Hood Rats

lgallagher

• August 09 2008
• 2,342 views
• 10 comments

In Oregon now. Got in yesterday. Under hazy skies I headed up to Hood for the last session at High Cascade Snowboard Camp. First night in Govy was cool, partly cloudy and smelling of rain. Ate barbeque and skated. Saw Leanne Pelosi by the trampolines. Spotted Danny Kass by the feed line. And Pat Moore was over at the bowls skating in khaki shorts and long white socks. No sign of The Dingo, but heard he’s around. Six is their session.

There was electricity in the air the first night. Just after sunset a lightning storm rolled in and started strobing and back-lighting the mountain.The thunder shook the dilapidated little shacks around town.

The kids were buzzing too. There were a lot of those little groms. Apparently, it’s the most crowded session six in High Cascade history. Luckily there’s plenty of snow to go around. You can still lap Palmer. That’s rare for this time of the year. It’s a hot lap. A hoody is almost too much.

After a few warm-up runs, I took to hiking some. The diggers did good. There’s all kinds of shit to shred. An abbreviated list: a bunch of tables, a hip, a ditch, a mini and mega pipe, all kinds of rails, boxes, barrels and countless other entirely bonkable objects. And the snow is slushy and surfy and doesn’t hurt that much to fall in. It’s buttery bliss.

This is Jarad Hadi. He and Nick Dirks, Jonas Michilot and Jed Anderson were playing a game of Skate on the mini-rail line in the morning. These kids are definitely influenced by our four-wheeled forefathers. Don’t know who won, but it seemed like Jed might’ve been the dude. Kid kills it. You’ll see soon enough.

Think this was a 540 to nose wheelie. Gnarly whatever it was. Rode away like a bat. He was all hopped up on sugar though. Scored the ‘ol two-for-one in the vending machine. This gremlin got taken.

Jed swooped in. And was fueled by high-fructose all day. Seemed to do him some good. Both on snow and masonite.

Gotta get while the gettins good.

And it’s good at Hood.

There are all kinds of boarders in and around town. The Airblaster tribe is camped out in the woods and working on their newest movie August. Even original blaster and true BA Travis Parker is lurking around these parts.

Always cool to see someone of such influence shredding around the volcano.

Jake Welch is also in the hood and taking full advantage of HCSC’s skate bowls to do some cross-training.

Nick Dirks got a new helmet. Authentic safari stee. Borrowed it from his brother. Expect to see the Jungle Book look take hold next summer.