The Donald. Get it? No, get it? Went to Donald today for the first time in over a year. Had a lot of fun. It looks like they are getting ready to add something on to the mini pipe section. Met three guys up visiting from Santa Cruz. More pictures after the jump.

Somebody is a Jim Phillips (and Jason Jesse) fan in Germany. Either that, or Jim’s been traveling. Graffiti at Rheinaue skatepark in Bonn is a Flickr post uploaded by fraktalisman.

The new World’s Biggest Skateboard is official. The old one belonged to Tod Swank. An Australian named Grant Hicks (no relation) now holds the title. He sent in a few pics and some details you can see after the jump. And to clarify, Grant only said FU! to Tod figuratively.

From the forums at Skateboard.com.au comes these two different approaches to stopping skateboarding. The first one on the left is from Mother Nature who dumped a ton or two of sand on Bondi skatepark during recent storms. Bondi is a costal town, in case you haven’t guessed. On the right we have man made bureaucracy and the most elaborate skate stoppers I’ve ever seen. They don’t want kids grinding rails or even ollieing over them. For more pictures, follow the photo credits. [Photos: Snakeos and Morgs]

We’re starting a gallery of skateboard tattoos. Send in your pics if you want to be in it. Please include your name, the name of the tattoo artist (if you know it), the tattoo shop (if you know it), and approximately when the tattoo was new. Optionally, you can include a picture of yourself. I’m expecting to get a deluge of Independent and Thrasher tattoos, but don’t be afraid to send in the obscure, like this Natas panther Skate and Annoy hybrid. Skate and Annoy? WTF??? I found this buried an an email from 2005. House of Neil originally sent it to me, with the name “Friend of Wolfgang” attached to it. I’m pretty sure it’s just a coincidence. Friend of Wolfgang, care to chime in? On the right is a Bob Schmelzer graphic taken from his freestyle board. I’ll bet there aren’t to many Schmelzer tattoos out there.

Here it is everyone, the new park at Vancouver. It is a Grovers Korner Exclusive, first to ride. Enjoy and barge That’s what Ivan, Rich and I did. One of the workers for the city told us the park will not open until the whole complex is done (a year) but we don’t care because we barge.

( I can’t condone that statement. I almost didn’t let this post go live. The whole park complex is scheduled to open in 2008 but the skatepark should open at the end of this month, unless the city is annoyed by bargers! – K.Ed )

How telling that the day after our country celebrated our independence I end up making a flippant post about how the US government is helping to fund “extreme sports facilities” in El Salvador in hopes of combating violence amongst disaffected youth. As if Extreme!™ Democracy wasn’t enough (see Iraq). The News Blaze has an article titled Extreme Sports Offer Salvadoran Youth Refuge from Violence – United States provides extreme sports facilities to Salvadoran youth center.

This popular rejection of violence is what the founders of Fundacion Salvador del Mundo (FUSALMO) hoped to see when they created a recreational facility for the youth of Soyapango in 2003…

…In 2006, with a grant from the U.S. government, FUSALMO expanded its facilities to include extreme sports: bicycle motocross (BMX), skateboarding and break dancing.

Break dancing and skateboarding? Sounds like 1987, not 2007. I guess skateboarding heals all wounds. I’m sure a few American-made prefab ramps will make up for the fact that the USA backed a bloody dictator for all those years. I can’t think of a better way to say “I’m sorry for the death squads and you know, those 30,000 executions. Let’s put this unpleasantness behind us with some method airs and a little pop locking.” Big surprise, the source for the News Blaze article is the U.S. State Department.

Skaters from El Salvador – send us your pictures and vids! We’ll put them up.

[Photos: Top – Salvadoran Tourism Ministry. Left – Children of the Street. Right – United Nations]

Dreamland is building two more skateparks in the Portland area right now. Holly Farm is a small skatespot in Southwest Portland. I had kind of written it off as something that was going to be for neighborhood kids but it is looking gnarly. That wall behind the spine looks six foot tall and the front pocket looks about eight. They are planning a KGW banks treatment around the outside.

Meanwhile, two miles down the road, Tigard is also in progress. It is not as far along but it’s bigger.

Troy Sliter sent in some pictures from a recent road trip he took to New Mexico. I’ve never skated there, have you? I like the look of that ditch, that’s for sure.

Outside Magazine? At first I thought this was going to be some real news, Tony Hawk coming out of the closet as the first highly successful openly gay skateboarder would certainly be news. Yeah I know there are other openly gay skateboarders out there, but nobody at Tony’s level. Turns out I was thinking of Out Magazine. Outside Online has an interview with both Tony Hawk and Shaun White, comparing career moves and their relationship as mentor and.. mentee? Err.. One of the best quotes:

HAWK: Someone came to me once and wanted to do a signature Hawk cologne. I was like, “Of what? Sweaty pads? Am I wringing out my pads into a little perfume bottle?”
WHITE: I’ve been sent like 20 movie scripts. And the first lines are always “What up, brah?” Nope, nope, nope.

It’s a good interview that shows a bit of the human side of these two larger than life personalities. At four pages long, this interview is still way too short. I wish they had made a longer version available instead of just mirroring the print edition, which is what I’m assuming they did. we like to poke fun of some of (well most, actually) Tony’s marketing decisions here on SnA, but it’s pretty good natured. He does give an awful lot of time and money towards building new skateparks, and you can’t fault that. read the interview here. Thanks to SnA commenter Mac for the tip off.