I’m here in Sarasota, FLorida for a little while. SRQ is the airport ID, just as PDX = Portland. Last time I was here at this skatepark there was supposed to be an old man night on Fridays. Well those guys either all died or they moved it to a different night. They’ve added a big fancy building to the park since I’ve last visited. As near as I can tell, it’s only purpose besides giving you a place to pee, is to come up with a reason to justify paying $8 to skate. The park closes at 8:00pm and isn’t open during school hours. It’s weird having to plan out when I can go skate. It’s basically a five hour window every day until summer time, when it’s an eight hour window. I don’t now how the heck Oregon manages to keep it’s 80+ skateparks open and free for every hour of sunlight. We must be freakin’ geniuses or wizards. There wasn’t much happening there this particular Friday night, although to be fair, I was only there for the last hour. That’s the lifeguard or safety monitor or whatever that job is called in the shot at the top right. There were a couple kids I skated with and took a few pics. My son enjoyed the park too. Man, rollerblades everywhere. I don’t know how that scene is staying alive in 2009. The kids are trying to look cool and/or tuff and everything. It’s quite comical.

This park rules. The locals and City Hall gave it a bad name for a while, and while the powers that be may still be predatory, it’s been a good session every time I’ve been there in the past year or two. Also, it’s never been crowded. Pics after the jump.

Dave Swift, the other king of The Skateboard Mag has a video interview in four parts (One – Two – Three – Four) over on Plan B TV. One thing not in the interview, Art and Steve Godoy once told me they were blacklisted from Transworld back in the day because one of them hooked up with Dave’s girlfriend in the parking lot of the old Del Mar skatepark. Sometimes I like to pretend Skate and Annoy is a legitimate skateboard news source. On other days I like to be the National Enquirer.

[Source: Bordistan]

We got a page of trick tips from Versus Magazine. It’s all very NSFW, as you can see from the example above. Who knew a skate zine could have Playmates? Skate and Mate did, actually. I’m sure you can guess what the Stale Fish grab looks like. If you can’t, head on over to the Versus archives and find issue #28.

True story. I heard SnA got a mention in “On Board Trash” so I went to pick one up at a local “board shop” here in Sarasota Fl, where I’m staying for a few days. I walk in to this huge store full of skateboards, surfboards, skimboards and god knows what else. I glance around at the counter and see nothing. I ask the guy behind the counter

“Do you have Thrasher?”
“No, I don’t”
“Whaaaa????”
“I know…”

So I turned around and walked out. the whole thing took less than a minute. I don’t subscribe to Thrasher, but I fully expect any self respecting skateboard shop to carry it. Who is that kook in the picture? It’s Eddie Albert playing Oliver on Green Acres but dressed up as Jethro Clampett. Seriously. I know there’s a couple of real skate shops here. I’m going to search one out.

And here he is less than a week before his birthday. 48? that can’t be right. Don’t wish him happy birthday, we don’t want him to fall victim to the curse. Click here to enlarge his prostate.

So the joke goes, (my joke, by the way) that zoning ordinances and building codes in Portland require that any mini ramp built on private property must have at least one extension that goes to within one foot of the ceiling, an over-vert section, or a three foot or smaller transition. Apparently those rules apply to Beaverton as well. My friend Marek built himself a miniramp in his garage with really tight transitions, and of course, pool coping. MC and I went to check it out the other night.

Continuing the trend where I raid the archives of Dezeen Magazine, this is the Port of Tel Aviv public space by the architecture firm Mayslits Kassif. Their hope is that the rolling surface will act as “a reflection of the mythological dunes on which the port was built and as an open invitation to free interpretations and unstructured activities.” Sounds like a session to me.

Today in old iPhone news we have two separate iPone apps that are skateboard related. The first is GoLearn Skateboarding from Santa Cruz. According to Mobile Marketer; “With GoLearn Skateboarding, consumers can learn different tricks, discover new skate parks and play music from their mobile device.” OK, I’m pretty sure the device the device already plays music, but that’s OK. Trick tips… meh. Skatepark finder? Well that seems useful, especially consideringthe fact that it’s GPS enabled. Sweet suite. A little bit os confusion here, the “Santa Cruz” mentioned in the article is Santa Cruz Skate shop an not NHS. and in further WTF, for some reason they have what looks like ultimate fighting graphics on the web site. Awesome! The second iPhone app is a skateboarding game being developed with Vans and Fuel industries. Kind of funny, considering the old concept game with fake Vans branding that was floating around the web a year ago. They are running a name the game contest. Odds are that Finger Fracture won’t be a chosen as the winner. Game play looks pretty fun with the touch screen accelerometer combo. Somebody needs to send us an iPhone so we can, uh, review the game. Yeah, that’s it. Watch a demo of the game after the jump.

[Source: Mobile Marketer]

There are a couple of interesting guys (Nerrrrrrds!) on this site called Crazy Builders. It’s kind of like a show you migtht expect to see on the Discovery Channel. They wanted to build a fan powered skateboard, and they did, except the fan is made from a high powered RC plane engine, and it’s open in the back. I’d hate to have a wipeout and end up on the wrong side of that cage… Anyway, just like the site says, it’s good fun in the name of science. Although the science connection is a little weak here. I like the guy in the video. He had the good sense to dress like a scientist and make his skateboard fan boat in the shape of a bomb. Skateboards, science and wacky hats after the jump.