Somehow or other I got included on an email trail with Bruce Adams, whom I don’t know, but he replied this sequence of Terrell Schmidt going over the death hole at a spot I just saw in a magazine somewhere, but can’t remember where it is. These are just a few frames from the middle. You can see the whole thing after the jump.

Tracy Sigler built a mostly modular miniramp in his basement and documented the hell out of the whole process. It cost him about $800 to get all the materials delivered to his door to build what looks like a 12 foot wide 3 and a half foot tall mini ramp. I’ve built a handful of ramps in my day, and I’ve been known to over engineer my structures so that they could withstand large earthquakes (or small Grover-quakes.) Tracy builds them right. He’s more of a Yankee Workshop ramp builder than a measure once cut twice guy. Er, I assume tracy is a guy, or maybe I’m just a sexist pig. Tracy even has a nice diagram on how to set the coping (too low!), which is one area where a lot of first time ramp builders balk. Check out Tracy’s basement ramp break down, he/she is Heavy Duty.

The saga of Caz’s ramp continues. When assembled, The ramp is 75 feet long and ten and a half feet deep in the deep end. It’s half shallow, half deep with a connecting hip section. You can see pictures and video of the ramp in it’s various states on Antigravity Press, and supposedly on the Plywood Benders site. I never skated this thing but heard about it every now and again. It was a private operation in a barn somewhere, then it was supposed to be some sort of a skate camp type operation that never got off the ground, and lastly it was being assembled in an indoor skatepark in Troutdale Oregon that never opened due to permitting problems. Now it can be yours if you have an extra $10,000 and a really, really large garage. The pictures form the Craig’s List post makes it look like a Noah’s Ark episode of In Search Of. In fact, isn’t that Bigfoot in the upper right hand shot? Let’s hope that thing get’s sold before the rain hits. Thanks to Joe Martin for the tip.

Skate and Annoy’s pro contest coverage of the rained out Battle Ground Washington leg of the Oregon Trifecta that was moved to Tobin’s backyard bowl in Portland (Whew!) comes from Shawn Reinert. I don’t think Tobin envisioned this when he built his bowl. Talk about stoked! These two pics are some of Shawn’s longer exposures that picked up flashes from the other multiple cameras present, and the results are strange. Old expanding sponge head on the left is Donovan Rice. The lien-to-tail on the six wheeled skateboard is Josh Sandoval. More weird shit and conventional pictures as well in the feature. Check out: 2007 Oregon Trifecta – Tobin’s Bowl

Donavan came almost rode out of a couple of these whatever you call them, where he flies out of the shallow and pant his board on the back wall, then pops back into the bowl. Unfortunately, he hit his head pretty hard on his last attempt. The building had pretty much emptied out and not too many people saw it. He was having a hard time walking. His friends are planning on sticking with him and keeping him awake tonight. They say he won’t go to the hospital again without insurance. Hopefully he’ll be alright. Kids, wear a helmet and get insurance. Donavan, please go to the hospital.

Battle Ground’s pro event is going down right now at Tobin’s house. I’m not sure if it’s still World Cup sanctioned, but that’s where it’s going down. It’s a non-spectator event. Even if you get in you can’t see through the wall of riders to take pictures, so I’m sitting this one out boys, with my condolences to Tobin’s wife on this Sunday evening… The picture above is from one of the dig sessions in 2005.

Dan Hughes tipped me off to Tony Hawk’s appearance on HGTV’s show called Sizzling Summer. This particular episode had to do with sizzling backyards, and Tony Hawk’s cement “skatepark” was one of the backyards featured. I tried get this recorded on my own but all I could seem to find were episodes on a bunch of arts and craft projects. Dan was kind enough to digitize it himself. One of the related links that came up with it is a Red Bull authored video on Ryan Sheckler’s backyard skate ramp. It looks like Red Bull must have built it for him because it’s got Red Bull’s color scheme and a cheesy little built in fridge stocked with Red Bull. Watch them both after the jump. Update: Added Bob Burnquist’s house after a reader request.

Skate and Annoy, your repository for deceased skate spots, brings you the Chavez bowl. Actually, Dave V is bringing it to you. The video of the ceral bowl in Texas reminds me of Joel and Dave Chavez’s old bowl in Richmond, Ca. These were taken about 4 years ago. The bowl was built completly from found materials…they didnt put a cent into it. It’s no longer there due to noise complaints but it was fun while it lasted. It includede a plexiglass light for viewing and weird angled coping… not that easy to skate but no cereal bowl either. Does anyone remember that band Chavez? They were pretty good.

Check out this video of a half-sphere bowl some guy built. One dude is riding a retro looking board so this looks like it could be old but the outfit looks more recent. Check out the video after the jump. Thanks for the link Dan.

There is a Bay Area arts website called Fecal Face that I read regularly. A lot of the names you see at those skateboard art shows show up on the Fecal. This bowl showed up there recently. Sounds like it’s in Oakland. Anybody know what the story is here? Is it a DIY skate project or is it a fishpond? One more photo after the jump.