I usually do most of my traveling in winter and spring. Winter motions to search out its bountiful blankets of snow where I can reconnect with old friends and make memories with new ones while we explore the splendor of new places. Spring calls out the best of both worlds; it is a time when snowpack is thick and some of the years’ best fresh is falling, while just around the corner it’s sunny and dry, a real inspiration to skate well into nightfall. Summer and fall are usually dedicated to working that much harder on this magazine so I can continue to live the dream. Even still, every summer, I feel the need to take at least one good trip.

For the past decade, Nor Cal heads who jones to ride their snowboards in the torridity of August have ventured to Tahoe’s highest elevations. Near Kirkwood, there’s a place called The Patch. Aptly named, it’s a decent sized patch of snow relatively safe from the summer meltdown. In years passed, you could have seen the likes of Noah Salasnek, Jimmy Halopoff and Kevin Jones out there jibbing ironing boards by day and camping under the vast stars by night. And for more than a decade, hardcore (and moneyed) shredders have made the pilgrimage to Mt. Hood, the Oregon glacier with year-round lift access and sick half pipes. From Mike Estes to Bert Lamar, from Tom Sims to Shaun White, everyone’s been to Hood.
A few years ago, a crew, i.e., veteran photog Bryce Kanights and Switch co-founder Tony Guerrero, promo guy Jared Bevens, Santa Cruz cat Brett “ribfest” Sigur, Think’s Fish, and the Al Bundy of snowboarding Doug Smith, adopted The Patch summer trip. These industry heavies pretty much pick the weekend to gather, let everyone know, and make it happen. I’ve never done The Patch and I was thinking that this was the summer to change that. However, Oregon was really on my mind. Ironically, I got a call at the Heckler HQ in downtown Sacramento from BK, here’s how it went down:

Bryce Kanights: “Yo bitch, The Patch is going off this year. Is your pussy ass gonna finally come out?”

Sonny: “Ahh BK, that sounds hella fun. Damn, I wanna go this year.”

BK: “C’mon you punk ass, get outta Sac. Katen’s going, Tony, all kinds of heads. You need to go.”

Sonny: “I hella wanna go, but I was maybe thinking of going to Hood this summer. No one gives Hood much coverage anymore and Heckler hasn’t covered it since our first year, seven years ago. I was thi—”

BK: “Hood! Ah shit, hold on… (leaning away from the phone) Tony! Tony! It’s Sonny on the phone. That punk ass bitch says he’s going to Hood instead of The Patch!”

(from the background) Tony Guerrero: “Hood?! That sorry ass chump! He thinks he’s too fucking cool. He wants to go hang out with the pro bros and kiss ass so he can get some shit in his sorry ass magazine. Fuck Hood. Tell his gay ass he better go to The Patch where the real shit is going down.”

BK: “Did you hear that? Tony says you better go to The Patch. Fuck Hood.”

Sonny: “Shit. I already kinda have the ball rolling for Hood. Dude, plus all the Oregon skatepa—”

BK: “Dude, I’ve been to the skateparks, they’re sick. But, you never go the The Patch.”

Sonny: “It’s just that weekend, what about changing The Patch to another date?”

BK: “Aint gonna happen.”

Sonny: “Alright BK, I’ll seriously try and make it. Maybe I can go to Hood a little later...”
I hung up the phone will full intentions of changing my plans. He was right, I never had been to The Patch. And although the snowboarding probably left something to be desired and the skating was non-existent, The Patch isn’t about all that. In Nor Cal, we have brotherhood, we have a family in our skateboarding, snowboarding, music and art making community. I know that sounds a little tofruity, but it’s true… and it’s a rad thing. Alright, my mind was set, I was going to The Patch. I was getting ready to call my friends to tell them Hood was postponed when the phone rang. I answered and here’s what went down:

Sonny: “Hello?”

Kevin Jones: “Hey Sonny, what’s up? Are you coming up to Hood this summer?”

Sonny: “Hey, wussup Kev. I don’t know, man. Maybe later. Tony Guerrero and BK are setting up this thing at the Kirkwood Patch and I—”

Kevin: “Hey Sonny— come up to Mt. Hood and hang with us, fuck those stupid nerd old school fags. They can’t do switch mute grab 900s, underflips, and rodeos.”

Sonny: “Yeah man, you’re right, fuck them! I’m hanging with the pro bros ‘cause I’m soooooo down. Fuck them and all that punk rock shit. I’m just way too cool for the likes of some phony ass old timers.”

Kevin: “Yeah screw those guys, Sonny. We’ll go and listen to some Blink 182 while we heckle the campers trying to ride the pipe ‘cause they are suck ass riders.”

Sonny: “Yeah, I have some Green Day. We can crank that up too, ‘cause you know they were the true pioneers of punk rock. Dude, I’ll see you up there!”

