Thrasher Magazine

I was trying to pass out early on our final night in Lisbon when I heard a loud knock at my door. Everyone else was hammered, listening to David González playing his guitar on the back patio of our Airbnb. Appleyard, however, was rattling my doorknob and yelling at me to come drink another bottle of wine with him. I was trying my best to ignore him when—BOOM! He kicked down the damn door, turned on the lights and drug me out of bed to have one more glass with the boys. As I sat pool side with the crew, reluctantly drinking more wine, I realized that a celebration actually was in order. We had accomplished more in the past ten days than I ever dreamed possible. Despite the warnings, we had prevailed in Portugal!


Not exactly cobblestone but still a pretty rugged landing. New guy Sammy Montano, pre Mojito bar hop


Choosing a destination for a ten-day skate trip can be a daunting task. When Globe landed upon Lisbon as the city of choice for this trip, I was warned before leaving that it was going to be an unfruitful mission. The reports I got were as follows:

1. There are only marble-ledge line spots there—good for filming, terrible for shooting photos.

2. The ground is mostly cobblestone.

3. All of the good spots have been thoroughly documented and desecrated. That, coupled with the fact that the region is famous for its wine, painted a perfect picture of a hungover shit show of a trip. But at this point, flights were booked and bags were already packed, so flipping the script was not an option. Oh well, when you expect the worst there’s only room for improvement.

Decenzo taking notes from T-Funk, uphill wallie front 360

WATER HAZARDSammy Montano, aka the new guy, was hyped to be on his first trip with the squad. So stoked, in fact, that he didn’t bat an eye trying to skate the first spot we found: a slippery marble hubba that doubled as a wallride, conveniently located near a beach. After surfing down it a few times, he was getting close enough to the lip that we all knew a grind was possible. Unfortunately, it wasn’t as easy as it looked. An hour into trying, Sammy’s board went over the top of the hubba, disappearing into the murky runoff on the other side. A handful of dead fish and birds were floating on top of the muck, but we still poked around with a branch, hoping to find his setup. No dice. Luckily, Aaron Brown our filmer had an extra board with him and Sammy was able to keep trying. Paul Hart started skating with him, tossing out some frontside noseslides just for fun to keep the session going. This time around, both of them rolled away from their tricks pretty fast. I asked Paul if he’d do “one more” so I could shoot it. Never ask that question. Paul’s board went over the lip, landing in the same cesspool that claimed Sammy’s ride. The ocean claimed two lives that day.


Sammy sparked this wallride to grind like a hash brick in a wigwam

This was your first international trip with Globe. Who were you most stoked to watch skate?
Everyone was awesome to watch. This was my first trip and it was bit overwhelming to skate with Paul, Ryan and David. Those dudes have been doing it forever. I just wanted to be able to kick it with the whole squad and watch what everyone had to offer.

What’s your craziest memory from this trip?
Probably watching Ryan do the ten flat ten. That or when Aaron Brown, our filmer/TM, lost his passport right off the bat.

Who is your all-time favorite Globe rider?
C’mon, dog, Mark Appleyard!

What made you make the move to Globe?
It felt like a home, a family. It’s always nice to have someone that backs you. I’ve never had anyone like that and them asking for me to be on the team was a good feeling, so I can’t say no to that. They basically gave me a home and it was a smart choice. This trip was one for the books.


We were forced to get hash the first night and spent almost 300 dollars on it. How’d that happen?
We picked up some weed from a local and cleaned him out in less than a day. All he had left was this brick of hash that was the size of king-sized Kit Kat bar. We didn’t really have any options so we went for it. We barely put a dent in that thing, though. We maybe killed 3/4 of it and then were forced to give some away. We gave some to this girl that came over one night and tried giving some to a local dude, but he didn’t take it. He said it was garbage. The last night you sparked the greatest idea to make a wigwam in the backyard and we sat in there with the hash on a fork and passed it around. We were in there for almost an hour smoking it and thought we were gonna die by how much we were coughing. At that point we still had some left, so we left it on the table outside and the lady at the Airbnb was bummed.

What’s one thing you took away from Portugal?
Mojitos, all day. You got me hooked. When I got back I went out for my birthday and drank at least 12 of them!

Known for taking the drops but Decenzo can crawl some walls, too. Carving tile always rules

Crusty ground, the worst hangover of the trip and beers at the spot? For Paul Hart, that’s the perfect combination for a switch nosegrind



WHAT IS OREGANO?Every skate trip I’ve been on, the first question the tour guide gets asked is, “Where can we get weed?” Before hitting the town for dinner the first night, our local guide Pedro told us, “Whatever you do, don’t buy drugs off the streets!” David decided not to heed the warning. Within minutes of getting out of the van, we had a parade of street people trying to sell us various illegal substances. “Isn’t it smarter to just get weed now?” David asked the group. “He has it right there. I’m just going to get some.” He disappeared around a corner and came back ten minutes later with a look of accomplishment on his face. We got to the restaurant and opened his mysterious green baggie to see if he’d struck gold, only to discover that he’d fallen for the oldest trick in the book: he bought oregano. As we were all having a laugh, David asked the group with a straight face, “What is oregano?”

David put down the oregano long enough to handle this kinky boardslide. Ain’t no thang for a SOTY


What was your first Globe trip?
I got on Globe at the end of 2004. I think one of the first trips I went on was a trip to Europe where we skated spots and did a couple of demos or maybe it was a trip to Australia? It was one of those two. But we went all over the world.

