Fishbone Skatepark is the name of the entity that ended up using all the donated ramps from the X Games appearance in Mexico City. It’s open, and Urbeskate Magazine has the action photos. Chica Rider off shoot Open Skull is an organization set up for teaching and promoting skateboarding for girls, which is kind of what I though Chica Rider was, but… Open Skull has already had lessons at Fishbone. I guess it’s 30 pesos or about $3 to skate there. I don’t know how that translates in the standard of living there. – Thanks to John Aguilar for the tip.

Luciano Peixoto and Gustavo Tesch sent in some coverage of the 30th anniversary party at Swell Skate Park in Brazil. Vans sponsored an event called Old is Cool and kicked it off with a contest in the brand new bowl at the park. Check it out

Girls get no respect skateboarding. Whether it’s some sleazy businessman making cheesy adverts, some sleazy web site editor reposting them, or Fuel TV running jiggle girls on top of the airing of the Skate Girl documentary. What happens when they end up on Mexican TV? Well, they get introduced by cast full of Cuchi Cuchi girls bouncing up and down in their seats like Charo. And of course, the closing set has the cast doing some lame sidewalk surfing in place. Chica Rider is a Mexican organization devoted to girls who skate. They were profiled on some sort of entertainment show on Mexican TV.

Yeah, we’ve got readers in Sweden, but we’ve also go them in Brazil (Excuse me, Brasil) too. My name is Luciano and I’m one of the people who make skateboarding run here in south of brasil (porto alegre,RS) we maintain a 30 year old skate park named Swell Skate Camp, a skate park located in the very south of Brazil, its cold and it rains a LOT here! Build by skateboardes back in the seventies, in the middle of nowhere, in the heart of a forest, it contains a snake run ended in a gnarly hand made 12ft bowl. Also here a mini ramp, and last week our NEW LOVE has born, a BRAND NEW BOWL due to the help of 25 skateboarders with some cash and an idea. Also theres a mountain board course. Its like a farm, perfect to chill and skate, just 20 miles form the city… Well, we’ll be hosting an old school to event to celebrate with a INAUGURAL session. The OPENING day will be held on May 31st and June 1st.the event is the Vans Old Is Cool 2008. It’s gonna be the first event on our new pool/bowl whatever u call it and…

Apparently this Choco Milk is actually made with bits of real panther. At least that’s what the packaging would have me believe. John Aguilar hipped me to this, but fortunately I didn’t have to go to Mexico to get it since they had an ample supply in the “Ethnic” section of my local grocery store.

Earlier there was some discussion about whether or not anything good ever comes from the X Games. I brought up the fact that they sometimes leave their ramps behind, and John Aguilar pointed out that such is the case in Mexico City. Mexican skate rag ReSkate reports that last year’s X Games vert and street ramps are being set up as a public skatepark in a few weeks. I can’t read Spanish, so I’ll have to take his word for that. And speaking of countries battling US skateboard manufacturers and extreme sports, the AST Dew Tour is opening in China this month as well. I guess there’s already a lot of skateboards there, so why not? Along with the usual contenders, Chinese athletes will be allowed to compete as well. How Extreme!™ is China? This 2005 article in the Christian Science Monitor (!?) talks about how Chinese officials promote certain cultural imports from Western countries, but most fade from popularity after the propaganda stops. That was three years ago, so maybe it’s not a fad in China. It probably helps that so many American companies are having skateboards made in China. I wonder if the top Chinese skaters ride skateboards…

Our friend Tom Miller writes: Just back from a work trip to Curitiba, Brasil. Conahan asked to shoot photos of anything interesting skate-related. Just when I was thinking I wasn’t going to see anything of note, we arrived at the Oscar Niemeyer Museum. The museum structure is novel, but skaters are going to be more interested in the walkway. I couldn’t help but think if you call it “art” the dollars come running at you. If you call it “50 feet of mini ramp at Ed Benedict Park” suddenly the budget doesn’t allow for it until the mythological “phase 2.” We don’t need any more skateparks. We need public art that coincidentally accommodates skateboarding. Nuff said.

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction? Sort of. It turns out they all aren’t wife-beating child-haters. Portland has had at least one Police officer firmly entrenched in helping skateboarders move forward with the now completed plan to revamp Pier Park. (Name MC?) There’s also an officer in the Cayman Islands who lets kids skate on his backyard mini ramp, and there is also an outreach program in Lee-On-The-Solent or Hampshire ( I know! It’s a UK town or district, I can’t tell with all the wacky names they have) where Bobbies attend skate clinics with kids at local skateparks to reinforce positive interaction with police and kids. [Photo: Left and bottom – Solent News Photo. Top – Brent Fuller for the Cayman Compass ]

How telling that the day after our country celebrated our independence I end up making a flippant post about how the US government is helping to fund “extreme sports facilities” in El Salvador in hopes of combating violence amongst disaffected youth. As if Extreme!™ Democracy wasn’t enough (see Iraq). The News Blaze has an article titled Extreme Sports Offer Salvadoran Youth Refuge from Violence – United States provides extreme sports facilities to Salvadoran youth center. This popular rejection of violence is what the founders of Fundacion Salvador del Mundo (FUSALMO) hoped to see when they created a recreational facility for the youth of Soyapango in 2003… …In 2006, with a grant from the U.S. government, FUSALMO expanded its facilities to include extreme sports: bicycle motocross (BMX), skateboarding and break dancing. Break dancing and skateboarding? Sounds like 1987, not 2007. I guess skateboarding heals all wounds. I’m sure a few American-made prefab ramps will make up for the fact that the USA backed a bloody dictator for all those years. I can’t think of a better way to say “I’m sorry for the death squads and you know, those 30,000 executions. Let’s put this unpleasantness behind us with some method airs…

Revolution in Nicaragua! Nicaragua now has it’s first transition in a skatepark thanks to Nathan Curry and his team. The quarter pipe was the focus of all the skaters’ attention and it was great to see all the guys throwing themselves at it trying to figure it out. After all, it’s the first transition that most of them have ever ridden. Needless to say, I had to answer a lot of questions about how to do axle stalls and rock-n-rolls. It was great!