In Our Back Yard – Albany Or.

That’s right. We jump from Newcastle England straight to locals only contests in Albany Oregon. We don’t care. We’re crazy! Top: Albany local Rex Pearson. Photo and story by Danimal. Check it out.

Albany Oregon Annual Contest – By Danimal- Posted 9-13-06

The annual contest at the skatepark in Albany, OR was going off this year. The event was put on by Red Cement Skateboards and the Albany Parks and Rec. The level of skating at this year’s comp was higher than ever before, the local skaters are beginning to truly rip their park and I was stoked to be there this year. The purpose of the contest this year was to raise some money to add on to the park, I think the total raised was around $400, not bad since 90% of the skaters that entered were locals.

Here’s the breakdown on the action, there were 3 heats of skaters separated by age, 12 and under, 13-17, and 18 and over. I didn’t catch the total numbers of entrants but it was between 20-30. This year the contest evolved into more of a jam format similar to the Trifecta series in which skaters get an intro run and then get let loose into a 15 minute jam session. The 12 and under kids skated first, they were stoked and skated hard, Josh O’Sullivan took first place and was stoked on his new board, this was kind of exciting since the contest was dedicated to Josh’s older brother Jeremy who was killed a few months back and was a local at the park. A few of the skaters wore shirts with statements written on them to remember Jeremy and the bowl is still covered in graffiti as a temporary memorial to him.

The 13-17 year olds were the highlight of the day flying around the park making us old guys look like chumps. Rex Pearson got first and would have won MVP of the day if we had that shit in skateboarding. He pulled some of the highest, longest airs and laid down some technical tricks like a kickflip to melon grab over the 8-foot hip, I missed that photo of course. Second place went to Robert Selph, he pulled some high alley-oop melons and blasted airs everywhere he could. The only girl that entered the contest, Alesha Hayes, got third place and laughed in the face of the all the boys. Ha ha! Try harder next time wusssies! The 18 and over class was last and consisted of only a 15-minute jam session. First place went to smoothest skater in the valley, Brian Summers. Summers pulled a multitude of airs, all kinds of grabs, airs to fakie, fast grinds, 270’s over hips in any direction, and all at speed. Second place went to Dave, whose last name I forgot. I skate with Dave several times a week and I don’t even know his last name, oh well. Dave killed it with a fluid technical style, throwing in some flip tricks and fast grinds. Third place went to yours truly, The Danimal, I was stoked and scored myself a new set of small wheels and a shirt for my efforts.

The last hour of the comp was split into a best trick contest, a texas death match on the mini ramp area, and a best trick over the loveseat. Best trick was won by Andy Anderson for an ollie from the 5 foot up to the 8 foot extension to 50-50 to fakie. The Texas Deathmatch was won by the smallest dude, Little Anthony, he weaved through about 15 skaters all bigger than him and walked away with a new backpack, hell yeah. Rex won the best trick over the loveseat with a long frontside lipslide to revert and added more goods to his prize bag.

All in all the whole day was fun and the Red Cement crew (Dante, Mike and Mario) did a good job organizing the event and keeping it on schedule, DJ Cloud rocked us out all day, Travis wore a cowboy hat with red suspenders and no shirt all day, and some sick skating went down. Sponsors included Red Cement, Peak Sports, Cold War Skateboards, and a few local businesses that threw in some gift certificates. Anyway this may be my most boring write up yet but you still need to get to Albany and skate with us cuz time’s a wastin’.

Albany Oregon Anual Contest – By Danimal- Posted 9-13-06

Thanks to Danimal weighing in with this year’s contest in Albany Oregon. Do you have something going on in your scene? Doesn’t have to be huge, all it takes is a few halfway decent photos and a spell checker. Send your ideas and be a contributor. – K.ed.