SEARCHING FOR MYTHS, MONSTERS, AND MEAT
(Oregon - Summer 2004) words - Mark Takahashi : photos - Takahashi, Greenwood, Culp, Harrell page 1 : page 2 : page 3
The Oregon coast beckoned the minivan once again, and the road led the crew into the California redwood forest for some nice scenery. Along the way, the middle fork of the Smith river served as a refreshing swimming spot. After a quick dip, the minivan hit the road again, entered Oregon, and eventually rolled into foggy Brookings in time for a less than perfect lunch of tasteless frozen fish product and salt water taffy. After lunch, the crew hit the Brookings skatepark, which is essentially a bowl within a bowl. The center bowl is a tight backyard style pool with real coping, and the outer bowl has plenty of hips and walls of varying heights. Brookings is an Indy 500 race track for skateboarders - get your 63s on and you'll fly around that outer bowl like Superman. The signature feature of the Brookings park is the Evel Knievel bowl jump line. Jeff tried to muster up the courage to attempt the line, but no amount of egging by Mark could convince Jeff to hit the launch ramp. Jeff said that he was saving his heroics for the Reedsport Loop Challenge. According to the Brookings kids, some British chap was sticking the jump earlier in the day! Rad! The local Brookings kids were a real treat . . . they were relentlessly tormenting one of their own, who didn't have a skate, and kept calling him strange names like "donut dingy." His "friends" at the park wouldn't let him take a run on their skateboards because he owns rollerblades. Mark broke down and let the poor bastard take a few runs on his board. Meanwhile, Suffering Seff remained in the van due to the intense pain in his ear, and the other crewmembers told the Brookings kids that they had bagged a Seffsquatch. The kids were told not to disturb a sleeping Seffsquatch or they would have to suffer the consequences. "What's a Seffsquatch," asked the donut dingy kid. "We got one in the van, check it out." Ah, priceless moments like these really make road trips memorable. While donut dingy was trying to sneak up on Seffsquatch, Skater Claus made his rounds and hooked up one kid with a man sized Black Label deck and distributed stickers to the other Brookings kids.
After getting their dose of Brookings fog, the team headed up the coast to what would be their final session of the tour: Port Orford. Tucked away and hidden behind some trees, Port Orford, like the Donald park, packs a mean punch in a compact footprint. Cradle + vert bowl + hips + shallow end + skating on the back side of the cradle = fun. For Mark, cradle + "one more run" + no skills = slam. Mark gets the Cradle Slam Award for getting served up in the LC2 and Port Orford cradles. Nice job, Mark! The session at Port Orford was epic: Jeff and Roger getting way upside down in the cradle; Roger with his patented pretzel carve grinds in the deep; Jeff breaking out an assortment of hip transfers and showing off his vert skills in the deep. Unfortunately, there was no Seffsquatch sighting here. The crew had the pleasure of skating with Arizona Jeremiah, who was road tripping with the legendary Brookings Brit! The adventure team was stoked beyond belief to meet someone who had conquered the Brookings jump. Well, it turns out that those Brooking kids are a bunch of fucking liars. The Brit admitted to skating Brookings, but confirmed that he didn't make the jump. What a downer. By the way, check out the cool artwork on the cradle, which had just been completed that day. As the sun began to set, the crew headed out in search of a decent campsite. Just a few miles up the coast was the Edson campsite. The gang settled into a nice site near the river, set up camp, and cooked some teriyaki steaks over the fire. Nothing wrong with an outdoor feast of teriyaki steak tacos, is there? Saturday (July 17) - The crew enjoyed a nice relaxing morning at the Edson campsite. Two pots of coffee, some Pop Tarts, and another round of bacon, egg, cheese, and avocado burritos (thanks, Roger!) were a perfect way to begin the last day of the trip - although some dancing girls or at least a dancing Seffsquatch would have been pretty cool, too.
After breakfast, the minivan hit the road with Reedsport as its final destination. Reedsport was hosting an amateur skate contest and the Loop Challenge. Reedsport was a fitting culmination for the road trip, as the crew had a chance to see a number of the kids and skaters they had met during their travels. Roseburg Lance, Grants Pass Tyler, Cold War Steve, and the Klamath kids were all competing. LC Justin was seen skating (nice frontside crail to fat chick's tail on the extension), Jeff skated a bit and stuck his backside D on the edge of the pipe for all to see, and AZ Jeremiah was shooting photos (good luck in photography school, bro!). To make a long story short, no skater conquered the loop that day. Sage Bolyard's first run of the day ended in a drop from 12:00 and an injured foot. Some other dude took a couple of shots at the loop, but quickly pulled out. That left two ballsy superhero skaters: Chris and Joesf. Joesf almost made it all the way, but slid out at the bottom and took a nasty slam to the head. He walked away to a standing ovation. Balls.
Reluctantly, the crew headed east to I5 for the trek back to Portland. Not yet full of meat, they stopped in the fine city of Eugene to partake in some Texas style BBQ. "Gimmie the two meat platter, with extra meat!" Meat is good. Two meats are better. A fitting end to the long trip. The minivan rolled into Portland at about 10:00 PM (too dark to skate Burnside, unfortunately), and Tracy's house and shower were a welcome sight. Sunday (July 19) - Back to reality. Back to SoCal. Recap: 1800 miles; 17 skateparks; one skatepark under construction; one shower; two cradles; two oververt pockets; one funnel tunnel; one swim-through rock; one flying bat show; lots of meat; numerous sightings of Seffsquatch and Skater Claus; and too many good people to mention. Thank you, Oregon! page 1 : page 2 : page 3 |
