2009 éS game of SKATE presented by éS footwear

Off Day in Oregon

Posted on Jun 18, 2009

After a good night’s sleep in Medford, Oregon, we decided to spend our off day hitting up some local skateparks along the way on our 6 hour drive to Portland. The first park, which was near our hotel, was the Medford Park, a gnarly park built by Eric Dawkins & Great American Skateparks. The session was short-lived due to a local skate mom who decided to call the police on us for lack of safety gear. Thanks. There is apparently a new helmet law in the state of Oregon that we were unaware of.
We checked out the Central Point Skatepark, but it wasn’t very appealing to the crew, so we decided to spend the rest of our day’s free time skating the White City skatepark. The crew ripped the park up, and logged a solid two minutes of footage combined.

White City skatepark offers a variety of sick street obstacles, which we enjoyed. The session ended on the 3 block, which yielded some sick bruised heels to Patrick Binkley and me.

On the other hand Oscar, Doug, Johnny, and Bibi tossed their carcasses in hope of some good footage, and they got just that. Dieter and Bucky hit the red buttons while Phil snapped some great shots. We were stoked to see a White River local coincidentally representing the éS Game of SKATE tour’s sponsors--he was all laced up in some Cessnas and jammin’ in a set of Skullcandy Lowrider headphones. We hung out with some locals at the skatepark for a while before hitting the road.
Oregon is a beautiful state, and the whole drive up the I-5 is full of great scenery and photo opportunities. Ah, the great U.S. The trees, rivers, and blue skies make us proud to be Americans. We had a very interesting WalMart visit, full of interaction with the kind local Oregonians. An old man cared about our purchase so much that he gave us his opinion on his choice of sub sandwiches. Also, a woman made me, Johnny, Oscar, and Doug subjects for her “art project” and took our photographs in the check out line… Pretty weird. We boarded the Game of Skate van, and headed to Portland.

Unfortunately we were pressed for time, and didn’t get to skate all of the rad parks that Oregon has to offer. We enjoyed the scenic drive on the way to Portland and gazed into the beautiful Oregon sunset. Tomorrow we head to Hood River for the game of skate. Hope to see you there!

-Words by Chinner
-Photos by Phil Blair