I didn’t know where Swalecliffe was until I looked it up. Turns out it’s in South East England, near Whitstable. “Whitstable?” you ask? Why I believe that’s near Swalecliffe. SnA reader Neil Brown says they’ve been waiting years for a good outdoor concrete park in his neck of the woods, and he’s stoked to finally get one considering the project got the green light way back in 2005. Sometimes it seems like these things will never get built. Neil’s got a Flickr stream of construction and opening day, but he hasn’t given us a review yet. Probably too busy skating. There’s a rendering of the park plans after the jump. Looks decent enough from afar. Swalecliffe. I like the “e” on the end of the word “cliff.” It’s like “shoppe.” I wonder if it’s called Ye Olde Swalecliffe Skateparke. Get it while the weather’s good!

Reading and watching documentaries are no substitute for experience. If you want to learn how to work with concrete to build skate structures, here’s your chance. Marginal Way Skatepark will be hosting the Red Bull 10 Stair contest on Saturday, August 4. Red Bull has offered to pay for skatepark improvements as their contribution to the cause. Part of the improvements are needed for the contest.

SATURDAY JULY 28 – ALL DAY – MARGINAL WAY NEEDS YOUR HELP!

We have 10 yards of mud scheduled for an 8 AM delivery. The site is completely prepped for a flat pad and transition pour around the back of the pillar island. Come down to the skatepark and help us out. Good times, good karma and hard work = MW Phase 2!

Marginal Way Collective

Contest August 4th in Ketchum Idaho, which is quite a fun little park. Andy G. sent this in. Click to enlarge.

Hey guys hoping you might post this and anyone within 10000000000000000 miles might make the trek. We started having contests in Ketchum in 1995 and haven’t thrown one since 2003. This is a home spun by skaters for skaters event and it has always been a really good time. Nothing too serious and good times also DJ Press Play (who lives in Portland now).

PS I know that Montana is the new Idaho but we are still the old Idaho and have a good thing going! Cheers!

Let’s hear it for Idaho! Make your travel plans and head out there. We like Ketchum, and Hailey is only 15 minutes away. Get your vaccinations up to date in case you are bitten by a wild Slackjack.

the Home News Tribune (News that hits home in central Jersey!) reports that a new skate park irks neighbors. Noise complaints have neighbors starting a petition to remove the brand new $300,000 skatepark. HNT Staff photographer Jody Somers’ picture clearly shows that these noise complaints could have been avoided or severely curtailed had the city of Linden done a little research and gone with a concrete park instead of prefab. You can read the most compelling study statistics after the jump. Don’t worry, it’s a quick read.

Imagine a session with a skatepark designer prior to building a new skatepark for the express purpose of telling (and showing) what you do and don’t like about skatepark terrain. Talk about direct feedback! Well, that’s what’s going on with Portland’s Gabriel Park. Airspeed’s first “Drop In” for Gabriel Park is going down this Saturday July 28 at 5pm in Florence Oregon. There will be others held in the Portland area too. This is a fantastic opportunity for armchair skatepark advocates. It’s one thing to sit behind your computer and anonymously criticize someone else’s work, but here’s your chance to do something constructive, live and in person. Keep checking the Airspeed site for upcoming Drop-Ins, and we’ll try to keep you posted as well. Looks like the newest concept for gabriel park is a more traditional snake run.

The World Freestyle Skateboarding Association is holding the 2007 Championships on July 28-29 in Vancouver, BC, Canada at the Robson Square Skating Rink. Don’t worry, if you can’t find your freestyle deck in the attic, there’s no need to jump in your Delorean and fire up the flux capacitor. You can actually buy a freestyle deck from Outlook. Someone once commented that I needed to “dumb down” Skate and Annoy, but I think the connection between that fish and freestyle is fairly obvious and we do have a high readership amongst ichthyologists. I feel like I’m ruining the joke by providing these links. I’m insecure. I need to know that at least someone will get it. Do you think I am pretty? Love me. [Source: Vancouver Skateboard Coalition]

I don’t know. Maybe Mark’s intro was a little off putting, but for some reason we didn’t get a lot of response from our Washington road trip feature, so I’m re-posting again. Hey look kids, there’s even some street skating! Four pages and over 150 pictures – never mind that two thirds of those pictures are of the same 10 guys. Washington Road Trip.

Jungleland Skates has a tribute page to a spot called the Tea Bowls that was sessioned intermittently from the 70s through the 90s. Like the rest of Jungleland (don’t look you’ll spoil a future post!) it is well thought out and has a slight museum-like air to it. There are videos, video grabs, still shots and a surprising history of the spot. Turns out some richies built an elaborate estate for tea parties and social events in the 1920’s. Part of this estate are these huge reservoir type bowls and a series of aqueducts that must have taken an absurd amount of water to fill. Make sure to watch the video clips. I know you are thinking “Well, that’s going to be some boring ditch footage,” but the clips are short and the action is interesting. One of the bowls is gnarly and deep. The surface is broken up and there are massive piles of dirt to be navigated around. The whole thing is very surreal. It’s hard to imagine why they built such deep pools that were more suitable for scuba diving or holding the Loch Ness Monster than swimming. Also of note are a couple of the amusing “lifestyle” photos. Explore Jungleland Skates Tea Bowls Tribute page.

[Source: Random Press]

I was looking all over for links to the Clackamas Town Center skatepark and thinking these parks are popping up right under my nose without any warning. Then I realized it was actually being held at the mall. Sweet. I’m going to grab my girlfriend, give her a macrame bracelet with my name on it, stuff my oversized comb into the back of my Jordache jeans and head on over to this street contest sponsored by Cartoon Network’s Toonami. They say I can even meet Kris Markovich. The whole thing is free and if I win I’m going to LA for the finals, which I’m sure will be heavily covered by Thrasher et al. Only the first 100 skaters in line by 9:00 am (7-25 in Portland) will be able to compete, which is why I posted this at midnight. Don’t tell my mom I’m ditching curfew. Info. Head on over to Craigslist if you wan to get a temp job working the event. Just a heads up that the Sarcastic Web Commenter position is already taken. Thanks to Troy Sliter for the tip off. He’ll be the 80’s skater disguised as a teenager at this contest.

I was unaware, but maybe you’ve heard of this before… Apparently, there is some sort of long standing history of skateboarding in Portland Oregon. Who knew? Someone should commemorate that. Besides building 19 new skateparks, the City of Portland is sponsoring an exhibit called Board of Art: A Historical Perspective of Stumptown Skate on August 2nd from 5:00-8:00pm at City Hall (1221 SW 4th). There will even be a half pipe set up in front of city hall. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a city’s top brass embrace skateboarding so much. Thanks Comissioner Sam! Now why wasn’t I invited to be artsy with my peers? Oh wait. I was, and I dropped the ball. Nice one. [Graphic: Bettina McEntyre]