Two of the event locations for this years Oregon Trifecta have been announced. For some reason one is still in Washington. The overall purse looks a lot bigger, and appears to include some sort of ATV. (Not that kind of ATV as seen on Wheelbite) What’s the stock photo graphic doing up there? It came from a recent iStockphoto.com promotion and signifies my surprise at finding out that the Trifecta’s official web site thinks I’m running some sort of free stock photo service. I don’t begrudge them, but a heads up and a spot on the links page would have been nice. Crap. I think I’m in Chicago for my grandmother’s 90’th birthday that weekend. – Thanks to Ryan Hass and Jeff Hottle for the tips.

Fishbone Skatepark is the name of the entity that ended up using all the donated ramps from the X Games appearance in Mexico City. It’s open, and Urbeskate Magazine has the action photos. Chica Rider off shoot Open Skull is an organization set up for teaching and promoting skateboarding for girls, which is kind of what I though Chica Rider was, but… Open Skull has already had lessons at Fishbone. I guess it’s 30 pesos or about $3 to skate there. I don’t know how that translates in the standard of living there. – Thanks to John Aguilar for the tip.

I got a publicity email from Current TV about featuring this video called “The State of Black Skate,” but I was going to feature it anyway since I found it when I had the Burnside clip on the same site. It’s a short piece on skaters of color (as long as that color is black) in NYC. It ends just as you’d think they were about to get started. It’s almost like an intro segment for a full length production. So, there’s not much meat to it, but there are some good skating sequences. See that guy in the shot above? He’s barefoot. Current ought to encourage longer, more in depth pieces, otherwise it’s just so much filler.

Skate Punk #4 is another from the collection of John Drummond, and the second one of this title. June 1982 is the date on this one, and it’s got a lot more pages than #2 which came out in January. Caballero must have been busy that year.

Check out Skate Punk #4

UPDATE: Comments have been moved to the gallery.

A web site called Old School Skateboards (This one is in the U.K.) has a bunch of NOS (New, Old Stock) Variflex skateboards from the 80’s for sale. This guy must have raided a warehouse or possibly been an old distributor or something. For about $70 you can buy a complete board with trucks, wheels, copers and a lapper. The only thing missing are the rails. Sure, these are crap skateboards, but they are 20 year old mint condition crap skateboards! The site doesn’t have the large images presented for the public, so I’ve compiled them. Some are pretty funny.

Editor’s note: We are fully aware that at one time Variflex produced high quality, professional grade skateboards. However, these boards are not from that time

The Tony Hawk Foundation is auctioning off a custom Jeep to raise money for… skateparks! this is for big spenders only. – Thanks to Sarib Singh Khalsa for the tip.

All right, lets get this taken care of. I’ve got some poll software installed and now it’s time to vote for the winner of the GVK Photo Kontest. The prize package includes a skateboard of our choice and a bunch of random stuff. I thought we’d see more entries than we got, maybe we should have made a bigger deal about the prize. I’ve learned a few things from this contest, and I’ve already got an idea for the next one. Voting ends at Midnight, Pacific time, on June 22nd.

Luciano Peixoto and Gustavo Tesch sent in some coverage of the 30th anniversary party at Swell Skate Park in Brazil. Vans sponsored an event called Old is Cool and kicked it off with a contest in the brand new bowl at the park. Check it out

The powers that be in Oregon are hip to skateboarding. The official web page for the State of Oregon has a small thumbnail of a skateboarder enjoying some Oregon concrete on the main page for the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department. It appears to be just for illustration purposes and doesn’t link to any sort of information about skateboarding in Oregon. It should link to SkateOregon.com. (Thanks for the tip Sam!) Anyone care to hazard a guess as to identify the skater and the park?

Well, the boom had to end sometime, and end it did in May. I guess those tax refunds dried up, because deck sales tanked, and when I say tanked, I mean big-time. I only counted seven decks that went for over a thousand dollars in May, and as a regular reader of this column you’ll know that that is low. Not one went even close to $2k. The highest seller this month was a jacket, so that sums it up.

This month’s Baywatch is fueled by Jays Hot potato chips, and by the soothing sounds of Crass, notably The Feeding of the 5000. If you’ve never given Crass a chance, listen to this album. It’s tough going in parts, but the lyrics still pack a punch, even 30 years on. Clash lovers (Randy and Brad) might be offended at times, because the Clash come in for some stick from the fun loving anarchists. Deserved? That’s a matter of opinion, but a lot of what they say is true. Anyway, give it a listen with an open mind.

Check out eBay Watch: May 2008