Cone Chasers- The West Linn Wrap-up Post

When your alarm goes off at 7am, and your waking up to go skateboarding, you sit there for a few seconds- thats when the voice chimes in “ARE YOU CRAZY?” Well, that is the voice I heard when I woke up. Coffee becomes the savior, and so does a peak outside to see bluebird skys. That’s when I get it in gear and drive to the West Linn Skatepark.

26 skaters have arrived and signed up to race. Ken Warner of West Linn Park and Rec helped put banners up and was extremely supportive of the event. (Side Story: Ken and I met at the first Oregon Trifecta, he was less than impressed with “professional events and its timely manner”- I pitched him this concept of a cone chasing race with a timing system, he wanted to see how the event would work before he gave us the VIP Green Light. None-the-less, we pulled it off one afternoon with hand timing. Now, West Linn is considered to be re-born in the eyes of several skaters, including this author.) Its amazing how much help was everywhere, everyone pitched in or asked if they could help, all of it was very appreciated. Thank you.

Tom and I set the course, it took a few rolls of Duct Tape (anyone at 3M reading this, please contact us, we would love to have you as a sponsor and we all feel more skaters would turn out to win some of your wonderful product- butt smooch!) And I finalized the start sheets with Kathryn Inouye while everyone lined up respectfully and took turns. Most giggled and shared lines, others were just shocked to be skating at 9am.

By 9:30, I felt everyone was decently warmed up. Carl Warren our trusty budding photographer was in position to not only snap shots of the skaters, but Zip Tyed a roll of Gorilla Tape to his belt loop, looking like a Jr High Janitor he was handling course repair like a champ. Once Wally doubled checked the system and approved it worked. We then set the first rider onto the course- a young Ricce Henson for the 9-12 division. We then let another young man, Brandon Palmer (who found it pretty challenging in practice) off for the 13-15 class and he completes the course to a huge applause. Both skaters won because they were the only sign-ups, what an ego booster for them. Usually the younger divisions are torture, not at this event, your actually entertained by each skaters run because everyone had a challenge, except for Benji Galloway and I’ll get to that later.

As the day rolls on, several skaters complete the course excited to hear a time. It became the nature to yell out the riders time to the very intrigued spectators. Even sighted was an officer of the law laughing and clapping, supporting the skating. I consider that a great sign of support. Greg of Skate Legion too was very impressed, giving us great support and getting the word out.

Well the most exciting class was the one Bacons Skateboards own Benji Galloway was in, he literally was going so fast that the rest of that division just laughed and accepted the fight for 2nd and 3rd places. Benji confessed he didn’t go to Europe to compete because this is where all the fun lies, in local unique events. He is truly the genuine skater and just wants to skate for fun. Something we all can appreciate.

Honestly this was a very easily run event, spectators even commented on how nice it was to watch and how pain-less overall it was to attend. We had a large donation of prizes from Rebel Skates, Gromshop.com, DuFFS Footwear, Innes Clothing, Cody, Sol and Don Fisher at Arthouse Dist, Kipzilla at High Grade Distribution, Brian Brannon at Blitz Distribution, Beau Brown at Freshpark, Black Flys, John Crouch at NHS, and Topher at Earth Products, Kronik Energy also supported the event with a nice fat cooler of charge-em up energy sodas. Support was everywhere, a small startup skateboard brand called NOVMBR Skateboards donated product and let everyone know they have some cool gear to skate. The skaters were thrilled, everyone went home with a smile.

Kudos to Benji for running the course switch at the end and beating my time, very humbling to watch. Thanks everyone for coming today, or even talking about it, we do have plans to host another and the talks are heavy for Battle Ground, that could be a one minute course- OUCH!Keep it posted here.

*More coverage and photos circulating the atmosphere at Earth Patrol.And more here on Old School Skateboarding dot com!

Here’s a link to YouTube to watch a short clip.

RESULTS

9-12

Riccie Henson 37.775

13-15

Brandon Palmer 44.948

16-19

Justin Thompson 26.509

Connor Mitchell Glasson 41.742

20-29

Steev Howell 23.766

Marek Litinsky 24.553

Lance Leisher 26.035

30-39

Benji Galloway 23.324

Shawn Reinhart 24.441

Mike Estes 27.455

40-49

Tom Inouye 25.676

Chuck Ellis 26.294

Skip Marcotte 27.032

50 to Dead

Doug Edwards 39.513

TOP 5 Times

Benji Galloway 23.324

Steev Howell 23.766

Shawn Reinhart 24.441

Marek Litinsky 24.553

Tom Inouye 25.676