According to the Des Moines Regional Skatepark committee, this final design will be the largest open skatepark in the United States. I’m not sure what they mean by “open.” Maybe that’s to counter facilities like Woodward, although they could have said “public” instead. Is there some monstrous indoor skatepark that I’m unaware of? Even the square footage listing of 65,000 is below the official 68,000 listed for Lake Cunningham. I always thought Louisville was largest, but it only weighs in at 44,000 square feet. DMRS is in need of a comprehensive overhead floorpan on their site. California Skateparks designed the park.

I saw on Dreamland’s Facebook feed that they were tearing down the old Beaverton / Tualatin Hills skatepark and I got a little excited. The so-called novice park concrete annex has been up since 2008, but the prefab street course left over from a long forgotten X-Games trails has been slowly rotting away since, well, since it arrived there, not to mention the rotted out vert ramp that was torn down in 2006. A quick visit to the Dreamland has left me with tempered expectations though. It looks like the first phase might be a straight 1 for 1 replacement of existing ramps with concrete replicas, although it’s hard to tell for sure. Even if that is the plan. it’s still better that what they started with. I have to imagine Dreamland will get away with some tweak, however small. Somewhere, someone knows, and has the time to rack this down for Skate and Annoy, right? Dreamland never returns my emails. I am a kook.

Soloshot is a great piece of technology for those who can make use of it. It’s a camera mount that will track a radio tag for up to 2000 meters. Basically you wear it and your camera mount will pan and swivel to follow you. You can get one that is just a base that you add your own camera to, or they sell one integrated that also allows for automatic zooming. You can program camera moves into it. This sounds like a paid product placement, but it isn’t. Cool technology for sure, but not so useful for skate footage. If it works well and you need this kind of thing, excellent. As far as using it for skateboarding? I suppose if your friends are tired of shooting you… but as you know, good skate footage usually requires more intimate angles. That might be why the skateboarding part of the promo video only lasts about a second. I still want this, but have no idea what I would use it for.

French Furniture designer Hervet-Manufacturier makes some really interesting looking angular furniture the looks like it what people thought the future was going to look like in the 70’s. It’s got a heavy Space 1999 vibe to it. And of course they also make some expensive hardwood retro “artisanal” cruisers. While they were at it, they released a formica laminated, laser engraved, limited edition Daft Punk skateboard that sold for $288. Hervet-Manyfacturier went with a retro mail order catalog inspired promo image, while Daft Punk’s chose a glossy 70’s skatemag style advertisement. [Source: DesignBoom] – Thanks to MC for the tip.

Looks like the painfully accurate reconstruction of the Bro Bowl is more or less complete, but as is the case with most skateparks integrated into public parks, the rest of surrounding work is not finished, so the skatepark is off limits, and is in fact, a trespassing offense. It looks like the only thing not replicated was the 70’s era concrete finishing.  WFLA Channel 8 in Tampa has the skinny. [Source: Team Pain via FB]

I’ve been meaning to do a profile on Skip Marcotte AKA Turnco since I sort of shared a workspace with a couple years ago. Let’s be honest, I was an absentee neighbor tenant at best. Skate Slate has gone ahead and done it well, so I guess I’m off the hook. I am in essence, reducing, reusing, and re-shreding the work done by Skate Slate. I’m not lazy. Right. [Photos : Jon Huey on Skate Slate]

That’s Poppy Starr, the winner of the 2016 Vans Girls’ Combi Classic. Watch Dan Bourqui’s video of the event after the jump.

The bros at Mad Bro Enterprises are taking a cue from circa 2003 with the 2016 Xtreme Amateur Games. The first event in the series is on Sunday the 31st at an indoor park called D-Block in Clackamas, Oregon. The street luge track is rumored to be very, very short.

Where were you when I needed you circa 1980, when I was alone in the suburbs of Chicago, unable to skateboard because every time I took my wheels apart I lost one of the open bearings from my 70’s banana board? With no skateshop in sight, not even a token bike shop with a skateboard section, what’s a kid a kid supposed to do? I’ll tell you what, I waited around until the Nash boards were discovered in a Sportmart.

The Oregon Zoo has been doing some architectural landscaping and exhibit re-design. I’m pretty sure this is a bust, even if you pay your $12 to get in.