The Leisure Luge


Welcome to the Leisure Luge Website!

The Leisure Luge is a sponteneous event based on the idea of putting an armchair onto a skateboard and going for a joyride.

The idea is to get teams of two or more together, and luge through Richmond, Indiana competing for prizes in five categories. Those five categories are moxie, speed, skill, theme and cumbersomeness.


Photos by Chris Dilts


July 1st, 1999: BBC Radio 5 (London) did a live interview with me regarding the Leisure Luge. You can hear the interview and see photos from that event.

The first Leisure Luge happened on March 8th, 1999, at Glen Miller Park in Richmond, Indiana. The official story and photos were located at charged.com, an extreme leisure magazine that published the story and photos before they went dot boom. You can still see story I wrote and the photos Chris Dilts took. The rest of this site is stuck in the pre-luge era.

There is no entry fee, but we do have a few rules.

Rules

  1. Teams must have a least two people. There is no upper limit (but all ya'll gots to split any booty you win, if that's a concern. )
  2. Your Leisure Luge-mobile must roll on at least one skateboard, and must involve something for somebody to sit in. (Often with recliners and other armchairs, no fasteners are needed.)
  3. The pusher and rider may switch as often as they like during the race. No fair pushing an empty leisure luge-mobile tho. Stay put while you change.
  4. You're whole team + leisure-mobile has to cross the finish line to be eligible for any prizes.
  5. Anyone violating any other rules we should have thought of will be disqualified.
  6. Helmet and shinguards are recommeded, but not required.

Answers to Yo' Questions

Tell me more about those five categories.
OK. We'll have a winner in each of the five categories. It's will be diffucult for any one team to win all five because for example, it's hard to have a lot of 'cumbersomeness' and a lot of 'speed'. The speed category will simply be whoever wins the race. The other categories will be judged by judges at checkpoints along the route, on a scale of one to five. They might have even have big number cards to flash you with, to let you know how you are doing.

What sort of booty can I win?
Although the prizes are subject to change to spotaneously, this is what we have lined up at the moment: A case of farley's fruit snacks, a dozen chocolate eclairs from Joy Ann's bakery, two brand new "exteme leisure" long-sleeve t-shirts, straight from Charged.com, an autographed copy of "The Beaver Dam Rocking Chair Marathon." Plus maybe some other secret prizes. Hold tight.

I'm short a (skateboard/chair/teammate) to enter, what can I do?
Collaborate

I've got an extra (chair/skateboard/teammate).
Collaborate

Can the person pushing also ride a skateboard, to maximize speed?
That's fun as hell. You sure can.

Who the heck is responsible for this event?
Good question. The brainchild of Mark Stosberg, the event is organized by a loose group of volunteers donating time, resources, and recliners. (want to get involved?). Charged.com, the extreme leisure webzine, is providing support, including having a writer and photographer document the event for their publication. Thanks also go out to Summersault Web Design for the webspace, and to Tilt-A-Whirl Press, for the copy of "Beaver Dam".
Questions? Ask mark@stosberg.com