Major Dave launches
over the fence and
onto a skinny twig
at White Rock.
gathering around a girl fight. Later.
Our next stop was in Mason with
Ben's parents on a huge lake. It was
nice to take a breather from skating
every day; we were getting burnt.
Thanks to Ben's mom for the food
and hospitality.
By this point we didn't know what we
were doing. The trip had now gone on
for almost three weeks. The entire
time that we had been on the road, no
one had ever really thought about any-
thing except the next skate spot. I had
absolutely no more money and had
been lucky enough to find a job for a
day back in Portland. I was beginning
was over for me, but how
to feel like
thrown in jail for just being
strangers.
We pushed on up the 5 with high
hopes for the park in Salem. When
we arrived we were greatly disap-
pointed. Apparently the guy who
built the facility owned the compa-
ny Morrow and wanted to spell it
out with the bowls. I will give him
an A on the spelling, but who cares
what it says if you can't skate it?
No lines, no way. Adios. Portland,
here we come.
Burnside.
Where real skateboarders dwell.
Where skateboarding is in its
rawest form. Where skating gets
too gnarly. Burnside should be in
the dictionary and be simply
defined as skateboarding, period.
During the days we were there, we
witnessed
some of the craziest
skating, and to them it was just an
everyday thing. No cameras, just
beer. Dudes like Red, Little John,
Eric J, Sage, Pete the Ox, Osage
Buffalo, and plenty others
showed
up to pay homage to the truest
skateboard park on a daily basis. I
could go on and on and write a
whole story about the place, but
there were more spots to skate.
I was down to pennies at this
point, and the only things keeping
me going were small rations from
the
my partners' plates and Food Not
Bombs. All of our wallets were
thinning out. We decided to apply
for food stamps, but after waiting
almost a week we had to move on
with no luck in the food depart-
ment. Before we left Portland,
Jason Phares took us to a park a
few minutes across Oregon's bor-
der in Vancouver. The park would
Ihave been better if there hadn't
been so many kids.
It was time to push on up to
Seattle, where we had a place to
stay with Ben's brother. It felt so
good to take showers and wash
some of our socks. We hooked up
with a dude named Micah and took
a ferry across the bay to skate a
park in Silverdale. We watched
the locals at the park ollie off the
top of everything, trying to clear
the transitions, and we decided to
leave, zipping over to a six foot
wood bowl that was right on the
water. The bowl was rad, and
after an hour or so we headed
back to get some Z's.
By this point, parks were just
turning into blurs. There was one
in Kent that had a little bowl with
Berkeley court trannies, and
there was one in Des Moines that
was right across the street from
the police station. The park was
good but all the trannies were
shaped like the Jersey barriers.
Then we hit one in Wenatchee
where the temperatures tipped
into the high nineties and you
could not skate until it was dark.
The park was made by inmates,
and every inmate had a little sec-
tion that he or she was assigned
to make. You could tell because
every time you went around a
corner it would go "thump thump
thump" as you rode over each
crack. The park seemed to be just
and ever
a big hangout for the youth, and
before we knew it a crowd was
Jason Pharés, ollie,
Vancouver, Washington.
would I get back? No way, it was not
over. Johnny looked at me and smiled.
"This trip has just begun!"
Bam! Back on the road with a second
wind. Off to a town above Seattle to a
shop called Johnny Wannas where the
owner, Seth, had a five foot ramp. We
sessioned it and were treated to dinner
by Seth, who sensed that we were
starving. After full bellies and a good
night's sleep, we were off to Canada.
Suspicious border patrol people
weren't so happy to see our shifty
asses, and they ordered us to pull
aside. Out came the dogs to sniff us
up while they rummaged through
our wallets, bags, and car. They
seemed frustrated as they came up
empty-handed. They were searching
us so hard that I started to feel like I
really did have something. "Have fun
and stay out of trouble," said the
man, and we were out.
One of the best parks of the trip was
White Rock. There seemed to be
everything there, including a huge
snake run with big hips. We ran into
our friend Keith and his girlfriend, who
just happened to be on a little
skatepark journey of their own. Keith
turned into our guide for the next few
Mandatory tech
dog: Shaun
Wilson with ay
switch hardflip,
Langley, Canada.
80 THRASHER
Westminster, Canada.
North Vancouver, Canada
Melon
ab courtesy of Brandon
Silva at Silverdale.
Vancouver, Washington.