03. - 16.09.2007

My trip started on Monday september the 3rd. I had a flight from Zurich to Dallas and a connection flight to Portland. I arrived at PDX a little bit after 11 p.m. Eric Hovey was already there, waiting for me. I could stay at his flat for a night. On Tuesday morning I had a hard time finding a nice coffee place and a grocery store. The rest of the day I spent at Burnside Skatepark underneath the Burnside Bridge. It was crazy for me always seeing this park in pictures and videos and then finally I was there. There are alot of things to ride, transitions everywhere. It took me some time to find a good line. There were some very good riders and it was exciting to see them riding. In the evening Eric and I drove to Billy Meiners place. His flat was my home for the first week. We ate dinner at a Thai Restaurant and watched some videos later. On Wednesday morning Billy invited me for breakfast. It was a cheap mexican place and I got eggs, bacon, bread and pancakes. It was delicious. We drove to Pier Park. The park features a street section, two smaller bowls and a deep bowl with a huge fullpipe. There's a mousehole in the fullpipe, which makes rolling into the pipe a bit easier. Riding this monster bowl was so much fun but also really tiring. Afterwards we went to Mt. Tabor. The roads on the hill are closed for traffic every Wednesday. There were at least 20 longboarders. We did a few runs until we were too tired to walk up the hill again.

Thursday morning was misty. We drove to Newberg. Unfortunately the skatepark was closed for repair work. Luckily there are many bowls in Portland so we went to Holly Farm. It's a smaller skatepark but still very interesting and fun to ride. It started raining and we left. Our next skatepark was Glenhaven. The park is split in a street section and a bowl section with two pools. one of them was a very tight peanut bowl. I never skated in such a tight, deep and steep bowl before. I crashed dropping in at the shallow end because the transition was so small and when I rolled down into the deepend I slid out. I fell on my face and broke three of my front teeth.

One tooth was stuck in my lip. The other two pieces were loose in my mouth. Billy drove me to the hospital and after filling out a few forms my name was called already. The doctor pulled a huge piece of tooth out of my lip and stiched the wound. I got a small bottle for my teeth and a prescription to buy antibiotics. Billy organized an appointment at 'Gental Dental' in the meantime. The dentist had a look at my teeth and said it's impossible to fix it by just gluing the pieces. I told him I just need a temporary fixation and after paying 650$ cash he did what I wanted. The clinic was located in a huge shopping center so I went to drink a big banana milk shake. Billy came back from his dentist after a while and we got my medicine. Since my lip and teeth hurt I couldn't eat well. Billy came up with a good idea for dinner. So we made mashed potatoes. I didn't sleep much that night, had to think of my horrible crash over and over again. Why did it have to happen? On Friday we skated to a breakfast place in town and ate tomato orange soup. It was served in biologically recyclable tableware. In the afternoon we went Pier Park again. But I didn't ride in the park that day. Brenda was there too, she's a really cool skater lady. We skated some trails in a forest park and then hung around in Brendas garden. Billy and I drove back home and cooked dinner.

On Saturday we went to Battleground Skatepark, another park that opened this summer. It's a huge park and there's an oval cradle. I was afraid of riding parks again. Therefor I brought my fullface helmet. It was good to ride again and I had a few cool runs in the big bowl. We rode a nice hill in the forest later and that gave me alot of confidence. In the evening we met Rob Mc Kendry and Skip at 'the montage', a crazy restaurant close to the Burnside Bridge. We all had Jambalaya, which is a traditional Louisiana rice dish with meat, vegetables and spices. With my sore lip it was very painful and I had to drink a lot of water. We skated back home and I went to bed. On Sunday morning Billy and I went to the Burnside skatepark again. After a few runs I stopped riding. I was too afraid of crashing so it didn't feel really good. It was easy to see that Billy is a Burnside local. His lines and tricks were gnarly and it was a pleasure to see him riding.

We met 'Q', a homeless guy who built parts of the park. He slept on top of a ramp... We talked and he saw my lip. I told him what happened and then he showed me his lip, explaining that he tried to stitch it himself with dental floss but it didn't work. A girl has fixed it with superglue instead! It was a nice sunny day and we didn't do much in the afternoon. Later we were invited to Skips place for his housewarming party. Rob Mc Kendry the cook made some really good food. We agreed going to Vancouver skatepark on Monday morning. This is the newest park in the Portland area. It's not as big as Battleground but still big. There's a big bowl with a fullpipe in the very deep end. The smaller bowl features a rollover over the fullpipe. In the afternoon we were driving to Maryhill. On the way we stopped at Rowena. The Rowena Loops Road is a part of the old highway and designed by Sam Hill as well as the Maryhill Loops Road. We did two runs and then headed on towards Maryhill. It was exciting to see the racetrack for the first time. We drove to the camping in Goldendale and later Billy brought me to the Ponderosa Motel. Mischo and I shared a room for the week.

