So yeah, doing the family vacation thing. Mother in-law brought us to an “incredible new restaurant” that turned out to be a newer chain of sports bars. I counted at least 33 flat screen TV’s with assorted sports programs on, one of them was playing Fuel, so that means I got to watch skateboarding in a sports bar. It was an episode of Driven, and there was hardly any skateboarding in it. For some reason there was a big production about a kid giving Vallely a bracelet of sorts. Not very manly behavior for a sports bar. I swear I heard some snickering. Maybe the kid had a terminal disease, it’s hard to tell because there was no sound. Looks like they gave him a Jeep, though. So yeah, manly sports bars and skateboarding. Alright.

Nobody wants to go to jail!

Skate Daily brought our attention to three Vert Death Knell stories today. The XGames is abandoning the vert ramp competition and the latest Vans park remodel will not include a vert ramp. Haw haw! That must be why I’ve been hearing so many “we should build a vert ramp” comments lately here in Oregon. Since big vert is no longer considered commercially viable, maybe it’s edgy now?

A lot of our readers won’t get a chance to go to Lincoln City and see what the new snake run looks like. Fortunately for them, I’ve gone ahead and put together a short video tour that looks like it was shot by a meth addict in withdrawl who covered the lens with vaseline, stuck it down his pants and then dropped it in the dirt. This is the first time I’ve looked at any of the footage I’ve shot on a large screen in a long time. I can’t wait to see those family videos…

There’s a Marginal Way benefit on Thursday night in Seattle. Marginal Way has the best PR agency out there. It seems like there’s a benefit for MW at least once a month. This one is courtesy of Sleestak.

Jay Meer bought me a beer last night at the premier of Why wouldn’t you?, the new video from Dave Hupp. I don’t know if Meer was fully cognizant of the fact that he bought me a beer or not, but thanks all the same. Now go visit Jay’s web site so he gets his money’s worth. How was the video? In a word, great! Full review coming as soon as the DVD’s are produced, which is supposed to be before the end of April. Look for it. Jay said he’s hosting a premier in Seattle at on an as yet nailed down date. If anyone else is looking for kickbacks, I like brown ales. [Photos: DLH Productions.]

I told Sullivan I’d get these pictures up today, not that he seemed to care much. I went to Lincoln City to check out the snake run, but it wasn’t yesterday because that was when I was at home sick from work. For the first part of the day our three man crew had the park almost completely to ourselves. After a late lunch we came back for a little more and I snapped these pictures of Sullivan as we were leaving.

This week’s Shot of the Week is an old photo from around 2000 or 2001. It’s Eugene Lardizabal at the now defunct vert ramp in Beaverton, Oregon. He was all about the vert ramp man. He was a driving force behind a group effort to rent a warehouse in Portland and build a private vert ramp. The project went as far as meeting realtors and looking at potential spaces, but it ultimately went nowhere. Recently I’ve heard unrelated parties with minor rumblings about building a vert ramp in Portland. Eugene moved to Kansas just when things were getting interesting around here. He might have gone back to Canada by now. Oh yeah, this is not a bail. Fingerflip lien to tail. Wahoo! Check it out.

Worst Elvis song ever. Andre’ Corbin sent in some pics of Ghetto Skateboards rider Chris Lehman. They are out of Zephyrhills, Florida, which is about an hour and a half south of where I’ll be in about three days. I don’t think I’ll make up there, though I do want to hit the Bro Bowl in Tampa. I’m going to try to hit Dunedin as well. I say “try” because you how it is with family vacations at the in-laws. If you don’t, let’s just say they can be trying times. Right. See what the kid in the lower right is gawking at after the jump.

Some things once glorious, fade into tragedy or treachery. Danimal testifies:

Hass and I stopped by the River’s Inn last sunday and it looks like shit. We also barged the park in the evening on Easter
Sunday

On the left, the tragedy of a permission pool neglected. On the right, the treachery of a public skatepark betrayed by the very people entrusted to serve the public. OK, I have to assume it’s a betrayal if the situation with the Klamath Falls skatepark is still as bad off as I had heard. Greatly reduced operating hours subject to the whim of a local business entity (without roots in skateboarding) that gets paid to act as the park pad nanny when the whole thing used to be unsupervised and free. K-Falls must be the one town in Oregon that doesn’t get it. Click to enlarge.

Skate Daily noticed that although Rick McCrank is active in Peta print ads and product giveaways, he’s still got a suede shoe model, unlike another Peta collaborator, Ed Templeton. Also in this month’s Print Magazine is a half a page on design variations in Nick Hornby’s book Slam, the one that features a protagonist that regularly converses with Tony Hawk in head, the same way Clarence Worley talks to Elvis, I mean “Mentor.”