Rick went to the meeting and wrote a recap. My favorite part is this excerpt.

The committee and THPRD have no plan at all to keep more advanced skaters or bikes out of the novice park. In fact, they seemed very surprised, and somewhat dismayed, that the “advanced” (in years, if not ability) skaters and bikers at the meeting thought the new park looked fun and that we did plan to ride there when it opens.

I love it when park officials get dismayed that a park looks fun. You can read the whole story and see some renders of the proposed site after the jump.

…they tore down the “skatepark” in Cannon Beach, Oregon. The old park, seen in all it’s glory above, thanks to Skateoregon.com, was more of a spot than a skatepark. It was less than stellar. You can catch a few frames of skating “action” at Seeside in the GVK episode Skate Ghost, at the 6:21 mark. The blog for Cannon Beach’s City Manager hasn’t been updated regarding the skatepark, but Placed to Ride has the contract and a picture of the construction company that was hired to do the retaining walls. I guess they (Mc Ewan Construction) also made a donation to the project. PTR should be breaking ground next week. I liked their work on Seaside, and given the size and location of the Cannon Beach plot, I’m predicting something similar in nature.

– Thanks to G.N. for the tip. (Who isn’t this G.N.)

According to Addikt Skateboards, the Florida Bowl Riders Cup went down like this:

1) Benji Galloway
2) Morgan Burgess
3) Jimmy The Greek
4) Donovan Rice

We don’t have those photos, but we do have two from the Masters division, sent in by Tito.

Battle Ground Washington. Man that place is like a pinball table. There must not be anything else for kids to do in a 20 mile radius. We went there for a short session on Sunday and the place was packed. We drove by a GSD protege on the sidewalk on the way there and he ended up showing up at the skatepark. Filthy. The park has a solid coating of dried dust and mud from the landscaping and new walkways surrounding the park. The walkways are adjacent to the skatepark concrete and have joints formed in them to discourage skating, but they aren’t big enough to slow you down much. The bike guys at the shallow end of the bowl were getting very sour about multiple skaters being in the bowl at a time. They couldn’t get a run in. I tried to explain that saying the word “Bowl” in a low voice wasn’t going to make people wait for you to drop in. Later, some kid on a bike tried and eventually landed a backflip flyout of the shallow end. He was pleased with himself. Hey, I’ve got pics of the same three guys I always shoot! Check ’em out.

If you were thinking about donating a little something for the LC snakerun project now would be a good time, We’re going to shut it off in the next couple of days. $5, $10? Every little bit helps. Thanks to the folks who have donated already.

Click the donate graphic on the Skaters for Portland Skateparks website.

Tyler Chastain went by the West Linn skatepark and found it closed for repairs. They are replacing that missing fence and are going to reopen by thursday or friday, but then again they were originally supposed to be finished by the 14th. Don’t barge, cops are quick around there. What to do in the meantime? Check out these three pictures from a 2002 session. I swear I am senile because I think I’ve posted these already.

There’s no better way to combat a buzzkill than enjoying a session in some unseasonably dry and warm weather. if you can’t actually go out and skate today, you can still enjoy some photos from a session at Pier Park last Saturday.

My brother sent me these shots of Whistler Skatepark in Vancouver Canada.

I’ve been making half hearted attempts to put together a Cannonball Run of Oregon skateparks for several years. The Cannonball Run is one of those ideas that sounds fun but is actually quite a chore if you decide to undertake it. Every time I would suggest it I would get a few non committal grunts or “that sounds annoying.” It turns out most people would rather spend their time actually skating instead of driving from spot to spot and having to leave just as you get warmed up. Leave it to MC to actually put the plan into motion. He tried one earlier this winter but kind of gave up half way through due to weather and lack of sunlight. In Washington a crew had a similar experience. When Old Man Army decided to give it a go in Arizona, MC picked up the torch and ran with it. It wasn’t publicized as an event on Skate and Annoy because Mark had planned to hit some private bowls on the way and didn’t want to bring the troops along. At the last minute (literally) I talked him into just hitting public parks for the sake of continuity. In the car he was still inclined to hit one well known private spot in particular because he was afraid we wouldn’t get to all sixteen. Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed. Heck, we could have easily squeaked in a seventeenth since we drove right by Oregon City on the way to West Linn.

Sure, we have some of the most famous parks in the world, but we also have our share of clunkers. During one of my many customary visits to SkateOregon, I decided to investigate the page dedicated to the “Skate Trac” in Prineville Oregon. What a gem! Oh save me, Tony Hawk Foundation. I still say this is better than phase one of Salem.