Sure, we watch Nascar and downhill skateboard races for the same reason: The crashes. Here’s a video from a recent outlaw downhill event in Oregon. I guess they didn’t actually make it to the finals bracket because the event got shot down by the Sherif’s department, but they were able to determine the final standings to everyone’s approval. Looks like these guys are hauling ass. There’s some unexplained miniramp complex footage at the very end, and yes, you can watch guys pile into each other on the same turn, over and over again. - Thanks to Casey Morrow and our own Enemy Combatant(!) for the tip.

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A picture is worth a thousand blah blah blah…

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I don’t think I’ve ever seen this approach to building a bowl. It seem like one where somebody would suggest it and then more experienced heads would intervene and say something like “Sure, it’s possible, but not really advisable.” In any case, these shots come to us from 13th Street Skateboarding, a modest web site without pretension that is dedicated to covering skateboarding in Missouri. This same park has age restrictions, meaning if you are over 17 you can only skate at certain times. Ridiculous, but not unheard of in Missouri. The St Charles County skatepark near St Louis Missouri also has such restrictions, although I’ve heard they have loosened somewhat. I love the Midwest. That’s why I moved to Oregon! But for all my fallen brothers who were left behind, check out 13 Street.

OK, Officer Salvatore Rivieri doesn’t just hate skateboarders. He hates radio controlled cars, or maybe street artists or most likely himself, because he’s been driving that ridiculous go-cart police car for at least a year. Another video has surfaced of officer Rivieri serving and protecting. Apparently this guy has a very short fuse. Here’s hoping he gets an attitude adjustment via painfully boring and embarrassing anger management counseling, or better yet, an old fashioned pink slip. What a dick. - Thanks to Eric Cherry for the tip.

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I take one day off from Skate and Annoy and I’m getting pummeled by this video of a Baltimore police officer berating and briefly abusing a kid. I think he’s just pissed because he got stuck driving around in that ridiculous glorified golf cart instead of a real police cruiser. He talks about the kids disrespecting the badge and the Police Department, when really he’s more disrespectful of both by being an overweight slob and a bully. Keep watching to the very end to catch the punchline.

I actually first got this from Stephanie Murdock, president of Skatepark of Baltimore. S.O.B. (Their acronym, not my doing!) is a nonprofit organization trying to get an appropriately large, well designed and constructed skatepark built in city of Baltimore. She’s sent out a sort of a press release with some intelligent thoughts on the matter. I’ve included it with the video after the jump. Please, let’s try to discuss this constructively. If you can’t be constructive, at least be amusing.

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Higher resolution version here if you want to have it put on a t-shirt for tomorrow’s grand opening.

Friends of Pier Park heard from a Parks representative “…this past summer many people using the park have been given 30-day exclusion notices because of breaking leash laws and drinking laws. Specific rules about park use will be posted on the new kiosk. He will also speak with the head of park security, about more enforcement.”

A cop also mentioned this to me when he saw all the empties we had collected after the Pier Park Anniversary session. So watch yourselves. It would suck to get banned from the park.

I think you can get a picnic permit if you are having a party there. Check with Parks.

Apparently you’ll get your car towed if you skateboard near Dresden, Germany. So implies this sign. Want to hear a good song? Listen to The Master Race in Outer Space from the Vandals second LP. When in Rome.

And I thought Seattle was the only city that liked to tear down perfectly good skateparks without making er, concrete plans to replace them. You can add Huntington Beach California to that short list of cities. The OC Register reports that the plans for a new stadium will definitely eliminate the existing park without including a replacement. Ironically, California has just started running a second tourism commercial that features skateboarding as a draw. What are you going to do about that Governor Schwarzenegger? Your state’s skateparks are being terminated! [Photo Right: Mark Martinez, The Register]

I had meant to include this in the Disciplinary Architecture post but it got a way from me. Sit-Stopping devices existed long before the idea of skate stopping anything was ever considered. (Those sitters are intimidating and cause property damage. Plus, they could sue me!) Skateboarders should band together with our wide-bottomed brothers and sisters to effect social change. The lazy and the active should unite as one! Transfer has a massive photo collection of anti-sit devices. Some of the devices are likely meant to prevent skating as well, but most are clearly aimed at your ass. I’ve seen these things before and not given them much thought, aside from “Why doesn’t the man want anyone sitting here?” As long as we are forming a union here, let’s reach out to our prone brothers who just want to pass out on a park bench. Somewhere out there somebody has probably compiled a gallery of anti-sleeping modifications on public benches. You’ve seen them before, the large bumps that prevent a person from laying down across a bench. I propose we name the group Construction of Anti-devices Needs Toppling - or C.A.N.T.. While I start making the “U.S. Architectural Discipline off our backs/butts/feet!” protest signs, you can check out the Anti-Sit Archives.

[Source: Architecture of Control]