Memoirs of a Gypsy: YUNG ADIDAS SKATE COPA

The Hood Team was lucky enough to participate in the North West Regionals of The Adidas Skate Copa contest in Portland, Oregon. I really did not wanna go because I was feeling a bit like Tom Broke-Off that week but after a talk with Nards and Mikey, yer boy was swayed and packing for PDX! We all met up on a Thursday morning at the hood around 9:30am and left there around 10am. The van was full of Rosa Talent with Shane Schueler, Jordan Bunce & Eddy Higuera held down the 1st row, 2nd row was Mike Minard, Mikey Smialek & Yung Trap Lord, Phil Philms and all his gear cramping my leg space, I was in the back representing the Trap Trunk Boyz with Antonio Gilmore and yung Baby Bladder, Ryan Sanders, with Jon Lohne, Austin Funk, and Eddy rotating as VL drivers. We made a stop at Corning Skatepark to stack some last minute park clips before crossing state lines. After Corning it was onward to Portland we went. We spotted a rail on the side of the freeway and the whole van hopped out to watch Baby Boots try and slide the beast but lo and behold the fuzz was called and killed our vibe. We made a stop off in Albany for a night to chill and crash at Jon's childhood friend, Manny's place. The next day we awoke in Albany to some coffee and donuts thanks to Manny. Mikey, Austin, Toan and I played a game of skate in which Toan took the cake and 10 bucks that unbeknownst to him at the time would go toward the impending Loco Moco epic meal time we'd enjoy in Portland. Getting to Portland it was a bit hairy trying to book a hotel. The 1st place we tried was a bust cuz they're hot tub was non-functioning. But once we found a spot it was on, IU think it was a Best Western that we settled on. This place was the jam, had a pool and hot tub room, a phone next to the shitter, TV's, and a mean continental breakfast with a ill waffle maker to boot! When we finally got to Silas' park, The Grotto, it was just mayhem. There was carcasses being hucked left and right. The course was heated with hungry ass dudes just trying to one up each other. It was a pretty hectic practice session. Aside from dodging fools in the park, the park was dusty & slippery as fuck which made it that much harder to skate, but we still crushed it and had fun during the practice session. The next day was all business. We decided that Eddy would give up his spot to Baby Boots so the dudes repping were Jon, Austin, Mike Minard, Shane and Boots. The 1st jam was legit. Dudes were killing it straight out the gate and Tim O'Connor was feeling the squad! The second jam was not as happening but the dudes still had fun. After the Copa we checked out Burnside for a minute to clock a few clips. Burnside is no fucking joke and the locals will let you know right off the bat if you're kooking out. As long as you were ripping, the locs were cool. After Burnside we went to this loading dock gap that Jon fs flipped on his last trip to PDX. The boys clocked some just as it starting to rain but that really didn't stop Mike, Eddy, Austin or Shane, who all got some rad rain/shred photos. The next day we skated all around downtown Salem filming as many clips as we could before hitting the road again. Thanks again to Manny for having us over, to The Boardr, Adidas and Silas Baxter-Neal for putting on a fun weekend and hooking us up, to Austin, Eddy and Jon for driving, to Jordan and Philms for pressing the red button and to Katy Perry for recording "Dark Horse." Make sure to head over to Jordan Bunce Photo's site to peep the trip in photographic form.