Kevin: “Cool.”

I awoke at 5 am and walked out my front door. Wrapped in a sleeping bag in my driveway was a body. I walked over and yelled, “Toad! Toad! Get up, come inside.” He didn’t move. Maybe he was dead. I walked back inside and went back to bed. The next thing I knew, I was being rudely awakened with a bang at my door. Whatever happened to the lagging lazy skater types? When we agreed to meet at 6 am to get an early start, I wasn’t serious. 6 am to normal people is noon to skaters. Not this crew. They were ready to rock, and so was I.
I entered the hue of dawn and saw the smiling faces and crusty eyes of my new vanmates: Ben Croft, Josh Simpson, and Toad. Ben is a short and stout dude from Bozeman, Montana. Other than shooting photos, he is the horniest guy I’ve ever met. Josh is a skater who goes to UC Davis. He is a rail of a guy and super mellow. He has that vibe like he will be in school forever, milking the freedom and comfort of student life. God bless ‘im. Toad. You loyal Heckler readers remember Toad’s feature in issue #42. Let me say it again: Toad is an all terrain skateboarding vaquero. We loaded our gear into Toad’s Dodge Caravan and hit Interstate 5.

Ashland: Stony Designs and One Sick Bowl

Hood was a blast this year. We got into Government Camp, the town below Hood, at near midnight. The only thing on our minds was cold beer. When in Govey, it’s a must to go to the Rat Skellar, the infamous dive bar where the rich flaunt clout. Walking into the skellar was like walking into the Snowboarding Grammy Awards. We were chillin’ with Mack Dawg, Kevin Jones, Tina Basich, Ian Ruhter, Mike Michalchuk, all while Marc Frank Montoya spun the wheels of steel. They were all clean, smelling good, and looking tan. We were crustoid van dwellers who looked like shit. Obviously, we had no problem throwing the Heckler clout around and soon, Dawger was filming us hanging out. We ended up staying the night at the Ride house (thanks Zippy!) where TV drones and porn mags outnumber snowboard mags 20-to-1. It was edgeless, but we needed sleep, so it was perfect. Mt. Hood is divided into camps, much like little countries in Europe. Each camp has a territory and you must have a passport to enter that country. What makes each country special is what kind of terrain they build. However, don’t think that just buying the $26.00 lift ticket means you get to visit each territory. You must be a camper, and that costs much more than twenty-six bucks. But all is not lost. This year, Hood had a public park, and it was illmatic. Fortunately for us, we ran into Temple Cummins and we rode with him. We found some fun lines, a bit off the beaten track. We were riding crazy sun cupped glacier snow peppered with volcanic rock carpet. Then at super high speed, we shot into the park and ripped the hits. I must say, it was a blast. All the stuff is pretty well maintained and strategically placed so it’s not a one hit wonder. There is a nice string of jumps and a good pipe.

There is a good amount of skate terrain up there too. My personal favorite is Tim Windell’s bowl. Butter, baby, butter. If you’re a snowboarder, you’ve got to go to Mt. Hood. Here’s some info so you can work overtime at Blockbuster to save up the cash.

Windell’s
www.windells.com
800-765-7669
A week of coaching in the summer: $950-$1370
Skate Facility: Bowl, Vert, Street, Spine
High Cascade
www.highcascade.com
800-334-4273
A week of coaching in the summer: $1400-$1600
Skate Facility: Bowl, Vert, Street
Mt. Hood
www.aracnet.com
503-622-3044
A week of coaching in the summer: $1100-$1200
Skate Facility: Ramp, Street
U.S.S.T.C.
www.usstc.org
800-325-4430
A week of coaching in the summer: $1200
Skate Facility: None

Timberline Lodge: The Northwest Wonder

Our second night in Hood, Josh, Ben and Toad went back to the Ride house. I met up with Cynthia Connolly, who had a showing of her photos in Portland around the same time. She, her friend Pete Chramiec and I shared a room in the magical Timberline Lodge.The Timberline Lodge rests at the timberline (hence the name) on Mount Hood in Oregon. It’s one of my favorite structures. Built in the 1930s as a WPA (Works Progress Administration) project during the Roosevelt era, it employed hundreds of workers and artists. The WPA was a federal organization that funded projects in order to create jobs for so many people who were unemployed as a result of The Depression.

The Timberline was the idea of a skier, Jack Meier, who eventually got WPA director Emerson J. Griffith interested. Planning took about a year and building the lodge took just under two years when it opened in February 1938. It’s astonishing to comprehend how many people worked on the monstrous building, and if you visit, considering the harsh weather most of the time, it’s hard to believe it was done in less than two years. As you can see, huge beams were cut from timber. Rough stone, wrought iron make up much of the stairs, fireplaces, brackets, hinges and latches. Furniture, rugs and curtains were all hand made by artists as part of it’s whole design. All the workers and artists lived in Government Camp, just six miles down the hill.

