Shortly before going off his medication, Colin Walsh sent in a couple pics and a short write up about a fundraiser/contest for the Benton County Skate Alliance (B.C.S.A.). The skate shots are decent, Collin. Maybe you should channel your energy in that direction instead of harassing the people that you want to have posting the shots.

The Eastern Oregonian reports that the 11,000 square foot Pendleton skatepark is complete and ready to open Saturday, October 18 and 19th. Check the schedule for Grand opening events all weekend because open skate hours are limited. Check out an extensive construction slideshow at Pendleton Parks and Recreation’s skatepark page.

37Signals makes great project management software called Basecamp. There’s a post today on their blog about a persentation on skateboard graphics.

Halloween is coming and so far I haven’t seen anything skateboard related outside of this big bag of Dubble Bubble with a skateboarder on it. Dubble Bubble was always a favorite when I was a kid, but damned if that bubble gum doesn’t lose it’s flavor after about two minutes. Still tastes the same though.

Here’s another short set of pics from the DIY bowl that Joesef Heffner has been sending in. I had actually planned on running Colin Walsh’s benefit pics first, but for some reason I don’t feel very sympathetic at the moment…

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.

Vectortuts has a gallery of vector-illustrated skate decks. You make vector graphics with programs like Adobe Illustrator. Vector illustrations are scalable, – that is, you can make them bigger or smaller without degrading line quality. So, if you need to use an illustration in a bunch of different sizes and shapes, vector is a good way to go. They scratch up just as easily on the bottom of a deck, though. A better look at those designs after the turn. The Vector tuts site has a great list of skateboard graphics resources too.

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.