90 foot skateboard ramp in LA (with 50 foot jump required)

[underpants]

A skateboarder flies through the air during a practice run on a nine-story ramp built for the X Games, at the parking lot of the Staples Center in Los Angeles, Monday, Aug. 2, 2004. (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian)

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/x_games

LOS ANGELES - One by one, the world's top daredevil skateboarders fling themselves from a nine-story tower down a ski jump-style ramp. They soar across a heart-stopping, 50-foot gap to the wooden slope below.

Way set skateboard world records for longest (75 feet) and highest (23 1/2 feet) jumps on a single run in June 2003, at a mega ramp in the Southern California desert. He plans to break his distance record in Los Angeles on Sunday.


Made of lumber and covered in a smooth Masonite-like surface called Skatelite, the 335-foot-long mega ramp includes three major stages.


Crouched skaters initially roll down a 45-foot nearly vertical wall. They reach speeds up to 40 mph and fly across a 50-foot gap. The ramps are like those in snowboarding and ski jumping, except there's no snow to cushion the frequent, awkward falls.


If they land the jump, skaters head right up a 27-foot quarter pipe to perform tricks like the Christ Air or McTwist.


To catch even bigger air, contestants can climb to a 60-foot platform for takeoff, then try to clear a 70-foot gap.