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Welcome to Rip City
Aug 20 2006 / PortlandUpdate: 8/20/06
Well another Dew Tour stop has come to and end and things are all wrapping up. My flight leaves in just over an hour and a half, and I need to finish this blog, race across town, check in, go through security, and get all seated. So I’m typing quickly – but I can sum this trip up easily.
It was the little things. There weren’t any events seeped in all of the “extreme glory” that these competitions can ooze, but there were plenty of high points. Spinner’s 720 Tailwhip, Nyquist’s win on the blown knee, Nyjah’s frontside hurricane. The simple beauty of Sheckler’s backside flip over the table. Skating down the hallways of this huge stadium with one of my best friends in the world (Jeff Hehlen) who is leaving this country to move to Norway & marry a girl who he has fallen madly in love with. I know this might my last chance to see him before he leaves, and it was great to have him along for this trip (he was the cultural photographer – all the photos of the autograph signings and cute girls – that was him).
Each Dew Tour stop that I’ve been on has been all about sentimentality. Partly because I’m soft, and partly because there are very sentimental things & people attached to Louisville & Portland for me. I have a feeling that, as much as I can’t wait to get back to LA, I’ll look back on this summer of chasing the Dew Tour and realize that it was a high point. I don’t always love being on the road & following action sports – it’s great, but it can get repetitive – but the experiences and little moments I’ve been able to have on each of these stops will mean a lot to me in the long run, so it’s not all bad.
It’s pretty cool being part of all of this, and I wish I could say more, but I’m going to miss my flight if I’m not careful, and in the immortal words of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson “I’ve never missed a flight, and I’m not going to miss this one!” (except I did miss a flight once, flying from Phoenix to Reno – neither of which were places I wanted to be).
p.s. I wish the world for Jeff & Turid. You are brilliant and much more courageous than the most of us. May you fly on eagles wings.
- Cody Allen
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8/20/06
The Vans Invitational in Portland is drawing to a close today. It's a sad, sad day... No, it's not. Finally, we'll get away from all the free Mountain Dew and Peanut Chews that event staff have access to. It should be said that we have sort of a love-hate relationship with Mountain Dew and Peanut Chews. On the one hand our teeth hurt after 4 days of pounding soda and candy bars. And on the other hand, they do fuel us far into our late nights of publishing.
Anyway, the final results are now in!!! As of today, the 8 of us here at Lat 34 had consumed:Pepsi/Mountain Dew: 151 cans
Peanut Chews: 14 packages
Slim Jim Jerky: 5 bags
Our record for most drinks in a day was set on Saturday with a total of 51... I don't even know what to make of that.
Wow. Go team.
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8/19/06
It’s great to see Sandro Dias finally getting all of the respect that he deserves. Watching him skate is like watching a slightly more intense & scary Bob Burnquist run. It’s still fun & entertaining, but with the added thrill of giant 540 nosegrabs.
Sandro just swept up at the X Games, and now that he’s won the Vans Invitational in Portland it's a little bit easier to envision a world where Sandro wins everything he enters. He’s been killing it for so long, I feel like he should be winning competitions today just off of his performance in previous events. Plus, I still feel that he should have won in Denver, so to see him win two major competitions in a row now kind of makes up for it.
This sounds funny, but I can’t wait to see another full, flawless Bob Burnquist run. He wasn’t able to put one together at the X Games or here today, but the bits & pieces of his runs that he’s able to do look amazing. He’s still my favorite vert skater regardless of whether or not he’s riding away from everything.
- Cody Allen
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8/19/06
The Lat 34 Dew Tour food consumption results are in!!!!! Event employees and media staff have unlimited access to all the Pepsi/Mountain Dew, Peanut Chews and Slim Jim Jerky we want. Which is a bit of a double edged sword. As of Friday morning the 8 of us had consumed 25 cans of Pepsi products; 8 packages of Peanut Chews; and 4 bags of Slim Jim Jerky since Wednesday afternoon. By Friday night this is what the totals looked like:
Pepsi/Mountain Dew: 69 cansPeanut Chews: 11 packages
Slim Jim Jerky: 4 bags
That means we went through 44 cans of soda in one day, thanks in large part to our ever-thirsty Senior Producer Kristopher. I think he was responsible for nearly half that number. And as for Peanut Chews and Jerky, it looks like we're already getting burned out on that stuff. We only added 3 candy bars and no jerky to the list. But it's a new day today, so we'll see where our numbers wind up. Stay tuned to this riveting story.
