The theme song for Nickelodeon’s Rocket Power goes… We are riders on a mission, action kids in play position. Rocket Power! Rocket Power! We are riders on a mission, action kids in fun condition. Prepare to count down… Rocket Power! Mark Conahan is heading up a team of riders on a mission to skate thirteen skateparks in one day. He’s documenting it as he goes along on Antigravity Remote. Five years ago this would have been a more daunting task. He’ll be heading to Burnside, Woodland, Battleground, Vancouver, Pier Park, Glenhaven, West Linn, Holly Farm, Tigard, Donald, Newberg, McMinnville and Aumsville. Crap. I forgot to include a picture of McMinnville.

The News Herald reports that Bay County Parks and Recreation Department in Panama City, Florida has an extra $1.5 million or so and is trying to figure out what to do with it. One of their very bright and apparently unsolicited ideas is to build a skatepark. It’s not too often that a skatepark falls from the sky. The locals didn’t have to rally the troops or even get Matthew Lesko involved.

Hughes was recently in Arizona and found some very specific rules at the Wickenburg Skate Park. Check out a larger image at Northwest Skater. You have to like the use of a old west typeface, the rustic spelling and the creative editing by the local intellectuals.

Larry Pescatore sent in some more progress shots of the Wormhoudt park in San Jose: It looks all but finished: the concrete and bowls all look done and the perimeter fence has been built. The testament to monolithic artsy skatable landmarks is complete. The bathrooms have been built. All that seems left is the parking lot and/or outer landscaping. They even built a walkway up but it’s all fenced off. It looks more like a nuclear power plant than a skatepark in the shot above. More after the jump.

At the Ed Benedict meeting I saw the one of the bike guys I see around handing off a benefit check to the skatepark effort. So while the street and vert guys are flaming each other about terrain on the internet, The bike guys are raising money and going to meetings.

Dan Garland has been awarded the commission for art for the Ed Benedict skate plaza. Dan is a skater as well as an artist: Here is how he describes the project: Basically, I wanted to create an installation that speaks to the interface between man and nature and point towards balance as a solution. I wanted to create something using the bold, iconic visual language that is such a part of the skate culture and give skaters something fun to skate but also pique their interest in what this giant symbol stood for. To have an element of discovery that can play out in skaters interaction with the plaza as many of them will spend so much time there.

Or as Pete Lewis likes to call it: Old fatties skating terribly small skatepark features. Bigger after the jump. Sorry Egbert, you didn’t make the cut.

New Line will show a design for the Ed Benedict Skate Plaza. 7:00-8:30pm Earl Boyles Elementary School Cafeteria 10822 SE Bush Portland, Oregon Ed Benedict drawing borrowed from the Animation Blast website.

It’s time for the annual Grind for Life awards benefit/contest/demo/party. If you are anywhere near the neighborhood of Cocoa Beach Florida you should consider making a day of it. Dan Hatcher writes: Hey everyone, if you missed this one last year, you must have heard about it by now. Nearly 1500 attended last year so you don’t want to miss out this year. Saturday Nov 17 — Along with the pro demos, free stuff, food and music from local rock band “Arkaydia” we will also be hosting an all ages flow course contest. Gates and registration open at 10am and contest will start around 11sm. Hope to see all of you there. This is a great event for a great cause and tons of fun! The mission of the Grind For Life organization is to provide financial assistance to cancer patients and their families when traveling long distances to doctors and hospitals. They also educate and inspire cancer patients and their families about cancer survival and recovery. You can view the whole flyer after the jump or get more info from Grind for Life and the Cocoa Beach Skatepark.

Hood River Oregon’s small and dedicated group of young builders has accomplished allot of work in a short time. The team was headed by Mark Goddard of Benchmark Designs, but he recently departed and left in apparent puff over the design. I applaud the remaining crew for standing up for this communities local scene, hell, they skate it everyday and have serious pride in the outcome of this project. UPDATE: I got a call (!) from Mark who informed me this was never a Benchmark project, he was never the boss, and he was just hired on as an employee. He didn’t leave on bad terms with anyone. It was one of those “agree to disagree” situations. Our apologies to Mark Goddard. – K.ed