Today, a display of the years following it’s completion is on the ground floor and it made me wonder what great enthusiasts for skiing went there in the 1940s, ‘50s and ‘60s, when roads were worse and cars were less limber to weather conditions. Coincidentally, two weeks to the date of my visit to Hood, I visited a family friend, Jackie, who lives in Connecticut (and often goes to Oregon, since that’s where most of her family resides). She showed the artwork in her house to me. We stopped in a small hallway and there, gleaming on the wall is a photograph by Ray Atkinson, probably taken in the 1940s of the Timberline Lodge at night. The lodge is three quarter’s visible. The rest is covered in a fifteen-foot blanket of fresh snow. There are ski tracks winding through densely covered pines, to the frame edge of the photograph.

“This is going to be the Mount Hood corner of my house. That’s my mountain. I’ve climbed that mountain,” Jackie says.

“Did you stay at the Timberline Lodge?” I ask.

“No, it was too expensive for us. We stayed down at Government Camp. We’d then go up to the lodge during the day and hang out, when we were skiing. Those were the days when there were rope tows. Before that, you had to hike up to where you wanted to ski. There were no lifts.”

“When was all this?”

“The last time I went was 1948.”

So, she was one of those women probably in those photos on display at the Timberline, standing with skis, being glamorous and tough.

I told her, “You should go back. it’s still there and still in it’s original state... and you should actually stay there!”
I soon left her house, and I think she will go back to Timberline, one more time.

Burnside: What Doesn’t Kill Me Only Makes Me Stronger

Set in downtown Portland, Burnside is the epitome of do it yourself. Burnside is a living organism, much like a virus, ever evolving, ever changing, hard to kill. At Burnside, skaters write compositions of urethane and concrete. We had a cool session and got to watch locals like Little John, Dogboy and Cindy Gorset create a synthesis of fluidity, familiarity and improvisation. We skated. We watched. We skated. We realized we aint shit.
Founded: Around 1992
Designed by: Skaters
Pads: Anarchy

Newberg: a Nightmare out of Someone’s Sick and Twisted Mind

200 kids from a local middle school started a petition to get a skatepark in their hot town. Now, they have the best skatepark in the world. Newberg has people in a frenzy and rightly so. When we pulled up, we rolled out of the van, decks in hand, jaws wide open. The first one to speak was Toad and he said, “This is like a nightmare out of someone’s sick and twisted mind.” Of course, he was saying it is brilliant. Newberg is a glimpse into the future. The first thing you see is the volcano with the spinning top. That’s what’s next, skateparks with objects that move. Newberg has bowls, banks, ledges, roll-ins, and a monster capsule that makes the Vans parks look small. There’s a crazy dragon handrail and this park has more lines than Bolivian coke dealer. Not only is the actual park insane, all the decks surrounding the park (which usually are for chilling, rolling, sighting lines) have stuff on them. So, you never push at Newberg. It’s all skateboarding, all the time. The park is open from sunrise to sunset. And don’t think you’re going to barge-at-will because the park manager, Steve Stachurski, has his house at the park. He’s a cool dude who keeps everything in check. There’s also a huge BMX dirt course on the lot.
Founded: July 2000
Designed by: Dreamland Skateparks
Pads: Helmet

Lincoln City: Thrasher Was Right, This Shit is Gnarly

Set on the Oregon coast, the gnardog has the salty air to add to the brotherly vibe. Lincoln City has a killer scene where locals rip and welcome all visitors who skate, regardless of level. Shaped like a big horseshoe, this place starts with a bowled off mini ramp of sorts and runs downhill. It then corners with banks and quarters. Coming around the second corner, you’re hauling ass into a monster bowl with and escalator and steel coping. And in that bowl, there’s The Gnarly. Using materials leftover from the tiny park that was there previously, these crazies built a huge death wall that doesn’t just separate the men from the boys, it separates the crazies from the men. We had a rad session with smooth ruler Eric Lee, Jeff Kimbrough, Chris Bredsen and Chewie.
Founded: 1999
Designed by: Dreamland Skateparks
Pads: Only if you’re smart

Medford: A Street Course That Rules

With hips, curves, pyramids, trannies, and walls galore, Medford has the best street course of all the parks. Some stuff is small, some is big, all is fun. There’s a crazy Burnside type pillar that’s so nice and there just when you need it. The street course flows so well and you are hard pressed to repeat the same line twice, there’s just too much fun stuff. There’s a combi type pool that will turn your sac into a raisin. Burly. Medford had the most traffic of all the parks we hit, lots of riders, in-liners and bikes. However, plenty of flow.
Founded: May 2000
Designed by: Eric Dawkins
Pads: Helmet

