Worst Elvis song ever. Andre’ Corbin sent in some pics of Ghetto Skateboards rider Chris Lehman. They are out of Zephyrhills, Florida, which is about an hour and a half south of where I’ll be in about three days. I don’t think I’ll make up there, though I do want to hit the Bro Bowl in Tampa. I’m going to try to hit Dunedin as well. I say “try” because you how it is with family vacations at the in-laws. If you don’t, let’s just say they can be trying times. Right. See what the kid in the lower right is gawking at after the jump.

Some things once glorious, fade into tragedy or treachery. Danimal testifies: Hass and I stopped by the River’s Inn last sunday and it looks like shit. We also barged the park in the evening on Easter Sunday On the left, the tragedy of a permission pool neglected. On the right, the treachery of a public skatepark betrayed by the very people entrusted to serve the public. OK, I have to assume it’s a betrayal if the situation with the Klamath Falls skatepark is still as bad off as I had heard. Greatly reduced operating hours subject to the whim of a local business entity (without roots in skateboarding) that gets paid to act as the park pad nanny when the whole thing used to be unsupervised and free. K-Falls must be the one town in Oregon that doesn’t get it. Click to enlarge.

The weather was iffy all weekend. I ventured over to Glenhaven. MC called me as I was leaving and told me to bring a squeegee as it had just hailed and some spots needed drying out. Half an hour later it was mostly dry, but every 10 minutes or so it would start sprinkling for a minute or so. Everyone was hitting it while they could, there were some great personal motifs going between guys that looked like anarcho pirates, kids in pajama bottoms and one guy with a mustache so big and bushy we could have used it to sweep out the bowl. I was just about to start snapping the local wildlife when another dainty but steady barrage of hail closed out the session for good, or at least another half hour or so., but I left. I should have used the time to read the manual on my flash, cause I kept blowing out the exposures instead of getting a little extra contrast on a gray day like I had hoped.

Everyone knows the story of skateboarding in Philadelphia’s Love Park. A group called Franklin’s Paine (web site is a nightmare to navigate, no explanation anywhere of the group’s origins) has been trying to raise money for a street park to serve as a replacement for the community that was displaced at Love. So which is the more noble fight, the battle to Free Love Park or the fight for a new park built specifically for skateboarders? An agency called Red Tettemer has gotten involved in the PR and has dubbed the marketing campaign From Love Comes Paine. They’ve built a moving (but headache inducing) web site that at times seems more like a masturbatory exercise in Flash than it does a useful resource, low bandwidth version included. The design of the park is skate plaza, but taken to a more pedestrian inclusive direction than Kettering. It’s more than just landscaping, and hopefully there won’t be a huge DC logo anywhere. It looks like they are making some progress, but with $1 million down and $5 million more needed to break ground, a 2008 dig seems unlikely given that fundraising started in 2003. Do you call it a “dig” or a…

Some skateboarders rallying support for a skatepark bond measure (Measure D) in Los Gatos, California had a bit of creative inspiration when the fashioned “Yes on D” signs out of broken skateboards and took to the streets to stump. this picture is from the Los Gatos Observer. Other skaters in Los Gatos experienced a little inspiration and possibly perspiration when they went on late night vigilante missions to “liberate” offending “No on D” signs. Unfortunately, someone destroyed a plant on one such mission, branding all skateboarders as “thuggish” and prompting neighbors to expect gangs of vegetation-hating freestylers overrunning the town. Even more unfortunate, some of the vigilantes may have been identified on video surveillance. Still even more unfortunate, the vote ended up going 2-1 against funding the skatepark. Opponents said it was too much money, and that the skateboarders might not use it. There is no silver lining in this cloud, but at least San Jose is only 12 miles away.

My favorite Mod band that never existed, More Modern Snakes are playing an all ages show tonight at Club Bump! – Errr… right. Here’s a focus-challenged shot of a small snake run feature in Wake Forest North Carolina, built by a company called Bluestone that I had never heard of until Danimal sent me the link. I guess he knows a guy who used to be on the crew. Their web site is pretty horrible (get someone who knows how to resize an image please!) but the parks look like they have potential from what little they show. Of particular interest is a facility in Mabank, Texas that is listed as private, but looks like it might be part of some residential community as opposed to being owned by one individual. There’s no real information so it’s anyone’s guess. Looks like Bluestone has worked a few locations in Pennsylvania (Monroeville, Southpark, Imperial) as well as Delaware, Ohio and Kingsport, Tennessee. I know we’ve got readers in these states, have any of you ridden these parks? What are these other modern snake runs I speak of? Why Lincoln City, Gabriel Park, and Naples.

Gabriel excavation is in progress. Anybody need 1000 cubic yards of clay soil? Geth has a bunch he needs to get rid of. More photos after the jump.

I was in the skate park video taping my friend Tito (the small kid wearing black) when pell, my friends sister, and aweosme make-out artist, Pell gets on her skate bored and steals Titos spotlight Yes this is a weak post, but this short video totally made me laugh, all things considered. I guess I need to create a Friday T&A category. I got the idea from EPM.

Oregon just got one in Lincoln City, and we’re getting one in Portland later this year. Hell, they might be breaking ground as you read this. In Florida, they don’t have the hills that we do, so they have to make due. The Edge skatepark in Naples was finished a couple years ago. Team Pain is working on another one in St. Lucie, Florida right now. It’s actually mostly street terrain, but it does have a little snake in it. They have some construction pics of the work in progress on their news page. – Thanks to Tito for the pic.

A lot of kids are scared of bowls. Judi Oyama shared a quick note on some lessons she helped organize for local kids at the Santa Cruz Skate Park. (Judi goes with the official two word spelling of skate park, making me break with every other time “skatepark” has appeared on this site. How do we get that change adopted?) Skate class with my buds. We had 11 kids signed up 10 showed and we had 15 on the waiting list. This photo is classic. Gary was showing the kids how to kick turn. We had many of them dropping into the small pool and learning the basics. Thanks Gary Holl, Eric and Patty for the help. Cool photo. I offer help to kids if they ask or I think they might be receptive, but taking time out to organize a formal event for the benefit of kids is more than I’m willing to do. Fortunately for Judi (and park locals who don’t need lessons), they are only doing it once every couple of months.