Rehashed: Legends of Hashish

In the early 2000s, before Cannabis cups overflowed and hash competitions were still few and far between, Marcus “Bubble Man” Richardson, the creator of the Bubble Bag, and “Skunkman Sam,” the legendary American breeder also known as “Sam the Skunkman,” seshed over a high idea one day in Amsterdam. “We were discussing how cool it would be to have a special dinner for hashish aficionados,” Richardson shares. “We could hand pick the top hash lovers… almost like putting everyone into giant bubble bags and filtering everyone out but the 90u people.”

The first Legends of Hashish was born in 2003, with the original Amsterdam event focusing on a small dinner setting and a select group of invitees. It would continue in Amsterdam for about 10 iterations, eventually migrating to Vancouver, Canada, and Barcelona, Spain. It wasn’t until November 2021 that the U.S. would see this sesh landing in Los Angeles. But just up the coast, things continued to heat up in the PNW hash community — so much so that Richardson and U.S. co-organizer Addison DeMoura, co-founder of Steep Hill Labs and managing partner at 800Lbs. Mantra and Pyramid Pipeline, decided to see if any Legends were lurking in Portland.

Legends of Hashish, Portland edition, took place on Thursday, Aug. 1 at the Redd East Event Space on Salmon Street — a flexible, indoor-outdoor, industrial-chic event center you may recognize from the last two Oregon Leaf Bowls. In recent years, it’s been one of Portland’s only venues situated for legal adult consumption events. For Legends, it offered a spacious location for roughly 100 folks to gather from not just the PNW but coast to coast.

The atmosphere was intimate. Friends and friendly competition gathered around 12 round tables to dine and dive into the 26 melt, rosin and dry sift entries from 18 producers. The 97-degree weather and sun-beaten black asphalt didn’t deter dabbers from firing up torches — the terps were too tempting to seek the comfort of the interior air conditioning. But the heat and “hash drops” — of which there were several every hour — meant people eventually found their way into the air conditioning. Inside, they were met with more amenities like a lounge area, food, espresso and equipment demonstrations. Despite Richardson’s unfortunate absence (due to issues at the border), DeMoura dashed around the event like a superhost, dabbing with guests and handing out goodies at the Hash Bar.

Awards were announced on Instagram Live on Monday, Aug. 5. The reprieve gave judges a chance to sift through the samples and score accordingly, awarding first-place titles to Dammit Bobby, Wolverine Dabs and Black Market Hash. Among those judges, a panel of glassblowers, including Haaps Glass, Scott Deppe of Mothership Glass, Gong Glass, Power Pat and Darby Holm, offered their expert opinions and presented five winners with five custom pieces as trophies.