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.

Making the Solid Surf UK post reminded me that I was sitting on some shots of a skateball installation at Solid Surf in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Tim Ebaugh sent me the scans from his friend, photographer AL Porterfield. Check ’em out after the jump. Tim has a site called Vintage Florida Skateboard as well as helping out with Grind For Life and Florida Skater. We also linked to his Bowl Rider’s Cup coverage.

A reader’s comment on an earlier earlier post led me to check out a site on the history of a skatepark named Solid Surf in Southport England. at first I thought it was just the one (very long) page consisting of some personal recollections and photos as well as a lot of vintage magazine advertisements and feature articles. Worth a post by itself, but the single page was the precursor to a larger site that is still a work in progress. The skatepark was part of an amusement park facility. You can see rollercoasters in the back of some of the photos. It had a long history of ups and downs, finally being completely replaced by a go kart track in 1999. There are some pictures from the early 80′ where the park looks like a ghost town. Check it out.

[Source: Solboy from SNA comments]

The anonymous cell phone picture poster at Sleestak picked up some a transmission of the completed snake run at Lincoln City. If you can’t get in to Sleestak see them, EPM has reposted a selection as well. The top shot is not at all what I expected it to look like, although I’m sure it will be different in person.

Hooray!

SeattleSkateparks.org posted some recent pictures of the much maligned Lower Woodland skatepark under construction in Washington. I wonder if that roll in qualifies as one of those super-features I’ve been hearing about…. Sahli powers activate! UPDATE: Latest set – Earlier set – Layout (Apparently not final)

– Thanks to Tony D. for the tip.

It’s a Boston morning here on SnA. The St Charles River skatepark that was designed by Wormhoudt, Inc. will be built by Grindline. That’s an interesting combination to say the least. I’ll leave you to draw your own conclusions. This separate design and build contractor has me stymied though. I realize it’s due to state laws, but just think of the extra concrete you could afford by hiring the same firm to design and build. It’s $40,000 square feet, and no, those funnels aren’t some sort of ill conceived public arts expenditure. They are the support pillars for the highway overhead. Here in Portland we have some expensive river front property under Interstate 5 that would be well suited for a massive skatepark. Right now it seems to only be used for hosting the Cirque Du Soleil once a year. Yeah, this is old news from December.

– Thanks to Tom Miller for the tip.

Checking back on the Lake Delton, Wisconsin skatepark we mentioned last fall, and it looks like Dreamland finished ahead of schedule due to a span of unseasonable good weather. Good news for locals right? Not so much. Dreamland finished work on October 30th, but shortly thereafter Wisconsin got back on track with a deep frost, and local contractors are unable to finish the parking lot and walkways. As is often the case in these situations, the park is officially closed until the work can be finished in Spring of this year. I have to have to believe it is being barged though. (It is. The police are handing out criminal tresspassing violations.) It’s in the 30’s this week in Lake Delton, and when I lived in the Midwest, that was prime winter skating weather. Although now that seems insane to me. Dreamland’s site isn’t updated with the final plan or pictures, but the semi official web site for the skatepark has info on the park (No bikes or scooters, directions, etc..) as well as gallery of pictures. Breaking news, looks like they are still fishing for donations to finish the surrounding area. Lake Delton is asking for gravel, fencing and concrete among other items. There’s a few videos of Dreamland crew finishing and riding the park after the jump.

I’m gradually amping up for an upcoming trip to Florida. You might say over-amping, considering the Florida links around here in the past few days. Or maybe just working on cultivating our niche-niche markets. Here’s a Morris Eaddy shot of Todd Morrow taken at the Dunedin Skatepark, Florida, back in October of ’07. Click to enlarge.