Michael O'Keeffe says anyone who says they're not scared at the beginning of a street luge race is a liar. Standing at the top of the hill, dressed in leathers, helmet, boots and gloves, the asphalt stretched out before them, racers prepare for the descent at speeds of close to 100kmh, with nothing between them and the road but a thin stretch of board.
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"The 'No Fear' slogan is for liars," says O'Keeffe. "Even if you've been doing this for a while, you're always slightly scared. That's part of the rush."
O'Keeffe is one of a growing number of street lugers across Australia looking to legitimise their sport, hoping to shed the "outlaw" reputation and bring it into the main stream.
There are about 200 "boards on the ground", according to Tim Gregory, the organiser of Cherry Bomb, an event dubbed a "gravity festival", which will showcase street luge near Cooma over two days from April 13 to 14.
From Townsville, to Wollongong, to Berridale, where Gregory hails from, street luge is growing as a sanctioned sport.
Gregory has worked for months will local councils to get Cherry Bomb up. Registration is full and he expects close to 25 serious racers for the event.
Cherry Bomb will be an Australian first in that novice riders will be able to "pop their cherry", with coaching available and a race for first timers on the Saturday and a professional race on the Sunday.
O'Keeffe will compete on the Sunday and Cherry Bomb is the first race in 2013 that will count towards the national title.
Cherry Bomb will be held at Mount Gladstone, four kilometres out of Cooma, the road will be closed to traffic and all safety precautions will be taken; the event is also fully insured.
"This is a fully legitimate event, not an outlaw event," says Gregory.
"People can come and do it in safety, in a sterile environment, to see what we do."
Both Gregory and O'Keeffe say riders usually only need one ride to get hooked.
"It's addictive," says O'Keeffe, who only started riding late last year, after attending the Port Kembla billy cart derby where street luge was also on show.
"I did build a luge as a teenager, out of an old skateboard," says O'Keeffe.
"I had read a story in Sports Illustrated, I think it was, about these guys who would race in San Francisco and I thought that sounds crazy I'd like to give it a try."
After Port Kembla, he did some internet surfing and came across australianstreetluge.com, the official website of Australian Streetluge.
"I made contact with a guy called Simon Godfrey who took me out for a ride and I thought this is cool, can I do it again!"
More than 20,000 people attended the Port Kembla billy cart derby and Gregory is hoping Cherry Bomb can also attract a good number of spectators.
"We live in a tourist zone that's actually more of a rural zone," he says.
"The Snowy Mountains are in a depression if we're honest. There's a 12 week season if we're lucky, there's not as much snow on the ground as there used to be ... I wanted to create an event that would bring people to the area in the off-season, try to establish something new, so people will come to the area, to give places like Berridale some dignity that they deserve."
For more information about Cherry Bomb head to bombthesnowies.com.au
