Its Amazing
how easy this trip was to plan. Camping? Check. Seven of your best friends? Check. The best skateparks in the world? Check. Just pile into a car and get going. The following words are from my journals.
Words, Layout, and Design by Nick Weber
Fletcher snaps in Battleground, WA
Cover: Race Nagel smith grinds the deepness of Lincoln City while Diekman and Fletcher look on in awe
Day 1
3/12/10 Bozeman-St.Ignatius-Missoula
Get in the fucking car. Alex in Bozeman
Logan. Smith grind in front of the Mission Mountains. St. Ignatius
Left town around 9 or 10 and drove until Rocker. We made our way to Missoula to drop off bags. The car was completely packed with me, Piskin, Race, Alex, and Logan. On our way up to St. Ignatius, Alex is on the phone with Fletcher back in Bozeman. WHAT! Alex yells. Apparently, Diekman invited Legend. Alex was pissed, Logan was livid, phone calls and texts are sent. “If Legend is coming, you can drop me off here!� said Logan. Joy and Pain played on the radio. St. Ignatius was great, filmed and photographed. Drove back to an amaz-
If someone didn’t find my keys on the floor of the bar, Race would have never aired over this wall
Alex “Street Tech” Strandell- Alex
was always down to create fictitious scenarios with me on the longer drives. “What if we ran into Tia and Ember on a cross country road trip down to Georgia for a Bumpit Convention?” After we skated Tigard, we drove to Taco Bell and Alex and I yelled “We are going to Taco Bell!” out the window to people in traffic. Alex ordered the Volcano Big Box meal with Diekman.
ing dinner mom cooked. We went to Mobash with a twelve of Hamms. Too tired and dark to skate. Went to the Top Hat with Vetter. Drank two and tried to leave. Lost my keys but someone found them on the floor of the bar. We picked up Jason and Race from Elks Club and Taco Bell, respectively. Headed home
Day 2
3/13/10 Missoula-Spokane-Irrigon
Getting everyone’s shit into the cars was like playing a real-life game of Tetris
Race “Bagel” Nagel - Race did something amazing at every skatepark we went to, although no on-board stunt was as impressive as sleeping in Diekman’s car every night. He could have easily won MVP each day. Woke up on my parents couch. TV is showing me “Wildest videos” with plane crashes. Headed to the Good Food Store then to Edge of the World. Chilled waiting for the other three, sans Legend. Ate at Bridge Pizza. The other three arrived and we left Edge. There was a St. Patricks day parade getting started, and I had seen no “road closed” signs. With the parade in the opposite lane, we see an angry woman. “This is why there are Closed Street signs” although we didn’t see any. Got home, packed the cars, and left zootown. We decided to go to the Spokane skatepark. We are looking for the exit, when all of a sudden Diekman passed me on the right in
Jason had the better angle here. Bagel smith grind in Spokane
Spokane
Fletcher ponders
our ending lane. We can hear Alex on the phone, “DON’T PASS ON THE RIGHT!” We hit the park for a little bit and got out of town. We pushed on to some truck stop, ate a burrito, and drove to Irrigon, but only after getting slightly lost. We skated dark Irrigon for a bit, then got directions to a campground. Set up camp, paid, Bagel MVP, shotgunned beers, good night.
Day 3
3/14/10 Irrigon-Hood
River
Zach “Feastman” Diekman - Epic is a pretty good
Diekman-Boulder ride in Irrigon
describing word. He drove his own car, which had studded snow tires on it. You could hear the car coming from any direction based on the sound of those studs hitting Oregon’s roads. He also has a pretty unique bag of tricks, two of which are named after him. The Diekman Spin and Diek- man Flip. The only moment of tension on the trip was when he walked right into a rock in the complete darkness. He yelled “FUCK” loudly in the quite campground, then was pissed off at us for not lighting his path. He was angry but was crowned MVP later that night, and the next night, when he shared the MVP title with me.
Logan tailslides a mound of concrete in Irrigon
Fletcher ollies to fakie...
...while Alex smith grinds.
Woke up on a flat landscape. We stayed at Hat Rock state park. We packed our shit up, hit up a grocery store, then went to the Irrigon skatepark. What a fun park. I ollied over the doorway in the bowl, but that was nothing compared to Race Bagel. He 5-0 fakied across the damn thing. We cooked some burgers, skated a bit more, then headed to Hood River. Beautiful scenery. We arrive in Hood River and skate for hours. I ollied over a stream. Hella photos and video. For food, we stopped at the Hood River Taco Bell, a pretty sub standard T. Bell, but we went last year so we had to go again. Next, we drove around for a special campsite but couldn’t find it. We got back on the interstate, took an exit, found a campsite, beer and fire, Piskin MVP then go to sleep.
