It’s hard to associate the word “epic” with a wooden skatepark, but I think Team Pain may have in fact pulled it off. Epic I was skeptical when I heard some of the gushing about it in the intro to the Transworld video, but as the frames kept coming, it started to become more and more clear. Not only is this thing huge… HUGE, but it’s also go some very interesting obstacles in the form of wooden bases or tranny topped off with concrete skating surfaces. Epic Indoor Skatepark in Rocklin, CA (near Sacramento) is set to have it’s grand opening March 14th and 15th. Check out some pictures, as well as the Transworld viddy after the jump.

– Thanks to Tito for the tip and pics.

Carl Warren hipped me to this dude… Sorry, channelling Pee Wee Herman’s Big Adventure. I needed a shot of the week, and I wanted to show something with the new roof once it went up. They didn’t tell me and I didn’t think to ask. Sorry, channelling True Romance. Hood River has an awesome gap to jump, and an awesome roof to skate under. Thanks once again, to man on the scene Carl Warren. Check out the full frame shot of the week and then some bonus shots after the jump.

It’s open, that’s for sure, but what remains uncertain (unless you’ve been there) is what the layout is. Every design render I’ve seen doesn’t jive with the photos I’ve seen. Fuel TV has photos of the opening, but not really much of an overview of the spot. Somebody help us out here. UPDATE: I guess that picture on the bottom is pretty much it. So the headline should read “Skate Spot Opens.”

Yeah! Bark like a dog! I’m going to post way to many pictures of this roof because it’s such a novel concept out here. Sure, we have the world’s greatest skateparks, but only a few of them are lighted, and almost none of them are covered! Hood River Oregon has really stepped up to the plate. Thanks again to Carl Warren, here are some photos of the roof going up over a portion of the new additions to the Hood River skate complex.

The economy sucks, and BMX riders and skateboarders at Burnside will be closer neighbors as a result. The Burnside Bridgehead redevelopment project is having funding issues. Instead of funding some of the planned landscape architecture, a parcel of land overlooking the new addition to the skate terrain is going to be turned into a temporary BMX dirt “pump track” filled with “rolling jumps, step-ups, and berms” according to BikePortland. You’d think the city would know that once you let anyone squat, it’s going to be hard as hell to get rid of them! That reminds me, there’s a bizarre new mural at the Department that shows a skatepark under the Fremont bridge and a buttload of bicycles going over the bridge. There’s only one or two skateboards in the whole thing. It’s strange indeed. Who commissions those things anyway? There must not be much of a screening process.

– Thanks to Fitz for the tip.

Yesterday’s park overview was part one. Part two features the local fauna (no flora) as they inhabit the J.M. Berlin skatepark in Englewood, Florida. Check out the action after the jump.

I checked out the Team Pain park in Engelwood Florida over the weekend. It’s a lot smaller than it seemed from the construction shots we posted. I’m staying in Sarasota, which has a much larger park, but I actually prefer Englewood. Sarasota is separated into two main areas, bowl and street. The whole of the Englewood park probably fits inside the bowl footprint of Sarasota. Part one of the coverage is just some overviews of the park. Part two (coming tomorrow) will be pictures of the locals.

A Milton Florida park monitor called the police because a guy dropped in on one of the park obstacles. It was essentially a quarterpipe with some vert. The monitor took issue because the guy climbed up and dropped in. It’s ok to ride it, but not to climb up on it in order to do so. Samuel Atchison was suspended for 30 days for skating in a skatepark. It sounds ridiculous, but he did absolutely nothing wrong. You have to see it to believe it.

– Thanks to Concretins for the tip.

I’m here in Sarasota, FLorida for a little while. SRQ is the airport ID, just as PDX = Portland. Last time I was here at this skatepark there was supposed to be an old man night on Fridays. Well those guys either all died or they moved it to a different night. They’ve added a big fancy building to the park since I’ve last visited. As near as I can tell, it’s only purpose besides giving you a place to pee, is to come up with a reason to justify paying $8 to skate. The park closes at 8:00pm and isn’t open during school hours. It’s weird having to plan out when I can go skate. It’s basically a five hour window every day until summer time, when it’s an eight hour window. I don’t now how the heck Oregon manages to keep it’s 80+ skateparks open and free for every hour of sunlight. We must be freakin’ geniuses or wizards. There wasn’t much happening there this particular Friday night, although to be fair, I was only there for the last hour. That’s the lifeguard or safety monitor or whatever that job is called in the shot at the top right. There were a couple kids I skated with and took a few pics. My son enjoyed the park too. Man, rollerblades everywhere. I don’t know how that scene is staying alive in 2009. The kids are trying to look cool and/or tuff and everything. It’s quite comical.

This park rules. The locals and City Hall gave it a bad name for a while, and while the powers that be may still be predatory, it’s been a good session every time I’ve been there in the past year or two. Also, it’s never been crowded. Pics after the jump.