hopeless old men on skateboards

Dang, I can’t believe I’ve been sitting on this partially completed for over two years. Photos and words from our November 2007 Cannonball Run – Buy Nothing Skate Everything Day. We hit the Burnside, Woodland, Battle Ground, Vancouver, Pier Park, Glenhaven, West Linn, Holly Farm, Tigard skateparks in about eight hours. The Bodyslam 6.3 micro ’zine is all high contrast black and white this time. Available as a 600K pdf for you to print out, fold and staple from the Bodyslam page.

I was excited to get an invitation to join Wally Inouye, Chris Strople, and Bryce Kanights on a four day trip to the Treasure State. Wally and Strople were childhood heroes of mine and I have been meaning to get up to check out the Montana skateparks for the last several years.

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Matt Klein has a great bowl in his backyard in Grants Pass, Oregon. He had a benefit barbecue last weekend to raise money to build more skateable stuff back there. We got there a few hours into it because we had to check out the new skateparks in Winston and Myrtle Creek on the way. It was still going strong. Great session, heavy but not cutthroat. I counted fifty people at one point. Check it out condensed to two-and-a-half minutes after the jump.

Matt also wanted me say thanks to everyone who came out and donated. He wants to make it an annual event so he can keep adding on to the backyard skate terrain.

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The day after Thanksgiving is supposedly the biggest shopping day of the year. The day we all pull together to support the American retail industry. Naturally, it has become a rallying point for cranky anti-consumerists who set up Buy Nothing Day bent on spoiling everyone else’s fun – unless of course, you enjoy being anti.

Last year we did a Cannonball Run and called it Buy Nothing Skate Everything Day. We have no formal plans to follow it up but you never know. We have a couple of local choices that could jack up our numbers.

This was my fourth year going on this trip. This year the group was in full disarray. Hailey, Lake Cunningham and Washington State were all possibilities being discussed. In the end, small groups went their separate ways. We started for San Jose but ended up touring southern Oregon and the Oregon coast. Too many choices!

Read the whole article over at Skate and Annoy.

The Cannonball Run is silly and wasteful but it has its appeal. How many skateparks could we visit in one day? For the most part we were visiting spots where we’ve already spent hours and will likely visit again. Expectations are low so if you can get a few good runs in, it’s not so hard to move on. On a real road trip, I’d want to spend more time at each place. Our goal was 16. Part of this article previously appeared on Skate and Annoy (more…)