Day 4
3/15/10 Hood River-Portland
Our campsite was right next to some train tracks, which were active all night. We woke up, talked with a friendly camp ranger, and drove into Portland. We made it to the Dept. of Skateboarding, sans Diekman who lost us... somehow. He found us at the same time Paulius did. We took him with us to Glenhaven, where we met up with Will. We skated there for awhile, got some photos. Fun park. Left, got a cherry chocolate shake from Burgerville. We headed to the Ed Benedict skate plaza. It was too damn windy, but there was some guy ripping on a scooter. I shot some zany photos of him on different obstacles.
Rise and Shine
Sometimes, Skateboarding is a team sport. Bagel Bluntslides in Portland
Everyone’s favorite Lithuanian. Paulius pops over one of the finest hips in the world
Fletcher crooks from the dark into the light. LIGHTNESS EVERYBODY!
He told me that he wanted photos for his website and scooter shop. He was a total kook, but he was damn good at scootering. He was with a fat greasy sleazy guy who was his “business partner”. We met up with Dave Biesel’s friend Adam Gonsen. We all went out to a taco joint, ate and drank. Gonsen told us that he just found out that he was going to be a father. We went back to Paulius’ house, set up shop, and left to go to a pub down the street for Logan’s birthday. They had just closed and sent us up the road to a bar, Scotty’s. The bitch there wouldn’t serve us, even though it was after midnight. She told us to come back the next day. She wouldn’t serve us because it was a “gray area”. Fuck this. We hit up Shari’s, a Perkin’s type of establishment. Alyse Stark met up with us. We pretty much just ate and talked loudly. Our waitress was cool with us. Went home and went to sleep. Hop on and hold on. Logan at Glenhaven
Day 5
3/16/10 Portland-Battleground
The Gabriel skatepark was pretty scenic Almost as much as Fletcher’s ollie to tail
Woke up and took a long damn time to get going. We did hit up Gabriel skatepark. Fun park. Will met us there. Got clips and photos. It started raining. We left and drove around for a while. It is a pain in the ass to try and keep 3 cars together in a large city. We broke up, found a skateshop called Shrunken Head. We drove around some more and met up at Jack in the Box. Diekman dropped his drink. We followed Will to the Department of Skateboarding. We had a fun hour and a half session. Hit the road and went to Battleground Washington. Went direct to the skatepark and had a nice long skate. Fun skatepark. Drove a short distance to an amazing campground. We needed wood so Logan and I drove down the road to some tree.
Fletcher “Feckler” Eidum -
Fletcher drank a beer inside Safeway in Battleground Washington. He also cooked and ate a burrito inside a gas station without paying for it.
We packed sticks into the back of my car in the darkness. I enjoy random situations like that. Gathering wood after dark in the outskirts of Battleground WA. Hit up camp. Diekman tripped over a large rock and yelled FUCK loudly. He was pissed, but won MVP so it all worked out fine. We made wizard staffs and cooked hot dogs.
I chose not to shoot this one from the grassy knoll. Adam Kirschoffer, Rock n Roll in Portland
Piskin hops while Diekman feasts
Day 6
Diekman getting “all up in it” at Gabriel
3/17/10 Battleground-Lincoln City
Jason
“PissCan” Piskin- Jason asked our waitress at Shari’s if we could sit in a “big ass booth” that would accommodate ten people. He did some amazing things on his skateboard, including falling behind a huge flatbank and a fence, while still “ripping the whole time” as he fell. While we were eating at the Hood River Taco Bell, I took a bite out of my Gordita and the nacho cheese started to burn my tongue. As I was just about to sip some cold pepsi, Jason farted, and I laughed for a solid minute while the nacho cheese continued to burn me.
Beautiful scenery
The forest where we slept
Reluctantly woke up, feeling pretty haggered. Our beer staffs littered the site. The forest was beautiful. Shot some photos and walked around a bit. We finally got out of there and found breakfast. I got a blackberry milkshake. Back to the skatepark. We all skated, got clips, and had a fun time. We decided to drive to Lincoln City, on the coast. The landscape is beautiful, very lush and green. We arrived in Lincoln City, found the skatepark. What an amazing creation. Gigantic walls, snakerun, bowls. Everything is huge. It was dark so we didn’t skate. We drove to Mo’s, a famous seafood restaurant and ate a nice meal for Logan’s Birthday. We found a so-so campsite. Diekman and I are co-MVPs.
