Open podium: 1st Brandon Tissen 2nd Billy Meiners 3rd Louis Pilloni 4th A.J. Haiby
The other weekend, the city of Cathlamet, WA hosted many skateboarders for the Cathlamet Downhill Corral. There a number of events over the three day weekend, and I photographed all of them except for the Puget Island Push race. It was too early in the morning and the slalom race, which I competed in, was happening at the same time. Here are a ton of photos from the weekend.
There were three rough days of ramp building to make this event happen. I showed up on the last set-up day and helped move ramps on the hill.
Jp, Corey, and Rob work together to load ramp supplies on the truck
Some local kids had a lot of questions for Zach and Dakota, who just arrived from Hawaii for the event.
All the left-overs
On Friday, the slopestyle event was held in the afternoon after the push race and the slalom race. Brandon Dejarles won the push race and David Mitchell, who also helped volunteer for the event, won the slalom. The slopestyle involved ramps and downhill sliding but the ramp skating trumped any sliding because that’s where the ripping was happening. I don’t know all the transition skating terminology, but I’ll try with the following captions.
Early grab lein to tail
Frontside rock and roll
Chance ollies and grabs without the early…
Tom Weiss got really high with his early grabs
Kids, look, reverse kingpin trucks are dangerous to grind on, especially on noping. Big Dave powers through the danger zone on this slasher.
William Royce had consistent ally-oop early grab 180s
Taylor Martin with a texas sweeper
Tom Weiss – Miller flip
After a good amount of open jam session, the judges picked the top 20 and each finalist had 3 runs and were scored separately on each run. They judges ranked the finalists based on their highest scoring run.
Taylor Martin – Texas plant
Louis Pilloni – early grab
Brandon Tissen – Ollie
KJ Nakanelua started one run off with a handstand
KJ with the boneless. He landed a boneless to tail next run that won him the event, but I missed it.
The judges judge.
Brandon Tissen with a floater.
KJ gets a free ride to the slopestyle podium
KJ Nakanelua won, Tom Weiss got second, and Louis Pilloni got third.
Sidewalk slalom was the final event of the Friday. I loved the late evening lighting.
Cory Hirschman, looking mean on the sidewalk slalom course
Casey pushes and maneuvers his way to first place.
Brandon Tissen slows down for a cone.
Dave Tannaci styles it into the sunset.
David Mitchell launches part of the course.
The next day, Saturday included the boarder x event and the best trick and big air contest on the mule kicker.
Tibs, Rachel, and Anne start a massage train in the shade.
Harrison Finney shares his minty ice cream.
Jp Rowan, the organizer, gets 45 minutes to skate the ramps before getting back to work.
sweet artwork
Will leads this race heat
Ramp racing
Brandon Tissen and Brian Cortright slide for the corner.
Air time
Casey Morrow raced the whole thing stand-up
David Rudgers chooses the safe route
Casey gets air
Brandon Tissen, Devon Dotson, and Ross Druckery slow down a bit before the mule kicker.
Ross and Devon didn’t make this air.
I think this is a re-run heat with Louis Pilloni and Michael Carson
The consolation final heat got tight.
Riders battle for the inside line
The final heat. David Rudgers had the lead before the corner, Brandon tissen passed around the outside, and Will Royce snuck up with a fast inside line. Brandon won by a a few inches or so.
Tom Weiss won best trick on the mule kicker with this backflip. Gnarly.
Chance Gaul did his signature early grab 360’s with style and grace
The massage train just got longer
The announcers: Billy Meiners and Rob McKendry. Jp eats a sandwich.
Taylor Martin gets some serious hang time.
Ross battled for the big air and got worked.
His girlfriend and a volunteer for the event, Amanda, encourages him to be a man and drink up.
Chance, on one of his attempts at big air. He nailed every landing for the big air.
Ouch
Taylor Martin bails a big air
Boarder X podium: 1st Brandon Tissen 2nd William Royce 3rd David Rudgers
Tom Weiss won best trick
Chance won the longest air, with a distance not quite as long as he jumped last year.
On Sunday, the third and final day of the event, the downhill race commenced. There was an open, women’s, and Junior’s class. The racers got many practice heats before a late lunch. Racing started after lunch and commenced with only minor injuries and a few scary crashes.
Ross Druckery and Dakota Camp rail through the first big corner…
..and then navigate the main corner through town.
Here’s another angle of the awkward corner
I love the crowd in the background
MacKenzie Yoshida gets thrown to his butt, back and back of his head on this wipe out.
Georga Bontorin familiarizes herself with the outside edge of the corner.
Awesome race heat through the main street
The view from the scaffolding on which Rob announces
Locals play, “Whoever can keep their hand underneath the board the longest wins the board.”
Jonathan Chan slides out while Jack Craddock makes the line.
Amanda Roden rails
In the grom’s final heat, Grant Benesh won with an injured and swollen left hand
Georga Bontorin led the women’s final heat into this corner.
Alicia Fillback followed closely behind with some standing it up.
Georga Bontorin went in too hot and hit the bails.
Rachel Bruskoff passed Georga.
Carmen gets target fixation on the sign made by some fans of her and Alicia.
Brett Ciabattini leads the consi-final heat.
Brandon looks back in the final heat to watch AJ passing on the inside
The pack is tight on the final heat. Brandon Tissen was the only one who made it through this corner without crashing out.
Anne Sheppard congratulates Brandon on his win.
A winning Brandon is a very happy Brandon
Skip, the man behind Turn Co. art, displays the all-around skater trophy.
The final downhill race podiums:
Grom podium: 1st Grant Benesh 2nd Martin DePass Cheek 3rd Tyler Williams
Women podium: 1st Alicia Fillback 2nd Rachel Bruskoff 3rd Georga Bontorin 4th Carmen Shafer
Open podium: 1st Brandon Tissen 2nd Billy Meiners 3rd Louis Pilloni 4th A.J. Haiby
Brandon tries to finish off the podium with a bomb drop.
Instead, it becomes a butt drop.
The final award was the all around, which was awarded to Brandon Tissen. This is his third year winning the all around award.
Brandon Tissen is the King of Cathlamet
Stay tuned for the next Skate Slate Longboarding Magazine for some of my most banging photos from the event, including a crazy flip crash that happened during the downhill race. Too see more photos from the event not shown above, here is a gallery:
Jon Huey 3rd in groms is tyler williams!
Great coverage for a great event!
Thanks Emmet White!