Burnside Skatepark

The Burnside Skatepark as of May 18, 2019. Taken from the west wall of the skatepark.

There were only a few of us that thought that underneath the Burnside Bridge would be a good spot. It was one of only a few spots that stayed fairly dry when it rained and it rains a lot in Portland. There were other spots that were brought up, places like underneath the Fremont Bridge in NW and some other covered areas around Portland. I think one of the reasons some people didn't want to do anything under the Burnside Bridge was because it was nasty. Nasty as in old syringes, dirty mattresses, crapped in clothes, thick dust on the wall, and sketchy people wandering around. It was also someplace you didn't want to be caught alone at night. The crime rate in the area was very high due to the fact that the area was basically a no-mans land with empty lots and easy access to the passing freight trains.

— Mark Scott, https://burnsideproject.blogspot.com/

The DIY project was begun by skateboarders Bret Taylor, Chuck Willis, Osage Buffalo, Kent Dahlgren, Jay Grahm, and Mark "Red" Scott in the summer of 1990 by pouring concrete against Burnside's main wall, creating a vertical transition obstacle in the empty parking lot below the east-end of the Burnside bridge[1]. The skateboarders found inspiration to do so because the area was covered and protected from Portland's rainy season, allowing the park's riders to skate all year long. With a spare couple of bags of cement, the project was begun. The founders created a bank obstacle three feet by three feet in dimensions. The second obstacle created was another bank against the same wall, this time, this time with the dimensions of five by six feet. The banks were eventually merged into a single bank. The second major obstacle built was a mini bowl pocket along the north-end support beam of the bridge. Following these initial small obstacles, the founders of the DIY project struck a deal with nearby construction workers, employed by Ross Island Cement, building the I-84 on-ramp [2]. The skateboarders convinced the workers to give them leftover cement from the I-84 on-ramp construction. From then on, the project's construction exploded, with the skaters re-paving the ground of the parking lot.

Prior to the beginning of the skatepark project, the spot was known as "Hobo Camp," because of the numerous homeless people living there[2]. The founders of Burnside Skatepark noted that the space was originally littered with dirty mattresses, used needles, and thick dust.

The skatepark consists of obstacles inspired by transition and pool-skating. At the east end of the skatepark is the main wall. The main wall has a large concrete bank at its base, which allows smooth transition to the vertical wall-riding. Approximately fifteen feet south from the main wall is a bump utilized for "pumping" and building momentum. At the northeast end of the skatepark is a deep bowl with metal coping, which is adjacent to a bowl pocket on the east wall. Also apart of the east wall is a pyramid. At the northwest corner of the park is a shallow bowl with metal coping. At the south wall there is an extended quarter pipe that varies in height and has concrete coping. At the southwest corner are two bowl pockets facing each other, both with concrete coping.

Burnside is credited with the start of the DIY movement in the skateboarding industry. Its foundation lead to two of the largest skatepark-construction companies, Grindline Skateparks and Dreamland Skateparks, both of which have gone to build hundreds of additional skateparks across America[3]. Through the creation of Burnside, popular opinion is, it also helped to ignite the flame for the rebirth of public Skateparks in the United States. Additionally, Burnside popularized the use of poured concrete for DIY skate obstacles. Up until the park's popularization, nearly all conventional public skateparks' ramps and obstacles had been crafted out of wood and metal.

A number of obstacles first created at Burnside have been used in skateparks around the world. The initial pouring of concrete against Burnside's main wall lead to the creation of the "bank" obstacle, now a commonality in most modern skateparks. Burnside is also credited with the popularization of the pump wall and vertical wall in skateboarding.

Because of its foundation on Halloween night, every year there is Halloween anniversary celebration held at Burnside. This usually includes skateboarding, live music, appearances from professional skateboarders, and a skate family type reunion.

In 2016, an apartment complex known called the "Yard" was constructed west of the Burnside skatepark. There was a lot of speculation on what would happen to the park, with supporters of the skatepark creating petitions to preserve the skatepark. Ultimately, the skatepark did not experience any loss of territory, just a loss of sunlight from the building blockage. The construction of the apartment complex obstructed sunlight from the skatepark, causing Burnside to be much darker during the day. To compensate for this, Yard's chief developer agreed to install lights for the skatepark.[4]

The skatepark has been featured in video games such as Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2X, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3, Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX, and Grind Session. Burnside Skatepark was also featured on Television multiple times, MTV Sports in 1995, mentioned multiple times during the Dew Tour in Portland, Portlandia, Jackass among others. The 1993 film Free Willy, the film “Untraceable”, the film “The Hunted” and the 2007 film Paranoid Park, as a setting for the eponymous skate park. Recently in 2019 Netflix Series “Trinkets”

The skatepark has also been featured in a number of notable skate videos:

• Thrasher Magazine, "Truth Hurts" 1993.
• Spitfire Wheels, "Spitfire" 1993.
• Think, "Just Another Day on the Range" 1994.
• 411 video magazine “spot check” issue 26.
• 151, "Too Loud for the Crowd" 1998.
• Antihero, "Fucktards" 1998.
• Transworld Magazine, "Sight Unseen" 2001.
• Element, "Elementality" 2004.
• Black Label, "God Save the Label" 2008.
• Antihero, "Destination Unknown" 2014.
• FA & Hockey, "Fight/Fuck" 2015.

Burnside has appeared in multiple books & also publications and editorials. Including local newspapers, The Oregonian, Wilamette Week, the Mercury.

Burnside photographs have been Published in skateboard magazines, Thrasher, Transworld, Slap, Skateboarder, Juice, multiple zines, Frank 151 & basically too many to document.