Hey guys here is the Cold War video for 07 shot in one day edited in 7 hours by Kilwag. If you get Concrete Wave it is on their DVD they put out 1x a year, so get your board orders in early if you see something you like. I am going to be so rich when this hits subscriber’s mail box, I will be able to make new friends so easy. So please get your orders in early so we can still be friends. I also want to welcome Shane Bell to the team. Peace Off.

First off, this is not commentary on the quality of the teams listed on the graphic, so cool your jets. I got an email update about the 4th annual Ellensburg contest and demo on October 6th. It included a flyer with a picture of the Ellensburg, Washington skatepark. I glossed over it at first but for some reason I took a second look and thought, “Man, what a bummer it would be if that was what I had to look forward to skating on.” The contest has a ton of sponsors with more than one skate shop involved, so there must be a vibrant scene. The moral of this story is that you make your own fun. It’s something to keep in mind. If we have any readers in the Ellensburg area, send in some pics from the event and we’ll put them up – poor photography or not. The full version of the flyer is after the jump. I believe I found out about this from a Skateboard Mag email.

The December January 2007 issue of Dwell had two separate skateboard related features. The first one was for an insane conceptual skatepark in San Juan, Puerto Rico. It turns out they actually tried to figure out if they could build it. The second more down to earth feature was in Dwell’s Nice Modernist column, and it was about Rob Dyrdek’s radical (no pun intended!) new approach to skatepark design, the skate plaza. Aside from the Kettering Skate Plaza, the article mentions his recent Shreveport, Louisiana venture which according to some people involved in the project, did not go as well as planned.

Sure, in the 70’s you could have made a skateboard deck in shop class. Now you have more options. Of course there is Paul Schmitt’s CreateAskate that we’ve covered here a little. CreateAskate is for educators only, so what about those of you who aren’t in grade school? Surely there are adults interested in learning how to make their own skateboards. Roarockit has an emphasis on possible use in school programs, but it’s always been available for individuals. Now Roarockit has a permanent facility for learning how to make skateboards. They had a grand opening of their Professional Skateboard Making School last weekend. Sounds like a good idea if you find the task of building your own vacuum press a little intimidating and need more hand holding than the take-home kit provides. If you want to see how skateboards are made the old fashioned way there’s another video and some more CreateASkate coverage after the jump. [Source: Lumberjocks.com]

I just wanted to babble on about this week’s Shot of the Week, since the standard format doesn’t allow it, and this one is too good to let go. This shot sums up skateboarding in the Midwest during the 80’s for me. Sure, we were rad, but it seemed like our surroundings were holding us back. This is from the Chi-town Shred photo archives. No further information is available, But it was undoubtedly shot on or near Oak Street Beach, which has more concrete than sand. Brilliant. Chicago!

I got an email alert about the grand opening of Sarasota’s Payne Park next Saturday. I got excited because my mother in-law lives in Sarasota and so I visit it on a regular basis. The existing skate park is fun, but nothing to write home about, so a little variety would be nice. It turns out that Sarasota isn’t getting another skatepark, it’s just phase two of the surrounding park facilities, which includes amphitheater, more tennis courts, a walking path (Whee!) and a “skateboard clubhouse,” whatever that means. Then I read that the skatepark fees would be waived for the day of the opening festivities and I really got mad. Sarasota has one of the highest concentrations of wealth in the southeastern US, but you have to pay to skate at that park. The land for the park? Donated outright. The construction costs? Paid for by a one percent sales tax. Public tennis courts? I think they are free, but for some reason, a facility that can be used kids from all demographics is pay-to-play. Absurd! It’s already annoying that the damn thing isn’t open on holidays or during school hours! I don’t know what the hell this “skateboard clubhouse”…

Ignition TV has recent (I assume) footage from the grand opening of the Mission Valley YMCA’s new (to them) vert ramp. A bunch of vert dogs were there, Bucky Elastic, Bony Hawk, the French Canadians… There were other people present on deck but they didn’t make the cut, perhaps due to space limitations. Although posted on Metacafe, the clip’s producer is Ignition TV, who is the, uh, leader in action sports fro you mobile phone. You can chose by sport and brand on their web site, so you know that’s Extreme™! Mission Valley’s vert ramp was donated to them by the X-Games. We had one of those X-Games retired ramps in a suburb of Portland for a while, where it mostly sat as a platform for kids to practice flip tricks off of the flat bottom onto the cement. There was a small community of vert riders who would session a couple times of week and chase the kids off the flat. Ask MC about it. They banded together to meet and talk with the park district to ensure and volunteer upkeep, but the district wasn’t interested. As more and more concrete parks opened out here, the already underutilized vert…

Day three: Professional Skateboard Simulator for the Commodore 64, from 1988. Yeah, Commodore 64 again. Noticing a trend? It looks like they Photoshopped (well it was 1988 so MacPainted) Jeff Kendall’s face onto a guy skating a Mark Gonzales board on vert. They used to run the occasional pic of the Gonz on vert, this might have been copied from one of those. Actually, the guy has a Read and Destroy sticker on his helmet, so it’s likely lifted straight form the pages of R.A.D.. UK readers, help a brother out. I heard that the new Pro Skateboard Simulator 10 (Ryan Sheckler edition) has a level where you practice running out of the arena crying if you don’t win first place.

No, this isn’t the start of a recurring feature, just a reference to the fact that we had a similar post last friday. Adult film stars are kind of like pro wrestlers sometimes, they need to have a gimmick to distinguish themselves from the rest of the competitors. Keeani Lei lists skateboarding and surfing among her other uhm, talents. I first got, err, turned on to her via a Sleestak post, but they got it from the NSFW Slap Magazine forums. Come to think of it, Slap sounds like some sort of a fetish magazine. In any case, Keeani does indeed skate and appears to enjoy it. She’s into flyouts, women, Jason Jesse re-issues and you know… other things. I like the shot where she’s pretending to drink OJ’s out of a juice pitcher, a visual pun that would be lost on anyone who didn’t skate. Reminds me of some of the 80’s skateboard advertising. She’s really going for the niche market. There’s safe for work video after the jump.

Tim Hubbard sent in a link to more Dunedin opening day pics. Thats Josh Black inverted, and an unknown rider carving over some very chunky stairs. Tim also included a link to Punk On Board which is a mish mash of Florida skateboarding, punk rock and art both past and present. The linka are all over the place, and seem to be in conjunction with another site called Art Gone Bad. It’s not the easiest thing to navigate, but just keep clicking. There are snapshots from a Skateboarder Magazine photo session at a backyard ramp, a weird looking life size paper mache mosh pit circa 82, Mike Weed freestyle action, Monty Nolder at Grigley’s ramp, vintage McGill, backstage at the Warped Tour with Anti Flag and the Buzzcocks, Joan Jett looking tuff as nails and all kinds of good stuff if you dig around for it. If I lived in Florida I’d be hanging out with this guy, provided I was punk enough.