I spent the day at Glacier National Park with the family and made a detour on the way home to stop at Whitefish. I remembered seeing pictures of the park, and it looked kind of desolate. The main thing I recalled was some grousing about the area that has coping below another transition and some steps. It was a controversial decision, but I’ve seen it work before in Tigard. It was getting dark, and I had to choose between Kalispell and Whitefish. Not remembering a damn thing about Kalispell, I chose to check out Whitefish, and to my surprise, it might be my favorite of all the Montana skateparks I visited.

Not entirely true. There’s supposed to be a street plaza and (shudder to think) vert ramp too, but it looks like the only part that isn’t just a CAD file at this point in time is this bowl complex. Germany’s MBA/S Associates designed this park that resides in Stuttgart. They even feature it on the front page of their web site. [Source: Freshness] – Thanks to Ryan for the tip

Sorry for the late notice, this slipped by me while I was on the road. Hurry up and bid, there’s only a few days (?) left. Board Rescue is holding an art auction to benefit its organization. 100% of the proceeds from the sale of this artwork go to Board Rescue. Board Rescue provides skateboards and safety equipment to organizations that work with underprivileged and or at-risk youth. Board Rescue is a 501(c)(3) not for profit Corporation. There are artwork/decks from Cab, Jason Adams, Jimbo, Bryce Kanights and many more. See that birdhouse made out of skateboards that aren’t from Birdhouse? It was made by Judi Oyama’s husband. Aside from being bowlrider and past and present contender in Women’s slalom, Judi is on the board of Board Rescue. Check out the birdhouse after the jump.

Lake Oswego Parks and Rec is having a youth skate competition at the Lake Oswego Skate Park next weekend August 7th. Their website is lakeoswegosports.org. They are also looking for donations Colin. If you are interested in supporting the youth competition contact the Lake Oswego Parks and Rec skatepark coordinator. Any type of donation is appreciated!

Missoula Montana has a 16,000 square foot skatepark completed by Grindline in 2006. I saw video of this either on Fuel TV or Tony Hawk’s Skatepark Tour. I thought it was going to be huge. It’s pretty good sized, but not nearly as mammoth as it looked on TV. I think it’s pretty safe to say that any skatepark is going to appear smaller in real life, but I haven’t been to Lake Cunningham yet.)

I’ve been staying at a ranch out in the middle of nowhere, Montana. One of the staff heard me mention wanting to travel into Missoula to check out the skatepark. Turns out I could cut my drive time down from one hour to 15 minutes. The little town of St Ignatius, population 811, has a skatepark. St Ignatius is near the Flathead Indian Reservation, and in fact Native Americans made up approximately 40% of the population in the last census. St Ignatius received a Tony Hawk Foundation grant in 2006. That grant helped fund phase 1 of the park. Phase 2 of the park was completed by Dreamland on July 8th.

Ray Stevens II of The Faction, Los Olvidados, Drunk Injuns, Odd Man Out, and Clay Wheels fame has a new band called RS2 SOLID SOUND. They have recently completed the soundtrack to the movie SUPERCHARGED: The life and times of Tim Brauch. One of the stops on their Northwest tour is the movie premiere in Missoula, Montana on the 30th of July. Coincidence would have it that I’m sitting in the Montana night air (sweating)as I’m typing this. I’ve been staying an hour north of Missoula for the past week, and will be leaving two days before then. I will be back in time for the Portland show (with Stinkbug) at PLAN B in Portland on Thursday the 29th. That’s just rock and roll in Portland, there will be no showing of Supercharged at that time. I’m not sure if Supercharged is the project formerly known as Beans or not. Portland flyer after the jump.

I want to start off this month by addressing something that’s been on my mind for some time, and it might piss some people off, but it needs to be said. I want to look at two of the “older generation” skateboard magazines, Concrete Wave and Juice. I’ve been getting both for years and years, and boasted for a long time that I had every issue of Concrete Wave ever printed, (including when it used to be called International Longboarder). But the product has gotten so stale that I stopped getting it about 6 months ago, and really haven’t missed it at all.

The skateboarding bandit has struck again. I’m going to declare it now. He’s a modern day folk hero. Clyde (his board is Bonnie). Just like Jessie James, I hear he’s cheating on Sandra Bullock. No new photo though, so we’re still at sqaure one as far as identifying his skateboard company of choice. The LA Times credits this phototo the FBI, but shouldn’t it really go t the bank or the company that manufactures the security camera. And seriously, it’s 2010. Is this the highest resolution security camera technology we have? – Thanks to Tito for the tip.

No matter what your personal feelings towards taking this seriously, you have to admit it’s a genius dork session. I especially like the stand up paddler. They did so well on some of these simulations, but totally blew it with the choice of soundtrack. Flame on. – Thanks to Darryl and Ben Reese for the tip