Nearly a sold-out crowd filled the Showbox in downtown Seattle for the first big kick-off to the upcoming shred season. Mack Dawg Productions held the NW premier for their two shred videos "Follow Me Around" and "People" both of these flicks were super sick and should be on anybody's must-see list this winter. Many of the athletes were present with autographs being signed on everything from posters to fleshy parts. The crowd completely lit up with the "People" sections featuring regional/national/intn'l heroes Patrick McCarthy and Shaun McKay. With all-agers present in the crowd, the doors closed early and the majority of the party stumbled over to the near by Whiskey Bar, for a fitting close.

Sea-town was on fire and ready for good stuff to fall. least.

Left: 686's Will and Laing
Right : Danielle Hambleton, Jessie Lu, Krush

September 4th marked the last day for summer riding up at Timberline’s Palmer Snowfield. An unbelievable winter allowed for a great summer season. After many broken promises of planned Hood trips, I finally made it down for the finale.

Meeting up with the numerous amount of Mt. Baker-Hood transplants, we rode hard and partied in true Gov'y fashion. The park crew left us some fun jibs and kickers that kept us entertained for days. It is truly hard to believe that September would allow for such great riding in North America.

A fun little photo session went down with NW rippers Casey Desmond, Kyle Sanford, and Jens Perrin all killing it on the kicker. Photos courtesy of Ryan Gertken. Oh, and don't worry if you did miss the last weekend, the mountain is only closing for a couple weeks. For all you that just can't get enough, Timberline will fire up the lifts again on September 16th for weekend riding through the fall.

Thank you to Mason at the Blue Ox and Kim from Mountain Services.

"Super-hero abilities and endless stoke, made every session and everyday with Scott, amazing. His style and love will live on forever." -- Sean Donnell on friend Scott Stamnes, 2000.

That it has, and the proof was at the fifth annual Scott Stamnes Summer Jam in Port Angeles, Wa. Appearances from Scott's good friends kept things fun the whole day. Micah Shapiro, MarshalL Stack, Pete and Chris Saari, Mark Hubbard, Tom Pia, Tony Welch, Keri Clark and Rob "Spiderman" Scala, just to name a few. As usual, things started fashionably late with Marshal, Micah and Huntz rolling in around 11:00. Everyone who entered got to skate for a minute or so or until they fell. The groms are killing it these days. The knarly grom trifecta had some insane speed trains and were blasting huge out of the deeps. Mark Hubbard (founder of Grindline Skateparks) won his division and was claiming it was the first contest he had ever entered. Good on ya Mark! Scott's cousin Blair Habenicht had a big ol bag of tricks and kept it real with that classic Habenicht style. Good genes.

The Sponsored Rider's event was switched up to a 20-minute jam format that was off the hook crazy. Tranny Danny's balls out, monster airs earned him the number one slot, with 18 year-old Jesse Nelson coming up as first loser. "The Jam was amazing and everyone was pushing each other." Pete Saari says "Tom and Rob were ripping and throwing down for Scott -- actually everyone was, and Scott would have been so stoked." Pete continues" Will (Powers) and Bryce we're tearing that place apart. Will had this drop off the tombstone into the deep end that lit the crowd on fire" All in all, the event was another memorable barn burner at the P.A. Skate Park. Special thanks to Keri Clark for making it all happen. R.I.P. Frank Russo and R.I.P. Scott Stamnes......Oh yeah.....WEAR YOUR HELMET!!!!!!!! -- Stan Tech

left: Jesse Nelson Photo: Tony Welch
Right: Will Powers Photo: Marshall

Northwest ripper (see cover #4.2), industry vet and recent addition to the POW gloves staff, Monty Hays recieved a birthday party in his honor at the POW Gloves world HQ in Shoreline, WA. A mellow enough backyard BBQ, one could tell that things would get interesting as soon as night fell. And they did. Rooftop walking, kegstands, hot-tubing, topless copy machine action and Carolyn from Mama Fest even had a guest appearance freestyling on the mic. Successful bash and another year younger for Steven's legend Monty (see photo above right).

Summer riding at Hood never seems to stop and this past weekend was no exception: Saturday the 22nd Bonfire held the finals for the 9th annual Pipe 2 Pipe contest. The event was one part snow rail jam and one part skate street jam, pitting season pros vs. campers head to head for prizes, product and cash.

With a mid-90s, record heat wave blasting down upon Mt. Hood's Palmer Snowfield, the contest kicked in. After an hour of both impressive riding and flailage (and solid MC work) the snow portion was over and the party moved to Windell's indoor skate park for a BBQ and street skate jam. The indoor park was packed and the skaters put on a sick show. "Man-Child" was my easily favorite skater, that guy kills it. After points were tallied, prizes were given away, and money thrown into the crowd, the campers fought for product in a classic 80's style swag-toss. Zac Marben, Nick Dirks, Silas Baxter-Neil, Steven "Man-Child" Reeves each walked away with a cool grand. Desiree Melanchon pocketed 2 thousand dollars (see photo above). Bonfire's Pipe 2 Pipe continues its bilateral success.