And by “skate spots” I mean the small skate areas installed by a Parks department, not some naturally occurring skate spot. This year Vancouver, Washington added three new skate spots to the three that already existed, with one more to begin construction in a “couple months.” On top of that, they’ve got two skateparks, granted one of them is a pre turn of the millennium P.O.S.. They’ve even got a web page that lists them all.

Sure, these spots all kind of have a generic look to them, possibly due to the fact that they mostly made from prefab concrete elements, but still, they are probably fun spots to session. A network of many small spots can be achieved gradually as money permits instead having to wait for extended period with nothing until a more substantial amount of money can be raised. A town saturated with skate spots could be one way to go, as long as they didn’t start repeating the same prefab elements.

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Bogtown Boyz is a vintage slide show featuring 149 pictures of most if not all of the historic UK skatespots featured in the excellent documentary Rollin’ Through The Decades. OK, I haven’t fact checked this since I haven’t watched Rollin’ in a while, but the names are familiar, Meanwhile Gardens, Rolling Thunder, Romford. A rare construction photo as well. I still have to make it through all the shots. It’s a Flash player, so it’s a bit less responsive than straight HTML, but you can sit back and let it play. The only thing missing is volume control for that Tony Alva vs. Jay Adams song, which is great, but tedious after the third time in a row. That tune was a blind link on SkateDaily quite awhile back, I still haven’t been able to find out who the band is.

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Stephanie Murdock sent in some pics of La Caverne from back in 2006 before it was what it became. Mostly interesting from a historical standpoint. I don’t know if everyone else appreciates the “in progress” type shots as much as I do, but I’m going to keep posting them anyway. Is it just me, or does this look like a stage set for the next Johnny Rad gig?

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New cameras aren’t usually something I’d feel compelled to cover unless it somehow impacts skateboarding photography, but there are some extenuating circumstances here. First of all, they are using skateboarding a little in the promo materials, which isn’t a big deal by itself. Nice free advertising for Independent Trucks though… The D90 is two steps forward in the evolution of the camera I’ve been using for skate shots for the past three years or so, the D70. At the time, it was the first consumer digital SLR that had the option to use equivalent of a 16mm fisheye, my go to lens for skate photography. The D90 that was just announced improves on the D70 and D80 before it incrementally as well as adding the ability to shoot HD resolution movie clips up to five minutes long. The skatespot they use in the demo footage looks like it is in the Pacific Northwest somewhere, dare I say Seattle or Vancouver? One of our readers should be able to identify the location. I’ve got some stills pulled out plus more camera talk after the jump.

[Source: Gizmodo]

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Holy cow, it’s street coverage in Skate and Annoy… sort of. It’s still at a skate spot, and it’s still on tranny, but so what. Pete Lewis sent in a sequence of Fitz (of Rage!) doing a blunt slide at Tenny Creek, one of Vancouver Washington’s neighborhood skate spots. I’ve been sort of hassling him to become a contributor, but he’s a busy man or otherwise uninterested, so this is better than nothing. Why isn’t he riding his pro model? Static and animated version after the jump.

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Ryan Hass hipped us to these shots, dude. They were taken in Rio at a pedestrian underpass south of the Flamingo Park. You can see full frame enalarged versions at Ramp Locals Only. Brasil - Brazil… Next thing you know we’ll have to start calling it Myanmar instead of Burma. I mean, George W doesn’t bother, why should we? (Warning! You have just experienced sarcasm.)

Danimal called my attention to an email from Vancouver-Clark Washington Parks & Recreation that I’d been meaning to follow up on. They added a couple of new skate spots in addition to the “Extreme Sports Park” at Pacific Community Park. I meant to go check them out, but Sam over at SkateOregon already has. He’s got site photos, map links, and links to the appropriate Parks & Rec pages with history, construction photos, and other details. No need to repost that stuff here, so head on over to SkateOregon. Vancouver Washington has three “skate spots” now. The one at the top is at Tenny Creek, and looks the most promising. It’s simple but has a lot to offer. I think we may be approaching the day where these things get built out of habit instead of as an exception. Screw the good old days - these are the good old days!