So I went to the beach on Friday. It was hot as balls there too. Canon Beach was the destination, low and behold the new park was finished the guy was putting in the rules sign as we arrived. I asked when is the park open (three times) and he finally said “When this sign is up.” What you witness is what happened after the sign was posted. Peace Off!

I’ll be up there this weekend, but alas, not to skate. You may see me a little at the Sammamish skatepark with my nephew and son, but that’s about it. Family obligations again. If you’re not tied down like me, there’s a contest going on right now at Del Mar… I mean there’s a opening day demo/contest for the Bellvue Wa skate plaza. That’s TODAY folks, 3:30 to 10 p.m. There’s a $3000 purse (!) and a demo by the Nike SB team. Next week there’s a Girl/Antihero tour and a crazy contest weekend in Port Angeles – Park slalom and doubles bowl riding Saturday, and if you win the bowlriders contest on Sunday, Lib Tech will fly you to SWEDEN to compete at the finals. bowlriders Here’s another one for later on in the month, the 4th annual Sleestak Trash (oops, Thrash) Bash BBQ at Bainbridge Island. The flyer says Saturday, May 31st, although it’s not yet on the Sleestak calendar for some reason. Look closely a that flyer, Bobcat is guaranteeing sunshine! – Sleecrest out!

The Surf Flyer appears to be a European phenomenon. At least nobody from North America has chimed in about them. This one comes to us from Dean Tyrell ( It’s his week!) Believe me when I say that there are virtually no other shots of the vintage Surf Flyer skateboard anywhere on the web, so help me Google. The wheels of these things were supposed to be near rubber-like and super slow. On the detail shots you can see some sort of weird bearing covers that probably didn’t help either. The trucks are another winning design that looks more like ’60s technology than ’70s. Can anyone date these? Follow through to see more pictures of a Surf Flyer than you’ll likely ever want to. Someone has to do it. UPDATE: Lots of comments on this post and a picture of one near mint. Good reading. Also, check out this Flyer Land Surfer advert from 1977. So “Surf Flyer” is a misnomer. The brand is called Flyer, and boards were called Land Surfer.

In Orange, CA the Team Pain crew just got done demolishing the vert ramp (don’t blame them!) in the Vans skate park at The Block and replaced it with a 80ft wide mini ramp. They also rebuilt the street course. There’s a bunch of concrete work to on their news site. (Come on guys, get your web programmer to facilitate direct links to the news items! That goes for you too Airspeed.)

And the winner for the highest glass ceiling on a skatepark builder’s concrete team has got to go to Airspeed. This is a detail of one of their pictures of recent progress at the Gabriel Park site. There’s probably a woman on another concrete crew out there somewhere else, but three? Yes, I know there are women involved with skatepark building companies in other positions, I’m talking about the work crews specifically. Airspeed is cranking on Gabriel Park. Check it out. Update: EPM has some new construction shots. – Thanks to Sonny for the tip.

I love a zine with a good punchline for a title. Way High Kick Turn #1 is another one from the collection of John Drummond. There’s even a couple photos of him skating in there. There’s no date on the zine anywhere, but it does say that Zack Grove finished 2nd in the AM spot of the CASL Del Mar competion on May 16th. We could date it from a CASL schedule if anyone has one. Way High Kick Turn was published out of Moraga, California by Garry Mcleod and Marc Saito. James Carter is listed as the publisher. Garry Mcleod was in charge of photography, with additional submissions from Erick Elleson, Luke Ogden and Brian Temmerand. Way High Kick Turn #1 is 24 half letter sized pages on white paper from a copier with some sort of photo screening capability. The subtitle on the cover is “Picture Book,” and that’s what it is fro the most part. What little text present (mostly captions) is typewritten. I’m not sure, but it appears that this is a copy of a copy. Some of the pages have tell-tale artifacts on them, and it looks like one of them wasn’t lined up properly…

From CBC News in New Brunswick, Canada Skateboarder jailed after refusing to pay fine A Fredericton man who refused to pay a fine for skateboarding on city streets has been taken into custody and will be sent to jail. Lee Breen, 25, was fined in the summer of 2007 after receiving several warnings. After not paying the initial $50 fine, it was increased to $100. A judge then ordered him in April to pay the fine or be sent to jail for five days. But he’s not doing it because he’s too broke to pay the fine, he’s actually trying to make a point! He’s challenging the nuisance law under the grounds that skateboarding is not inherently dangerous and provides a environmentally friendly means of travel. About 80 people rallied outside the courthouse as he was taken into custody. Skateboarding is a crime! – Thanks to Michael Brooke for the tip

Cue Hans Moleman and football to the groin. Here’s a video that’s “trippy” in more ways than one. The guy takes a hard slam, of course, but what’s up with the weird warping footage that looks like it’s been shot underwater or projected onto a wobbly warped sheet of plastic? Warning: Take your dramamine before watching. Thanks to Colin Walsh Rules for the tip, who still hasn’t figured out to send them in via email instead of leaving them as comments in unrelated posts.

This weeks Shot of the Week is from an Urbana, Illinois parking garage street skating session circa 1988. The skater has since changed his name, and would probably prefer not to be identified, but we can call him Karl. Notice he has ollied on to the hood of this car via a nice cheat where you place your hand on top of the object and scoop the board up and over as you ollie and once your weight has transferred onto your hand. For those of us who weren’t Natas, that’s how you had to do it back then. No that car doesn’t belong to either myself or Karl. This was a pure dick move that I encouraged Karl to do, and he did it well. The brashness of youth. Check out the full size Shot of the Week.