NW Downhill Season 2014 Portland Switchbacks

This was the first of four Switchbacks events of the 2014 NW downhill season. It was an awesome sunny day and perfect for skating. There were 83 people racing for gold on Sunday but all in good fun. This race is a slower one, but you definitely gotta get a little tech with such a tight course and 6 man heats! This race is held in a park where people ride bikes and jog. We absolutely shut down when a jogger or biker is using the path. The bikers are usually pretty fast and the joggers usually go on the side and use the grass, or they just kick it for a while and watch.m J.P Rowan, a local Portland skater who’s straight bout it, works with the city to keep skateboarding legal in Portland.  BIG UPS to that dude!

As always people are hyped on discount cards, especially when there’s a pic of Mary Hill on it! Big ups to Smokin Js for printing that one out!  I love going to events and handing out promotional goodies to the masses.

Racers were all hanging out with super chill vibes. Everyone is a hommie, but once you hear “ready set go” it’s on!

I entered the race and made 2nd place in my first heat. In my second heat I scrubbed out at the first left turn, drifting too much and not connecting the turn tight enough with good speed. I was passed by everyone but managed to pass the dude in 5th getting me to 4th place. Only the top 3 out of every 6 man heat advanced. The winner was shred master Alex Tounge a Portland local who’s pretty dominate in the scene these days. Definitely a beast of a downhill skater.

The race was full of fun stuff like this sketchy turn. HAHAHA this was the last turn of the hill, and being such a slow hill a couple dudes thought it would be cool to fill it up with pine cones. You’re hitting this turn at a good 30mph. And as you can see your also getting the pine cones thrown at you while you mob down the hill!

It was an epic day of skating and to top it off me and a few friends hit up a couple skate parks on the way home.  After a long day of skating me and a couple friends from my local skate park enjoyed a couple cold ones and headed home.  It was an awesome event and I can’t wait to skate it again. Thanks to Smokin Js for hooking it up at all these downhill events for me. ALOHA