With the help of Full City Rooster and lots of other super fab friends, we threw a magazine drop party Sunday and it was fire!! An incredibly special opportunity to see so many familiar faces and officially introduce BIGFOOT to our hometown. Skateboarding legend Vanessa Torres flew in for the occasion, our favorite skate crew/fam The Aguilars drove all the way down from Port Angeles, Faith Doudna and her family came out from the Yakima Valley, and many more rippers showed up to skate and celebrate! DLX laced us up with a whole bunch of raffle prizes, SLMBR Party generously threw in, Findlay Hats and Poler hooked us up, and Joey from Collective Concrete even donated $200 to spice up our fun little skate jam! His super pro local crew built the concrete mini ramp- if you need any concrete work done in the Portland area get at him- he’s top dog.
I spent the majority of 2020 working full time on the farm-to-table garden I built at Skyline Tavern – fun fact, BIGFOOT has been funded in large part by plants, haha. This included hours upon hours of time by myself, listening to NPR podcasts until I couldn’t take the stress anymore and switched to reality tv pod-trash (for real). I worked on BIGFOOT alone in the evenings, determined to keep it going in its second year of life, while the world around me seemed like it was falling apart. Like most of us, I had serious moments of doubt and depression. Months into it, I realized why. I hadn’t actually had any chance to connect with this community. Zoom is not an adequate replacement for real life face time.
The purpose of BIGFOOT is to support the non-traditional community. To help usher in this new era of skateboarding with our authentic perspective, experience and personal passion. To lift up our corner of this world in a way that will be appreciated by the entire community, in magazine form, was my dream & vision for over 20 years. Since I published Issue #1 in early August and drove it down the hot, smokey highway to WOF Camp, I have been receiving an incredible amount of recognition and appreciation. It turns out the messages I’d been sending out into the digi-sphere were landing somewhere. People had been paying attention. These opportunities to connect with everybody IRL have been absolutely magical for me, after the long, lonely quarantine and endless screen time.
The point is, THANK YOU. To everyone I mentioned above, and especially to my girl Shabs for her hard work, dedication, support throughout, and basically orchestrating this entire party while I yammered away. To Kristy Scott, Katy Graham, Hudson Poston, Esther Godoy, Tavita and Sarah Scanlan, Jordan and Brian, Valentina Gonzalez, my sister Molly, and everyone else that showed up. This community is what it’s all about. You make this worth it. And the next issue is going to be even better – stay tuned for the next drop which will be on my dog’s birthday (also Halloween).
Thanks again for your friendship and support. It is everything. -Migzy
