56 THRASHER
Text by Ricki Bedenbaugh
Photos by Gabe Morford
2009
impin' in Portugal
ur journey begins with
me and Jason Ellis in the
Los Angeles airport bar and
grill with four hours to kill.
Chris Lambert was sup-
posed to be with us, but he
missed his connecting flight
from Carlsbad. So as I was
saying, there's nothing bet-
ter than sitting an airport
four hours waiting to sit
on a plane for 13 hours.
Four Tylenol PMs and a
$300.00 bar tab later, we
arrive in Paris, where who
do we see but Chris
we see
Lambert. Apparently he had
been on our flight and we
were just too shitfaced to
notice. We arrived in
Portugal around 10:00 PM;
Chris Pastras and Gabe
Morford had flown in a cou-
ple of hours before from San
Francisco. None of us had
ever been to Portugal
before; all we knew was that
we flew out there for some
Extreme Expo. The Duffs
distributor Fernando was
waiting for us at the airport,
so once we got our baggage
he took us to a hotel in
Estoril. Estoril is a small
(small being the key word)
the key word)
city right on the outskirts of
Lisbon. It's filled with histor-
ical monuments, beer vend-
mo
ing machines, a small casi-
no, and topless beaches-
and this was just outside of
our hotel. Once we got
checked into our rooms I
started to notice how small
things were in this town. To
begin with, the elevators
could only fit two people,
the towels in the rooms
were like hand towels, and
the cars were smaller than a
VW bus. I've never seen so
many small things in my life.
The next day we went to
check out the beach scene,
and I wasn't what any of us
expected. When I think of a
topless beach in Portugal, I
Left: The hottest
Portugese designers
have decreed that bare
midriffs, sundresses and
Jason Ellis' frontside
heelflips are the chic
look this spring.
57