With Sarah expecting, the birth of Tom’s daughter and two completed parks under our belts (my babies: St. John and Glen Haven) Skaters for Portland Skateparks is currently regrouping and trying to figure out the best way serve the Portland skateboarding community. We continue to advocate for Portland skateparks, keeping track of Portland Parks and Rec’s process on the new parks – getting the word out through various channels – and continuing to push the 19 skatepark system agenda. Citizens have continued to donate to the organization and we are banking that for an upcoming effort. A recent $700 donation recently came to us through the United Way (I’m guessing a workplace donation program).

Grove City, Ohio? I thought this was a weird rendering of a concept when I saw it on The Concretins. But photos of people skating the thing can be found on this site. It needs to be bigger. Someone needs to get a shot of 4 people hitting inverts on the various walls of this thing at the same time.

Team Pain Skateparks sent in some pictures of a magnificent looking new skate facility they recently finished for Eastern Skateboard Supply in Wilmington, NC.. Eastern is the largest skateboard distributor on the East coast and is owned and operated by former Walker pro Reggie Barnes. The bowl is probably one of the biggest on the East Coast. The first week the park opened it hosted a demo with the Plan B team along with a handful of other pros. I’m just looking at those pictures and I can smell the birch! More pictures and Reggie Barnes after the jump.

Pretty cool overview of Oregon skateparks at SkateOregon with a photo of each one. Dang there are a bunch of them.

So Donald has a new paint job and It looks real nice in photos but guess what? It’s slippery again. I think the artists who take it upon themselves to paint the place now and then should stick to canvas.

The Skateboard Archives has coverage of the Seaside Oregon skatepark grand opening that many thought was rained out. Apparently, nobody told Benji Galloway that the park was wet. I don’t know how those guys ride wet cement without cracking their skulls. What’s the scoop with the strange miniature brass sculpture sitting in the rain on the deck? Go to the The Skateboard Archives for two pages of photos, including some animated sequences. Hey Seaside! look for some of the Skate and Annoy crew and hangers-on at the Seaside skatepark this Father’s day, June 17th. Hopefully some of our new stickers will be done by then.

There were two skateparks grand openings this past weekend, one in Kent Washington and one in Seaside Oregon. We didn’t go to either, but Hughes has some Kent shots on Northwest Skater. Looks like it rained part of the day at least. Gotta love the Pacific Northwest. 176 miles south was the Seaside Oregon park opening. I can’t find any pics from the grand opening, so you’ll have to be content with the conveniently rain-soaked overview shots from the park’s creator Placed to Ride. If you know of any other opening day galleries, leave them in the comments. [Photo: Dan Hughes and Placed to Ride]

I didn’t get a ton of great shots, but I think I did get heat exhaustion. Anyone who braved the crowds and heat last Saturday for Battle Ground’s grand opening definitely deserves the Red Badge of Courage. That place was packed solid, but you could still get your runs in the bowl while everyone else had their attention focused towards the cradle and deep end. now is as good a time as any to ask if there are any fellow Nikon D-70 shooters out there who are constantly bumping their shutter speed selection dials. I fell victim again but fortunately caught it after a while. Don’t worry, you’ll still get to see action in all it’s blurry glory. Joking aside, this is one serious design flaw with that camera. Anyone? Anyone? Check out the pictures and prepare yourself for the onslaught of teen commentators. [Photos: Left – Unknown rider. Top – Mark Conahan, and Johnny Turgesen] Additional coverage: Dan Hughes has some more pics up at Northwest Skater The Skateboard Archives. Thrasher has good video here.

Team Pain sent in a few pics of the Englewood Florida skatepark that is under construction. If that name sounds familiar, it’s because we covered it in January when a woman donated 200k to the mysterious project. I say mysterious because the only web presence for the city seems to be owned by a newspaper conglomerate that publishes for several small towns in the area. There is vague, limited information about the community. If I lived there I would find it kind of disturbing to have my town’s official news dissemination in the hands of a private company. But I’m getting way off track here. There are more pics and enlargements after the jump.

OK. Time to clear up a few things from yesterday’s post about the progress of Vancouver Washington’s Pacific Community Park Extreme Sports Park. I was totally off base on the BMX track. Somehow I got it in my head that there was going to be a dirt track for BMX at the Pacific Community Park Extreme Sports Park. That is not the case, and BMX will be allowed on the concrete. Before you start complaining you should know that according to the Parks Communications Specialist, the turnout of BMX riders at the public meetings significantly outnumbered that of skaters, especially in the early planning and design phases. Although the whole complex will not open until 2008, they are going to open the skatepark section after it is finished, and the street course is scheduled to open at the same time as the bowl. More information, including the projected opening date and a sneak peek at what phase 2 might look like after the jump.