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
9 comments
Brandon Palmer
Hey guys the skate slalom was Awesome!!!!! thanx Wally 4 the signed deck….i will come back next year and win again (hopefully i wil have compitetion)
Kilwag
In case you want more Park Slalom action..
Desert Dog Death Race from 2006, also available here thanks to Rockthebaade
Kilwag
Looks like you guys had a good time. I hope it’s not on the solstice again next year, there’s a crew of us that would like to attend but being that’s the the longest day of sunlight in the year, we’re always on our annual road trip. Good job on coverage EPM did a good job as well. Who was the goofy and regular winners? 50 to dead? Great name!
Start practicing for Battleground!
oldfatjeff
RAD. We had a full on skate contest, slalom races, and boardercross race event recently. It was insane. Check out the guys at Foiled Concepts who are turning storm debris into hybrid slalom boards. And in keeping an open mind most of the cone heads are accomplished vert and park skaters to boot. Very well rounded skaters. And I don’t mean beer guts although those get sported as well.
Estes
I fixed that for you JF! Thanks for your support!
jf
oh! and it’s spelled NOVMBR skates.
http://www.novmbrskateboarding.com
jf
Thanks for putting this event together Mike, it was a blast and I can’t wait for the next one, BG or Newberg would be sick. it’s so cool to see Benji so often and support the local scene. Viva la Benji.
JF
Casey M.
Awesome event, this was my first park slalom and it was one of the best races (of many kinds) I’ve ever been to. Hey Mike, is there anywhere I can get the full listing of times? I’m curious to see how it all played out. Great event, thanks for the wheels also!
pam miller
ok…feel like crap… 🙁 should have drove to West Lynn.
Miss you all a bunch..