This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Springville skater Riley Irvine purportedly reached a speed of 73 mph on a southwest Utah road, according to a video posted to YouTube on Wednesday.
Irvine, representing Loaded Boards, passes a couple cars and appears to blindly enter hairpin turns while screaming downhill from a deep crouch.
But Irvine said by phone Thursday night that the run — which he said started near Brian Head resort, south of Parowan (contrary to information provided by a Loaded Boards rep earlier Thursday) — was at a low-trafficked time, with spotters ahead at the blind corners.
He and fellow downhill skateboarders call themselves the "dawn patrol" because they go out at sunrise to avoid cars, he said. Their boards can stop as quickly as a bike, Irvine said, and they have plastic circles on their hands called slide pucks that allow them to touch the road and lessen the impact of a crash.
"It's a dangerous thing, but we do it as safe as we possibly can," he said.
Irvine said skateboarders are often reluctant to share the locations of their runs because they don't want inexperienced people to copy them and get injured.
He first started downhill skateboarding in Provo Canyon about six years ago. Now he's working part-time at a deli — he previously worked full-time in tech support — as he prepares to race on the International Downhill Federation circuit in Europe this summer, with stops in the Czech Republic and Austria.
His speed near Brian Head was his fastest yet, he said. His previous high speed — which he measures using an app on his phone — was about 70 mph.
"It was a wild ride, that's for sure."
Earlier this month, Swedish longboarder Erik Lundberg set a new record for top speed on a longboard at more than 81 mph in Quebec.
Twitter: @matthew_piper