Remember at the turn of the millennium when there were only a couple skateparks nearby? My buddy Shawn used keep a squeegee and a handle in his trunk for such occasions when we would arrive at the park after a recent rain and it would be covered in puddles, and kids skirting the outline of the puddles, occasionally tracking through the park. We’d spread out the puddles and push what we could into the drain. All the kids would bitch at us for making it wet, and we’d tell them to shut up and wait 5 minutes. Sure enough, the wet spots evaporated and suddenly the whole park was skateable. I’ve literally had kids yell at me for this. Don’t get your bowels in an uproar, youngster. Most of the time, GVK carries a broom in his van for cleaning up those bowls filled with trash or dirt, and whatever nature or unsupervised children decide to throw down there. Check out these interchangeable cleaning tools from Swopt. You buy whatever accessories you need and snap them on and off a single handle, which is great for saving space on a traveling kit. The only thing that would make this system better would be if the pole contracted and telescoped. Of course, it’s overpriced, but it’s still a good idea. It won’t work on a sludge-filled pool, but good enough for others occasions.

Alright, we’ve got special behind the scenes access to Skateboard, the movie, courtesy of this July, 1977 edition of Wild World of Skateboarding magazine.  The article seems hastily written, and does not really offer much behind the scenes action outside of some photos from the set. However, it’s got lots of  poorly written press release action. It also offers an interesting glimpse of the state of skateboarding at the time, such as the lack of “established rules of Downhill in organized competition due to the infancy of skateboarding as a spectator sport.” Apparently, all the competitions in the film were staged. I haven’t seen it in a very long time, but I recall as a kid I thought this was a sort of hybrid of documentary and drama. The tone of the article is amusing in retrospect, as it treats the movie as, well, a film and not the kitsch time capsule it turned out to be.  Pics and full article text after the jump.

John Aguilar sent in some photos of a recently completed (OK, February of 2016) Debra Barto Memorial Skatepark, located on the Tulalip Reservation, near Everett, Washington. It is named in honor of the woman in the tribe who pushed hard for building it. John said this Grindline park is a good time as long as it’s not being overrun by scooter and BMX kids. Yes, that bottom feature is supposed to look like a canoe.

So the technology is interesting. A video camera posted at a reflective dome essentially captures your complete surrounding. When you add image processing software, you can manipulate the image to fix the perspective and crop the visible area. Then click and drag around to get a 360° panorama. This technology has been around for stills for over a decade I think. I’m not sure when they applied to video, but someone did, and now there’s a skate video for you to watch. From a novelty standpoint it’s interesting for a little while. From a skate video standpoint it can be cumbersome. If you change your viewpoint once then you’re going to find yourself missing the action as there’s no way to reset to the default view. I played around with it for awhile and it was fun, but more gimmicky than useful for this type of video. What I really enjoyed was watching the raw video in an unsupported browser. The still on the bottom of the picture above shows you what that looks like. It was snapped more or less at the same time as the VR view in the top. As you can see, during times where there’s no skateboarding action, they like to stagger guys in a circle around the camera so there’s something to look at if you’re looking in another direction. You can allegedly watch this on an iOS device, but for some strange reason it doesn’t work in Safari. Be warned, this video is Xtreme!™

Mark Gonzales is interviewed over on Rolling Stone. It’s technically an interview as he is asked some questions, and “answers” them in typical Gonz fashion. Among the hot topics, you can sort of learn his take on skateboarding in the Olympics. What’s he doing in Rolling Stone? I suspect it has something to do with Adidas reps reaching out. Check out a trailer for Away Days after the jump.

Check out these fundraising stickers made in the style of vintage steel-wheeled skateboard decks. These stickers benefit the Troutdale skatepark efforts, and you can get yours in person at Cal Skate or by via Paypal to tylerjaycole at gmail.com. Please provide your mailing address and verify which sticker(s) you’re ordering and how many when making payment using Paypal… Small stickers are $2.00 each, Large stickers are $4.00 each. Here’s atop, use the “Friends and Family” option so there’s no service fee for Tyler, and all the funds can go towards the skatepark.

This “miniramp” setup cracks me up. It’s created from some quarter pipes made for use in the street. If the metal kick plates weren’t enough of a giveaway, the rope handles and coaster wheels behind the platform make it obvious. I love that the flat bottom is just a piece plywood laying on the grass, soon to be dirt. I’m not sure which one is going to rot away first, the plywood flat bottom or the masonite on the surface. Still, the next time I see a session there I’m going to grab my stick and ask if I can join in. Notice the coping on the right is PVC. My first ramp had PVC coping too. Come to think of it, my first ramp was also in the front yard of a rental property.

Allison Waters is trying to start another indoor skatepark in NE Portland, Oregon. She’s investing a lot of her own money in the project but has turned to Kickstarter for help. The assumption is that feels Commonwealth is not large enough to meet demands and D Block isn’t in our city limits. There are some tentative renderings of the park that look a little bit uninspired, but nothing is set in stone yet. Key words: Family Friendly and All Ages. It will be interesting to see if this can come together, and if so, how long it can last. In my experience, DOS was always family friendly during corresponding times you might expect a family to be there. However, you’re always going to need a bit of the crust to fill those time slots when the kiddies are at school or in bed. When it opens, it will be called Stronger Skatepark.

[Source: Oregonian]

I saw a color version of this floating around Facebook, so I tried to track down the original which it turns out was done by Ben Jensen, and was not a specific response to sad events in Orlando. It’s been out for at least 9 months, and you can get them at Antique Skate as well as No Gods No Masters.

Posts about the blue fiberglass ramps that were used in Thrasherland and Skateball skateparks remain some of the most popular on Skate and Annoy. Stephen Smith was trolling the site and remembered he had saved an old flyer for the Great Bay Skatepark of Newington, New Hampshire:

I went there in the summer of 78 or 79 while on vacation with the folks from Nova Scotia. We got there at like 3 in the morning and all slept in the car so I could go skating as soon as it opened up. What a blast, great memories! Also while at the World Freestyle comp a few weeks ago , I chatted with old school East coast skate legend Bert Mathieson and he had skated there back in the day too. I got the flyer at the pro shop there.

As you can see, as well as “faster and safer,” the Great Bay Arena claimed to be the world’s first indoor fiberglass skatepark. I’m imagining a guy behind the counter at the pro shop mumbling to himself as he crosses off the incorrect session times and rewrites them by hand. He probably stole a coke that day because he was so annoyed.