Well folks, sadly, the rumors were unfounded. You can read the bad news here, but the current tenants of the Turf Skatepark’s burial ground aren’t going anywhere. Why can’t the lousy economy do something nice for skaters outside of California? Turf Locals, now you’ve got time to set a plan in motion.

According to The World, Mingus Park skate park in Coos Bay will have it’s official ribbon cutting ceremony on May 22. Until then it’s going to remain fenced off. I don’t know why, but this sentence cracks me up: After consulting with its insurance company, the city’s decided that it’s OK for people to use roller blades and skates, though bikes and scooters are still banned. As if they were going to build it and then decide that nobody could use it. Pictures courtesy of Concrete Warefare on MySpace. There are some construction pictures here on SnA and some more recent photos on EPM. – Thanks to Tristen Reasor for the tip.

Skate Life NW has been pushed back a day to May 31st to avoid a conflict with the official grand opening of Ed Benedict skatepark. We’ve added a bunch of companies to the official attending list, with more to come. Check it out at Skate Life NW.

Benji Galloway at Johns Bowl. Photo by Colin Walsh Rules suckas! EPM has more shots of John’s bowl. I would have made this a Sponsor Luv post, but then Colin would have had to pay Colin.

Someone went through the trouble to bring back the Gull Wing Trucks brand, but neglected to include the design that made them famous. Regardless of whether you are a fan of the original Gull Wings or not, it seems like a no-brainer to make them at least somewhat resemble the old trucks, even though you’re not going to fool anybody into thinking that Gullwings have been available without a break since the 70’s. They have one model that looks like everyday trucks, plus they’ve jumped on the longboard market boom with several reverse kingpin designs. And then there is the sidewinder truck, pictured above. I’m not sure what the purpose is since the web site doesn’t provide any information whatsoever, but it’s undoubtedly to provide more of carving feel to simulate surfing of snowboarding. Maybe the purpose it to eliminate wheel bite forever. Gullwing was advertising in Concrete Wave for what seemed like a year before they even had a web site going. It looks like once they got it going they pretty much abandoned it circa 2007.

Here’s a couple pics I liked from the Concretins blog covering a recent trip to North Carolina. This private spot is called the Crawdad Hole. The top shot cracks me up. Somebody’s gal has a sense of humor. Good on ya. Check out Concretins ongoing road trip posts. – Thanks to Nik for the tip.

Yes, they did make trucks (baseplates) for rollerskates too. There’s a vintage set up on eBay right now, currently up to $400, with a buy it now of $500. Hell, you can still buy Powell Roller Bones wheels at your local rollerskating rink. – Thanks to Colin for the tip.

Word is that the lease is up on the tenant that currently resides in the building that houses Milwaukee’s famed Turf Skatepark. I erroneously reported that the concrete had been demoed, but I guess the truth lies closer to some missing coping and a lot of landfill. I here to report on the rumor that there people in Wisconsin working on trying to get a third lease on life for the Turf Skatepark. If there’s no truth to that rumor, then I’m here to start it, in hopes that someone who still lives in the area will get stoked. The Turf still lives in more than memories and photos, a crew of BMXers has the old miniramp from the Turf. At the risk of becoming very unpopular, I was watching some video of that park and it made me think that perhaps the fond memories have more to do with nostalgia than the quality of the terrain, especially compared to the modern crop of skateparks. Still, I’d be all for digging it up and slapping some new coping on. I hope it happens. Photos – Clockwise: Old exterior shot from Thrasher Magazine, as found on the Facebook page for Pete…

OK, definitely lamer than the title these guys came up with. Illusion Labs, The company that developed the Touch Grind game for the iPhone has demoed their touch screen games on one of those massive table top touch screens, and it looks pretty damn fun. The tiny size of the iPhone screen is the main criticism of this game, but hte table top display brings it to a whole new level, provided you can shell out 10k for the display. The game would also work on a laptop or notepad computer with a multitouch display. Watch the video after the jump.

Some architects help turn an old theater into a flagship store for an Italian clothing brand called Bastard. Those bastards have a skate team and and a ridiculously cool bowl suspended above the main interior of the store. I’ve never heard of these Italian bastards, but they must have a lot of money, and they are making me channel George Costanza. You can see some before and after views at Arch Daily and some construction photos at ARPlus.com Mark found out about these bastards over at The World’s Best Ever. Watch some bastard skating after the jump.