Wednesday

Hello. Reporting from Lincoln city library. Seaside skatepark was very fun, tight, steep with lots of pool coping.

After Seaside we went to Lincoln City. here is the beach we camped on.

Setting us a tent in the wind is tough, but at least you dont have to pay for a campsite.
I cooked alot of food at the skatepark in Lincoln City, made alot of tea. This is my pancake. It was delicious.

Forests and trees saturate the whole of Oregon. When me and my dad lost each other I ended up getting lost in a forest, and then a bush scratched my leg.

The skatepark is insane.
We stayed at Lincoln city for a few days, then headed back to Burnside via Newberg

Here we have my dad chopping wood to burn.


The guy who looks after the area around Newberg skatepark was very nice and let us camp for free again, so my dad shared his whiskey with him and we had a good camp.

Back to Burnside, and we had nowhere to stay so we pitched up on Donovans lawn

Urban camping is hectic. We woke up and there was a cigarette in the top of the tent, and all night there were dogs coming up sniffing around. My dad also had to deal with a drunken bum, but I slept through that part.

So after urban camping we came back out to Lincoln City with Donovan for more skating. Goodbye.

8th of July

Hello everybody. The roadtrip is going well, and me and my dad are in good health, except for a few scratches.

After leaving Portland library after my last post, I discovered I had managed to lock the keys in the car when we returned to the car park. Luckily the window was open a smidgen, so I could get in with a litter picker, roll it down further, and fit my arm in to open the door from the inside. That's not a mistake I will be making twice. Once in the car my dad drove me to Pier Park to skate, which is in the northern part of Portland. This is a fun park with 3 bowls. 2 are tight with metal coping and the biggest one is 12 foot vert at 1 end leading through a full pipe into a 9 foot section. The big bowl is all pool coping. I still didn't have any photos at this point, so if you want to know what the park is like properly I suggest googling it. Anyway the park was a lot of fun and I'll definitely be going back.

The next few days is a blur, but from what I can remember, the first thing we did was went back to Burnside via an office supplies shop for a memory card. This is the first photo taken:

So there's the proof I finally made it to Burnside, after a hard winter of onions and communication breakdown.

One day I decided that I wanted to skate Astoria, so me and my dad started to head up the interstate 5, towards the North of Oregon. After being on the road for a while, I saw a sign: "BATTLEGROUND". I remembered there was a skatepark there, so sort of spontaneously decided to change track, and we pulled off towards Battleground WA. The skatepark here is so much fun, but it was late, so we decided to grab a campsite while it was still light.

<----- Here I make friends with a tree

The next day it rained. I then found myself in a shop full of crytals, stones, books and rugs and other stuff. I recieved alot of useful information. whilst also purchasing a crystal pyramid, a rhythmic CD and a book about power animals. I also spoke with a wise woman, while my dad went and did the laundry. So the day was a bit of a wash out, but at least remembered useful information.

After leaving the real shop, we decided to go to Vancouver (city in Washington state) because some skaters had told us of an indoor skatepark there. After finding the place miraculously easily, it was shut. This was about 7PM on a weekday. I was reminded about how well we do in the UK for indoor skateparks, and was grateful of this benefit, but seriously I don't know why that indoor park was closed, because you could go to pretty much any indoor park in the UK at 7pm on a weekday and dodge the rain.

I spotted a head shop, so we went in and got some legal green stuff.
It was the picture on the front which grabbed my attention, a flying eye with a crown, radiating all clolours of light. I can also say that the picture was quite fitting to the induced effects when smoked. It's good to smoke, but real pricey.

Next morning I woke up and it was dry , so me and my dad hit the skatepark. 2 bowls and a load of street stuff, this park is amazing. The pool coping ravished my back truck, so I need to find a skateshop now to replace it . My dad filmed a few lines and I skated and had a great time. It turned 5pm, and it was time to head back to Burnside, where we would later be departed on a mission to Orcas Island for the 4th of July.

The crew was me and Dad, heading up in our rental car behind Cody, John, DD, Donovan and Boz the dog. These were some folk I had met at Burnside previously, and they were all super friendly, great to skate with and down for a mission. 2nd of July was the night we left, and we drove for ages and ages and eventually I cant remember but we ended up on the island at the skatepark at 7.20 am 3rd July.

Orcas Island is a really beautiful place. On the boat ride across, I could feel the atmosphere of the place, and it was comfortable and safe, a nice place to be. The place is saturated with green, and towering trees, plus it is surrounded by water, and all the life of the sea.

The island is awesome, and the skatepark matches this. Everything is concrete, its either lip or pool coping, and the session was fun and relaxed all day, with meat getting grilled and concrete shralping.

