Dateline: Englewood Florida. Headline: County wipes out good, clean fun Overmonitoring, irregular hours and high fees mar new skate park Eric Ernst wrote a piece for The Herald Tribune about micromanaging the fun out of the new Englewood skatepark that Team Pain built. Here in Oregon, most of our parks are free, open from dawn to dusk and unmonitored. And for the most part, this works out great.

Amazing! I was going to put this in the “Found Terrain” category, but it’s actually a purpose built skate spot in France! I had to (try to) read the sign, but it appears it was made for skating (and roller skating, inline skating, and BMX). Le Craddle du 13e was paid for by the City of Paris Cultural Affairs Department of Art in the City. That’s some bureaucracy I can get behind. There are a few more shots on the Skatepark de Paris flickr stream. OK. It’s a success as far as public art goes, but let’s take a step back and evaluate the skateboarding terrain. It’s fenced off, I think to keep pedestrians out actually. The approach looks really short, and where are you supposed to go when you come off that high wall? Looks like they want you to carve a continuous loop. No kickturns allowed! I still give it an “A” for effort though. Circular skate spots are the rage. [Source: Skatepark de Paris]

It’s another case of designers with too much time (or LSD) on their hands. This time it’s Acconci Studio with their concept for a skatepark in San Juan Puerto Rico. I came across this in Dec/Jan 07 issue of Dwell magazine. It was on a page talking about the Cooper Hewitt 2006 National Design Triennial. The design evokes a 70’s snake run mixed with a waterpark. It may be fantastic to look at, but it shows a complete lack of practical skateboarding knowledge.

So here it is, a too long and boring GVK18. It was a slim crowd at Holly Farms for the 1st Saturday, but we had fun as you can see via the video. The average age of the crowd was 30 years of age and the average weight of each person was 200 pounds or more maybe. We finally got “Bacon Master” Collin to ride and boy were we surprised. Who knows, maybe he will ride more with us. I know he is a business man who make tons of money off his skateboarding empire. I also know he is a skater now. It was good to session with him and Tim. Peace OFF Grover

Untold True Story has an interview with Grant Brittian, former photo king of Transworld and present king of The Skateboard Mag. The interview is over a year old, but it’s still an interesting read. Afterwards you can head on over to Grant’s site to check out some of his work, both skateboarding related and otherwise.

The signs next to this public space say “Interdiction De Monter Sur Le Mur,” which I’m pretty sure means “stay off the wall.” This French spot is labeled as La Vague du Parc Clichy/Batignolles. I don’t know where or what (ou, quoi) that is, but the spot looks rad. I imagine a curb will go up at the bottom of that soon. There are few more pics on Skatepark de Paris’ flickr stream. Thanks to German reader Michael Pfister who originally saw this on SkateAndDestroy.de.

Without fanfare, Portland’s Holly Farm skate spot opened for business. Monkey business is what went down there this morning. We go there in the rain this morning, but as it let off we were able to push the water around with some rags and it air dried pretty fast. That’s City Comissioner Sam Adam’s aide Tom Miller with a frontside grind over the love seat. Tom was one of the first people on hand to check out the new spot, and why not, he’s a huge part of the reason Portland has a system of skateparks on the books instead of just one or two parks. Thank Skaters for Portland Skateparks and a few progressive individuals in city hall. Where is Holly Farm park? 10819 SW Capitol Hwy, Portland Oregon. How is Holly Farm? Small, funky and fun. These skate spots are a good bang for your buck. Here’s another angle. Be nice to the neighbors and pick up some trash please, even if it isn’t yours. It’s a great age to be a skateboarder in Portland.

Are you in Holland? Do you care that before Deathbox was a dying Tumyeto brand, it was a U.K. company in the late 80’s that morphed into Flip? If so, go to the Deathbox 20th Anniversary Show at VIP International Art Gallery in Rotterdam, Holland. It’s probably going on right now as I type this. [Source: The Skateboard Mag]

The Wall Street Journal has an article on the blank skateboards titled “Avid Boarders Bypass Branded Gear: The $15 ‘Blank Decks’ Work Just Fine — A Marketing Challenge for Industry.” Zoo York riders scored the photo incentives. If you’re hoping for the old school pen and ink renderings that they used to use for illustrations you’ll be disappointed. In fact the first composite illustration looks more like something out of a second rate USA Today. It’s like all those years without a photo editor have them crippled. One recurring theme is that the kids with real talent are the ones that are buying blanks, and the newbies are buying branded gear. I don’t know about your town, but I see mostly the opposite happening in Portland. The IASC is quoted, and even brings up their ill fated “A World Without Pros” campaign. Here are some interesting facts. There are an estimated 800 professional and semi-professional skateboarders on the industry’s payroll, and Santa Cruz (NHS actually) claims an R&D budget of $500,000 annually. There are a few factual anomalies in the article. Apparently in Sioux Falls Iowa you can buy a “complete” deck from Crown for $30, or a name brand…

Dan Hughes tipped me off to Tony Hawk’s appearance on HGTV’s show called Sizzling Summer. This particular episode had to do with sizzling backyards, and Tony Hawk’s cement “skatepark” was one of the backyards featured. I tried get this recorded on my own but all I could seem to find were episodes on a bunch of arts and craft projects. Dan was kind enough to digitize it himself. One of the related links that came up with it is a Red Bull authored video on Ryan Sheckler’s backyard skate ramp. It looks like Red Bull must have built it for him because it’s got Red Bull’s color scheme and a cheesy little built in fridge stocked with Red Bull. Watch them both after the jump. Update: Added Bob Burnquist’s house after a reader request.