Learn the basics of longboard skateboarding: How to ride with control and safely slow down and stop.
Focus on downhill and sliding in a permitted group setting. All levels welcome.
Required gear: Longboard, Helmet, Slide Gloves. Recommended gear: Knee and elbow pads, old pants and sweatshirt, skate shoes or shoes with flat flexible bottom.
The top of the Mt.Tabor Soapbox hill where students learn sliding and drifting. Photo by PCC ®.
The longest running skateboard race in the Pacific Northwest is going down again for the 13th year in a row on May 28th. Otherwise known as the Mt.Tabor to Sellwood Park Race it celebrates the tradition of skating at Tabor and Portland’s unique City Ordinance 20.12.205. This states that skateboarding is a legal form of transportation. Riders are expected to follow all traffic laws such as stopping at red lights and staying in their lane. The event raises food for Oregon Food Bank with riders bringing 4 cans of food to enter. Every 4 cans received a raffle ticket with no limit on donations. Then after the race at Sellwood Park all the prizes donated by the many generous sponsors gets raffled off. So basically the more food you donate the better chances of winning prizes!
Check out the Facebook event page for more details including your waiver print out if you are under 18.
Riders having a blast pushing and riding in critical mass down a city bike route.
The traditional warm up fun run down Tabor to the start line of the race just outside the park.
Swag city! Prizes are given to race winners and raffle winners alike.
Warming up the troops, going over some ground rules, and making sure everyone knows where they’re headed.
After 8.5 miles of pushing, riders are met by volunteers and fellow riders at the finish line.
The first 50 riders will also receive a laminated map of the course. The route is fairly easy to follow and for a push race it’s not very grueling so most any skater can do it easily as a cruise. It’s 5 miles of mostly slight downhill through the city, then 3.5 miles of flat on a bike path leading to the finish line at Sellwood Park. There are 2 sections early on that are steeper. However if you know how to keep your speed down by footbraking or simple getting off your board and either buttboarding or walking down them, then it’s no big deal. Just be prepared if you are worried about them by going down Lincoln street from 58th to 20th on your own prior to the event. Other than that you are in traffic so following the same rules bikes do will keep you safe. There are only 3 stop lights on the whole course: 50th, 39th, and crossing Division St.
Heading down the first hill down Lincoln street from 58th to 52nd. Casey Morrow in the foreground hunting!
If you’re a rider in the area and have never been, then mark in on your calendar to come out to support and good cause, celebrate our city’s privilege to skate the streets legally, and have fun rollin’ down the Eastside of Portland with a crew of locals!
After Party at Hot Lips Pizza on Hawthorne Blvd.
2016 Podium 3rd – Sol Bilderback, 1st – Colby Cummings, 2nd – Miguel Aldrete
Local Portland rider Kurt Derow AKA (@filmkingkurt on Instagram) took the time to do a complete review of our unique rains wheels known as the H20 Rain Wheels!
As a seasoned rider and film student graduate he did an all around great review by taking them out in all conditions, wet, dry, and patchy conditions. This is a must watch too if you like the movie the Water Boy! Enjoy!
I look forward to my 8th year teaching this course through Portland Community College!
It’s been a pleasure helping hundreds of new and intermediate riders gain skills and confidence in longboard skateboarding over the years! And I really look forward to continuing my tradition of helping others on board at Mt.Tabor. I also teach Private Lessons if you can’t make the classes and/or want individual instruction with me.
Here’s a link to my Lessons and Class page with more info – LESSONS
Hey friends and fans, here’s an update for the new year and what to expect from Eastside.
At the end of last year we dropped our latest model the DK DropKick with great appreciation from our fans! A double kick version and update to one of our original models the DropKick. We created a new rocker concave for this new board with slight W and foot flairs giving the rider’s feet a super comfortable grip on the board. You can do all styles of longboarding with this drop-thru double kick! If you haven’t seen the DK DropKick yet, you can read all about it on prior Blog posts. The official product video on our YouTube Channel has the low down.
New for this year will be updated versions of the Blazer and Mach 3 both of which first released in 2013. First will be the Blazer similar to the original version that comes in both drop-thru and top-mount. It will still have a 5/8″ drop-down platform with lots of room for bigger and taller riders with a wider stance. This is definitely the go to board for a larger rider who needs a plus size board that can handle their style. Most of the changes we added to this new version of the Blazer are mainly in the shape. We kept the width at 10″ but added more length going out to 40″ with the same wheelbase of 30.5″. Also we added more concave to the board but not an overt amount. It’s still really comfortable and with no “W” in the concave making it a great pushing / transportation / LDP board, especially the drop-thru version that rides pretty low but not too low to scrap the board if you have smaller wheels. We also got rid of the angled edges or gas-pedals to allow more of a pocket in the concave for bigger feet. Again the theme of this board update is making the board our model for the large sized rider with bigger feet. We have the DK DropKick for those that are smaller to medium size.
Blazer prototype 2017.
The Blazer is made with 9 plies of the thickest longboard grade maple of 1/16″ thick each ply. All of our other boards are made with 7-8 plies of the same stock. So the Blazer is the most durable for sure. To make it even more durable we added a bit more meat on the ends for impacts, just in case you don’t have noseguards on it. Our trademark noseguard the NOSEJOB still fits nicely and works great on the new version too. We highly recommend them for any drop-thru board without kicktails. They are universal and fit on most any drop-thru deck.
For the graphic, we decided to keep it the same since the board is fairly similar to the original version. Plus we got a lot of great feedback from the fiery lava inspired graphic of the Blazer mixed with a geometrical pattern of the Eastside logo. Did you know that you can read the word Eastside from multiple directions if you read to the right or up from most any E? Not a lot of people notice this unless you have an eye for art and patterns.