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8/18/06
I love my iPod with all of my heart, but it seems to hate
I've been having to go through my "in-mind iPod" and hum to myself all of the amazing music that I would have been listening to while I pass my time here at the Vans Invitational. The DJs here aren't bad but...yes they are. I suppose they are good for the crowds, but while I'm sitting in a seat watching an hour and a half long event I want to have some good tunes. So below is my Vans Invitational,
So that’s my playlist. It was picked quickly, and it’s what I’ve been into for the last few days, but I can honestly say that this music is my soundtrack for the Vans Invitational (and it’s also the music we’ve been hearing the most of in the Lat34 publishing room here at the Rose Garden in Portland – although right now we are listening to “Lust for Life” by Iggy Pop, the list is ever-evolving).
Check out the music that the athletes listen to here>
- Cody Allen
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8/18/06
The Lat 34 team is off to a slow start on the Dew Tour sponsored food consumption today. We've only had one can of Pepsi to start the morning off. Oh, and there were a couple more cans consumed last night. But so far, no one has ventured a peek at the Slim Jim Jerky today. I'm sure that before the day is over we'll be breaking records, though. The running tally since Wednesday afternoon for the 8 of us is looking like this so far:
Pepsi products: 25 cans
Peanut Chews: 8 packages
Slim Jim Jerky: 4 bags
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8/18/06
Not so long ago, action sports enthusiasts were somewhat of outcasts. But thanks to corporate sponsorships, big events, and people like Shaun White, now everyone wants to be as cool as skaters, BMXers, snowboarders and the like. So needless to say, it’s important to be and look cool when attending the Dew Tour. And that goes not only for the lackadaisical attitude, but for attire as well.
I spent hours picking out my uniform for the weekend—ok, not really—but it was still embarrassing when I showed up wearing the same American Apparel sweatshirt as my Lat34 co-worker Cody. I kept mine zipped up and he left his unzipped, we figured that would be good enough, of course it didn’t help that every time a new person would show up, one of us insisted on pointing out how ridiculous it was that we were wearing the same thing.
But it happens to the best of us, because at the snowboard rail jam, Chris Rotax and Jonas Michilot also donned matching outfits. I mean, yellow pants and giant jerseys are just such a staple in everyone’s wardrobe, it was bound to happen. At least, it made me feel a little better about Lat34’s fashion crisis. And today I am making sure to wear something extra girly so there is no chance Cody will have on the same outfit.
- Brooke Geery
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8/17/06
It's been a long time since I've watched a snowboard rail jam, especially one in a place where the snow was trucked in, but I have to say, not much has changed. The set up tonight wasn't exactly pushing the limits of snowboard rail jam set ups, but it was good enough for people to bust some solid tricks on. Various nose & tail presses, frontside boardslides through the kinked rail and so many spins on & off of the rails, before, after, and during the slides that I'm still quite dizzy. Quite dizzy indeed.
An old friend, Drew Fuller (check him out in this year's Standard Films video), texted me while I was watching the event. The text said simply "Dew?" I haven't seen or talked to Fuller in almost two years. We met up next to the rail jam & had a chat over the blaring music. Drew leaned in at one point and said "I've never watched one of these before. You know, like, I've been in a few of them, but watching it is just kinda..." and then proceeded to mime a baby falling fast asleep. He was half right. It's hard to capture the essence of snowboarding when there is only about 100 square feet of snow for miles and the riders are only able to ride for about ten feet before and after they hit the rails.
But everyone got their runs in order and each was able to put away a worth while trick or two. No one took it too seriously, and everyone seemed to be trying to enjoy themselves as much as possible. Mike Cassanova won tonight, but in a gesture of true comradeship he gave the gold to Jonas Michilot. No one took it too seriously, and everyone enjoyed themselves. Maybe they did capture the essence of snowboarding.
- Cody Allen
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8/17/06
A little background: The Dew Tour is co-sponsored by Mountain Dew, Peanut Chews candy bars, and Slim Jim. As a result, there are boat loads of the products in the media rooms here. Whether you like this stuff or not, because it is so available and free, we end up eating a ton of it.
