We headed to the small mountain town of Glacier Washington last weekend to check out a skate clinic hosted by Girls on Shred and orchestrated by local rip-rider Shawna Paoli. There was a good chance it would be a bust due to a foreboding weather report, but in the end the clouds parted for a perfect day of skateboarding at the Coal Pad, a world class DIY nestled in a lush Pacific Northwest forest.
Besides the fortuitous weather break, we rolled up on some more great surprises, including running into OG non-trad photographer Olga Aguilar and Arizona pool shredding legend (and amazing tax pro) Cressey Rice who was in classic form when we arrived, shredding shoeless in the big bowl!
At a successful skate clinic there’s plenty of low key space for beginners to practice the fundamentals, seasoned rippers having fun while providing motivation for groms to make the drop, and a sweet raffle to raise money for the next one and send some lucky people home with cool goods. They had it all! Thanks for having us, can’t wait for the next one. It was the perfect gateway to a post-pandemic summer. -Migz
