NHS brands teamed up with SOC brands these™ wheels, Bones Bearings and Powell-Peralta to present the first ever Pike's Peak Downhill Race. the course was billed at 65+mph top speed, but the top speed achieved over the weekend was a mere (ha!) 52mph.

After nearly 24 hours on the road, we arrived at one of the most beautiful locations I have ever seen for a race and met up with George Powell. At about 12,000 feet, the air was a bit thin as we set up for the race. There are ten corners in the race. Byron Essert Qualified 10th, Tyler Howell 25th, JM Duran 42nd and Hayden Conroy's timing chip failed so he was supposed to skate a last chance qualifier, but fell ill and was unable to skate. Tyler surprised many by taking out a 2 time World cup champion in his first heat. He backed that up with another strong skate in the next round, landing him in the quarterfinals. With a shortage of customized wheels, he had to return to a wheel with less grip but still had a great showing finishing 3rd in the quarters by less than a second from the advancing spot. Byron, however powered through each round and after an amazing last corner pass in the semis, got himself into the finals for the 3rd time this year. He lead the way from the start all the way to turn 9 and slid a little too far causing him to hit the hay bails. After a quick recovery, he finished with a very strong 3rd place.

We hit the awards ceremony where George handed out the oversized check to the top 3. We stopped for some dinner and jumped back on the road.