Word from Portland Parks is that the official opening day for Gabriel skatepark is July 11, 2008 – a short 16 days from now but in fact it may open for skating sooner than that. Stay tuned for more details. update: No word on early opening. They still need to do some hydroseeding. There is a Portland Tribune article that talks about the budget woes. Enjoy the complaining about the city spending money on anything and a particularly uniformed shot at the new mayor, even though Parks is Saltzman’s bailiwick, in the comments.

Sports Illustrated Kids has a video tour of Kona skatepark. Think of the intended audience and get prepared for you Federal Recommended Daily Allowance of flyouts. For a video tour, there sure are a lot of still photos. Check it out

Colin went to Sweden and all I got was this picture of a bunch of smelly dudes in a car instead of their famous bikini team I keep hearing about. That’s the Swedish Bikini team, not the Bacon Bikini team. (Shudder!) But seriously folks… I’m going to beat that joke like a dead horse. He actually did take pictures. The occasion for the road plane trip was the Bowl Rider’s Cup in Malmo. He said something about “epic,” so give him some time to assemble his thoughts and do some typing.

Mark Conahan, Rich Burton, Shawn Reinert and a few others are road tripping down to San Jose as you read this. Mark is making progress reports via cellphone snaps on Antigrav Remote. UPDATE: “Too far, too hot.” Supposedly it hit 100° yesterday. MC and Rich are hitting the Oregon Coast parks instead. A couple other guys are still going to San Jose. [Photo: California Skateparks]

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.

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

Here’s a short documentary on the Burnside skatepark. I’ve heard rumors about multiple documentary projects dedicated to covering Burnside but this is the first one I’ve ever actually seen. It’s on Current, which is the web component of the TV network that features all user generated content. I haven’t watched the network in a long time, but it was pretty hit or miss the last time I checked it. This particular documentary is OK. It’s short, but it has some good footage and old pictures and a few amusing moments. I guess there’s a chance it could end up as one of the segments on TV if it hasn’t aired already. [Source: Europeskate]

First off, GABRIEL PARK IS CLOSED. Stephanie from Airspeed wanted to make sure everyone knows that. It won’t open until sometime in July, and the first citation for trespassing has already been issued. That being said, she did give me the go ahead to post the rest of the pictures from the test session last weekend. Afterwards a certain Dr. Brad made a the excellent comment “That was awesome. Wait… This is the place that everyone was bitching about?”

This is a test of the DIY Skatepark Advocacy System. If this were an actual Marginal Way benefit you would be… Oh wait, it is! Art Show Benefit for Marginal Way Skatepark! Mission in West Seattle Thursday June 12th 8pm 21+ Raffle/DJs/Videos Silent auction featuring: Tait, Paul Fujita, Q. Quigg, Bruno, LJ, Jesse Edwards, Aaron Filion, Chris Adams, Ego, Roy Wonder, Bobcat, Manbeast, Curtis Alton Jr., Romero Taylor, Eric Holt, Caveman, Leon, Jay Meer, and Lafferty Brothers. DJs: VerseOmega, Treva, Hightower. Videos, Footage and Slide Show featuring Jay Meer’s Archive. Raffle: All the goods! 100% of proceeds goes to Marginal Way Skatepark! Where: Mission 2325 California Ave. SW Seattle, WA 98116 8pm 21 and over