In the two years since Pier Park skatepark’s reopening Portland has built an additional three skateparks and work is proceeding on the Ed Benedict plaza-style skatepark. There’s actually a lot of progress in the last two weeks. It looks good. I heard some kids ask one of the two workers how much longer and he said “a month and a half.” Looks closer than that to me. More images after the turn.

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.

I mean really… at least as far as different types of terrain goes. Hood River is definitely becoming Lincoln City East. My hat’s off to whoever is running the show over there. Good job. Mike Estes sent in eight shots of the new snake run-ish feature that looks like it wraps around hte back side of the park. There’s a shot from Carl Warren too. Actually, Carl also has a ton of earlier construction shots up as well. Hood River is a good place to be a skater.

Tiny scene report. Pier Park was jumping yesterday – old guys skating the bowl, young guys skating the street section, a young concrete rodeo type flipping units in the mid bowl, parents and their kids, neighboorhood urchins yelling threats and obscenities at one another down in the pipe. Grover had both of his kids with him. Probably the first time I’ve held a bottle for a feeding infant while riding to the skatepark. I snapped this one with my phone on the way out.

This week’s Shot of the Week is from September of this year. It’s Billy Coulon transferring from the perpendicular face of the low hip to the high wall in Newberg, Oregon. Rich at EPM has a better shot (and then some) from a different angle, I just happened to be standing there while he was shooting, so I poached him. Check out the full frame Shot of the Week.

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.

Remember all those ripping skaters who came out of southern Oregon? Well I’m guessing we can expect a new crop in the near future. Matt Kline sent us some snaps of a couple of projects currently underway: Shoey’s Coos Bay, Oregon and Grindline in Myrtle Creek, Oregon. Dreamland’s Winston, Oregon project is also rumored to break ground in the near future. More shots after the turn.

Another milestone has been reached. The Wasatch County Skatepark in Heber City, Utah is 300th skatepark to open that has received a donation form the Tony Hawk Foundation. You can read the press release after the jump, or head on over to Skate Utah to see pics of the actual park. It sure looks inviting from the shot above.

This week’s Shot of the Week is a Kevin Porterfield shot of Gabe Stoltz taken at the Dallas, Oregon skatepark last week. I didn’t know Dallas had a skatepark, but SkateOregon did. Yes, he landed it. Although yesteryear’s toy skateboards were cheap plastic toys, they still rolled better on those loose bearings than the equivalent wooden toy boards you find at Target or WalMart today. There’s a bonus shot after the jump, or skip to the full frame version of the Shot of the Week.

Newline Skateparks and California Skateparks have some concrete poured at Ed Benedict Skate Plaza in southeast Portland, Oregon. I hadn’t been out there for over a month so I was excited to see some concrete. The sign says it’s supposed to open early fall 2008. Looks like there is still a lot of work to be done. More phone snaps after the turn.