Or at least I have to assume it’s open, although judging by the photos aI got, it’s either wildly unpopular or a very well kept secret. Marek Litinsky is our man on the scene:

Hey, so I went up to Orcas this weekend. Turned out I went with bunch of kooks who saw the park and wanted to leave. I thought I was gonna pull my hair out. So, no shots from the island but at least I got couple photos from that new park in Seattle and bunch of shots from marginal way where we spent the night and skated a bit sunday morning. There you go. dont go on trips with little kids. EVER!!! it doesnt matter if they are 18 or 38. Theres even a photo of ever elusive dick cancer for those readers who would wanna see 38 year old skatepark collector.

I’m going to hold off the Marginal Way photos for another day. It’s too much for one post. I had planned on asking Bobcat to do the photo recon, but I thought better of it since I didn’t want him to suffer from a ruptured brain aneurysm if he ever set foot on the unhallowed ground. I know it’s not the same sort of terrain they tore down at the old Sea Sk8, but it looks fun to me. Maybe I’m blinded by all prettiness. Although you gotta love to hate a design that puts all the biggest tranny on the same side of the park, with nothing facing it to build up speed. That’s my armchair critique. I also don’t see the big glass pyramid that was in the original design.

Err…. Wha? I’ve never seen the “Highway Fox” brand, but there’s a Highway Fox “Dolphin” model on eBay that looks like a Jason Jesse Neptune “tribute.”Also amusing, the seller claims the board has “has great vintage 60’s 70’s graphics.” And now I’ve officially gone over the limit for using quotations in a post. Check it out.

– Thanks to Dennis Dreiling for the tip.

I want to start this month by thanking all of those who contributed to the raffle in my name held on skullandbones. Thanks to everybody who purchased “tickets”, and a big thanks to all who arranged it. I have spent the cash, and you will see the result of the raffle in the July BayWatch. I also want to thank all of the folks who email me with kind words about the column and also those who write in with tips and links to auctions of interest. Keep them coming because finding new and interesting stuff is a constant battle. Also, without the kind words of the folks that write in, I don’t know if I’d still be doing this!

A couple of reminders: you can click on the images to see the full size versions. If they don’t get bigger, don’t blame me: I grab the biggest image that is available on eBay, but sometimes the sellers don’t post large images, and in cases like that there isn’t much I can do. Also, remember to leave comments in the Feedback section, whether it is a simple comment or even a correction. If you won one of the auctions I mention, maybe tell us a little about the condition of the deck etc.

Your reviews are coming. I’ve been working on a new back end to present our product reviews, and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Back populating the the old reviews has been taking a lot longer than I thought, and it’s finally made me realize how much static HTML can suck, especially when it’s really old and poorly formatted! That’s Danimal above riding a Toy Machine Billy Marks Fiberprime deck. I’ve got Atomic Wheels, Tarantula Trucks, Dekline shoes, and a host of other, long, long overdue reviews.

I’ve been hearing some rumblings about the new X Games Skateboard Park Course. It supposed to be concrete, and temporary, which are two things that sound like they are at odds. The street course at the Maloof Cup might have been made using prefab elements that can be disassembled and reused elsewhere, but will the same thing work on a bowl complex? The real interesting thing is that I’ve heard rumors that the X Games course will be made from concrete poured over a wood frame and/or styrofoam combo. Styrofoam in a skatepark construction is nothing new – (See here and here) It’s been used in the soon to open (already open?) Seattle SeaSk8 replacement, mainly for it’s lightweight benefits. The new location is on top of some underground elements of Seattle Center. Again, these are rumors, I haven’t been able to corroborate them, but concrete over a wood frame… puzzling. OK readers, who is connected? What’s really going on?

The action isn’t in the text this time. Check out the spectacular bail! This is the fifth installment of the Skateboard Action book, courtesy of Carl Warren who still does not live in Hood River. It almost looks like Rodney Mullen, but surely it can’t be? I don’t think his parents let him ride jump ramps.

Ok we had a few more entries into the Weirdo Skateboards giveaway, and I’ve narrowed it down to the three finalists. See them all after the jump. Aaron insists that is actually him in the photo above, if so, he doesn’t really need that deck. Damien, the contest was up for 10 days, so there will be no extension. I’m surprised we didn’t get more participation. Free stuff doesn’t have as much draw as it used to.

Matt in Ohio sent these pics of some driveway alterations he’s been working on. He’s taking a unique approach of pouring the concrete in a mold and then digging out a spot for it on the side of his driveway. He says he’s got several more planned. You can check out his progress here.

You’ve got until midnight tonight – (July 12th, 2009). This one is from Ryan. All you need to be entered to win this board is to take a picture of yourself or a friend skating like a weirdo. Define weirdo however you want.

Recently there’s been some discussion about bearings, manufacturers, and materials. I recall when my wife was in roller derby, someone handed out a flyer explaining the ABEC rating and bearing maintenance.  It stated that the ABEC rating was worthless unless you are HAULING (70 mph).   Spending the money to get a high ABEC rating, which ranges from 1-9, the highest being aircraft/rocket ship precision.

This prompted me to do some research, and I found this article from Transworld called, “The ABEC Myth,” which verified that many people are buying into an unnecessary level of precision.  In this article, Steve Heplar, national sales manager of Alliance Bearing Industry, says:

An ABEC 1 or 3 is all you really need on a skateboard. In skateboarding, you’re not using the precision of the bearing. Today, skateboard companies are selling bearings, mainly with ABEC 1, ABEC 3, ABEC 5, and ABEC 7 ratings. The common misconception is that the higher the ABEC rating, the better and faster the bearing. This isn’t necessarily true. The precision or the ABEC of the bearing doesn’t really matter because skateboarding is a non-precision application. …unless the skateboarder is going 70 miles an hour, which is rather unlikely.