It’s pretty incestuous Portland skate-media scene here. Of course, there are recent additions to the area that I haven’t seen yet, but for the most part, a lot of us skate the same spots together. Case in point. Seeing a recent photo of Steve McBride on EPM reminded me a shot I took of the same person, spot and motion from a slightly different vantage point, circa 2001. And so here it is, and there it is. Wow. I had a real camera with negatives and developing and everything back then. I sold that lens 16mm lens to this guy. Hey Bryce, let’s get our respective crews together for a session!

March 24, 2007 Portland, Oregon Click to enlarge

Addict Skateboards made a trip out to the Cayman Islands to skate the Black Pearl and surrounding areas. Some cool shots on their blog, but there is no way to group them together. In the mean time just do some scrolling.

Looks like someone has been listening to Grover’s design ideas.

Earth Patrol Media has a small gallery with some good shots at Pier Park. Unlike me, Rich doesn’t seem to mind pointing the camera away from the deep end. Check it out. Kim’s carving 50-50 with no shoes is my favorite. Boneless by Xavier and bone out by Shawn Reinert.

Matt Klein sends this image of Shoeie and reports that the park has a new coat of pool paint.

Thor writes:
Just a heads up. I was out there last night and had a conversation with the cops. They are working with the city to get it open early but said it is getting out of hand and they are going to have to start making examples of some people.

Take it for whatever its worth but I think I’m going to Newberg this weekend.

photo lifted from Bryce Kanights photography

I served on the selection committee and read all the proposals for the Glenhaven skatepark in northeast Portland, Oregon. Dreamland Skateparks’ proposal was the clear favorite of the committee, even though there was a street skating faction that didn’t believe that Dreamland could build a good street park. The committee pared the field to three firms who would be interviewed but in the end only Dreamland was properly licensed to do work in the state of Oregon. Grindline’s license had expired and NewLine didn’t have the proper licenses in the first place.

Here is the original Dreamland proposal for Glenhaven. This was actually one of three designs originally proposed for Pier Park. During the Pier Park process there was a lot of static from street skaters about the designs being favored by Skaters for Portland Skateparks. This of course pissed off the guys who had spent three years doing public outreach and fundraising and lobbying.

The funding was available and we knew Dreamland was going to build the thing, all we needed was a design that would please everyone.

I have posted a lengthy rememberance of the project with many of the design drawings I did between February and April 2006 over on Antigravity Press. You’ve seen some of it if you went to any of the meetings but I wanted to put it all together. Hard to believe I did all that a year ago.

Yes, I’m struggling again. Here’s some pics of Chris Nukala from April of 2004 on his ramp in his back yard. The point of this is not to mention the crappy photos (my fault) or the fact that Chris hadn’t gone through puberty yet (his parent’s fault) but rather to point out that he recently had to tear down his ramp due to complaints from the neighbors or some city ordinance problems. Typical BS you have to deal with whenever you decide to take matters into your own hands. This was a quirky, but cool set up. Fortunately, Chris lives near Pier Park now. He’s a lot better skater post-puberty. Puberty. Puberty. Puberty. And death metal. Enlargements and a more recent shot of him after the jump.

It doesn’t open until June 4. Do not skate. The kids you see were subjected to extreme rendition and are currently being interrogated in a secret facility in Eastern Europe.

If people start showing up there I’ll bet the local police will step up their efforts and write a few trespassing citations or haul a few guys in.

Oh yeah, click the images to see them bigger.