The new skatepark at Schiffler Park in Beavertron, Oregon is officially open. Video barge courtesy of K.C. after the jump.

– Thanks to Mike Estes for the photos.

Long time (decades!) fixture on the Chicago skate scene, Stevie Dread made a skateboard out of Lake Michigan driftwood. He originally started making little fingerboards out of driftwood until I pointed him to MC’s life-sized creation. Stevie set out to make one of his own, but large driftwood doesn’t wash up every day on the beaches of Chicago, so it took a while for him to find a worthy specimen.

After two 7” records, the first album of San Francisco´s Hot Lunch was finally released. Germany´s Who Can You Trust? Records put out this vinyl only record.

One of the joys of bootleg skateboards occurs when the perpetrator can’t quite decide which board to rip off, so they combine two or more into one. In this case we’ve got a Natas / Grosso hybrid that was literally printed on paper and then laminated on both sides of the so-called deck. So sloppily in fact that the panther looks like it’s about to slide off the side of the board. Available on Ebay, where the seller calls it a Natas Caupas. – Thanks to David Maes for the tip.

It’s (going to be) called the Garage, and it just got funded by Kickstarter. They’ve got 16k for building materials, now I guess it’s time to build.

About a million years ago (10 or so, actually) I did a write up of concrete skateparks in the greater Chicagoland area for a pre-blog print issue of S&A. It was pretty dismal, especially coming from a Northwest perspective. In most cases the design or finish were flawed, often times both. Most spots weren’t built by actual skatepark builders. Some have expansion joints where the transition meets the flat, filled with whatever soft goo they use on sidewalks. Some even have brushed cement. That’s not to say you couldn’t have fun in those parks, because you are skateboarding after all. Since that time, Chicago got an adequate, professional, but not especially exciting park on Wilson, plus a prefab junker on Logan, and think some other satellite parks in the burbs, but again, nothing to write home about. Who knows, (I don’t) maybe there are a other new parks in the area that I don’t know about. Admittedly, I’m going on old information, although I did hit some more suburban spots in 2009. This new skatepark in Villa Park by Portland’s Evergreen Skateparks has a small-ish footprint, so it’s kind of hard to dazzle, but still it’s got to be a step forward for the state of Illinois. Hopefully this will open the door for other build/design projects in the area. Maybe not though, I heard Evergreen ran into some Union problems on the site, with picketing and what not. That’s Chicagoland for you. Big shoulders extend all the way to the burbs. We’re da Machine! Getting back to Evergreen, here’s another slick helicopter-dogcam edit from Robert Mcintosh. Bonus Effigies audio for “We’re da Machine” after the jump.

Neal Hendrix is Babes dig Balls Sports Babe of the Day. Babes Dig Balls is “The sports spot by babes who dig balls…and pucks.” If the interwebs has taught me anything, it’s that this site probably run by a 30-something dude.

What is sexier than a babe on a skateboard with five X Games medals and a trip to the Olympic Games? Not much. Today’s SBOTD is sexy Lewisville, North Caroline native, Neal Hendrix.

Click the link for his interview.

Betonhausen is A D.I.Y. spot in Berlin funded by c-list energy drink. (But really, is there anything as an grade A energy drink?) It has an outdoor part that looks like it served as the concrete college. Check it out. They’ve added an indoor part as well, 3 videos after the jump. The best video in the series is part two, which features the construction, including huge chunks of styrofoam sculpted in place and used instead of fill dirt.