Two years have passed since the Pier Park grand reopening. The weather was pretty miserable for opening day but today was beautiful. 67 degrees and sunny, no wind. Check the phonecam panorama after the turn. Pretty quiet out there but I had fun anyway.

Alvie might be the original skateboarding dog. It predates Lance’s nemesis in the Powell vid and Tyson by a long shot. This photo of Alvie is from 1980, and I found it on the photo page of the 30 year reunion of Olympic Skatepark in Olympia, Washington, over at Northwest Skater. Olympic is long gone, so the reunion was held at Lower Woodland in Seattle.

I get sent a lot of contest results and tour coverage articles from various companies and I usually don’t bother to post about them, but I liked the photography in the examples from this write up of Volcom’s Wild in the Park Sweden stop. Maybe you will too. Maybe I just have a thing for Sweden, but I’ve never been there. John Romo BS Smith, Photo: Fyledal. Check it out.

Sessions presents the 10th annual Tim Brauch Memorial Contest is being held this weekend at Lake Cunningham Regional Skate park in San Jose. We might even have some photos coming to us. I wonder how the documentary is coming.

Slob-Air form Skull and Bones Skateboarding forum has posted a ton of images from the ASR show. Looks like neon is going to be big again in 2009. I guess that only took 15 years or so to recycle. Speaking of recycle, there’s tons of pics of old boards, old pros and new reissues, plus art boards and of course, the booth babes. Maybe I should have said “Sea of ass.” Check it out.

I’m never sure how to take the Exit skate shops. We met one of the owners several years back and had a very positive experience, but every time we’ve dealt with the staff from a business standpoint, we’ve had some negative interactions with a snotty, hipper-than-thou staff. We finally just gave up trying to deal with them. Admittedly, this was more than a couple of years ago, so maybe there have been changes. Every skateshop in Portland seems to have it’s own scene. There is some mixing, but some are quite insular. The Exit shops have been one we just haven’t interacted with much. I’ve always associated them with a particular type of skater, but this contest they are throwing in Salem makes me want to check out the scene. It’s the Skate Classic 5, and it looks like some loose semi dork session and 70’s inspired events that sound like a lot of fun. Saturday August 30th in Salem, Oregon at at Bush Park on the soap box derby track. – Thanks to Estes and Colin for the tip.

Grind for Life is an organization that exists to provide financial and educational aid to cancer patients and their families. It was started by skateboarder and two time cancer survivor Mike Rogers, and it’s avery active organization. DC Shoes is sponsoring a high ollie contest on September 5th at ASR in the name of Grind for Life. There’s a $1500 winner take all purse, so you have to imagine that the event will somehow raise more than that for the organization. If you aren’t attending the event, you can always donate directly. If straight up cash donations aren’t your thing, you still have to skate, right? Why not pick up a t-shirt, skateboard deck, or even a set of Bones Wheels with the GFL logo. I believe Bones donates a couple bucks per set. It’s all at Grind for Life. Contest flyer after the jump.

Sponsored action sports athletes Bucky Lasek, Ryan Guettler, Rob Lorfice, Alistair Whitton (okay, I’ve heard of Bucky) and more will make an appearance at the Vans store at Clackamas Town Center on Thursday, August 21 at 7:00PM. It would probably be cooler to meet these dudes at one of the local skateparks but they promise tons of Vans giveaways including limited edition t-shirts for the first 100 attendees. You might even win a chance to take home a free pair of Vans shoes! Sorry this is short notice fanboys but you’d drop everything to meet Bucky right? Oh wait, we hate those guys because they make their shoes using overseas labor. You could go and protest. Vans Store Clackamas Town Center, 12000 SE 82nd Avenue, Portland, OR 97086 503-659-1177

The Oregon Trifecta begins tomorrow in Lincoln City. I don’t know why they bailed on Pier Park, I though it was very well received last year. Oh well. This year it’s Tigard instead. For the love of Hosoi, couldn’t we get another Oregon skatepark in the Oregon Trifecta this year? While some are boycotting, our coverage begins tomorrow. Until then, check out last year’s coverage of Lincoln City, Pier Park, Battle Ground, and the Battle Ground rain out at Tobin’s Bowl.

Sure, we watch Nascar and downhill skateboard races for the same reason: The crashes. Here’s a video from a recent outlaw downhill event in Oregon. I guess they didn’t actually make it to the finals bracket because the event got shot down by the Sherif’s department, but they were able to determine the final standings to everyone’s approval. Looks like these guys are hauling ass. There’s some unexplained miniramp complex footage at the very end, and yes, you can watch guys pile into each other on the same turn, over and over again. – Thanks to Casey Morrow and our own Enemy Combatant(!) for the tip.