Today's results are in! If you remember, earlier today (1:30PM) the Lat 34 team had consumed 5 cans of Pepsi or some form of Mountain Dew. We had also eaten 4 king size packages of Peanut Chews and 2 big bags of Slim Jim Jerky.
Now, it's 9:45PM on Thursday. And those numbers have started to get out of hand. There's 8 of us and we've consumed:
Pepsi products: 23 cans
Peanut Chews: 8 packages
Slim Jim Jerky: 4 bags
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8/17/06
When I checked out lat34.com this morning, I saw there was a feature called "Music for the Athletes". As I clicked on it, I thought "this is great!" I was excited to see what music these guys were listening to - to see what bands & sounds were infiltrating the action-sports-professional ranks. The idea was great - and as I read the feature I learned one thing: these guys have horrendous taste in music.
Okay, no I'm kidding. Kind of. I know that when I was younger my musical tastes were shaped strongly by the music in snowboard & skateboard videos, but there is a vast divide in action sports - on one side is good music, and on the other is...well, in my opinion, music that isn't as good.
But I value a solid song-for-every-situation way of life as much as anyone else, so I am going to (more for my own sake than anyone else's) make my own "playlist". I'm going to step out of the bomb shelter-like dwelling where I am currently sitting with my computer, in the bowels of the Rose Garden in Portland, OR, and go watch some skateboarding. The Free Flow Tour finals are today, and I'll surely be catching those, then mosey back on over here and sit down with my iPod & my iTunes and make my playlist. It will be music that I think fits the Vans Invitational perfectly. A playlist to reflect the pure energy & passion running through this event.
After all, I'm a hip 18 year old kid - I should know all the cool new music, but then again, you'll probably think the music that I listen to is just as bad as I think some of the music these athletes listen to is (at least I don't have any Nickleback in my iTunes - but I digress). So check back soon for my musical tour through the Vans Invitational.
- Cody Allen
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8/17/06
When we first arrived here in Portland at the Rose Quarter for the Dew Tour Vans Invitational, the media people gave us the normal press releases and background info you get at these kinds of events. They have all kinds of random facts about the local area and background on the event. While skimming this info, this is what I’ve learned about Portland and the Dew Tour:
Portland is nicknamed the City of Roses. Also, Rip City. And Stumptown. It’s got a lot of nicknames. And they all have interesting stories behind them. Former President G. H. W. Bush calls Portland Little Beirut because of the hostile demonstrations in response to his and G. W.’s visits. Not a Republican town, I’m thinking.
Then there’s the facts about the Dew Tour. Total prize money for the winners: $3.5 mil. Weight of a skateboard: 6lbs. Not sure why that’s important. But, then there’s the real clincher:
Number of cans of Mountain Dew, Diet Dew, Mountain Dew Code Red, Mountain Dew Live Wire and MDX consumed by Dew Tour athletes and Staff in 2005: 106,000. Now, that’s good info.
So, that got us thinking. How many cans of Mountain Dew does the Lat34 team consume? We’ll be keeping a tally over the next several days.
As of today, Wednesday at 1:30PM the total number is: 4. Oh, wait, our producer just walked in with a fresh can of the Diet Dew. So, that brings us up to 5.
Stay tuned.
-Steve Lemig
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8/17/06
Walking through the hallways at the Dew Tour, you never know who you might see. Well, actually, you can pretty much expect to run into a veritable who’s who of action sports athletes. Yesterday it was not only BMXers and skaters, but a few pro snowboarders like Colin Langlois and Yale Cousino. Portland is the only stop on the Dew Tour that also has snowboarding in the form of an outdoor rail jam in the Rose Quarter Commons area. And luckily, it’s freezing in Portland right now, so they should feel right at home.
One of my coolest hallway sightings yesterday was Don Bostick, who is the head of World Cup Skateboarding, the organization that sanctions most of the major skateboarding events across the globe. Don is a serious player in the history of skateboarding, and he was toting around the old school cruiser board to prove it. For me, I was stoked because I knew he could help me accomplish one of my goals for the Dew Tour. I made a bet with someone that I could drop in on the vert ramp on a skateboard, so I asked and Don said no problem. I guess everyone is down for a little carnage.
I haven’t actually done it yet, but today could be the day. I did go up and stand on the ramp during BMX practice and it looks a lot bigger from up top, but I know I can pull it off. Anything for a bet. Heck, I am even going to do it pad-less.
-Brooke Geery
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