amount of the income? Did it help IGSA buy new equipment or organize new events?

The contract settlement made between ESPN and I kept both myself and the IGSA alive in 2002 and out of bankruptcy. What many people don't realize is that the X Games Sport Organizer position was my job. The position was year round and made up approximately 50% of my income. I had two years remaining on the contract when I got the call that street luge was canceled. It came as a complete shock and led to a very, stressful 18 months in my life. It's not easy having your income suddenly cut in half and you still have bills to pay. I had to make the transition from part time Sport Organizer and part time horse dentist to full time horse dentist and it was not easy. I faced the difficult prospect of being required to increase my horse dentistry business by 100% to make up for the lost X Games earnings. Today I am happy to say that after 18 months I was able to achieve that goal but I am still paying off the debts from that dark period. For the record, the settlement with ESPN was approximately $30,000.

I have continued to keep the IGSA alive as a labor of love with the help of Bob Ozman, Gerhard Lanz and Richard Knaggs. The majority of the money to do this has come directly from my own pocket. We don't charge a membership fee and the money we earn from sanctioning fees goes directly toward travel expenses and the maintenance and purchase of equipment. Through the years we have purchased timing equipment, radios, a PA system, blowers, fencing, computers, and lots of other equipment that we offer free of charge to promoters of IGSA sanctioned events. We also maintain the IGSA website, incur administrative costs, large telephone bills and must pay monthly storage fees to store the equipment. Since 1996 I have invested in excess of $100,000 into the IGSA of my own money.

8- What kind of difficulties are the IGSA facing in the United States and around the world?

In 2003 we had a very bad situation with an American event promoter. After the first World Cup event in Oklahoma, he didn't reimburse Bob Ozman and myself approximately $1000 for airfares we personally paid to come work his event. In addition he wrote a bad check on a closed account for insurance. Then he decided to drop the 2003 Ohio World Cup only two months before the event. This is the reason why the event was moved to Barrett Junction at the last minute.
Internationally, 2004 was also difficult when Braun dropped their sponsorship and Gerhard was forced to cancel Hot Heels. Lucky for us Yorck Dertinger and Red Bull stepped up and put together a beautiful replacement event in Auerburg, Germany. Then at the last minute it looked like the World Cup would be canceled in Altburon, Switzerland until a group of enthusiasts stepped up and saved that event. Unfortunately all of this uncertainty led to the Swiss World Cup and the new National level event in Sweden being scheduled on the same weekend. The Swedish date could not be changed since the event was held in conjunction with a big festival. I want to thank Peter Osterling for all of his hard work organizing the new Swedish event. We are looking forward to having a fantastic World Cup event there in 2005.

9- What do you think of the increased number of racing organizations in the USA (GSI, AGRO)? Do you believe one day you will all agree on a common rule book and common fees?

The IGSA is 100% in favor of unification between all racing organizations in the United States and worldwide. I believe that different organizations can co-exist but that we should all agree upon common equipment specifications and common racing rules. This way, event promoters could have events co-sanctioned and a single race could be counted toward multiple points championships. This would really help out the event promoters who I believe would see increased participation at their events. Competitors would also benefit since their equipment could be used without any changes between events held by different organizations.

10- Gravity Sports (mostly downhill skateboarding and street luge racing) are now growing quickly all around the world. We can see new nationalities getting involved such as Chilean, Polish, Swedish riders who are trying to organize events. Will you help them build a national championship? Do you think having an IGSA branch in each of these countries would help develop gravity sports?

I believe the best way to see world-wide growth in all gravity sports will be to have separate continental organizations working together under a single common world organization (IGSA) that will supply rules and maintain the World Ranking system. Each continental organization will have a representative in the world organization that will vote on rules, regulations and policies that affect all of the continental organizations. This is how we have structured the IGSA although so far we do not have separate organizations for each continent.

In the near future, we hope to have separate IGSA affiliated organizations up and running in North America, Europe and Africa and further down the line we hope to add organizations in South America, Asia and Australia. Each organization will have a representative who will vote on IGSA rules, regulations and policies. Every continent would be awarded two World Cup and four National level events each year. As the number of World Cup events increase, so will the number of events that the IGSA will count toward each competitors IGSA World Ranking. With the sports continued growth we can add separate national organizations for each country that will fall under their respective continental organization.

I believe that with a unified sport we can build gravity sports to enormous levels internationally and make ourselves very attractive to both television and sponsors. The IGSA will assist any promoter who is interested in organizing an event no matter where they reside in the world.

11- Could you give us some fresh news concerning the 2005 season? Where will the IGSA World Championship be held?

At the moment we are busy putting together the 2005 schedule. There will be two World Cup events in North America, two in Europe and possibly a second will be added in Africa. The events in North America will most likely be in Minnesota and California, the European events in Austria and Sweden and the African event in South Africa.

Gerhard (Lanz) has decided to organize Hot Heels, so the World Championships will return to Kaunertal, Austria. At the present time we feel it is best to hold the World Championships in Europe since it is centrally located between the America's and Africa.

In 2005, we are planning to have a separate European Championship points series with 4 European races all counting toward a separate European Champion. We will award the same number of National points to each event and it will be comprised of both National and World Cup events. Our goal is to give racers the opportunity to race for a series championship that cannot afford or don't wish to travel internationally. We also hope to help out the promoters of the National events by adding more incentive for competitors to attend. I hope we can have similar 2005 series' in North America and Africa.

The IGSA has announced some new events since the interview has been realized. Please, visit the IGSA's official website >www.gravity-sports.com<

12- Streetluging.net is a French-based website. Do you follow the gravity sports scene in France? Do you have any projects in our country?

I do my best to keep up on gravity sports all over the globe. Unfortunately it is difficult to gather up all of the news from everywhere. I have shared a few emails with some potential French organizers and hopefully we can put something together. I was really happy to see so many French riders come to Ohio. They were great competitors and had a very positive influence upon the event. We will definitely have further discussions and hopefully develop a plan to schedule an IGSA sanctioned race in France.

13- How do you see the future of Gravity Sports?

I am an eternal optimist and I rarely give up on anything. I believe the next five years will be critical to the survival of the sport. The key to everything is to get everyone around the world to work together for a common goal. The gravity sports world is too small to be divided. If we work together we can achieve great things and this sport can grow to levels we have only dreamed of. If the sport divides further and splinters, the whole thing will fall apart and we will be left with only a few scattered events and no international future.

14- Feel free to say a last word...

Thank you William for this opportunity to speak my mind. I appreciate all of the contributions that streetluging.net is making to the gravity sports community. The IGSA wants to thank all of the riders who have supported IGSA sanctioned events throughout the years. I want to especially thank all those people who have promoted IGSA sanctioned events. Being a promoter is not easy. The risk is great, the rewards are minimal at best, the work is long, difficult and often thankless. Without the efforts of event promoters, gravity sports would fade away… My wish for the future is that everyone can set their egos aside and we can all work together to build the gravity sports that we love.