There used to be “no scene,” and it was sometimes hard to find people to skateboard with, especially if you were in smallish semi-rural towns, even if they were college towns. One the things I used to do instead of, you know, going to class, was making flyers for a “Mass Thrash” to try and attract larger numbers of skateboarder that I assumed were all hiding in the woodwork somewhere. How could you not like skateboarding and punk rock? It seemed absurd. The law of averages demanded that there would be more kindred souls out there, not going to class like me. We would hold these events right outside the student union, on the quad. There were so few skateboarders on campus that it was actually not a bust to skate there.  The logos and skateboarders on the left were all transcribed from the black and white newsprint pages of the advertisements in the back of Thrasher.

Thanks to Matthijs for this picture of what is either a conceptual art piece or a very sad little skatepark located in Amsterdam. That round planter to right probably sees more acton.

The Guardian has a short video on the challenges of skateboarding in Cuba, which although well done, is just about like every other one we’ve seen on the subject.  Public Radio International has a slightly different take on the situation, focusing on the difficulties facing girls who want to skateboard in Cuba.  According to a the trailer for Patinas Sin Fronteras En Cuba, Cuban skaters don’t want your pity, they just want access to skateboards. You have to imagine it’s about to get better now that relations between the U.S.A. and Cuba are more normal. You can help at Amigo Skate Cuba. – thanks to Everyone for the tips.

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.