MaryHill FreeRide

Smokin Js is always looking for fun and interesting events for our Street Team.  We've sent our Street Team crew to all kind of motorsports events, concerts, flame offs, and even Cannabis Cups.  This week we sent our own Nikko Kamanuwai to a long boarding freeride event at the Mary Hill Museum in Washington State organized by the Maryhill Ratz.

If you are interested in being a Smokin Js Street Team member, send us an email with your event or ideas:  Jay@SmokinJs.com

Last weekend was the race seasons first Maryhill freeride event. People from all around the world came to roll the mountain, see old friends, and make new ones. This was my first time going to a Maryhill event. There are 4 different Maryhill events in the race season. 3 free rides which means NO RACE, just straight cursing with the hommies at 40-45mph. It was everything I expected and more.              

Maryhill is roughly about 3 miles long with banked lefts and rights, straight-aways, and little tunnel obstacles. It’s a closed road out in the Gorge that was built to test certain pavements, and for car commercials. The event is run by Dean Ozuna, a local who after years of tickets and being arrested for sneaking on the hill to skate when he was younger, he finally went the legit route and got a completely legit event started.

Top names like Matt Kinzel, Lee Caiton, Billy Bones, and Zach Maytum were just a few big names that showed up, plus the countless other shredders from all around. 60+ Texans 30+ Canadians, and a handful of people from other places.      

The first day was awesome, me and 20 other volunteers put up the hay on the road and got to skate for three hours to ourselves. We left for the campsite around 5pm which was a beautiful spot next to the Columbian river. I brought lots of Smokin Js papers and free swag for campers. We shredded some herb and called it an early night to prepare for the next day.
             
I awoke with the sun our second day, arrived at the hill a little before 8am to help with everyone’s registration. 230 riders attended this freeride, most people at any of the free rides previously.  The lines down the mountain were epic! 5 man packs all the up to 20 dudes riding at once. It was pretty crazy riding that fast with that many people. Lunch was provided, beer was drank, and weed was blazed. It was a beautiful day of skating for sure.

After the Maryhill session that day I was blessed enough to get a invite to a local hill called Rowena.

After that we headed back to camp and PARTIED. I’m positive everyone who was smoking joints was blazing our Smokinjs hemp papers, and I was getting compliments here and there about how good they burn! Those were the people who then got hooked up with discount cards hahaha such a good time with good people.        

The last day was bittersweet. I was pretty beat from the past two days so I volunteered to be a spotter at corner 4 where I saw a bunch of action!  It was definitely one the highlights of the trip. After my two hours were up I was skating as much as I could till we started closing up. Again at 5 we called it a day. Me and the rest of the volunteers loaded and offloaded they hay with a little help of session’s lager beer and nug.  Said our goodbyes and started making our way home.

It was an epic experience that I’ll never forget , I can’t wait to return and I’m so glad I got to rep SmokinJs!

  -Nikko Kamanuwai-

For more information about up coming FreeRides contact the MaryHillRatz.

The Real Story Behind 4:20

Megan McCormack

It's like the song that never ends. People started saying it, not knowing what it was, and we will continue saying it forever...just because. Stoners near and far, use it as a code word, a reason to celebrate, and a reason to light up mid afternoon. But where did it originate? What does it really mean? Why 420? 

Over the years, many theories have come up. Some people will tell you that it's the police code for 'marijuana smoking in progress', which as logical as it seems, is false. Some people believe that it stands for the number of active chemicals in marijuana. There are actually "over 400" active chemicals in marijuana, but that's still not it. Tea time in Holland? Nah, that happens between 3 and 4 PM, but if we want to start referring to smoke seshs as tea time, I'm all for it. 4/20 is not the birthday or death date of Bob Marley, who was born on February 6th, 1945 and passed on May 11th, 1981 and may his soul Rest In Peace. And although 4/20 is Hitler's birthday, I assure you that is NOT what we are celebrating about. 

The true story is that 420 was a code used among members of the Waldos, a group of five San Rafael high school students during the 70's. They had got word of an unattended crop nearby and decided they would set out after practice, at 4:20, to try to get their hands on some of this kind bud. They continued to search for it week after week, and would use 420 as a secret way to refer to their after school special meet up and over time it became their way of basically saying "let's smoke".

During this time, the Grateful dead and hippie scene had relocated to Marin County. The Waldos had many personal connections to the Dead and basically had open access to all of the parties. The phrase 420 began to spread through this community, and when they started touring the world they took it along with them. At one of the Dead shows in 1991, flyers were passed around that read "meet at Bolinas Ridge on 4/20 at 4:20 for 420-ing" which drew the attention of a lot of people, and helped bring the term to mainstream culture. And the rest is history. 

In case you were wondering, the Waldos never did find the crop, but instead unintentionally created a tradition, a holiday, and a way for people to discretely discuss herb. Marijuana legalization in Washington and Colorado has opened the door for many legitimate 420 events, but even the law won't stop most people on this special day. So on 4/20 at 4:20, wherever you may be, grab a bud and light up cause it is time to be 420-ing!

Here is a more in depth article.