LUGEING THEIR MINDS RACERS SET SIGHTS ON SPEED.

Byline: Story by Holly Edwards Staff Writer

ANGELES NATIONAL FOREST - Stretched out flat atop a 6-foot-long board on wheels, 39-year-old Tom Mason begins his rolling descent down the southern end of Templin Highway.

As the road steepens and bends, Mason reaches speeds of up to 70 mph, his body just over an inch from the asphalt racing beneath him.

Speeding to the end of the road, Mason drags the soles of his shoes to slow down, sending up a gray cloud that lends new meaning to the term ``burning rubber.''

The Van Nuys resident is among a group of street luge devotees who leave their ordinary lives behind several times a month and spend the day speeding down mountainsides on glorified skateboards.

``This is poor man's racing taken to extremes,'' said Mason, who holds the 81 mph world speed record in street luge. ``We're all just a bunch of kids out here.''

Mason and fellow street luger Mike Colabella recently returned from a competition in Capetown, South Africa, in which both were bumped from top positions by unfortunate circumstances.

In Mason's case, a pin that holds the luge board in place until the race begins malfunctioned and he was unable to start; Colabella was bumped by another luger and dropped from first to third place.

Undeterred, both men are now training for the ESPN X-Games to be held in July in Pittsburgh, Pa., and the NBC Gravity Games to be held in Providence, R.I., in August.

As the popularity of extreme sports has exploded in recent years, so too has the street luge craze, Mason said.

``This is way more popular than ice luge now,'' he said, wearing a leather suit bearing the logo ``Luge your mind.''

Colabella described the sport as if it were an addictive drug.

``The first day Tom and I tried this we were hooked,'' said Colabella, a 38-year-old Encino resident. ``It's an adrenaline rush and I love the excitement and competition.''

The sport is not without its risks.

Mason said he experienced ``the worst wreck in street luge history'' several years ago while in an X-Games competition.

``I made a stupid pass and hit a tree at 70 mph,'' he said. ``My vitals just quit, I had a massive hematoma in my chest and it pushed my organs into my pelvis.''

Colabella said he has suffered a few broken ribs, but ``nothing serious.''

``Anyone who's raced these things has been in a crash,'' he said. ``Imagine jumping out of a car at 70 mph and that's what it's like to fall off a board. The most common breaks are ankles and wrists because the first thing people do to save themselves is stick a limb out.''

For Bob Purrera, one of the founders of street luge, the dangers of the sport became more real with the death of racing legend Dale Earnhardt.

Though he has been street lugeing for about 16 years, Purrera said he is now thinking about giving it up for good.

``Dale's death made me realize I've been lucky,'' said Purrera, 37, of Northridge. ``He was my hero, and heroes aren't supposed to die. If it could happen to him, it could happen to anyone.''

Like auto racing, street lugeing requires riders to have complete faith in themselves and their equipment, Purrera said, something he no longer has.

Purrera said he began street lugeing on Mulholland Drive near the spot where his brother was killed in a motorcycle crash at age 22. Now, Purrera said, he is thinking about giving up the sport he loves to save himself.

``Every time I ride now I think about my daughter and how she'd feel if something happened to me,'' he said. ``I don't want that to happen.''

CAPTION(S):

7 photos

Photo: (1 --color) Tom Mason, left, and Mike Colabella pile into their chase truck, heading back up Templin Highway for another practice run.

(2 -- color) Mason of Van Nuys, right, who holds the world speed record for street luge, and Northridge resident Chris Allen speed down the road with mere inches separating them from the asphalt.

(3 -- 5 -- color) At top, from left, Tom Mason, Mike Colabella and Steve Fernando of Bakersfield go over strategies before racing down Templin Highway, above, during a practice run. At left, Chris Allen of Northridge makes a few alterations to his luge board. Racing at speeds of 70 mph, the extreme racers are preparing for ESPN's upcoming X-Games.

(6 -- 7 -- color) Colabella of Encino, left, makes adjustments to his luge board before speeding down Templin Highway as he prepares for upcoming races. Above, Tom Mason and Colabella, right, peel off a pair of shoes - their only means of slowing down from speeds more than 60 mph.

Shaun Dyer/Special to the Daily News