A new spot by Evergreen Skateparks will be going into NE Portland this summer at NE 52nd & Alberta. This small spot (under 3000 square feet) is not part of the 19 approved parks in the now almost fatally stalled Portland Parks skatepark program. This one was instigated and funded by the the Cully neighborhood association. Coincidentally, Grover lives in the Cully neighborhood. I think he was lobbying for a vert ramp.

A reader named Jody sent in some pictures of blue fiberglass ramps he owns after seeing an old post here on Thrasherland. These pieces were purchased about 20 years ago in Rhode Island, and most likely came from a skatepark in Maryland called Rolling Surf. More pictures after the jump.

We snuck it out of the restricted section of the Hogwarts library so you can read this.

Chris Cantwell operates a skateshop in Bradenton, Florida, and even though it’s got a really nice skatepark, Chris decided he needed his own concrete. I once built a 6 foot tall miniramp in the front yard of a house I was renting, but Chris’s vision and execution is so much more amazing. The closest thing I can think of is that small front yard skate obstacles set hidden somewhere in Seattle, and this is at least an order of magnitude larger. The Seattle front yard was built for a little kid, nothing over2 feet or so. The owners got some flack from the neighbors but the zoning was OK. I remember seeing it in a video, and I’d swear I posted it here, but it’s getting harder and harder to find old posts on S&A – We’re past 6k posts on the blog part alone. Chris’s project is also legitimate in the eyes of the city where he lives. Check out the pics after the jump.

– Thanks to Tito for the tip.

This must be the worst restoration job ever. The deck on the right is called a  ‘Jeff Goso’ according to the seller on eBay, the left one is the untouched Jeff Grosso “Toy Blocks” board from 1986 as seen on SkullandBones.  This reminds me of the 80-year-old woman who restored a 19th century fresco of Christ in a church in Spain a while back.

BCSA skatepark benefit show this weekend in Corvallis, OR at a place called Cloud & Kelly’s Public House in downtown Corvallis. 21 and over, 3 good bands, all proceeds go to the skatepark project.

I thought I was going to steal these two Sport Girl dolls for $10, but they ended up going for $42, which is more than a grown man should spend on skateboarding dolls from the 70’s. I’ve shown this unlicensed Farrah Fawcett packaging before, but I’ve never seen the red variant. The three bullet points on the Sport Girl are Rooted, washable hair, twist and turn waist and vinyl head. Vinyl head? How luxurious! And there you have it, day 3 of “Doll a Day” week.

The biggest engineering obstacle that the guys at Marbel have managed to overcome is designing an electric skateboard that doesn’t actually look like an electric skateboard. As far as that goes, it’s got a leg up on the competition for sure. You can use the handheld controller or use an iPhone app. You can also use the app to “tune” the board’s acceleration curve and set the max speed below the 20mph it can comfortably reach. A full charge will take you at least 10mph in real world surroundings. If ever an electric skateboard could go mainstream, this might be it. It’s already reached it’s funding goal on Kickstarter, so expect to start seeing these in the wild at some point.

[Source: BGR] – Thanks to Heath for the tip.

Kevin Cann sent in some pics of homemade concrete coping he pours from a mould he made from a 2 part rubber mix of an existing block. He oils the mold up with a little motor oil before adding a high strength concrete, and then vibrates the mold to settle the mix and eliminate as many bubbles as possible. 12 hours later he pops it out and cures it in water for 5 days.

Yes, its been an event heavy week for posts on S&A, but even if you’re not interested in attending the Mt Tabor Downhill Challenge on July 26th, you should still check out last year’s course review video for John Huey and Danny Tumia’s spot-on portrayals of “Wide World of Sports” era presenters. It’s a well done bit, the kind we should be making at Skate and Annoy. Hat’s off to the folks at PDX Dowwnhill. As noted, this is not specifically a longboarding event, not that there’s anything wrong with that….