Oh man, it’s going to be so good. (Updated)

Marek Litinski sent in some pics from his recent trip to his homeland, Czechoslovakia. This spot is located in Hrušovany nad Jevišovkou. They’ve got a web link for the skatepark complete with a history and construction photos. Of course I can’t read it, but it looks like it was built out in the middle of nowhere in an old government building, as evidenced by the official portraits various nefarious Russians above. Here’s what Marek had to say:

About that wooden bowl… Scene sucked, to the extend of non-existence. Placed in very small village in an obscure Czech country side. Posiblly a Czech type Donald situation. So I wouldn’t be surprised if one day somebody ripped it a new one, which isn’t gonna be spectacular in any way because those trannys are like six feet tall. That bank wallride is around twelve, which makes it not so easy to skate so thats where you get your stoke on.

What’s the meaning of the Donald reference? Donald Oregon and Putting hte cart before the horse. The city must have gotten a grant from somewhere and decided to build a park “for the kids” before there was any skateboarding to speak of. Now others will likely travel there to skate, and the town will produce a few rippers where there were no skaters there previously. You can Czech out some more pics after the jump. [Photos: Jakub “Punker” Halfar, except for the middle panel which came from Hrusovany.cz, uncredited.]

Ryan Hass writes:

Here is the answer to prefab in New England.  Back in 2000-2003 these parks were springing up all over the place.  Asphalt footers, huge cracks and terrible seams are par for the course.  Not to mention these objects are usually dropped into place with little or no thought about layout.

Suh-weeeet!

As a followup to our earlier coverage of the Jacksonville Beach, Florida skatepark, here’s some more info on Spohn Ranch and their prefab concrete option. Aaron Spohn got his professional start building ramps for the X Games in 1992. According to their official correspondence, Spohn Ranch has some sort of ongoing partnership agreement with Pillar Design Studios as well as an organization called the Action Park Alliance whom they bill as “skatepark operations professionals.” (Uuuugh! That’s a topic for a different post altogether.) Spohn Ranch also builds metal, wood and alternative surface prefab ramps, but I’ve highlighted the concrete offerings. (Updated)

I been to the edge, and there I stood and looked down. You know I lost a lot of friends there baby, I got no time to mess around. So if you want it got to bleed for it baby.

John Aguilar sent in this Jeremy Brown photo of his buddy John Veitch grabbing a frontside edger in the bowl at Bellingham Washington. That’s an edger, not an air. I like to toss the old backside edger into a session on a regular basis, but fronstide edgers are courting disaster and not disasters. This is the largest size file he had, so I can’t show you a close up of the wheel on the coping. Love the edger.

High temperature today was 38° in Portland – pretty stiff east wind too. Even though the sun was shining it was miserable enough to prevent people from enjoying outdoor activities. Even with school out for the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday, at noon, most of Glenhaven Park’s 15.69 acres was deserted, no joggers, no kids on the playground, no soccer, tennis or baseball. All 22 users of the park could be found in the quarter-acre skatepark. We need more skateparks. Of course, all the other missing outdoor types might have been out doing positive things for the community. Photo from Antigrav remote

Some time in 2003 Steve Grover was skating by himself at the West Linn skatepark in the middle of the day. Steve Olson showed up out of the blue and took a few runs. Then he got out an old Polaroid camera and asked Steve Grover if he would snap a few shots. Grover said sure, but also suggested that he get to keep a couple. It was a win-win situation. Check out the Shot of the Week, plus a bonus alternate shot after the jump.

Sure, we had construction pictures of San Jose’s Lake Cunningham skatepark out the wazoo and then some, but nobody cares about that once the park is open. Especially when you have a photo session with Lance Mountain, Steve Cabellero, Salba, and Rick “Ask the Doctor” Blackhart. Head on over to Concrete Disciples for the always adept MRZ photos. The server has been hit or miss since for a while now, just try back later if it doesn’t load. – Thanks to JF for the tip.

The plot thickens. Jacksonville’s skatepark, although designed by Pillar Designs, will use Spohn Ranch prefab concrete, as seen in the images above. Why would you want to do that? Price is my guess. It’s probably cheaper than hiring a crew of experts to work on site. You make these things in a factory using unskilled labor for the most part, and haul them out on site, play a little connect the dots and seal up the joints. Probably takes less time too. Is it worth it? If you look at the limited designs available on the site, you’ll notice that like wooden prefab parks, all you get is one transition and one height with the exception of an extension here and there. So basically, one corner or pocket is going to be the same as every other one in that park or any other park made by Spohn. A definite improvement over prefab wood, but no substitute or draw like something made by a craftsmen. Pure utilitarianism. I suppose if budget were the main concern it would be better than nothing. Also, prefab concrete is probably the cheapest and easiest way for a city to make a small one hitter skate spot. I suppose that’s an acceptable use, although sometimes you can still get a reasonably priced tiny skatespot built by concrete artists.

Has anyone skated one of these prefab concrete skateparks? Of course people have, but I’m talking about our readers. Taking a look at Spohn Ranch, I have a feeling I may may have without knowing it. Of course you can’t really look at much of what they have to offer without filling out a request form, as if their park designs layout are somehow valuable. I think you can get that experience for free by playing a demo of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater.

Ok first off, this is not the best illustration. There is a lot of stock photography with business guys shouting, but not so much of skater dudes shouting. Imagine the megaphone in the skater’s hand instead. Jacksonville Florida city officials held one of those “feedback” public skatepark meetings where they unveiled plans for the city’s new skatepark. The crowd of 50 or so skaters became angered when they realized the city was going to railroad through precast concrete obstacles from a company called Pillar Design Studios out of Tempe Arizona. Pillar looks like it is one of those landscape architecture firms dabbling in skateparks. They appear to have quite a few skateparks under their belts, just don’t look for any actual pictures of them on their web site. I’d find that disconcerting if I was a skateboarder living in a town that was about to hire that firm. They have a few links to external sites with sparing amount of pictures. I followed one at random and it showed a bunch of prefab Woodward metal ramps. Pillar also does motocross and bike only parks(?) as well as “Action Sports Facilities” with go cart tracks!