May 4, 2009
Author: Words and Photos by Owen Woytowich
In the new SBC Skateboard, Russ Milligan, Jason Gordon, Kevin Lowry, and myself headed overseas with Portugal as our destination in order to skate some new spots, enjoy the sights, and make some great memories. Although the rain put a halt to the majority of the skating, we did have an amazing time. Here’re a few behind the scenes photos, as well as excerpts from the day-to-day journals the crew kept.
Russ Milligan, Hardflip in Porto. This spot is so insane! It was designed by a skateboarder, and it shows. You can cruise along the whole place and hit natural hips and banks all the way around the building on the smoothest ground ever.
Portugal's scenery is pretty rad. Here's a coastline overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.
Left to right: Jason Gordon, Russ Milligan, Kevin Lowry, and our guide Pedro Raimundo inside of a thousand year old church.
Kevin Lowry is an artist.
Lisbon.
Russ getting down at the white marble plaza. Backside 180 Fakie 5-0, Front Shov.
One thing everybody should experience once in their lifetimes in a European football game. We went to the most heated match between the two rival Portuguese teams, Porto vs. Sporting, our home team for the visit. What was really crazy though was how much security we had to go through to get in. There were three different sections of fans, all cheering for the same team, but hating on each other so much. It wasn't so much about the football as much as it was a gang rivalry. Throw in the fanatics there to watch the other team, and you have yourself one heated football match. What was especially crazy was that all around the rival teams' fans was a barrier of police officers, all armed with batons, shields, and machine guns. After the game was done, for an hour and a half, they weren't allowed to leave their seats until the local team fans had left the area completely. Only after that could they leave, and not solo either. They were actually police escorted back home, upwards of two hours... it was that insane. After it was all said and done though, it was Sporting 4, Porto 1. Thanks for making the drive!
Jason Gordon overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.
The street cars in Lisbon.
Jason Gordon.
Jason Gordon, Smithgrind 180 on the most perfect spot I've ever seen in my life.
History galore! A thousand year old church in Turquel.
This spot along the ocean was home to the most perfect flat ground, buttery marble benches, and breathtaking view of Lisbon. Kevin takes advantage of all three with this frontside bluntslide.
Lisbon.
Kevin Lowry and a French Girl. Basically, it's a stack of meat, six inches high, covered with an egg and cheese. Say hello to gut rot, clogged arteries, and a whole lot of good taste!
The view outside of our humble place in Lisbon.
Yet another 1000 year old church, but this one had the best flat ground ever.
Too bad nobody could ollie this double set.
Can you imagine hand carving this statue, accidentally sneezing, and completely blowing the whole statue? Pedro assured us if it happened, the artist would've been killed on the spot. Talk about a stressful 9 to 5...
The rain was so bad this day. It'd be dry for two minutes, than right as everybody started to warm up, it'd start again. Somehow Kevin got a backside 5-0, just in time for the clouds to move in and end the session again.
The "white marble plaza" was one of the most amazing line spots ever. White marble?...'nough said. You know it was THAT good.
Castle along the Atlantic.
For some whatever reason, ANY spot we'd go to, we'd run into this: A dog, lurking on the sesh making life difficult. Here's Russ in a familiar situation, dog stopping a spot.
Russ Milligan, Switch Frontside Noseslide at a Lisbon mall.
What a trooper Kevin is. When nobody would be the filmer, he'd pick up the slack and take care of business. And when it came down to who or what was going to take the brunt of a fart-rock incident, Kevin took one for the team.
Just a rainy day photo from Porto.
Kevin Lowry, Feeble. A brief story about this spot: It's in front of the oldest cathedral in all of Portugal, and also shares the property with the headquarters for the National Guard.While we were shooting, a guard armed with a sword came up to me, asked me what time it was, to which I replied "11:00 PM". His only response was "OK, you can skate here for one more hour" and walked away.Thanks bro.
This is where we almost lost Kevin after a flash wind storm almost grabbed him and tossed him down to these rocks and waves. Good times!
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Jason Gordon can kickflip really nice.
Russ's expensive headache.
I failed to get a photo of Nuno Gaia, our hospitable homey from Porto that gave us couch space for a night, but I did get a photo of his dog peeking outside of his skateshop. Thanks Nuno!
Russ holding it down overtop of a Portuguese city.
Jason Gordon backside smithgrinding some perfect ledges.
This bridge in Porto was designed by Eifle, the bro that made the fancy Paris tower. Another thing that is cool about this city, that Russ and Jason really appreciated, was even to this day, small merchant ships travel up and down the river delivery endless bottles of port to all the cities and towns along the route. A stop at any little store along the way affords endless opportunity to sample Port of every flavor. Dangerous...
The rain in Spain... fell mostly in Portugal. Apparently the clouds must have gotten the memo that Portugal was the place to be at. On a side note, Jason spent 50 Euros on a small bottle of Port just down the street.
Pedro Raimundo, the sweetest dude in the world. Along with his lovely girlfriend Sylvia, they housed us for the entire trip, showed us more or Portugal than most locals even see, drove us around, fed us, babysat us at times, and were just amazing friends. Thank you so much for everything guys!
Russ, Kevin, and Jason. While we were shooting this photo against somebody's random purple house, the owner and his wife barged out of their house screaming insults at us, assuming we were there to steal tires from their scrap yard across the street or something. Pedro tried to calm them down and assure them it was simply an innocent portrait. Guess they didn't buy it because they were hollaring all the way until we got in the car and drove off.
Russ taking care of a 180 Fakie Nosegrind.
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