Epic Maryhill Freeride!

Ryan Vanderveen Photo

Thanks to Deano, this weekend’s freeride was a wicked success! About 120 riders and close to 40 runs in 2 days meant a whole lot of gnar-bar riding! On the first day, the sun was out and the road was fast! Almost everyone was pushing into the runs at the same time, resulting in some of the craziest pack riding ever! Everyone was given more runs down the hill than they could possibly take without collapsing with exhaustion.
After finishing up riding, everyone piled into their cars and headed over to the famous Ayatula Family Mexican Restaurant where you can get margaritas the size of your head! After stuffing ourselves silly, we skated to the bowling alley where Andrew Mercado had arranged for a raging party and a viewing of his new video, the “No Future”, which was a compilation of the raddest skate parts from the raddest skate scenes around. I have to say that Portland definitely stepped up for their portion of the video, showing the incredible talent that comes out of their region. After a few beers and a bit of a dance party, everyone skated back to the hotel before we could fall asleep standing up!
Day Two started a little more slowly as it was kind of drizzling. The wind was up though, so the clouds were mostly swept away, leaving the road almost all dry, with wet patches on occasion. So, everyone was a bit more cautious until the road cleared right up, allowing the fast pack riding to continue. Since my legs were a bit cramped up from the first day, I was thinking that I’d keep the riding pretty low-key. But something in the huge pack riding made me go faster that I should have been in my shorts and kneepads! Sadly though, the time came that we had to start heading home so we could make it back in time to get some sleep before work the next day. Anyways, to say the least, this weekend was one of the best posisbly ways to start off the season! Epic!

-Christin