Practise started on Tuesday. The track got kind of sealed with a layer of tar. That and the dust made the road really dirty. Still it was very grippy. After a few runs we did 4men heats and then 6men heats which was intense. There were more riders on Wednesday. We did 10 runs a day. In the evening everybody met at the mexican restaurant. We got dinner for 6$ instead of 10$. The first timetrial was on Thursday afternoon. 94 riders entered the downhill skateboard class. And finally the IGSA got a precise timing system with light beams. Unfortunately the tailwind we had in the morning turned into a headwind. I didn't even reach 60km/h top speed. Mischo did the best time with 3:11 min. I slid a little bit in cowzer and got a time of 3:14 min. That was the 5th place. 2nd to 4th place were all in 3:13 min. In the evening there was a big autograph session at Mac Donalds. Mischo and I signed our Abec 11 advertisement in Concrete Wave Magazine. It was a cool experience. Some of us went to see the movie premier of Livin Free. The film shows a group of young men falling in love with their skateboards. It's nothing extreme but I think I had the same feelings when I started skateboarding. Mischo and I cooked some pasta afterwards and some more for Friday.

On Friday morning there was a good wind but it also got weaker during the day. The starting order for the second timetrial was the inverted ranking from the first qualification run. So I had to wait the whole afternoon. I think my run was pretty good. I did it 'no hands down', almost tucked from top to bottom and my line was clean. I improved my time by 4 seconds. The time to beat for the remaining 4 riders was 3:10. Scoot came close and then all eyes were on Mischo. But he forgot to tighten the nuts on his back truck. He crashed in cowzer. So I won the qualification and got a 300$ check. In the evening there was a buffet at the camping. It was organized by a group of locals. The warmup run for the race on Saturday was scheduled for 11:30 so we took it really easy in the morning. Then the race started. As top qualifier I was in the first run every round. The heats were started with a loud 'riders ready, set' and then a yellow rubber band was released. That worked fine. My first heats weren't very difficult. Billy Meiners followed me all the way down the hill in the quarter final but then didn't succeed in the semifinal.

I got 3rd in the semi and since there were 6men heats qualified for the final. I pushed hard at the start and took the lead. Nobody wanted to pass me. I made a tactical fault before cowzer and got passed. In the end I got 4th. The circumstances that lead to this result didn't really make me too happy. It's not the fact that I'm on 4th place only, it's the way some people race. Maybe this is the future of our sport but it's definitely not the way I'm going.

To summarize the event I can say it was nice being there and getting to ride Maryhill. The organisation was perfect and the whole crew did a great job. I'd like to say thank you to John Ozman, his brother Bob and Marcus Rieteman for setting up a great event. My plane back home left Portland on Sunday morning early so I had to leave soon after the prizegiving. I got a ride to PDX with Chris Chaput cause he had a flight almost at the same time. After a never ending flight i finally arrived in Zurich. I took the train to Liestal and basically went to school directly.

Thanks alot to Eric Hovey and Billy Meiners for taking care of me in Portland, Chris Chaput and Abec 11 for the fast wheels and Mischo for the good week.

Martin Siegrist
Airflow Skateboards

Ranking qualification:

1. Martin Siegrist (SUI) 3:10.044 $300
2. Scott "Scoot" Smith (CAN) 3:10.374
3. Kevin Reimer (CAN) 3:10.400
4. Nico Desmarais (CAN) 3:10.876
5. Nate Lang (CAN) 3:11.018
6. Tom Edstrand (CAN) 3:11.652
7. Mischo Erban (CAN) 3:11.696
8. Billy Meiners (USA)3:12.030
9. Jim Ziemlanski (CAN) 3:12.136
10. J.M. Duran (USA) 3:12.537
11. Fredrik Lindstrom (SWE) 3:12.687
12. Noah Sakamoto (USA) 3:12.732
13. Erik Lundberg (SWE) 3:13.069
14. Dennis Manougian (USA) 3:13.471
15. Blake Startup (CAN) 3:15.978
16. David Mitchell (USA) 3:16.111

Results World Cup:

1. Scoot Smith - CAN - Landyachtz
2. Mischo Erban - CAN - Landyachtz
3. Kevin Reimer - CAN - Rayne
4. Martin Siegrist - SUI - Airflow Skateboards
5. Nate Lang - CAN - Landyachtz
6. Noah Sakamoto - USA - Sector 9

for full results please visit the IGSA website

Pictures by Airflow Skateboards, Google Earth, Silverfish and Longfellow. Thanks alot!

official event website: Maryhill Festival of Speed