Here’s my video wrap up of our mini tour of southern Oregon skateparks that I made with Rich and MC on the occasion of Matt Kline’s BBQ session fundraiser for his bowl in Grants Pass Oregon. With apologies to Steve Grover, because I wouldn’t have brought my video camera if he hadn’t called me up and told me to shoot some “Spring Break” footage. When I lost the photos from this trip I was only able to avoid completely losing my mental health by the calming realization that I at least had some fun video footage. My apologies to the park locals who cooperated for the still photos. Chances are Rich might have some of you if you were in Winston, Matt’s Bowl, Myrtle Creek or Harrisburg. Yes, I am accepting donations towards a steadicam…

This week’s Shot of the Week is from Rich Burton’s fully functioning memory card. It’s Addikt Skateboards rider Shane Bell, a half hour or so before he broke his leg at Matt’s Bowl benefit BBQ in Grants Pass, Or. This is a cropped version of Rich’s shot. Check out the full frame Shot of the Week.

Road Trip! Matt Klein is throwing a party as a fundraiser for the expansion of his backyard skate oasis. We rode through there nine months ago on a skate trip. Matt is a great guy and the bowl is rad! I can’t wait check out his new additions. coincidentally there are a couple of new skateparks open down that way – Myrtle Creek and Winston. More BBQ details after the jump.

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.

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.

Remember all those ripping skaters who came out of southern Oregon? Well I’m guessing we can expect a new crop in the near future. Matt Kline sent us some snaps of a couple of projects currently underway: Shoey’s Coos Bay, Oregon and Grindline in Myrtle Creek, Oregon. Dreamland’s Winston, Oregon project is also rumored to break ground in the near future. More shots after the turn.

Newline Skateparks and California Skateparks have some concrete poured at Ed Benedict Skate Plaza in southeast Portland, Oregon. I hadn’t been out there for over a month so I was excited to see some concrete. The sign says it’s supposed to open early fall 2008. Looks like there is still a lot of work to be done. More phone snaps after the turn.

This post was originally static HTML, it was backdated and inserted in the blog because it was too small to pretend it was an actual feature. And yes, this does hurt my OCD! Can you believe I used to have to hand code this? I integrated the blog into this site in July of 2006.

Well see, there’s this square pool in Portland, and here are some pics.

This post was originally static HTML, it was backdated and inserted in the blog. And yes, this does hurt my OCD! Can you believe I used to have to hand code this? I integrated the blog into this site in July of 2006.

So, they had this Skate The Mountain contest at Windells, which is this Woodward-type place near Mt Hood in Oregon. It was kind of strange because they had a decent purse – 2k for first place and a thousand for second – but it wasn’t promoted very strongly. In fact, Windells’ own web site made no mention of it. It’s like they didn’t want people showing up. In any case, it was a good time. Everyone was relaxed and riding hard. We showed up during the “Pro” qualifiying runs, having missed the younger kids and the girls division. I took some pictures in a very lazy fashion, and it shows. Some of these pics are not from actual contest runs, so sue me. Hey, it’s the interent. Who cares? Before the semi finals there was a best trick contest for $100 in the street area that I didn’t pay attention to. Also, I can’t remember all the names in the results, so I won’t tell you any of them*. Except Ben Krahn came in second. If you can help me out with any names for the photo captions, send an email (kilwag at skateandannoy dot com) and I’ll fix it. Try and tell me which page you are talking about (copy and paste the url). Other than that, the only thing I need to mention is that when the contest ended some guy on a crotch rocket made a big show out of revving up his engine and leaving in as loud and fast a manner as possible, which made it all more amusing when everyone drove by him on the way back west and saw him getting a ticket from the fuzz…

– kilwag

Stop the presses! New and improved photo captions and results provided by Tom “Wally” Inouye, with some additional help from Mike Estes at sk8pdxdaily.com who would like me to remind you that 17 year old contest winner Vincent Del Valle is from Seattle and Skates for DC. Scroll down to see the results. Tom also mentioned that this year’s event was put together on short notice, and next year’s event will be better promoted. I hope it isn’t promoted too well, because it had a nice local feel to it.

Skate The Mountain 2005 At Windells Results

Girls:
1st place Zea Page
2nd place Kristin Ebeling
3rd place Shalako Lee

16 & Under:
1st place Oudulay Pilauanh
2nd place Alex Dinwiddie
3rd place Mark Cooper

17 to 29:
1st place Tony Distrola
2nd place Andre Cameron
3rd place Collin Wright

30 & Over:
1st place Kirby Phelps
2nd place Tom Inouye
3rd place Jake Gaynor

PRO:
1st place Vincent Del Valle $2,000.00
2nd place Ben Krahn $1,000.00
3rd place Matt Beach $500.00