It Never Rains in Portland

If you haven’t heard about Portlandia yet, you should first watch and enjoy this incredibly accurate portrayal of the fine city I call home. It’s true, this place is a freak show, which is what makes it such a great place to live, and I’m happy I’ve come here to retire. Speaking of patently Portland things, yesterday I finally checked out the new DIY ‘crete in Southeast. When I heard about this place (via the Mercury) it made me realize just how detached I’ve become from skateboarding in Portland. Seriously, how ridiculous is it that I only found out about this spot, mere feet from the former location of this ramp, by reading about it in the paper. (In defense of my belief that print is dead, I didn’t actually read it in the paper edition, but rather saw a link on a blog.)

Anyway, yesterday morning we wanted to snowboard, but apparently when you buy a $200 pass, it’s not good during “peak times,” including this week and next, so instead I took advantage of the brief sunshine and practiced my detached boarding. It’s still a lot harder than snowboarding, and this spot is not exactly user-friendly. Challenging, would be a good word. This is not to say that I will not be back, as it fits into my two-foot-or-less requirement, and also is just challenging enough that pulling off my half-assed tricks is really exciting. Please enjoy this iPhone photo of one of those half-assed maneuvers, which Jaredsouney.com was kind enough to capture as he froze his ass off waiting for our first trip to the new H & M.