The Benton County Skateboarding Alliance is looking art to show and sell at the forth Annual Art & Music Benefit to raise money to improve the Eric Scott McKinley Skatepark in Corvallis, OR. They’re currently raised about 10% of their 90k goal, so there’s a ways to go. I’m pleased to say that I’m already prepared to send a few things.

The Friends of the Ann Arbor Skatepark are trying to raise money for a free public skatepark. One of the things they’ve organized is an entry into the Pepsi Refresh project, a very clever public relations scheme that still ultimately does do a lot of good for the public. Thing is, they don’t just give it away to anyone, they put it to a vote. What I want you to do is visit the project page and vote, it won’t cost you a nickel, and they’ve got a real chance to win. They’re ranked 16th right now. Andy MacDonald hailed from Ann Arbor, Michigan, and he graciously appeared in the projects YouTube video. Those other guys look familiar too… Check it out after the jump., but don’t forget to vote! I think you can vote once a day in December.

(That being said, 30k to finalize a skatepark design? You guys need to find a good design/build firm to comp that design fee. Our readers can recommend a few…

The new skatepark for the city of Lafayette, CO is having a grand opening on December 11th, at noon, although I hear there has already been a soft opening. Check some more pictures on the Facebook page.. It seems like Team Pain owns the state of Colorado these days.

Congratulation to friend of the site Stephanie Murdock, who was just was named a Baltimore Community Fellow, an award that comes with a hefty grant that she plans on using to help raise more money for Skatepark of Baltimore. This is an interesting twist on skatepark fundraising, based on her plans to develop a new skatepark as a place to positively influence at-risk youth through facilitating positive interactions and mentoring at a new skatepark-based community. At least that’s how I understand it, you can read more at the Baltimore Sun. BTW – The congratulations are for being a friend of the site, not for winning an award…

[Photo: Jed Kirschbaum, Baltimore Sun]

Team Pean just got the bid on what looks like a massive new skatepark in Arvada, Colorado. Construction on the 40,000 square foot park is expected to start “as soon as the snow melts in spring of 2011.”

That is, if the lights and yesterdays crew lasted long enough. Grover had his camera in tow again, and he even managed to unearth the long lost relative of the Caddy Shack gopher, Benny the Burnside Rat.

Here’s a video from a shop in Atlanta called Stratosphere. These guys went on on a road trip to a land of magical concrete that looks amazing, I wish I knew where all these parks were…. Oh yeah. Dang that Lincoln City looks fun. Check out the vid after the jump.

– Thanks to Eric Fleming for the tip.

Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament fully funded a small skatepark in his childhood home town of Big Sandy, Montana. His heart’s even bigger than his wallet. 40k is a lot to spend just to have a place to skate when you visit your p’s. Check out the Great Falls Tribune for the details, and then head on over to Earth Patrol Media to check out some photos of Jeff enjoying some Canadian maple mid-air.

– Thanks to Ashley Mott for the tip.

Spohn Ranch has put up a detailed video showing the installation of a prefab concrete bowl on the U.S. Millitary base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. It’s the first time I’ve seen a prefab concrete installation covered so thoroughly. Regardless of your personal feelings about prefab concrete, it’s really interesting to see it all go down. It’s striking how mechanical the whole operation is. It’s progressed to a point where they almost don’t need more than one guy on the crew who whow skatepark specific concrete finishing, it’s very mechanical. The metal coping is cast into the forms. They lower everything into place, shim it up and then pour the flat and the decks. There’s some patchwork on the seams, then welding and grinding the coping and it’s done. The process seems to work well for non-organic skateparks and single feature bowls. Imagine the equivalent of building a skatepark like you would an HO model train. Pick your pieces and arrange them. Vid after the jump.

Alright this is the second in a row – VERT is back. When I was in my skate hay-day I would spend part of the summers in Virginia Beach. There were about 6 city ramps in that town in the mid-80’s. Mt. Trashmore was the tallest and the first. I heard FUD (a.k.a. John Fudala) actually designed it. It was always a heavy session after 5 o’clock every night. Every session was a jam format and he who did not bail won the right to ride the whole ramp. My friend Bone Man and I came up with a plan to get runs after 5 pm – when one of us was going to fall, we would avoid falling in front of each other and make our bodies as big as we could on the flat to take up space so no one could drop in. This plan rarely worked. Mt. Trashmore produced great riders, everyone from Scary Larry to the Guitierrez trio (all three of which still ride). There were many more that were always nice and fun to watch skate. While there for my brief visit, I pulled up to the ramp where Allen Midget and Henry were riding It seemed like old times except everybody was older. I believe Henry has learned the McTwist in the last six years. It just goes to show that you don’t have to stop learning tricks just because you’re old. I think Eddie has a family. My time was short. I didn’t have time to talk to everyone. I would like to thank everybody that allowed me to take a run in my rickety state. I sure miss having a vert ramp. I asked Henry what the average age on the deck was, and he said it was about 35.