The Oregon Trifecta was this weekend. It’s a three day skate contest at three different concrete parks in Oregon: Tigard, Lincoln City, and Battleground (well, Battleground is actually Washington). The past three days have also seen record setting heat, so rather than stand around in the sweltering heat on top of a giant reflector (ie light colored concrete), I opted for the Unofecta. Tigard is the closest park to downtown Portland, so I hit that stop for a couple hours, followed by the “Pool Rules” art show later that night.

Jam format skate contests on parks with a variety of blind spots are deadly, and there were some very close calls, and some unfortunate collisions… apparently one at todays event at Battleground was even worse. But that’s the way it goes, and those things happen regardless.

On the whole, Trifecta is the way these things should be. No bullshit, just a good skate contest. With the Dew Tour about to go down in a few days, Trifecta was a refreshing reality check into what a skateboard contest is.

Saturday night Hurley (the main sponsor of the Trifecta this year) put on the “Pool Rules” art show at the Nike SB skate warehouse in Portland. Pool Rules is an exhibition of art from four generations of skateboarding, centered around backyard pool skating. Duane Peters, Rick Charnoski, Lance Mountain, Chris Ortiz, Christian Hosoi, Bryce Kanights and a number of others exhibit work and artifacts from the early days of skateboarding through modern times.

Tony Alva had the first production Alva skateboard on display. Salba had a number of cool objects of the past, including a piece of coping from the Pipeline, and tile from the original Combi Pool. The legendary Jay Adams also had some work on display. While I will say it wasn’t quite my thing, it was interesting to see what’s coming out of his head. Hosoi on the other hand had some nice line drawings, and Pat Ngoho had some really vibrant prints.

There was a ton of history in Pool Rules, and while it was only in Portland for one night, you can catch it at Hurley HQ on August 26th, and at ASR in San Diego from September 8-10th. Thanks to Brooke Geery for photos Hosoi and Jay Adams’ art… I slacked on taking photos, or maybe I was just in awe of the coping from Pipeline.