It’s open, that’s for sure, but what remains uncertain (unless you’ve been there) is what the layout is. Every design render I’ve seen doesn’t jive with the photos I’ve seen. Fuel TV has photos of the opening, but not really much of an overview of the spot. Somebody help us out here. UPDATE: I guess that picture on the bottom is pretty much it. So the headline should read “Skate Spot Opens.”

Yeah! Bark like a dog! I’m going to post way to many pictures of this roof because it’s such a novel concept out here. Sure, we have the world’s greatest skateparks, but only a few of them are lighted, and almost none of them are covered! Hood River Oregon has really stepped up to the plate. Thanks again to Carl Warren, here are some photos of the roof going up over a portion of the new additions to the Hood River skate complex.

The economy sucks, and BMX riders and skateboarders at Burnside will be closer neighbors as a result. The Burnside Bridgehead redevelopment project is having funding issues. Instead of funding some of the planned landscape architecture, a parcel of land overlooking the new addition to the skate terrain is going to be turned into a temporary BMX dirt “pump track” filled with “rolling jumps, step-ups, and berms” according to BikePortland. You’d think the city would know that once you let anyone squat, it’s going to be hard as hell to get rid of them! That reminds me, there’s a bizarre new mural at the Department that shows a skatepark under the Fremont bridge and a buttload of bicycles going over the bridge. There’s only one or two skateboards in the whole thing. It’s strange indeed. Who commissions those things anyway? There must not be much of a screening process. – Thanks to Fitz for the tip.

Yesterday’s park overview was part one. Part two features the local fauna (no flora) as they inhabit the J.M. Berlin skatepark in Englewood, Florida. Check out the action after the jump.

I checked out the Team Pain park in Engelwood Florida over the weekend. It’s a lot smaller than it seemed from the construction shots we posted. I’m staying in Sarasota, which has a much larger park, but I actually prefer Englewood. Sarasota is separated into two main areas, bowl and street. The whole of the Englewood park probably fits inside the bowl footprint of Sarasota. Part one of the coverage is just some overviews of the park. Part two (coming tomorrow) will be pictures of the locals.

A Milton Florida park monitor called the police because a guy dropped in on one of the park obstacles. It was essentially a quarterpipe with some vert. The monitor took issue because the guy climbed up and dropped in. It’s ok to ride it, but not to climb up on it in order to do so. Samuel Atchison was suspended for 30 days for skating in a skatepark. It sounds ridiculous, but he did absolutely nothing wrong. You have to see it to believe it. – Thanks to Concretins for the tip.

I’m here in Sarasota, FLorida for a little while. SRQ is the airport ID, just as PDX = Portland. Last time I was here at this skatepark there was supposed to be an old man night on Fridays. Well those guys either all died or they moved it to a different night. They’ve added a big fancy building to the park since I’ve last visited. As near as I can tell, it’s only purpose besides giving you a place to pee, is to come up with a reason to justify paying $8 to skate. The park closes at 8:00pm and isn’t open during school hours. It’s weird having to plan out when I can go skate. It’s basically a five hour window every day until summer time, when it’s an eight hour window. I don’t now how the heck Oregon manages to keep it’s 80+ skateparks open and free for every hour of sunlight. We must be freakin’ geniuses or wizards. There wasn’t much happening there this particular Friday night, although to be fair, I was only there for the last hour. That’s the lifeguard or safety monitor or whatever that job is called in the shot at the top…

This park rules. The locals and City Hall gave it a bad name for a while, and while the powers that be may still be predatory, it’s been a good session every time I’ve been there in the past year or two. Also, it’s never been crowded. Pics after the jump.

Yeah, we went to the opening day, but it was at the end of a long day after sessioning in the Aumsville/Salem area. Figured it would be a zoo there, and everyone we talked to said it was. We got there about 5:30pm, and it was still packed full of kids. There were a lot of bikes too, but everyone was happy. I did hear some grumbling about the traffic. Miniramp section looks fun. Coping is slick and sticks out a little too far. ALso odd that there is no decks on any of it, but still fun. It seemed like every obstacle had a line of kids waiting to hit it. We heard tales that there were three separate filmers there at the same time, each in a different area of the park. “I can’t wait to come back when there’s nobody here” was a common refrain. And yes, we had a winner from that morning. I was only there for about a half an hour. Nobody was really landing much, and I had to split, but I did get a few snaps. If you’re still hungry, EPM has one shot up so far. UPDATE: EPM has the shots.

Again from the shutter release finger, dare I say Hood River bureau of SnA? (I’m trying to shame you, Estes…) Carl Warren has a few shots of… aww… come on. Who is this guy? (I’m trying to shame you, Carl…) Looks like it’s too late for a gap jump “first.” Three shots after the jump. UPDATE: Added video.