I am bumping this post back to the top to remind you. It’s a week from Saturday Click the register here link below to go to the site and sign up to help. Maybe you can apply this toward your community service hours or at least your karmic debt. April 28 is Earth Day and various organizations including SOLV (Stop Oregon Litter and Vandalism) will observe the day by doing things like graffiti abatement. Friends of Pier Park is coordinating the event. They want us to sign up at the SOLV website. They will be able to use anyone who shows up but SOLV will provide water and Clif bars based on how many people sign up at the website. I will be leading two efforts, skatepark graffiti removal and litter pickup around the skatepark and along the road boundary behind the skatepark. You can sign up and then help with those specific tasks. Then show up at the covered picnic area and they will send you off with Mark Conahan. The event lasts from 9:00 to 1:00 and will be followed by a barbecue. register here It should be very satisfying to clean up the graffiti. Parks will provide…

I bumped this back up to the top to remind you. The show should be good. Smay from Rebel Skates is running a raffle to benefit SPS. We’re going to get something covered to skate if it kills us. Buy a raffle ticket. He’ll have a board or two, hats, shirts, and some stuff from Thrasher. Check out the band’s website You can hear some of their music here.

Nothing much much funny I can write about cervical cancer. Here’s a commercial for a vaccination program using Gardasil. It features a female skater. Looks like she’s not using a stunt double. Hard to tell, the skating shots are at a distance. Anyone know this girl? Oh wait, I’ve got it. We’re glad to be able to provide this public health cervix to our female readers. Hold on, hold on! For all you female Clash fans, this is a public cervix announcement… with guitars!

Anyone who read Thrasher in the 80’s should remember references to the Capitola Classic downhill race series. They covered it when it was going, and pined for it when it wasn’t. It seemed there was always a Capitola rumor in On Board Trash. Of course, seeing as how my own front yard ramp got mentioned there once, they pretty much printed anything. Rumors be damned! Former competitor and second place women’s finisher Judi Oyama is doing her best to resurrect the Capitola Classic. She’s in talks with the city to try and bring it back. Not bad for someone who got uninvited to the race for being a chick. Judi has two recent appearances in local news concerning the Capitola Classic and getting the new generation, and especially women involved with their own scene. The poster is Jim Phillips design from the 1980 race and the picture is by Judi’s father. More Capitola links after the jump.

There’s something wrong with the Skaters for Public Skateparks site this afternoon. Looks like it has been hijacked by Nosferatu and his evil minions.

ID check, supervision, consent, annual fee, per use fee, helmet, elbow pads, kneepads. A problem exists when facilities designed to promote action sports are more of a burden than a blessing. This burden is the Southern California skate park standard. From the editorial titled Skate parks constrained by unnecessary regulation by former skatepark employee Kory (Webster?) Prindle in the North County Times in Escondido, CA. I don’t want to beat a dead horse, but if you are from the land of free and relatively unregulated skateparks (i.e. Oregon, Washington, Idaho…) it can be a shocker when you travel elsewhere and suddenly have to worry about how much the park will cost, does it require elbow pads of all things, and whether or not the park will even be open during school hours or on holidays. it’s about time someone spoke up.

You think your scene is bad? At least you don’t have to make knee pads out of palm fronds and bamboo. The Uganda Skateboarding Union Is an organization dedicated towards trying to keep Ugandan youth alive by giving them something positive to do while educating them on social and health issues, like HIV/AIDS. They just got NGO certified, which means your skateboard donations won’t be hit with crippling import tariffs. From the looks of those neon wheels, Uganda is receiving donations from 1980’s era time travelers. They also take cash. Unfortunately they are importing ideology too – now that they have a skate park built, they want to put a fence around it. The skateboard scene in Uganda was started by a visiting South African named Shael Swart who built the first ramp with Ugandan local Jackson Mubiru. Those efforts were discovered by another visitor, a Canadian named Brian Lye. Brian has taken it to a completely different level. Spend some time checking out the pictures. It’s a warm and fuzzy skateboarding experience. Much better than the alternative. Right now the program is active in one small town, which I’m guessing must be in southern Uganda, since children in the…

While we were out… Seattle’s City Center skate park or SeaSk8 as it sometimes gets called, was demolished to make way for a new Bill Gates foundation complex. January 3 of 2007 marked the second time in recent years that the city of Seattle tore down a perfectly good skatepark to appease developers. Of course some might argue that the Seattle Center park was not exactly perfectly good. As with Ballard, more money was allocated to replacing the skatepark. Talk about inefficiency, why not just build two new parks and leave the old ones accessible? It’s clear that I don’t understand or appreciate eminent domain and the wheels of commerce. Pre/post demolition pics, links and more after the jump. [Credits: Demo Picture – Auggiedawg, Fascist Bill Gates – The Software War

The process has begun on the next two Ed Benedict Park in southeast and Gabriel Park in Southwest. If you live in any of the neighborhoods listed or nearby either of these parks you might want to attend these neighborhood meetings. The current plan for Ed Benedict’s 8000 square feet is 70% street, 30% transition. Some guys are working hard to get a plaza-style setup there. It would be worth it for vert skaters to participate to make sure the tranny component gets done right. There will only be 2400 sq ft for tranny but it should be something neighborhood vert skaters can use. The balance at Gabriel park will be weighted more toward transition and there has been talk of a snake run. Read on for details