When the day was done, I was in the bad books with my dad for finishing his bran flakes, and he'd booked a hotel for himself. Where I ended up staying was much better. A couple from California, Jack and Harmony, who were up for the 4th of July with their daughter Alexis. They had rented out a house in the forest, which was full of great books, drums, pianos, and buddhist sculptures. There was a gym and a meditation room. It was probably the best house I had ever been in. There was room for everyone to stay, and we could all get a good smoke on too. Outside on a platform were concrete sculptures, one was a pyramid, one was an owl and the other was a buddhist one. no pictures sorry all I had were the clothes on my back and my skateboard.

Next day was the 4th of July. Everybody was really relaxed, and we chilled around the house until about half 1. I had 2 boiled eggs for breakfast, which were delicious. The skatepark had a really good vibe once more, with meat on the grill, sun in the sky and plenty of smiles all round. I slept alot, but woke up around 6 fully charged ready to enjoy the skatepark. By the end of the days skating, me and my dad were going to go with Cody, John, DD, Donovan and Boz to see the fireworks I think, but we ended up getting seperated. The fireworks were pretty cool to see tho.

Next day, we did a little more skating and farted about a bit. We ended up back on mainland by midnight, so we couldn't get a campsite and had to blow a load of money on a hotel room.

6th of July, I got a good skate at Marginal Way in Seattle, another gnarly bridge skatepark.

This park was rough, smooth and fast, pool coping, tiles, good transition, bad transition, all round fun.

The skatepark is still in progress, and the skaters rely on kind hearted people donating dollars for concrete. I would have donated, but I wasn't sure how.

The next day we went to Astoria, to check out the park I was supposed to be going to before when we made the detour to Battleground. Upon arrival I noticed the concrete was a rough mix. 5 minutes later I slammed, because for some reason one of the corners is built dodgey, making it seriously difficult to carve round to build up speed. 20 minutes later after my first slam I fell again, this time opting to slide down the 12 foot quarter pipe on my back, shirtless, which was not a good idea. I had trouble sleeping last night, and I am now headed back to the skatepark to get some footage before going along to Seaside, then the greatly anticipated Lincoln city. Goodbye until the next time.

28th June

My trip began June the 22nd, including me and my dad (Ron), consisting of skateboarding and camping. We flew to out from Glasgow to Schipol to spend a night in Haarlem, then flew the next morning from Schipol to Portland.

Upon arrival in Portland, the taxi driver took us by Burnside skatepark to our hotel, Which was just a Thriftlodge just along from the Burnside bridge. This was helpful because it meant we could gather our bearings and organise ourselves whilst being walking distance from the skatepark. Skating Burnside for the first time was so fun, after so much anticipation I began to become over excited. The locals run the park, so no bikers or bladers, and the place is buzzing with positive vibes, as it was crated out of dedication and raw hunger for a good shralp. It has the same rough gnarly feel as Livi, but is completely unique, so comparing it to other skateparks does the place little justice. You have to get out here yourself to witness the true Burnside flavour which no video camera could recreate. Plus everyone you meet down there is there to skate, so everyone is really friendly and easy to get along with.

After a hard session and meeting the locals it was time to buy some supplies and rent a car. We got all out stuff (food, camping equipment, phone, video camera, water etc) and we were ready to roll. The first campsite we stayed in was miles out to the Northwest. Not much exciting happened here. I got very cold and decided I needed a better sleeping bag.

After camping we wanted to try another skatepark, I was sure there was one in Pittsburg, but after driving through it became apparent I was wrong. We did see a house blaze down to the ground though (most houses are made of wood).

We decided Newberg sounded like a good plan, so we head off down South. Tigard was on the way so we stopped off to check out the skatepark. I didn't enjoy this park. It consists of 2 bowls, one of them being a small rectangular bowl with one side spining into a large, multi hipped bowl with varying heights of transition and one side was doubled up with a 2 foot quarter running above a 4 foot. The rest of the park is basically a giant bank and a giant quarter pipe with pool coping with a right angle quarter pipe in the corner and some tight birck quarters at the other end. I found the lines were quite boring in comparison to Burnside, and I knew there was so much fun stuff to skate in Oregon so I didnt want to spend too long at a park I didnt particularly like.

When we pulled up to Newberg I like the park instantly. the whole thing is transition, with certainly no need for pushing. Humps, quarter pipes, gaps, transfers, concrete coping and infinite lines = infinite fun. We were fortunate enough to be allowed to camp near the park by the caretaker, so we stayed for 2 nights, cooking sausages, sitting in the forest and going swimming in between skating. By 8am there were skateboarders at the skatepark, all above 25, having so much fun skating the crete. The Americans I have met certainly aren't lacking in enthusiasm or positivity, and I met a skateboarder Shaun who wanted to come skating for a couple of days. The only problem was I couldnt get my phone to work.

I can say after skating that park my whole body is aching, but we left this morning and I am going to skate Pier park later which is even bigger. 19.5 foot full pipe I think. I've finaly got my phone to work as well using the internet. I should have some photos up soon, because I never realised that you have to buy a memory card to put in my video camera to take photos. I have plenty of footage, but I'm not sure how to get it up. I'll get photos any way, and the next time I log on I'll load them up.