Jacksonville: Exclusive Soul Bro-Brah Sesh

The smallest of all the parks, Jacksonville is well worth a visit. We called it the big ditch with good lines. This place rules. With a bank roll in, there are tranny walls, bowled corners, steel coping, a fun box, the universal Oregon zit (a rad concrete nipple so strategically placed to pump off), an escalator, and a retrofit wooden vert extension that completes the course. There was no one there when we hit it and that was nice. It’s a rad one-man park so you can do your line, then cheer on your bro, and try to one up him. I had an immense amount of fun here. When you go there, it’s above a out-of-the-way parking lot. So park, then look up, then hike up the hill.Founded: 1998
Designed by: Eric Dawkins
Pads: None

Talent: Another Sick Park in the Golden Triangle

Dubbed as the first of the southern Oregon big parks, Talent helped create the Oregon skatepark fury. The street course has a horseshoe deck that escalates around half of it and is nice to use as a roll-in and start a line from. Talent has a 3-D feel with extensions and quarters coming out of walls. Opposite the deck, in the middle of the park, there’s a huge bank that rolls into the street course. On the other side of that, there’s a super rad Oregon bowl that has nice trannies and big walls. There’s also a sort of kidney bowl with a sharp hip. The concrete is pretty thrashed, but it was cool. With bikes and in-lines, there were quite a few riders, but still, lines were ours for the taking.
Founded: 1998
Designed by: Eric Dawkins and Geth Noble
Pads: Helmet

Heading Home

Coming home, I realized that I had changed as a skater, changed as a person. I feel different in some way. Something about skating those parks, finding lines, feeling the flow, made me a better skater. I feel better. I’m a better person.

Oregon is a mecca of fun. Think about it, the state is only 96,981 square miles and there are 69 (and counting) skateparks in this one little state! In northern Oregon, we hit three skateparks and snowboarded two days. In southern Oregon, we hit four parks, all uber kill. And driving around is easy because there’s so much stuff, you never have to be in the car too long. We had so much fun, I tell you, you must do it. You must tour Oregon. And besides the fact that every park is awesome, shall I tell you the best part of all? Every park is free. Now all you need is gas money. Yes, Oregon is the mecca of fun.

p.s. My entire trip was made much better by going to www.skateoregon.com. This super rad web site is dedicated to the skateparks of Oregon (69 so far), including location, photographs, history, local riders, community input, cost, directions and maps, all to encourage information and action. From this site, there are links to many other pertinent sites that will give you as much detail as you could possibly desire. This site rules.
Here is an excerpt from the stellar skateoregon.com:
In the last four years, Oregon has witnessed an explosion of community support and action for skateparks. We don’t know if other states are as active as Oregon, but we feel Oregon is a national, if not global, leader in community built skateparks certainly in quality if not quantity.
We believe there are three reasons for the explosion of community built skateparks in Oregon:
1. Skating’s popularity rose dramatically in the 1990’s. We believe the reason for there are three reasons for this, too. Aggressive inline skating was born; the change in skateboard style from power to technical made an easier and friendlier entrance into the sport; and media’s promotion or use or destruction -however you see it- of “extreme sports” including skateboarding, inline skating and bmx, such as The X Games and the video game Tony Hawk ProSkater.
2. Liability issues subsided and laws were enacted to protect private and public entities. The greatest example of this is the California Extreme Sport Law, which evaporates any responsibility beyond the individual when that individual participates in an extreme sport, such as skateboarding, inline skating, and bmx. Owner of Cal Skates, Howard Weiner said Oregon enacted tort laws, which set limit to monetary compensation.
3. Burnside was born in Oregon. Never before done with such success, the Burnside skatepark represents the rawest form of community action. Frustrated by the absence of a place to skate, a group of skaters built their own. Though illegal, Burnside was born and grew through passion and action. Years passed before the city recognized and sanctioned the Burnside Projects. Burnside is unique in its growth of ten years, no other skatepark has been able to evolve like Burnside. Most people know this history, which is one reason Burnside is so highly regarded. Burnside has become the shining example of “do it yourself” and thus became the inspiration for individuals and communities everywhere to initiate skateparks in their own communities. In the spirit of the Oregon Trail and the pioneers, Burnside tapped a source of pride in Oregon and nothing since has been the same.
These three things, the popularity of skating, the release of liability and the spirit and example of Burnside, have made Oregon a national, if not global, leader in community built skateparks.
SkateOregon started racing around the state in March of this year, 2000. We are amazed and excited at all the individuals, their skills and skateparks we witness. So far, SkateOregon is proving to be a non-profit adventure. We do this because we love it.