Original Blazer graphic that will used on the new version.
One other addition that the Blazer will have have, is a new top side silk screen logo print. It will look like this printed over the natural wood on top of the board placed dead center where most riders don’t put their feet. You can grip around it and still have it showing. The size will read 8″ across by 3″ tall.
Silk Screen Eastside logo printed on the new Blazer, new Mach 3, and the Relic.
The next board we plan on updating is the Mach 3. We are going to update it in a similar fashion as to how we did the Blazer by keeping the same graphic and making some fairly minor shape changes. The most notable change will be the shape of the nose by making it wider and bigger. The new version won’t technically be billed as a double kick, but it will surely be more substantial than the original version and allow it to be used a lot more. More info and photos of the prototypes to be seen in future Blog posts here…
That’s all for now, thanks for keeping up to date with us! Be sure to follow us on our our fan pages as well for more frequent updates and media posts –
We’ve been working on a new product video for our latest board the DK DropKick!
Before we drop this new video, here’s a sneak peek at some snapshots from the video featuring various functions of the board, particularly the many ways you can use the kicks…
Filmed by Oregonian Kevin Carlton – AKA @Skatography
Using the kicktail to float over a speed bump on the Eastside of Portland.
Manual on an Autobody shop driveway.
Take 2.
Fast standup slide down the Eastside of Mt.Tabor.
Floating over a big crack by lifting up the front wheels.
Riding up onto a curb and grinding frontside.
No comply over a parking block.
Backside slappy grind on a parking block.
Frontside slide onto a banked driveway.
Transition the back foot onto the tail and ollie off the driveway curb back into the street.
Ollie off a ride up curb.
Riding off curbs with the kictail makes it more fun to drop down (and doesn’t scrap the bottom of your board).
Frontside standup slide using the backfoot on the tail, just another way to slide this board!
Backslide slide using the back foot on the tail.
Close up of the wheel cutouts that are designed to fit up to 80mm wheels like the Orangatang Kegel shown here.
This 4th annual event is going down the first weekend of October this year. The past 3 years its been a one day event on Sunday located in Banks, OR. On that day there is a 5K and 10K race on the Banks/Vernonia Trail. The course is flat but narrow in a beautifully wooded area just 45 minutes West of Portland. The event has been known to attract some of the best distance skateboard racers from around the country to battle against the locals of the Northwest. Many of the participants are new to skateboard racing and are there to just have fun and cruise the trail permitted for skateboarding that day. Plus win many of the great prizes donated by the generous sponsors of this event. Check out this video to get a feel for how the event goes and what the trail looks like.
New this year are two additional events happening the day before on Saturday October 1st. Both of these events are free and not officially sanctioned, otherwise know as outlaw events were everyone is responsible for their own actions. The first race is for riders 18 and older called the PDX SGS (Portland Super Giant Slalom) located at Mt.Tabor on the Eastside of Portland starting at 9am. It’s a single rider timed course down the main run that is closed to cars. The course consists of several cones set close to the edges of the road forcing the rider to cut across the road several times to make the course. To the locals it’s known as the Death Race. Despite its slower speed than bombing the hill, it’s rather difficult and unnerving to make the course, especially if the road is wet. The race is run rain or shine. 3 timed runs for each rider, best time wins! Check out the video below of myself winning the last time the event happened in 2015.
Another event happening at 9pm that same day October 1st is a parking garage session and race. This pre-session has happened in previous years the night before the official Push In The Woods 5K and 10K race on Sunday morning. It is located at a garage in downtown Portland known to the locals as HomeBase. It is a very nice wide open garage that has a medium and consistent grade that is fun for riders of all skill levels. In addition to the regular session will be a Chinese style skateboard race where everyone goes at once. The last 5-10 riders of each run taken will be eliminated until there are 6 riders left. The last 6 will take a final heat run. Here is the Northwest we race a clean style gentlemen’s racing. This means no touching or grabbing other riders to gain speed or make passes. To find the location of the garage, info is posted on the Facebook Event Page for Push In The Woods –
We thank all of the many sponsors including Daddies Board Shop who has partnered with Eastside Longboards and the IDSA.org to run and organize this event. We look forward to hosting a fun filled weekend of skateboard racing and good times with the Longboarding community hear and afar!
Many thanks for the support of the sponsors who contribute to the continuation and success of this event.
Our tradition of sharing the path by letting bikers go by giving them a skateboard tunnel to go through before the 5K race.
The word is official, and our newest model is about to drop next Friday August 5th! Check out the DK DropKick
Go to our Facebook and Instagram to enter our contest to win one before they are released! Random winner announced August 4th.
Specs: Length: 39.5″ Width: 9.75″ WB: 26.75″
Price: $99.99
By popular request here is the DK DropKick. It is based off one of our oldest designs, the Carbon DropKick. We went all out creating what our fan’s wanted; a freerider’s dream board with drop-through mounting and double kicks. The mold we designed for this board has a very comfortable concave featuring rocker, foot flairs, and mellow “W”. The kick-tails are shaped wide enough to actually use them in a functional and confident way to drop off curbs and lift up the wheels at speed.
Double the pleasure with two kicks to leverage whatever tricks you can imagine! With the lowered platform created by the drop-through and rocker combo, this lightweight board is perfect for LDP as well. This makes it one it one of our most diverse designs able to do it all. We highly recommend it for the beginner rider or anyone seeking an agile yet stable freeride deck with really useful kicks.
Constructed of the highest quality 8 ply maple with a matte black finish and a silk screened graphic of a topographical map featuring the surrounding hills of the Portland Zoo Bomb run.
Based on the Eastside of Portland, Oregon. Owned and operated by local longboard enthusiast, creator, racer, and instructor Robin McGuirk.
All products are Made in the USA.
Eastside Est. 2003.
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