Southern Indiana Luge Club itching for winter’s first good freeze

            By Andrew Warner, THG Sports

While most of us dread the cold and rainy weather that swallows up Southern Indiana each winter, 20-year-old Bristow resident Clay Gibbs and a few of his friends can’t wait for the freezing temperatures and ice that grinds small towns like his to a halt.

This is the time when Gibbs can participate in his favorite seasonal sport: luge.

Gibbs became interested in the sport while watching the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City on TV.  After seeing brave souls from cold countries the world over rocketing down an icy track on the tiny sleds, Gibbs, a self-described extreme sport fanatic told himself, “I have got to try that!”

The problem was, there are very few luge tracks in the U.S., and the ones the country does have are not open for public use.  An Olympic event since 1964, luge is popular in Northern Europe but has traditionally not had much of a following in the U.S.  “There are very few opportunities for those trying to break into the sport since it is very dangerous,” said Gibbs.

Even street luge, which is popular in certain regions of the United States, was impractical for Gibbs considering the flatness of Indiana’s terrain.

Undaunted, he eventually found a way to get his luge fix.

Last winter, Gibbs and a few friends hopped the fence of Holiday World, an amusement park just 22 miles away from Bristow in neighboring Spencer County.  The park is known the world over for The Raven, ranked by Amusement Today as the world’s best wooden roller coaster. 

But it wasn’t roller coasters that Gibbs and his friends had on their minds.

Gibbs had visited Holiday World’s water park, Splashin’ Safari, during the summer and decided that one of their water rides would make a great luge track—just add subzero temperatures and a little water.

Not for the faint of heart

Now a freezing winter day, he and and his friends hooked up a hose and ran water down the Zoombabwe water slide for a couple of hours, giving it time to freeze.  They then took their homemade luges (modified Flexible Flyer runner sleds) down the Zoombabwe, crash landing into the near-empty pool below. 

It wasn’t an Olympic luge course, but fun nonetheless. 

After several runs down the Zoombabwe, Gibbs and company had to vacate the premises; a security guard discovered the intruders and chased them out of the park.

Wanting to luge again this winter without risking arrest, Gibbs contacted Holiday World’s management this fall about the possibility of gaining entry into the park for a day of Zoombabwe luge. 

To his surprise, park management agreed to open the park to Gibbs and his friends for one Saturday in the winter—if they agreed to stay out of the park the rest of the winter. 

Gibbs agreed, and he and his friends have dubbed themselves the Southern Indiana Luge Club.  The “club” is not accepting new members at this time, but might in the future if Holiday World allows their luging to become a yearly tradition.

They are now anxiously waiting for the first really cold day of winter so they can participate in their favorite icy activity. 

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