Weirdo Skateboards presents Skate the Lake 2012 LCRSP – Lake Cunningham Regional Skatepark, and WEIRDO Skateboards continue to “Come In Hot” this Summer, when our yearly Skate The Lake Contest Series, hits Part 2 for yet another day of summer madness. WHEN: The Second and Final Date is Saturday August 11th: WHY: Because we have lost our collective minds, ha ha just kidding. We will be hitting up the Full Pipe in all it’s glory for an Open Contest, also a good old fashioned Highest in Pipe, topped off with a Best Trick in the Cradle/Funnel Bowl.

I did not see Tony Hawk’s unannounced stop at Burnside yesterday, but I did make these nifty shelves in my garage instead. It would take me half a day to get this into the form of a cartoon like MC does, so this is what you get instead. Frame 1: Caption – “1986” 1st guy speech bubble – “Tony Hawk is at our local skatepark right now!” Frame 2: 2nd Guy speech bubble – “Oh man, I’m going to blow off finals for this, lets go!” Frame 3: Caption – “2012” – 1st guy (looks older) speech bubble – “Tony Hawk is at our local skatepark right now!” Frame 4: 2nd guy (looks older) speech bubble – “I think I’m going to build shelves in my garage.” I’m not dissing Tony, I’m sure he was rad. I saw that he even graciously posed for some photos with grooms. Interesting side note: The story behind why Portland wasn’t an official stop on his tour is a disappointing one.

Bonfire Snowboarding’s 15th annual Pipe to Pipe contest is coming to Windells in Oregon this weekend. 50% skateboard contest, 50% snowboard contest, 100% fun.

The second annual Mt. Tabor Downhill Challenge on Sunday, June 24th. This is sanctioned downhill race in Portland. Big prize money. If I can scrape up the entry fee and it doesn’t rain, you may get to see the Ski-Skate in some open class action. All sorts of fun. The MTDHC is a one day event featuring a downhill skateboard race, slalom race, classic luge (buttboard) race and a mini-bike race. All of the races will be held on SE Resevoir Loop Dr. of Mt. Tabor Park in Portland, Oregon. The winner of the downhill skateboard race will recieve $750 and the winner of the downhill mini-bike race will receive $300. Cash prizes for other classes will be determined later. Awards ceremony and after party will take place at the Mt. Tabor Theater. Entry fee is $60 for downhill classes and $30 for slalom only. Go to Tabordh.com for more info on the event… – Thanks for the heads up from Billy Bones.

Brooklyn Street Skate Spot Benefit on February 18th at Commonwealth, just about a week shy of Commonwealth’s 1 year anniversary. The BSSS benefit is from 7-10, with alleged bands (who?) raffles, food and beer. OK, I’m not going to argue. Flyer and video from Commonwealth’s grand opening after the jump.

Lifeblood Skateboards premier for the video We Must Bleed is this Saturday, November 5th at Commonwealth in Portland, at 8:PM (Demo / free skate for an hour before. No word on couples skating.) In the mean time check out three video episodes of the recent Lifeblood tour of the Midwest after the jump.

Red Bull is sponsoring… well, it’s a skatepark built on a barge, floating down the Mississippi river. There are events planned – for days already passed, sorry guys, but there’s still one to go October 8th and 9th. Sunday’s contest has top place finishers from earlier events in Saint Paul, the Quad Cities and St Louis. Meanwhile they have a crew on board and on board while in transit. I’m glad I live in a world where someone thinks something like this is worth paying for. Floating street course by Spohn Ranch, web site for the Mississippi Grind by Red Bull. Video on how it went down after the jump.

I guess there was was a decent turn out at Tobin’s house the day after the Trifecta. Chad Balcom shot some phonecam video.

We stopped by to check out Spohn Ranch’s modular bowl being assembled for the Dew Tour. It’s pretty impressive. Up close the individual sections don’t appear as massive or thick as you might think. There were a couple local faces in the crew which was nice to see. Word is that a Wally Holiday crew is coming in to do the finishing. Grover was ribbing the crew because some of the sections were out of numerical order, judging by the big numbers scrawled on the back. One interesting thing, the parking lot is sloping, so the whole structure is being erected on scaffolding with a giant corrugated metal subfloor. Check out the pictures after the jump.

So… an “unlocked spot” courtesy of the Dew Tour: We’ve unlocked a cool spot for all you Portland locals to skate next Wednesday 11am at the Pioneer Courthouse Square. There’s normally no skateboarding there, but we’re hooking it up for you guys. While I applaud the idea of lifting the ban, if only temporarily, I have to laugh at the suits at Pepsi “hooking me up.” Still, that’s a novel form of social/guerilla marketing. I wonder how much it cost to “hook us up?” ( Egads that’s awkward punctuation. Any English majors out there that can tell me what I did wrong? ) The photo on the bottom? That’s Spohn Ranch’s portable concrete bowl system being disassembled and loaded up for the trip to Portland. Grover is chomping at the bit to ride that thing. – Thanks to Craig Smith for the tip.