Speeding to a Downhill Destination
Plumas Ski Club Keeps NorCal History Alive with Longboard Races…
Going to Johnsville Ski Bowl in the winter provides a blast from the past, especially if you go during a longboard race.
Held on the third Sunday of January, February and March, Plumas Ski Club hosts the Historic Longboard Revival Races at Johnsville Ski Bowl, inviting people to strap on 1860s-style wooden 9-16’ skis and point them down a snowy slope, hoping for the best. Participants are dressed in 1860s ski attire and race each other head-to-head in a single elimination format. The winners of each division then win belt buckles that are passed on from year to year.
Don Fregulia, vice president of the Plumas Ski Club, learned to ski at Johnsville when he was 4 years old, and four decades later it’s still one of his favorite events. You must be at least 18 to enter (for liability reasons) and since the skis are so long, it’s hard to turn on them.
“Maybe a good telemarker could turn, but most people go straight down,” Fregulia says. It takes about 20 seconds to get down the run; racers have been clocked at going up to 32 mph and perhaps faster. “But it’s not like it used to be; old miners went 80 to 90 mph,” he adds.
Plumas Ski Club held the first Longboards Races Revival in 1992, and the event has grown significantly in the last few years. It’s weather dependent, and if the weather’s nice, maybe 600 to 800 people will come out. If it’s a blizzard, maybe only a couple hundred. At the last race of the season in 2023, close to 1,000 people came out. They’ve come from all over the world to compete – past participants have been from Germany and Inner Mongolia. A lot of locals also come out, as well as quite a few from the North Lake Tahoe/Truckee area.
“For the last 10 years, the turnout’s been good. There’s not a lot going on up here in the winter, so this provides some entertainment for people,” Fregulia says.
The longboard races originally started in 1861 in Onion Valley (south of Quincy and La Porte) and are recognized in the International Ski Racing Congress. There used to be dances, parties, and races all weekend long back in the 19th century as it provided the miners and residents something to do on the snowy weekends.
Plumas Ski Club Member Andrew Burger is also involved with the races, heading the events committee and surface lift/rope tow project. He lived in Graeagle/Plumas Pines for three years (Portola before that) and entered the races after being a spectator one year. As an avid backcountry skier/snowboarder, he’s donned a felt hat, corduroy pants, suspenders and leather boots, racing on 14.5-foot-long wooden skis he made himself.
“The thought process is the longer they are, the faster you can be,” he says about the massive planks he straps his feet to. Yet he also admits, “It’s almost impossible to turn; more of slowing down is coming from the one pole racers carry that acts as a rudder.”
Burger made his own set of skis with the Plumas Ski Club building class and is now part of the teaching staff. They teach classes at the Feather River Community College and/or the Portola High School wood shop. The three-month class starts in the beginning of October and ends before Christmas (held one day a week), so students have their own skis ready to race by the first event in January.
“It’s open to the community. We get vertical grain Doug fir (that comes from the center of the tree) from the Quincy Mill,” Fregulia says, adding that about a dozen people were enrolled in its most recent class.
Fregulia has competed in about 30 races himself, but he doesn’t get on his 16-foot sticks too much anymore. “I’m a firefighter, so I have to watch my knees,” he says.
If you want to attend or compete in an upcoming World Championship Longboard race, get there early. People are coming from farther away and even camping in the parking lot the night before. And as far as what kind of skill level it takes to race longboards, Burger says, “It doesn’t matter how good of a skier or snowboarder you are; it doesn’t translate on longboards. Everyone’s on the same level of playing ground. The first time is intimidating, but like most things, you learn pretty quickly and that fear fades away and turns into fun. But if you jump on a pair for the first time on race day, you’re probably going to be a little scared.
“Lots of families come out for this. It’s good, wholesome fun and awesome to watch.” •
Plumas Ski Club • plumasskiclub.org
