Oldies are not spoil sports – that means we grinded more coping than you can imagine! For many years now we OMSAs have been going on tour every year in spring. A lot of countries could be listed. This year we wanted to go to Portugal because the photos from the parks there told us to come.
On our blog we were so exited the days before. Isn’t it a lame thing with the only 20kg you are allowed to bring on the plane? With my board and stuff I had to seriously minimize my medic case.
Also some of us are surfers which was another reason Portugal was a good choice. We found a great surf hostel with a pool. They told us we can drain it, (but the Ericeira pool over shadowed everything else).
All of us arrived late so we jumped in the pool, big stories to tell and big thirsty filled up the first night.
We made also a new record: 15 skaters from 11 countries. What is this message to the world? No matter where you come from it’s so easy to be good friends. At some big international contests I was in over the last years there weren’t even as many countries represented!
So the men on a mission were as follows. From Germany: Anders, Kai, Dietsches; One World Hippy: Axel; Canada: Tyler; Basque/US: Kevin; Spain + Basque: Iniaki and Captain Jairock; California: Ron; Great Britain: Paul + Matt; France: Loic + Fred; Belgium /US: Jeff; and me (Wolfgang) from Schwabenland.
At the first breakfast the winners of snoring and farting were discussed with a lot of fun. Then we went to the beach. What is a must, not only for the surfers: bikini girls, hanging around, surfing, swimming and having good coffee. But shortly after everybody got ants in their shoes and we went to go skate the Cascais skatepark. The snakerun is like in my dreams in the 70-80’s and still so much fun. Back then for sure I would have shed so many tears because of the luck to roll this snakerun. The pool is also fun and even the street park is a lot of fun, it so huge!
After a long session we changed our plan and drove to Ericeira also. To make a long story short, the pool there is fantastic! I got in a flow of happiness and kind of could do all the tricks I wanted. I have this experience once in a decade or so, and all my bros were having the same feeling! We skated till dark or too sore or until we got too high from the place. Also direct at the beach and with a bar and shop it’s a great place to hang out all day. And I wanted to say that normally I hate surreptitious advertising but what Quiksilver made with this free public skate park is unprecedented in europe (and it’s a surf company, not really a skateboard thing!!) Ben the manger of all this, (and not because he gave us free beer), became a real cool friend of ours.
Back at the hostel with www we realized also Ben put us skating at the park on live stream! Then our new friend and local Clyde took us to the best restaurant in the area. We had such good fish and food and wine and beer and then house schnapps that nobody remembers how we got back to the hostel. And it was definitely my cheapest party I remember in a very long time.
Morning: breakfast/beach/swim/surf/coffee then… our plans of where or what else to skate got lost and everybody wanted to skate Ericeira again. The rumors were like jungle drums and a lot of locals showed up and showed us their lines. The session was epic! Another bright day and the same presider, but a different. A few wanted to have some culture or beach hang around and some had a greater mission. Our new best friend and Ericeira park boss Ben told us the day before the secret of an unskated backyard pool. After seeking it out, some of us destroyed this rough babe (or the Jungle Pool destroyed them?) Life could go on and on like this… but let’s just say, we all fell in love with this part of the world and we will come back for sure. So my dudes: Build pools no Bombs, Bomb hills no houses, Peace & Love, and grind it down! See you next year or somewhere soon at and in a POOL!
Words by Wolfgang Toth
Color photos by Fred Ferand / ferand.free.fr
Black and white skate photos and portraits by Kai Jabs / www.kai-jabs.de