Day 7
3/18/10 Lincoln City-Newport
Slept poorly. Everyone shotgunned beers in the morning. Some of us walked to get coffee. We kept walking and we went to the beach. So beautiful. We chilled there for a minute and walked back to the campsite. We lurked there for a bit then headed to the Lincoln City skatepark. The place was gnarly. Huge bowls and snakerun, with the dreamland crew there building even more. We had a nice long sesh. Carving through
Adam “Chadam” Kirschoffer-
Adam and I laughed a lot about stupid shit, including very vulgar jokes and getting “hella fucked up”. The hardest I laughed on the trip was when I saw him write “zach feastman” on his MVP ballot, seconds after Diekman tripped over a boulder. Intensity
Lincoln City is truly one of the gnarliest skateparks in the world. Race had no problem
that snakerun was scary and fast. Race smith grinded the deep end. We went to Dairy Queen, then drove to Newport. We stopped on the beach and hung out, shot photos. Being a BuddaKreama is an amazing thing. Got into Newport and we went to the Rogue Brewery for Beer and Dinner. Played a few games of pool and got the hell out of there. We found a large campground, got some beer, and walked to the beach. It was very surreal. I felt like I was on the moon. We made a fire, drank and talked. Fletcher was MVP due to his off-board antics, which included stealing m+ms and a burrito.
Wake up, shotgun a beer, grind the biggest wall in the park, and haul ass into this transfer. All in a days work for Jason PissCan
Day 8
3/19/10 Newport-Pendleton
Logan “Pteradactyl” Triplett Triplett Logan turned 21 on the third day of the trip, but was denied by the bartender because, although it was technically his birthday, he was in a “gray area” where they wouldn’t serve him. He wanted to go to the coast, and it was the best decision we made during the trip. He also wore a filthy white button-up shirt that his grandfather had given him. The shirt currently is sitting in my car, covered in motor oil.
Fletcher mid-way though a no-comply to tail
If I were to guess, I would say that Alex is listening to Hall and Oates as he backside airs under the dinosaur at Tigard.
Rallied the troops to get up hella early. We drove back up to Portland and found Tigard skatepark. We had the park to ourselves for a little bit. Pretty fun park, I wasn’t too motivated though. Race, Piskin, and Alex killed it. I shot some photos. Met Will and Zach Doe there. We left and hit up Taco Bell, yelling out the window “we are going to Taco Bell!” to strangers. Alex and Diekman got Volcano Big Box Meals. We drove to the Gabriel park to skate and wait for traffic to die down. Gabriel was so fun. Lots of kids rolling into each other. There were 2 ten year olds ripping, doing every grab and grinding the deep end. I chilled on the hill and drank a beer. It was nice and sunny out. We left and drove to Pendleton. We found a campground up on top of a pass. There was snow on the ground. Alex was MVP. Slept in the cold.
Jason told me that he HAD to do a trick on this dinosaur. Footplant
Day 9
3/20/10 Pendleton-Bozeman Froze in the tent last night. We got out early and drove back to Pendleton. Ate McDonalds for breakfast. Found the park and skated for a bit. Fun park with cool unique features. Soda Machine stole my $1.25. Took a group photo and hit the road back home. While driving we sang songs, replacing the radio’s lyrics with “Diekman, Feast, etc...” We arrived back in Missoula, picked up and dropped off some stuff. Adam drove to Bozeman while Logan, Alex and I drank in the backseat. We arrived home, dropped off everything, took a shower, then headed downtown to celebrate Logan’s birthday yet again. I was far too tired to be drinking, so I went home and went to sleep.
I didn’t shoot any photos at Pendleton, so instead this page is full of extras. Hood River has an amazing skatepark, it seems like it is in the middle of the woods. It even has this stream-gap which I jumped over. Photo by JASON PISKIN
Alex, getting unbelievably pitted in Hood River
Zach Diekman. Friend, skateboarder, lyrical library... pinhole camera tripod?
Alex front-scrapes way the hell up there. Hood River
Nick “Dubback” Weber -
I tried to drink as many milkshakes as I could on this trip, I ended up having around 8-10. My sleeping bag didn’t zip up, and I didn’t have a sleeping pad. I think I injured myself more from sleeping than I did from skating, which is kind of sad. On the first night, in Missoula, I almost lost my car keys at a bar, which would have really put a damper on the trip.
I have been on hundreds of skate trips, but never one like this. The BuddaKreama Oregon Tour 2010 was perfect. Everyone who wanted to go was able to (besides Legend), we all skated new terrain, saw the ocean, laughed at stupid inside jokes, and camped out. It doesn’t get much better than that.