As useful as a website is, there’s no real substitute for a well planned out book. The Public Skatepark Development Guide is a collection of everything on Skaters for Public Skateparks site (minus the bitching in the forums) that if you are serious, will help you on your quest to get a public skatepark built in your town. The nicely illustrated 128 page guide is published by three organizations; The Tony Hawk Foundation, the International Association of Skateboard Manufacturers – IASC, and SPS, although you’d be hard pressed to find it on their web site. I just got mine and it seems to be well worth the price, which is “free” but you pay the shipping. I think I paid about $6 for mine. It was a while ago when I ordered it. Why did I order it? For the kids, of course! Get yours.

I finally made it to Tigard Oregon’s new park. It’s rad. Quirky, but fun. It was a total zoo there because the weather was nice, but it was still a blast. A few BMX guys were getting bent out of shape by some perceived snaking, but it was really just a case of too many people and too much going on to keep tabs on everyone. If you bring a bag into the park, a city ordinance says the cops can search it. I’m not sure how the ACLU feels about that. So that weird double level coping setup that looks like it’s a big mistake is actually a lot of fun. You’re free to ignore the top layer if you want, but you also have the option of figuring out multiple lines that incorporate it. Lip tricks on the top layer look rad in combination with a roll in or lip trick on the lower layer. It’s set up in such a way that you don’t have to be Joe-pro skater to use that top layer, but if you are then more power to you. I didn’t get a lot (OK, any) shots in the wide open area. I was more interested in skating there my first day, so I made my photo opps as quick as possible. More after the jump.

A lot public buildings or parks projects contain some small portion the overall budget to be used for art on the site. I was looking at a picture of the cheesy sculpture outside of the Tigard skatepark when I realized in my travels I’ve seen a lot of bad skatepark art projects and a few good ones, including one you can actually skate. So I’m going to put together a gallery of skatepark art, which will, unfortunately contain mostly crap. Send in your pics (large versions please) and I’ll include them. Top left, kent Washington invert sculpture with MC in the foreground. Photo by Dan Hughes. Top right, the lovely squiggle art at Tigard Oregon. Larger after the jump.

The granddaddy of NW skateboarding sites, Skate Oregon, has pictures of some interesting Dreamland concrete in Bay City Oregon. The grand opening was earlier today and sadly, those Scotsmen weren’t at the event, and neither were we. We didn’t even know it was going down, actually. Dang I need to look it up on the map, too. Check out the Skate Oregon pics. Thanks for the tip Sam.

Earlier in the week when we were having technical difficulties, Grover put together a clip he felt was not worthy of full GVK status, although I’m not sure why. We couldn’t post it because our web host sucks so EPM scooped us on our own content. Hopefully it will dry up by the time this post goes live and I won’t be relegated to making goofy videos instead of actually skating he new Tigard Oregon skatepark.

Late tuesday night I got a call from Chris Stevens, whom I never hang out with and have never given my phone number. Turns out he was bombing a parking garage with some of the Eastside Longboards crew. Our (Eastide) paths almost never cross, except when I’m covering the odd slalom event, which as happened exactly once. Anyway, back at the parking garage, Chris basically met Aaron in the elevator on the way up to bomb the parking garage. Somehow my name got mentioned. On the way down there was a tussle that lead to Aaron colliding with a parked car at speed and blacking out for something like 20 minutes. Maybe there were convulsions? I can’t remember. Chris Stevens’ almost immediate 911 call got the ambulance there quickly and the paramedics left with him. Aaron was only on a first name basis with the guys he was skating with, and nobody had his phone number or knew where he lived. Chris somehow remembered my last name and called 411 to get my number so I could notify his wife, who was very, very grateful to Chris for calling the ambulance and calling me so I could let her know. Who knows how long it would have taken for her to find out otherwise. Aaron had his helmet but was without ID, and was not coherent when he left. Because of Chris’s quick thinking, Aaron’s wife Virginia was able to arrive the hospital as he was being checked in.

[Photo: Unrelated shot of Chris Stevens from Eastside Longboards]

You can buy fake fire hydrants for your dog to pee on, why not for a skatepark as well? Skatewave, the modular skatepark company you love to hate, has a line of skate obstacles called the Urban Series for simulating objects that you can, well, already buy. I’m sure they’ll argue that their knockoffs are more durable, although that fire hydrant looks weak compared to some of the heavy duty ones in the dog link above. At first I only noticed the tables. I thought it was funny that they made real fake (or fake real) tables for skateboarding, especially the one that is closed off to protect beginners. The simulated construction barrier with a metal top may actually be an improvement on those orange plastic ones. If only they sold a simulated Natas to do that fire hydrant ollie spin move. Watch it after the jump.

Through a random act of Google, while searching the web for pictures of David Lee Roth on a skateboard (no joke!) a stumbled on Mohammad Burney’s travel pictures. Man this guy travels a lot. Japan, Greece, Saudi Arabia, Kenya, Morocco, Malaysia, New York, Kuwait, Egypt, England and India, which is where the bowl above resides. One of the three pictures (1, 2, 3) Shows that it is some sort of astronomical observational tool. Check out that coping. If you decide to ride this bowl and are take a chance on getting stoned to death by an angry mob, at least use copers. I’m not sure how Google pulled up this page in my search for “David Lee Roth” and “skateboard,” but it did. There’s a way to view it with comments enabled, and he’s essentially got reams and reams of comment spam. Maybe that’s where it came from.

Barcode Art has this sign language primer for skateboard trick names. The videos on the page are all set to auto start and repeat, so it’s a little distracting to look at. If you are deaf, I imagine that page would kind of be the equivalent of standing in a room with a bunch of people yelling. On that note here’s a link to Deaf Skateboards, a team made up entirely of deaf skateboarders. They have a cool logo of a monkey skeleton on a skateboard covering his ears. It looks better than it, uh, sounds. I couldn’t find a decent Monty Nolder link. I know he’s still skating.

[Source: Skate Daily]

Speaking of long awaited reissues, Van Halen is on tour with David Lee Roth. I love Van Halen. OK, I’m out of the closet now, in terms of rock and roll. Van Halen requires David Lee Roth to be considered the real Van Halen. Others need not apply. Are we on the same page here? Good. Now someone please tell me where this old picture of David Lee Roth on a skateboard came from. This is the largest size I have, and everyone knows Diamond Dave is larger than life. Actually, any larger and you might be able to see some brains peeking out. Nice sack, man! This is as good as an excuse as any to call for celebrity skateboarding photos. Send them in. [Photo: Right – Official Van Halen]