PDX to Lil' Rock

We were supposed to leave the day after finals ended, but the freak

weather trapped us in Portland for a couple more days.

Road conditions were "hella hecka gnar." I can also say that Oregon

is a total pile when it comes to cleaning up; apparently salt is bad

for the environment... hippys.

When we weren't distracted by driving on a sheet of ice

through mountain passes the scenery was nice.

Are we there yet?

Vegas baby! Still shitty baby!

So many cheesy jokes to choose from-

huddled masses, hard economic times...

Chilly presidents.

Wind powerage

Clear skies in southern Utah, real pretty.

Cabin fever once the weather broke led us to stop

and scream at the book cliffs as loud as we could.

Hole in the rock got mad ups on this cliff son!

Respec.

Are we there yet?

Pulled off to get gas and realized the highway ran parallel to

route 66. It was trife. The crucifix on this abandoned church

was made from two pieces of pipe screwed together.

Speaking of pipes...

Amarillo, TX is one of those places that was ingrained in

my head at a young age by Thrasher. No desert missle

silos or whatevs on this trip though; hopefully

eventually with a thick crew. Some groms at the 7 eleven

pointed us in the right direction and we found

what I think is a Grindline park (design wise & grippy crete).

SO SICK! That pipe is big.

It also funnels as you get towards the back.

PDX plazaage!

The rain stopped just long enough for a nice Glenhaven session today; on the way home Ben  and I stopped at the new street plaza park being built by newline skateparks out of Canadia.

The rain-drop ledge above was a submission for a skateable sculpture, appropriate for a city with 180 days of measurable rain a year, no? It looks super fun.

Here we have T ledge, railage, and peep the barcelona style ledge into bank in the background.

This looks half done, but its actually the finished crete, I think they are going to put some trees and marsh steez grasses to finish it off. I cant wait to early grab the shit out of those kickers!

Standard Plaza-age, looks like the hubbas gonna get a slab of granite. VERY NICE, I LIKE!

Woop-dee-hop ledge still under construction.

Manny padage

Ditchage

Granite 3 set ledge, "Oh Love Park- why did they kill you?..."

 

Scoping lines.

In true PDX style the street plaza has some sick tranny too.

One of the cool things about the rain is seeing this once or twice a week. Dude on dude on double rainbow anyone?

Back to school...

Over the past month I have found my Clark Park/West Philly replacement in Portland. PSU's campus is in the middle of downtown on the park blocks which has a similar setting (urban yet lush); there are also definitely enough smelly hippys, fresh out of H.S. college kids and of course anarchists to make me feel right at home.

Contrary to popular belief P-town has seasons, here is fall.

Bike parking is pretty rough, but thats kind of awesome.

Paine park dudes: peep the use of died concrete in this plaza, each color even has its own size of square giving the ground a different texture. Pretty dope example of a cost effective way to create a classy aesthetic. 

Green roofage.

Caught Merdith w/ helmet on. She thinks it looks rediculous, I think its cute.

Free spirit maan...

Campus is lush son!

Dont let these signs fool you.

That arrow points to this plaza and I have been booted many times. Its fun to argue with the security- "Dude look at the sign! WTF!"

Second purpose of this post is to show the cruiser board crew these rad spots that are all over campus. The bricks are super loud and ground is slow on a regs board, but on that rain board you are super stoked! Below is the typical kicker, these things are all over school.

More kicker action

Horners dream spot. There is one with recyled plastic for grindage.

Low to not so high recycled plastic action.

It is a bummer that plaza design seems to include skate stoppers these days, but they don't see everything we do. How about ollie the five to grind on the lower ledge or (if you got pop) ollie over the block down the big three...

Gap to down ramp. Really surprised not to have seen this spot in mags.

The first time Mike and I visited P-town in '97 I tried to drop in on this monster while holding a ghetto blaster- prob playing Teengenerate. One of the worst slams I ever took; the ghetto blaster didn't survive R.I.P. Ten years later and I have a class in the building, really wierd.

Fall colors are super epic.

New Indys

Went skating with Mike on Sunday, he had some technical difficulties.

Swivle from Matt Yula on Vimeo

WAX

In the last couple of years there has been an explosion of renegade crete spots in skating. Aside from banks and quarters being real fun to skate, there is definite feeling of "making it happen" which makes those kind of projects super fun. While its so awesome that people are making it happen we can't forget the power of wax. The effort involved in turning a rough ledge into a buttery grind is pretty minimal and fun. With the number of heads devoted to skating right now, if each of us has one that is our baby, there will be spots on every block. Look around and recognize the potential.