#omenhaulsasstocenmass Central Mass 6 Event Recap

August 14, 2015

Nate here to recap one of the coolest events I have ever been to, Central Mass 6! Once a year hoards of longboarder lay claim to the tiny town of Harvard, Massachusetts for an amazing 3 day longboarding / skateboarding extravaganza! The event organizer is Mike Girard, and he is one of the most humble and nicest people you could ever meet! So much so, that he has been affectionately given the highest title in skateboarding which is DAD! Here is Dad on the cover of the latest Skateslate Magazine!

Here is Mike Girard with his Patriarchal Mustache and SkateSlate featuring him on the Cover!

On the first day of the event they hold a Mini Ramp Session that is not to be missed! There are alot of great skateboarders who show up to this 3 day event and watching the Miniramp for 5 minutes will leave you speechless with awe as you watch lots of heinous maneuvers getting thrown down! 

View from the Harvard General Store Balcony. The Harvard General Store is pretty much headquarters for this event and it is really sick to see such amazing community support!

Here are some wicked Photos I captured in between bro-ing down with some old homies!

Some random killer hammering out an Airwalk.

This dude floating a large air in front of the attention of onlookers. Marcus Bandy runs WheelBase magazine and is the the OG holding the camera on the ramp in this shot.

While lurking with Ethan a very enthusiastic kid came up to me to pitch the idea of riding for both Loaded and OMEN, and Ethan and I were left speechless by his passion.

Mids is a huge thing on the East Coast, and soon to be the world. I do not have the time or politically correct language to be able to explain what it is, but I feel that this picture of Young Mitch sums it up pretty well. Mitch is one of the few people who is more famous for his off hill antics than his on hill performance. MIDS 4 Lyfe.

They closed the ramp after the Miniramp competition and Will Royce was unaffected by this change. Here is Will hammering a rock and roll while being told to quit skating the ramp.

Day2 is the race day, and it is a sight to behold. Lots of skaters, tons of unique outfits and setups, and a huge spectrum of skill levels and experience. The best thing about the race course is how simple and bendy it is. The key to winning is get in your tuck, and stay in your tuck.

Spandex and no shirt was the power move of this event. 

This guy sliding into homeplate on the "janky" left. 

Pack Runs were a thing, getting nuts to buts with 30 of your closest homies is always a cool thing to watch and participate in.

Here is Event organizer Mike Girard bump drafting Ari Chas to the bottom of the hill in order to start processing the next round of heats.

Here is a ghetto fabulous picture. Multi-hundred dollar Aero Lid,  Crooked Tuck, and a gold chain that says dropout. 
Ghetto Fabulous. 

Here is a picture of Grant Kiessling crossing the finish line before everyone else. Grant (cheesestring) is the man, and is wearing, no shirt, 5 dollar Walmart womens leggings, and a $5000 IronHead Ibex helmet. Ghetto Fabulous.

Grant won the race, so I let him buy me drinks all night. We had lots of fun. At the after-party we got to see the Keep on tucking tour Release video. It was a sick video, included lots of crusty skatepark footage, and some pretty cool downhill shots. After the video was done we left and went to the hotel to fall asleep in the parking lot. Squatting is the best kind of living situation.

Day 3 was the Slide Jam, and it is nuts. Lots of incredible skaters shoved down a very skinny road for the sake of fun. If you stand at the bottom of the hill and wait, you will see at least 1 heinous crash per minute for about 5 hours, if you were doing your math correct that is close to 300 epic falls. Also, the road is super narrow and with tons of people sitting on the haybails and lots of people walking up the side of the road, which makes it feel even narrower. Sketchiness = 100.

Tight filming by Marcus Bandy of Steve Kong during a hardwheel run. Hardwheel is not dead on the East Coast, and some of those guys and girls can really shred super hard.

Hard Wheels not dead with Norman Plante.

Came all the way to the east coast and was not dis-appointed. This guy doing one of them fancy knee down slides. Super stoked to see different tricks and types of riding. The west coast mountain bomb can actually get boring after a while, so seeing this type of skating really makes me super happy and excited to be apart of.

The nice thing about Cenmass 6, if you crash someone will get a photo, if you make it, someone might get a photo. This dude was hauling all day and had that dank back hand steeze.

During finals the action was still just as tight, but there were way more people watching, and the speed of slides was up, and the distance between riders was down. The funny thing about the slide jam is that if you fall, you have about a 50% shot of getting hit by 3 other skaters who are so close that they are going to be unable to do anything but crash into you if anything goes wrong.

Big Air happened, and the highlight for me was when Andy from Thuro Shop busted out the inline skates and was throwing down some Misty flips above the ramp. This dude was just getting into longboarding, but had the whole air game figured out quite nicely.

This is the guy who won the big air distance jumping competition at Cenmass 6.

Lots of cool things happened at the hill, and lots of people left maimed and hurt, but ultimately the event itself was a ton of fun, and is one of the best uses of your time if you enjoy downhill skateboarding and the culture that follows it. 

Thanks to Mike Girard and the entire volunteer army that made this event possible. Thank you to the police for providing amazing parking tips for the van, including consistently asking us to park the van illegally so that it was closer to the hill. 
Thank you to mom, dad, Omen Longboards, and Mcdonalds for making this whole trip happen.

-Nate Blackburn
Love you Mean it.

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