Last week I was at X Games. Next week I'll be back on the Dew Tour, this time in Portland. In between, I'm missing the series of contests that I always find myself wishing the others were more like: The Oregon Trifecta. Damn.

Here's my argument: The concrete skatepark revolution that has Portland and the upper northwest as its epicenter has had the effect of making skateboarding faster, more fluid, more technical, and more gnarly, incorporating everything the Dogtown dudes set down in the day, anything that was ever good about vert skateboarding, and everything cool and tech about modern street skating. I'm talking about huge, sprawling flow parks that are big, intimidating, and offer a little bit of everything for any skater and every style of skateboarding, plus some crazy things most skaters would never have dreamed up but are now making use of... and creating entirely new ways of riding wooden planks on metal trucks with urethane wheels while they're at it.

My summation of the general principles driving the way the guys at Grindline, Dreamland, and now the entire city of Portland are approaching skateparks: If you build it, they will come. If you build it better than any average skater could reasonably need, then everybody who rides it will rise to the occasion: The gnarlier you make it, the more spectacular the skating will be. Contrast that against the cruddy little park your suburb just commissioned from a playground equipment company, or even against the best park courses you're now seeing in the major competitions that have the letter X and the word "action" in their branding: One has been leaning towards more "authentic" street skating, or at least skate-plaza style courses; the other is sticking with big wooden parks. Both have their advantages and can be a ton of fun, but neither is really nailing what's marvelous about the modern skatepark era.

Here's what rules about the Oregon Trifecta contests and why, actually, this kind of skating contest might ultimately be MORE palatable to mainstream audiences than what's been previously showcased by the biggies: Concrete parks are big, tight, and -- at least the way Grindline and Dreamland are building them -- provide for infinite lines. Translation: The skating you'll see there has all the big air and technical trick potential of a vert contest, it's a lot faster, and you'll also see a much wider range of skateboarding -- and more creative skateboarding -- than is possible in any vert ramp or on most of the contrived competition park courses. If TV viewers could see Rune Glifberg, Benji Galloway, Bucky Lasek, (I'm only naming names those viewers will have heard from watching these events, to prove the point) barking grinds on pool coping and ripping lines in the best concrete parks, then everybody would understand why these people are among the best skateboarders in the world and why Shaun White, as great as he is, still has a lot of learning to do. And while my personal bias is clearly in favor of bowl riding and pool skating, the fact is that these parks now also offer all kinds of awesome street and skate plaza type stuff too. Frankly, I'm most impressed by skaters who can skate it all, which is precisely why the Orgeon Trifecta is so great.

Portland: I'm a few days late and bummed on the action I'm missing, but I'm on my way. Please don't rain too much on me.

Trifecta results update tomorrow!

I'm working on a bigger post about M-m-m-m-att H-h-h-h-ensley, and also gearing up for the Denver Free Flow contest this weekend -- my first chance to check out the indoor shopping mall park operated here by the Woodward folks -- and mapping out my adventures in Portland for next week surronding the Vans Invitational, so in the meantime here's a little news blurb, via the Mercury News, worth checking out: Remember the 70s Cali drought that made that Dogtown documentary what it was? This time it's mosquitos. Board? Check. Helmet? Check. Bailing buckets? Check. Bug juice? Don't dare forget it. Get your DEET on.

If you've had your fill of the X Games heroes, it's time for a good dose of Anithero. Thrasher and SkateDaily are each pointing to the new Antihero photoblog, and now we're getting on the bandwagon too. Drunken escapades, photoshop wizardry, and paint-markered moustaches on passed out people herald the debut of the new online shenanigans from the skateboard team you wouldn't want your kid paying attention to. Enjoy!

Shaun White won the Vert Finals at X Games in another last-minute clincher like he's been pulling on the Dew Tour. Shaun White is great: He goes big, spins a lot, does cool varials and a lot of flip tricks, is finally starting to get some of the lip tricks people have been giving him trouble about, and more power to him: His grandma was there to watch, and she said he's the greatest athlete on earth and who I am I to argue. But his win wasn't really much of a surprise and, actually, neither was Pierre Luc Gagnon's 2nd place finish, so I'll focus on this, more surprising: Matthias Ringstrom in third! (That's him floating in the guy-in-the-sky shot above, either skating in the X Games 13 Vert Finals or testing out one of those big leaf blowers the parachute guys use to train on, you be the judge. Credit: Eric Lars Bakke/ESPN Images/Shazamm).

I would also have been stoked if 16 year old Alex Perelson had made the podium. He's going huge, sticking 720s, and skating super well, and it's awesome to see him out here holding his own at both the X Games and on the Dew Tour. He was in 3rd until Shaun White's last run and ended up in 4th, but we haven't heard the last of him. 

I also would have been stoked to see last year's champ Sandro Dias drop in after White made a big show of throwing his helmet around and celebrating his win when there was still one more credible skater to go, but Dias seems to be in a funk this year. Last year, when I asked him what was driving all his success, he said he'd been having girl troubles before but had cleared it up and was skating with new focus. Sandro, here's hoping you get that cleared up again, because Shaun White can't do a Gnar Jar or a 900 or make the coping scream and we miss you. 

I'm not going to say much more about the Men's Vert Finals because watching this contest live and in person sucks. If you were fortunate to watch it on Tivo or DVR delay with your thumb on fast forward, you saw a better show than anybody out at the Home Depot Center. We were out there sunburning our asses off, with nowhere to sit, no shade, and no good sightlines for anybody anywhere, and there were delays between skaters for as long as 10 minutes -- especially annoying since almost all of the runs had bails in them and new rules dictate you can't get back on board once you fall. I'd watch a skater for 15 seconds, watch him bail, then spend the next ten minutes reapplying sunscreen, trying to shade the back of my neck with my hands, and shelling out four bucks for a lemonade before some other guy came out and skated for 4 seconds. There was a huge crowd of people gathered under the shade, sitting on the ground, watching the big-screen TV next to the vert ramp and wishing they were home on their La-Z-Boys like you. 

Much more thrilling: The rally car race, where they kept things moving, cars got smashed up, and I got to sit in the shade like a contented old man. I'm going to do a whole post on it as soon as I hit send on this one, even though it has almost nothing to do with skateboarding except that DC Shoe Co. honcho Ken Block made the podium. Sound good?

I missed the X Games Best Trick contest last night because the Banquet team was being stalked by paparazzi at Mao's in Venice, but apparently while I was scarfing string beans and Mao's Delight and swigging ginger green tea and watching the guys outside test their light meters, Chris Cole did a double 360 flip and added 10G and another Gold medal to his X Games 13 haul. YouTube it here. It's pretty sick. In what will surely prove a source of great heckling material for all his friends and the upstanding core skaters over at Zero Skateboards, he responded by saying, "Winning cash is cool. Wait, no, that's a bad quote." I'm quoting directly from the ESPN press release here, folks: It is what it is.

Above shot of Cole doing something less impressive than a double 360 flip is from the Street Finals. Photo Credit: Eric Lars Bakke/ESPN images/Shazamm.