What’s the craziest thing you’ve seen on a Globe trip?
I just always remember Globe hooking it up. We went to Australia over ten years ago. They got me a sick hotel room and I remember opening the fridge and finding a ton of Coopers beer. They always make sure to take care of their riders. And skating with the team in 2005-06 was epic. Mumford, Shane Cross, Duncombe—all the homies. I remember skating this mini mega on the countryside in Australia. The locals had made it on a hill with sheets of plywood as the run up and landing. It was sketchy!

Unlike a plywood mini mega, Apples' kickflip to fakie is anything but sketchy

Who’s your all-time favorite Globe rider?
Rodney Mullen or David González.

On the first night in Lisbon, when we shared a hotel room, you had to triple check to see if the door was locked and at one point had me close the window even though we were on the seventh floor. Where does this madness come from?
Well, one time I was in Norway staying at a hotel on the sixth floor. We went out for the day and I left my laptop on the desk, in plain sight. I came back to the room and it was gone. So naturally I was trying to investigate how it might have happened. The window was open and I thought that someone with suction cups on their hands climbed up like Spiderman and took it. In the end, it was just an unlocked door. No one told me you had to lock the door with the room key the same way you opened it, so it never locked. Now I’m pretty paranoid when it comes to leaving things around. I take extra precautions. It can definitely can seem like madness, especially when we’re at the elevator for the second time and I have to go back to check the door.

How has life changed from Sorry Appleyard to 2017 Appleyard?
Dad life. I’m about to change my daughter’s diaper right now. I have a lot more adult responsibilities now, but skating always stays the same. I’m feeling good on the board and am still hyped to skate with the homies. But back then I was skating every day and didn’t have to do anything else. I love every second of it, though. I bring my kids out skating with me sometimes. They love going to mess around at the parks.

What’s in the books for 2018?
Skate a lot, film a video part, go skate every weekend and keep the legacy going.

He had his doubts when we rolled up to this hubba but when crunch time came, Appleyard handled his business with no hesitation. Legacy intact! Switch 180 to 5-0


WINE, MEET WALLWe damn near cut water out of our diets altogether on this trip, opting to drink wine instead. Almost every night we’d hit the local market and get 12-15 different bottles to sample. The second night in, I broke the wine opener and went to Appleyard for help, thinking he might know a hack. Sure enough, he came inside, saw the broken opener, had a quick laugh and then told me, “Use your shoe, dumbass!” He then grabbed the wine bottle, put it in his shoe and banged the sole of his shoe on the wall until the cork popped out. Sounds sketchy, right? Well, sketchy or not, it totally worked. He opened the rest of the bottles that night the same way and then taught the rest of the group the technique. By the end of the trip, everybody had opened at least one bottle of wine with their shoe. If Globe is ever looking to diversify their market, they should consider marketing their footwear to wine enthusiasts. I’ll go on record and suggest a burgundy color way.

There wasn’t much time for extra-curricular activities on this trip but Decenzo did manage to go sailing a few times. Third-try ollie on a chill double set



GO BIG OR GO HOMEThe second day in we showed up to the famous Monte de Caparica spot (a hubba next to a yellow tile bank that has been in skate videos and magazines for years). It was exactly the type of spot I was hoping to avoid, especially with the list of ABDs associated with it. Ten minutes into the session, Decenzo comes booking at the stairs and jumps over the opposite hubba—the one with a 12-foot drop. Rolling away from a first-try ollie, he tells us nonchalantly that he’s going to kickflip it. With no time to spare, I rushed to set up flashes, sweating that I was going to miss the make. Less than five tries later, Ryan rolled away like it was nothing. Afterward, sitting at the bottom he told me, “I found a pretty chill ten flat ten around the corner. I think I can ollie it. We should check it out tomorrow.” And while I still stand by the fact that there’s no such thing as a “chill ten flat ten,” I hope his third-try ollie photo proves that is wasn’t much work for him.

Steep, short banks are never easy to flip into. Add an even shorter roll away and a head-high drop and you’re in for a real battle. Unless you’re David González, in which case you just 360 flip like you’re skating flatground




As Ryan eloquently slurred to the group at our final dinner how much he loved Lisbon and all of us, we looked around with a feeling of gratitude and made one last cheers. Our stay in Portugal offered wondrous wine, to-die-for seafood and a surprising amount of spots (all with good enough ground, believe it or not). Avoiding most of the played-out attractions and as much cobblestone ground as possible, we felt like luck was on our side. This was up until Pedro was driving us to the airport for our flights home, only to get an angry call from a women ranting in Portuguese. We assumed he was getting chewed out by his wife, but it ended up being the woman who was in charge of our Airbnb. She had found the broken door (courtesy of Appleyard), the leftover hash on the dining-room table (Sammy thought it would make a nice parting gift) and a handful of missing wine glasses that may or may not have gotten broken during our time there. Pedro successfully talked the woman out of calling the cops and assured her that everything was going to be alright. “Don’t worry about it. Shit happens in Lisbon,” he told us as we were getting out of the van. And he was right. Shit did happen in Lisbon. A lot of good shit. It turns out we didn’t need luck to have a productive trip to Portugal. All we needed was the willingness to search for new spots, some nightly shoe wine and the occasional oregano break. Tchau, Lisbon!


His board might have gone in the water a couple times, but a waterlogged setup wasn’t about to stop Decenzo from stomping this backside flip. Check you later, Lisbon