We’re looking forward to this year’s Oregon Trifecta, even if it isn’t all in Oregon this year. In fact, I’m getting ready to head out to Lincoln City within the hour. I’m excited now, but I’m sure I’ll be sick of it by Sunday. One thing that is going to make this year’s event even more interesting is the change of venue for Saturday and Sunday. This year we’ll be at Pier Park and Battleground Washington, which should definitely help breathe some life into the series. Until then, you can relive last years stops at Lincoln City, West Linn, and Newberg.

As you know, skaters have been trickling into Oregon and hitting the parks in preparation for the 2007 Trifecta. Earth Patrol Media has a collection of shots from the Pre-fecta to get you in the mood. One in particular is a great shot.

People started showing up for the Oregon Trifecta at the beginning of the week. I ran into Salba (figuratively this time) and Glen Charnoski at Pier Park this afternoon. Damn.

I wanted to make sure I got this posted before the mayhem starts this weekend in Oregon. The small home grown scene is equally if not more important as all the high profile events in skateboarding. It’s the small companies, crews and towns that you’ve never heard of that are (-ugh-) keeping it real. In this spirit we bring you Danimal’s coverage of Albany Oregon’s annual Summer contest. Seriously guys, next year, don’t have it on a Wednesday afternoon and we might be able to make it down there. There’s more…

Australia’s Herald Sun has an article titled Skaters shun parks for concrete jungle that talks about how kids still don’t want to be confined to skateparks. While Melbourne is upping it’s skateboard deterrent budget to $50,000 a year, the city of Boroondara has an annual budget of $100,000 a year for skatepark development. 100k Australian is only about $86,000 in US dollars, but it’s still nothing to sneeze at. One of the popular street skating spots that kids keep barging is called Docklands, which near as I can tell is a redeveloped waterfront plaza that used to be, well, docks. The article mentions YouTube videos of Docklands, so I did a cursory search. There appears to be a nicely finished pedestrian park as well as a bunch of more industrial areas that appear to be abandoned or in disuse. You can watch a couple vids after the jump.

The Tuscaloosa News has a fascinating article titled LIVING ON THE EDGE – Skate park attracts enthusiasts, competitive boarders. Critical analysis of this thought provoking and controversial article after the jump.

Dateline: Englewood Florida. Headline: County wipes out good, clean fun Overmonitoring, irregular hours and high fees mar new skate park Eric Ernst wrote a piece for The Herald Tribune about micromanaging the fun out of the new Englewood skatepark that Team Pain built. Here in Oregon, most of our parks are free, open from dawn to dusk and unmonitored. And for the most part, this works out great.

Amazing! I was going to put this in the “Found Terrain” category, but it’s actually a purpose built skate spot in France! I had to (try to) read the sign, but it appears it was made for skating (and roller skating, inline skating, and BMX). Le Craddle du 13e was paid for by the City of Paris Cultural Affairs Department of Art in the City. That’s some bureaucracy I can get behind. There are a few more shots on the Skatepark de Paris flickr stream. OK. It’s a success as far as public art goes, but let’s take a step back and evaluate the skateboarding terrain. It’s fenced off, I think to keep pedestrians out actually. The approach looks really short, and where are you supposed to go when you come off that high wall? Looks like they want you to carve a continuous loop. No kickturns allowed! I still give it an “A” for effort though. Circular skate spots are the rage. [Source: Skatepark de Paris]

It’s another case of designers with too much time (or LSD) on their hands. This time it’s Acconci Studio with their concept for a skatepark in San Juan Puerto Rico. I came across this in Dec/Jan 07 issue of Dwell magazine. It was on a page talking about the Cooper Hewitt 2006 National Design Triennial. The design evokes a 70’s snake run mixed with a waterpark. It may be fantastic to look at, but it shows a complete lack of practical skateboarding knowledge.

So here it is, a too long and boring GVK18. It was a slim crowd at Holly Farms for the 1st Saturday, but we had fun as you can see via the video. The average age of the crowd was 30 years of age and the average weight of each person was 200 pounds or more maybe. We finally got “Bacon Master” Collin to ride and boy were we surprised. Who knows, maybe he will ride more with us. I know he is a business man who make tons of money off his skateboarding empire. I also know he is a skater now. It was good to session with him and Tim. Peace OFF Grover