Portland Spoke – The Official Blog of Travel Portland

Meyer Freeman of Oregon Sports Authority, your humble author, and my son with the Skate Park champions at the 2010 Dew Tour

If you happened to read my previous post, you know that I’m a huge fan of skateboarding, and a skater myself. So, I’m pretty hyped that the Dew Tour is in Portland today through the weekend, and it’s bigger than ever.

While the entire event, in its seventh year coming to Portland,  is bigger than ever before, I’m particularly amped about the amazing skate bowl that was constructed for this year’s tour – it looks absolutely huge from the photos, and by all accounts the pros are impressed with its construction, saying that it feels like a permanent concrete structure rather than a traveling set-up.

Whether you’re a fan of BMX, skateboarding, street, dirt or vert — or your kids are — this year’s tour is sure to be a blast. Check out the Alli Sports Dew Tour page for full info, including schedule, ticket details and more.

I’ll be attending tomorrow (8/12) with my son, and will be tweeting during the day, so follow @PortlandBryan on Twitter for updates and pics.

OK. I’m not really that good at it, and at my age falls hurt a good bit more than they used to, but I still skateboard — a lot. That’s one of the things that I really love about Portland — Portland embraces skateboarding completely. Not only do we have a wide variety of indoor and outdoor parks (some fully or partially publicly funded), we have designated skateboarding routes downtown.

Here’s what the Wall Street Journal had to say about Portland’s skate culture a couple of years back.

And here are a handful of links about skateboarding in Portland:

• Portland skateboarding laws/rules and skate route map
• A woefully incomplete list of Portland skate shops
• Skateboard park advocacy
• Burnside Skate Park – one of the most famous (and brutal) in the country
• A list of Portland skate parks from Cal Skate – Portland’s oldest and coolest skate shop

Given the many official and underground skate spots in Portland, it’s really hard to find a good, comprehensive list of parks and routes. Readers, what are your favorite spots to skateboard in and around Portland?