Considering its Pacific coast location and latitudes south of the Equator, it is not surprising that little is seen or heard about the skateboard scene in Chile. Invisible, maybe, but Chile is no different than most places and has seen it all—from banana board to popsicle stick, from clay to urethane and the rise and fall of giant skateparks in ‘80s.

Noteworth products to watch out for profiling Jam Longboards, Loaded, GFH, Bordzup and Hamboards.

At 15” in width, the El Cochino deck takes most people by surprise the first time they see it. After all, it is monstrously wide. But as you can see in this photo, it’s quite possible to do frontside airs with the El Cochino. Many years ago, boards were 5” to 7” in width. Wes Humpston and Jim Muir started tinkering with deck sizes and skateboarding wound up with 10” and 12” decks. For vert skaters in the 70’s, the wider boards were just more functional to ride. As many of you know, decks haven’t just changed in width, they have also changed in length. The resurgence of longboarding has meant not only an influx of new riders but a return by many folks who left skateboarding. Wheels have gotten quite a bit larger than the 39mm from the early 90’s. The demand for wider trucks has also increased.

We knew Oregon gets too hot in the summer and too damn rainy in the winter—so fall it was. I don’t recall the three in the morning wake up call was not on the itinerary. I woke up in Fresno and took over the wheel to Weed. The wheel was steering the Gravity Team to the concrete art recently labored in Oregon. The Team included, Jesse Parker, Roger Mihalko, Dustin “Ddog” Taylor, Ed Latus, Paul Santilli, myself and Breamo, who organized the expedition and brought a bunch of camera bags. We chose to enter the beaver state from the East and head North to Klamath Falls.

Imagine what it woiuld feel like if you went out longboarding and ove 200 other skaters joined in. That is what is happening in British Columbia right now.