Orton Back on His Skateboard for X Games

OCEANSIDE — Putting it in skateboard terms, George Orton’s youth was as radical as it gets. Hurling himself off ramps as high as two-story buildings and regularly defying gravity’s pull, Orton set world records and won world championships in skateboarding’s formative years.

Sixteen years ago, though, Orton gave up professional skateboarding for mostly tamer pursuits: college, family and a real job.

“When you get a little older,” Orton said, “you get definitely wiser.”

That’s debatable, at least in Orton’s case. Several hours after saying that, he was hurtling downhill at nearly 50 mph, lying on his back inches above the asphalt.

Orton has been drawn back into daredevil life by the X Games, a made-for-TV celebration of alternative sports. The 1997 version starts today in San Diego and Oceanside.

Orton, 37, a Huntington Beach sheet-metal contractor, will be on hand today, Sunday and Monday for the street luge competition. Today, he’ll be competing in something called the Super Mass Downhill. For the uninitiated, that’s six street lugers careening down the two-lane course on Rancho del Oro Drive.

There’s plenty of opportunity for spills, especially as the racers try to negotiate the S-turn midway through the 0.6-mile course.

“Speed and asphalt always seem to interest the mind,” Orton said. “The people who come out to see it want to see the crashes. The public has a sick sense, but they don’t want to see you come out of it. They want to see the crashes and then have you jump up and give the thumbs up.”

Such mishaps provided Orton’s introduction to the sport. Watching television in his Huntington Beach home last year, he flipped on the street-luge competition.

He was immediately intrigued. “I thought it was awesome,” Orton said. “I thought it was crazy. I saw guys running off the course into hay bales. Maybe, once or twice I thought, ‘That might be fun,’ but I never gave it any serious thought.”

Not until some friends from his professional skateboarding days suggested that he try it out. At first he declined, but it didn’t take too much to convince him.

“All in all, I’m an adrenaline junkie,” Orton said. “I fly planes, I bungee jump, I sky dive. I’m thinking about getting into hang-gliding.

“There’s nothing like that weightless feeling.”

So last August he decided to give speed a chance. By the end of the day, he was hooked.

“They let me do a little bunny hill,” Orton said. “I had no problem with it and after four or five runs I was going all the way to the bottom of the mountain.”

With Orton’s skateboarding experience, street luge wasn’t much of a stretch. After all, the equipment has more in common with a skateboard than the sport’s winter-season namesake.

By immersing himself in street luge, Orton has opened other extreme doors. He also has taken up downhill skateboarding and last November set the world speed record, being timed at 61.87 mph--standing up--on a stretch of highway above Lake Elsinore.

Compared to that, street luge might seem pedestrian, but it can be quite dangerous. Although motorcycle racing leathers and helmets protect against street rashes and head injuries, injuries are common.

Finding a safe place to practice can be especially tough. Luging on public streets is illegal; not that it stops enthusiasts. “We’ve had a few guys run into cars and break their legs, break themselves up pretty bad,” Orton said. “You’ve just got to use your head.”

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The X Games

* WHAT: The ESPN-sponsored X Games, the showcase event for alternative sports, are making their first appearance in San Diego County after two years in Rhode Island. This year’s competition will feature more than 400 athletes from around the world, including more than 50 from Orange County.

* WHEN: Today through June 28.

* WHERE: Mariner’s Point at Mission Bay Park in San Diego for aggressive in-line skating, bicycle stunt, skateboarding, sportclimbing, water sports, snowboarding and the conclusion of the X-Venture race; Jetty Beach at Oceanside Harbor for skysurfing, and Rancho del Oro in Oceanside for downhill in-line skating and street luge.

* HOW MUCH: There is no spectator admission fee for any of the events.

* FOR MORE INFORMATION: Contact the X Games office at (619) 523-7800.