If you approach (or leave) Daubenspeck Skatepark in Bingen, WA. from the right direction you’ll pass up this lovely ditch. This (Grindline) park is a good one in case you’re wondering, but you’ll get no pictures from me for now. Just one shot of the nearby ditch. I didn’t even see it until we were leaving. Unfortunately, we had an injured party so I didn’t stop to session. Looks steep and rough, but potentially lots of fun, right?

Let’s see… cleaning out the old inbox here. What’s this? The Sturgeon Bay Skatepark Initiative has met their finding goal and hopes to break ground on a new Grindline park in June. I wonder how that’s coming along… It’s finished? That was fast. Wait, what’s the date on that email? 2014. OK , well, that makes sense. Hold on, now they’re saying it was built by Dreamland. Maybe Wisconsin has the same wacky law that Washington has. Whatever, looks fun. Did you know Wisconsin ranks 6th out of all the states in beer consumption? I would have thought that the state with The Beer That Made Milwaukee Famous would have ranked higher than Vermont. Sturgeon are kind of gnarly.

So “skatercross” is thing now? Apparently there’s some sort of competitive circuit for it, at least that’s what Skateboard Supercross (SBSX) would have you to believe. You’re looking at an “Official SBSX Track” in New York City built by a Swiss mountain bike-centric company called Velosolutions. I’m not sure what they mean by official track, and it seems unclear whether or not this is a public park or not. Looks like it was spearheaded by Brooklyn Bike Park which is some combination of bike shop/rental/park. The Skateboard Supercross video shows skateboards, but the Velosolutions pics and Brooklyn Bike Park association implies this was built with bikes foremost in mind. It looks fun though. I like the illustration on the track. Again with the asphalt though. I guess it’s easier and cheaper to work than concrete. Probably less slippery in inclement weather. Better for bikes too.

An update from Kevin Live on the pour at the DIY park in L’ile Perrot. Looks like the kids (and adults) had a fun and productive session. So I went big this year and blew my budget a bit for crete, I dipped into the cash for the contest this year, more crete means less prizes for the kids. So I let the word out and Vans gave me 5 pairs of shoes to raffle away for kids showing up and helping and some $ for the contest. I also emailed OG Tommy Guerrero at dlxsf and passed the message onto Damon Thornley. They were stoked on my diy and sent me a package to give away at the contest at the end of May.They filled the gaps for prizes. So really big thanks to Industry for backing up the scene. This day came together so good, no rain great weather, and a ton of kids just so stoked on building a park. One kid told me that I’m like a father to them, Respect. Just want to thank every body that helped and came to help make a really sick ass park that would stand ground in Portland Oregon…

You’re looking at a propose multistory skatepark as part of the Folkestone Sports Park in the county Kent, England. It’s a proposed design, so it may ever see a groundbreaking ceremony. Still, it’s more than just theoretical architectural wanking from Guy Hollaway Architects, as the general projuct has some backing from Roger de Haan Charitable Trust. So while it has yet to be decided whether this particular vision gets built, something likely will. The bottom of the bowls will actually be the ceiling of the floor below, and the whole thing will be visible from the outside via (hopefully protected) glass walls. The only thing missing in my opinion is some sort of spiral track along the outside forming a skatepark recreation of a parking garage. Of course that might conflict with the boxing ring in the basement. I’m not sure why those two sports make any sense together. The design does seem to be more about architectural wanking, and I’ll be shocked if it actually gets built, but if it does it would be an amazing thing to have in any town. [Source: designboom] – Thanks to MC for the tip.

The Lynch Family Skatepark is seeing some real progress after a ceremonial groundbreaking in 2014. According to WBUR, it’s a $3 million, 40,000 square foot plan designed by California Skateparks. It’s another sizable park built under a bridge in a relatively barren area. Enjoy an animated render after the jump, or check out some construction pics from Boston Skateboarder’s gallery on facebook. [Photo: Charles River Conservancy]

The skate spot in Khunamokwst (pronounced KAHN-ah-mockst) park is officially open, although the ceremonial grand opening is May 16th. This little neighborhood gem was built by Evergreen Skateparks and funded through grants independent of Portland’s network skatepark system, which seems to be completely dead at this point in Portland’s fiscal history. Khunamokwst is located in the Cully Neighborhood of NE Portland, at NE 52nd and Alberta. It’s a small, low spot geared towards beginning to intermediate skill sets and anyone else who wants to have some fun.

Hey, have you heard of Thrasher? Yeah, me either until just recently, but I guess they’ve been around for a while. I thought I’d throw them a bone by directing some web traffic their way. I hope they succeed. The images above are from the always entertaining Certified Pieces of Suck, and this compilation has some actual LOL moments. I only wish they’d tell you where they are located.

New Orleans is the largest U.S. city without a skatepark! It’s been a long time since we’ve reported on the scene that gave birth to the now defunct Peach Orchard. Since then the park has a new name to go with a sanctioned location and some ramps donated by Spohn Ranch, leftover from the Mississippi Grind skatepark on a floating barge. The next step is to get back to their D.I.Y. roots by pouring their own transition, and they need your help. Parasite Park has one of the slickest incentive programs via kickstarter that I’ve seen. They’ve got some great looking gear that starts at just $7. Go help ’em out!

You might remember a Dutch newspaper article from 1980 talking about how skateboarding was becoming very popular. Here’s remnants of the same skatepark in the May 4th, 1982 edition of the Leidse Courant newspaper. This article is about the sport’s demise. This must have been slightly better than it looked when Jeroen and crew found it in 1985. Even then, you had to keep an eye open for those Mad dogs. – Thanks to Jeroen for the tip.