Cold Hard Truth
Mason Huggins - Checking for leaks in the roof at Marginal Way in Washington.
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For the last ten years the Northwest has been a destination for skateboarders in search of the world’s best concrete. Washington state and Oregon are home to legendary parks like Burnside, Orcas Island and Klamath Falls. This vast expanse of rolling concrete does not come without its’ downside. Though the city of Portland receives an unremarkable 32 inches a years of rain, it seem to be spread out over 8 or 9 months of near daily showers, and over 225 cold cloudy days. Though, the Northwest summers are some of the nicest in the world, to be a skater in the Northwest you still need to be able to handle the cold. We spoke to some upcoming Am’s from Northwest to hear their take on skating in freezing weather.
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“Yeah, the weather up here can get pretty harsh sometimes. There have been times where it’s sunny out and we go skate and 5 minutes later it’s pouring, then 5 minutes later its sunny, then 10 minutes later its f@#king snowing or some shit… hahaha.
Slamming on the concrete when it’s snowing out makes you feel like an old man for about 20 minutes, and slapping your hand when its pink and frozen will make your day for sure… hahaha…
The weather is shitty but it’s all worth it. It’s nice to have the bad weather because it keeps you from taking the good weather that you have for granted. It makes you enjoy it that much more. Northwest is the best, come skate and get broke off.
-Johnny Turgesen
Dealing with the weather up here is a total roll of the dice. You just wake up, look outside and hope you have a good day. You can't take it for granted. Every dry day gets you all psyched to skate! It’s pretty cool, unless it’s cold...Ah I hate the cold so much! It is the only thing I can't take. When you eat shit and it’s like 40 degrees, oh a hand slap will bring your day down a bit.
I guess something unique about skating up here is Ice, its weird having to watch out for ICE at a skatepark...
of the 200 "grey days"
And… I can't even think about how many times we have driven to a park in the rain to get there and have it dry up in ten minutes. Sometimes you just gotta’ go for it and hope for the best, or go out and find a covered ramp...Burnside is mostly dry, unless it’s really pouring.
Just the other day we were in Medford and decided to go to the newly finished Jacksonville park (which is like 15 minutes away). The entire drive it was raining and two of my friends kept crackin’ jokes like,
“Oh what’s that on the windshield?” Oh I called it rained out again!!"
But sure enough as we get there it clears up and we get a killer session in!! It even started to rain as we were skating and half of us gave up, and then came back in 10 minutes, haha!
It makes you more hyped to skate when you can.
It's totally worth it for all the concrete. I love it here. The summer is the best ever!
-Steve Reeves
Here's a couple Burnside Classics:
Mason Huggins-Noseblunt
Steve Reeves-No Comply Tailslide revert
Sequences-Fick
Steve Reeves - Jumps into this drianage ditch, minutes before it gets put to use.
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