Here’s the info in case you can’t read the graphic. Battle Ground Skate Park Grand Opening. Saturday June 2. Noon-5 p.m. Skate Demos by Manik Skateboards, Vox Shoes, Rebel Skates, Bacon Skateboards and the Mulkiteo YMCA Skate Team. Music by the Fakies. BMX demo by Northwest Crew at 4 p.m. Prizes and Giveaways

To make up for our overall snotty temperament, we sometimes are sentenced like to do a little bit of public service. In that spirit we bring you this story about Nathan Curry, an American working in Nicaragua who is building a skatepark there in his spare time. I first found out about Nathan’s project in the Bowling Green Daily News. After tracking him down, he agreed to answer a few questions and send in some progress reports. Be the first person to correctly identify the reference in the title of this post and win…

Larry Pescatore sent in another batch of construction pics from the Wormhoudt project in San Jose. The monolith is very… monolithic in nature. 2007, a Skate Odyssey. Check out larger picture after the jump, and since I haven’t had this much fun Photoshopping Sci-fi skateboard graphic crossovers since Blade Runner, take a look at the other teasers I had to choose from.

Word travelled fast, but in case you haven’t heard, Battleground Washington opened this weekend a couple of weeks ahead of schedule. Not surprisingly, there was a major rumble between a clan of BMX riders and an irate posse of… Not really. Everyone got along fine. Photo of Mark Conahan from Earth Patrol Media.

That’s right. variety is the spice of life. We’re looking to add another point of view to Skate and Annoy, something we’ve heard is called street skating, as implausible as that sounds, which is not to be confused with street-style, which is being, er, uh, practiced in the shot above that I got from the Chitown Shred archives. But seriously folks. We need to cover the grittier side of skating. I love skate parks, but there’s a different vibe with skating something found as opposed to something made for skating. Help us out, and get in contact if you think you can be our man on the street. Or woman. Geographic locale is not an issue.

I had been pitching an idea for a regular column in Concrete Wave to the editor Michael Brooke for a long time. He kept encouraging me in a vague sort of way, so I finally decided to write up the first installment as a way to help him decide whether to shit or get off the pot. I thought (and still do) that Concrete Wave had a lot of potential because it was still kind of blank slate, and Brooke wanted to provide coverage of all aspects of the sport, kind of like the early days of Thrasher. One thing I thought it seriously lacked (besides cohesion) was personality. Thrasher had it’s columns like Ask the Doctor and Skarfing Material that along with Thatcher’s and other musings gave the mag a real, uhm, personality. I was going to try and shake things up at Concrete Wave a little, help it appeal to people besides the old and the very young, which is ironic considering I run a web site that gets some Barney criticism of it’s own. What better way to make a splash than a somewhat facetious piece about slalom skateboarding, since you know, there’s not enough slalom coverage in Concrete Wave.

…has been Glenhaven. It has been amazing how empty Pier has been. Too many times in the last week I have been in on my own private session, praying that I don’t get seriously hurt in the 11.5″ abyss. I can only imagine the wrath of the local kids as they heckle my bloody carcass. Trying to talk them into hauling said carcass out of there wouldn’t be too fun either.

I can’t skate Pier every day, especially not by myself. It simply hurts too much. I am no Mark Conahan. I wish I was, but I am not. I need to take a couple of days off between sessions at Pier, and Glenhaven has become a perfect filler. The mini bowl is great for somebody like me (old, fat and not very skilled) as it reminds me of my Masonite mini-ramp youth. The hip in the center is pure butter. The pool is gnarl, but less gnarl than Donald. There are always great sessions full of kids who are tearing that thing to little pieces. It’s great to see kids half my age able to appreciate (and destroy) pools. I thought that tranny was dead, right?

Dave Viera came out of the woodwork the other day and showed the pool who’s who. He has been out with ankle issues. He was one less person at the Pier session on this day.

What do you call that trick where you are pushing off on your skateboard and your back leg catches the rear wheel on your skateboard? Oh yeah, it’s called funny! One guy made a documentary about it. What a happy coincidence. Just yesterday I was trying to come up with an
excuse to post an old video of I have of House of Neil doing the same thing. The first vid is called “Crash, Burn & Replay: A Segway Documentary” It’s pretty good, even though it flirts heavily with overkill. The second one is a short but sweet star vehicle for Neil titled “The Legends of Stenchtown,” after the Stench Ditch, a seminal, hardcore, locals only, dare I say Extreme™ skate spot in Evanston Illinois, and home to the Stenchtown crew who revolutionized skateboard slams with style.