Sixteen skateparks in one day. This shot above is Gabe from Salem at the Aumsville park which was our last stop. I wonder how the guys in Arizona did on theirs? More pics and details to follow. In the meantime, Conahan put up a park shot from each spot via cell phone on Antigrav Remote.

Hey guys, I work for the Tualatin Hills Parks District, and this morning my boss gave me word that the Thursday after next the parks district will be having an open house with Grindline to hear from local people what they would prefer for a NOVICE skatepark. I highlight novice because I know if there’s anyone that’s all about ripping the deep end, it’s MC…

I swear, if I hear any complaining about building novice parks for beginners, you are all fired, kicked off the staff, team or whatever! I hear that they might consider a bowl if there is enough interest, but please, let’s not stack the deck. Instead we should consider the needs of the community. Plus, a good novice park might draw all the little scrappers away from the more advanced parks in the region.

So there you have it. When: Thursday February 28. 6pm- 8pm. Where: Dryland Conference Room at the Howard M Terpenning Recreation Complex. 15707 SW Walker Road, Beaverton, OR 97006. Additioanl information contact Wendy Bell, Park planner at 503 529 6305 x2932, or wbell at thprd dot com.

John Aguilar’s sister went to South Africa and all she brought him was a lousy newspaper. There’s an article from the December 1st 2007 edition of the Weekend Argus titled Flying high on the vision of one man. It’s about Dallas Oberholzer’s mission to bring skateboarding to rural South Africa. Our interview with Dallas was published in 2005. Looks like he’s still at it. Unfortunately, you need a subscription to read the article online. It’s a very positive story. You can read the scan after the jump. Hey James… Stuff it!

I think I heard that goat just yell “Draa-aa-aa-aa-aapping in!”

Two mediocre shots of Dave and Damien from some recent sessions at the DOS bowl in Portland. Mediocre because of the photographer, not the skaters. Enlarge the action after the jump. They recently added lights to the bowl and now you can actually see back there. Where as it used to be like skating in a very dusty closet, it’s almost too bright now! With the fairly new birch layer and the sudden illumination, it’s like the bowl riders are now more than an afterthought there. Thanks guys! These shots were taken mid installation, so it’s actually a lot brighter now.

Gleaned this from a commenter (Curb Cobain, You’re killing me! Ha! Good one!) Check it out at Ghettopool Ripper, a new blog that just started, based out of Germany. (?)

Some guys are nomads and travel light. Some guys are pack rats. Someone over at Thrasher convinced Lance Mountain to give a little tour of some of the memorabilia he has collected over the years. It looks like Lance has a lot of stuff, most of it relating to other people and not just himself. I hope he’s got a lock and an alarm on that garage. Check it out.

Finally got a decent capture of this old Wonder Woman episode. I’m distilling most of the non-skateboarding parts out of edit. There are bits out there on the Interwebs&trade, but this will be the most complete. Wait for it. It’s worth it.

Strongest of the Strange from Pontus Alv, circa 2005. The video was filmed from 2002 to 2005, and is the handy work of Pontus Alv. This is one of my all-time favorite skate videos. It seems like they really put a lot of energy and time into the skating/filming/editing. Its not only long, but its filled with all kinds of terrain and styles of skateboarding. Various skits are thrown in throughout the video, which verge on the comedic art scene. Those of you that are afraid of seeing a penis should probably skip through the first section. We don’t want your fragile little brain to explode. More after the jump.

I take one day off from Skate and Annoy and I’m getting pummeled by this video of a Baltimore police officer berating and briefly abusing a kid. I think he’s just pissed because he got stuck driving around in that ridiculous glorified golf cart instead of a real police cruiser. He talks about the kids disrespecting the badge and the Police Department, when really he’s more disrespectful of both by being an overweight slob and a bully. Keep watching to the very end to catch the punchline.

I actually first got this from Stephanie Murdock, president of Skatepark of Baltimore. S.O.B. (Their acronym, not my doing!) is a nonprofit organization trying to get an appropriately large, well designed and constructed skatepark built in city of Baltimore. She’s sent out a sort of a press release with some intelligent thoughts on the matter. I’ve included it with the video after the jump. Please, let’s try to discuss this constructively. If you can’t be constructive, at least be amusing.

Green skateboards and now green skateparks? In Portland there are two new skateparks breaking ground in 2008. Both proposals mentioned a need to minimize the environmental impact, mostly concentrating on water runoff. Seems like a minor part of the project to me, as none of these parks are located near waterways. But what do I know? I’m not one of those science doohickeys. Coincidentally, Airspeed Skateparks has the contract for one of those new parks and they are also featured in the newest issue of Concrete Wave Magazine. The article titled The New
Cooldown – Skate Green: Design and Build Smart is available as a PDF download. There’s more to this green skatepark than you might imagine. Aside from skateparks the article also talks about sustainability in skateboards, clothing and shoes.

– Thanks to Don Whitaker for the tip.