On the way home from the Battle Ground grand opening we decided to check out the progress of the Vancouver Washington skate park. Looks like we weren’t the only ones with that idea. Follow the link for way too many pictures of the construction site. Looks like they are holding out on pouring the flat. Or if you just want to see the incredible street course, you can skip ahead. Battle Ground pics coming tomorrow.

Stefan from Placed to Ride sent in a couple pics of the newly finished skatepark in Seaside Oregon. The grand opening is June 9th. This one kind of slipped in under the radar. We are spoiled here in the Pacific Northwest. But not spoiled enough I say! There should be more pics on the PTR site tonight. That Sunset Empire park district sign looks like it belongs outside a church parking lot.

Battleground is a freakin’ zoo. Must have been 150+ kids there last night, most of them just sitting or standing in the way. This is a great park. I can’t wait for it to calm down a little so it can be ridden without the whole human pinball game effect. Even so, we still had a good time there. This park has something for everyone. Check out some clickable pics after the jump.

Time to break out the camera for action shots again. It’s been almost three months, but EPM’s been TCB so it’s not like I was missed. Abusrd! I hauled my injured ass (shoulder and hip, actually) out to Pier to take pictures of old men skating vert. Heard I missed Childress, Drehobol and Kanights. Still, I didn’t get the camera out until I was walking back to the car. I noticed Louis because he (politely) asked me to get my 2 year old kid out of his way so he could hit the wave banks on the sidewalk. I snapped a few pics. I must have bumped the mode dial on the camera to automatic because I have a slow shutter speed and unintentional motion blur. I was too busy trying to get a good composition with curves in the walkway and the skating without getting in Louis’ way. Plus my kid was kind of crying, making my wife crabby… Calgon take me away! Must focus mentally. Cropping? That’s for wussies. See some full frame pics after the jump.

We’re checking in on the South African skateboard scene again. There was an article on Helderberg.com about a skateboard contest in South Africa. Near as I can tell, the town was Somerset West in the state or providence or district of Helderberg. I followed a link to the Old School Skatepark which is a brand new facility done in true DIY style. Actually, it’s not very “old school” in terms of skatepark design, but that’s not important. It looks like they hauled a bunch of sand and cinderblocks into a small warehouse and poured concrete over everything. All building up and no digging. You have to check out the pictures in the news and gallery sections. It has an odd looking finish and gestalt that is hard to describe. Definitely not your typical polished public skatepark, but still highly skateable as evidenced by the photos. A unique spot for sure. What’s missing is a good comprehensive shot of the whole layout, so you’ll have to do some exploring on the site, which I imagine is a little bit like skating that park. The establishment has a youth club type aura to it, with the accompanying stance on smoking, drugs and…

To make up for our overall snotty temperament, we sometimes are sentenced like to do a little bit of public service. In that spirit we bring you this story about Nathan Curry, an American working in Nicaragua who is building a skatepark there in his spare time. I first found out about Nathan’s project in the Bowling Green Daily News. After tracking him down, he agreed to answer a few questions and send in some progress reports. Be the first person to correctly identify the reference in the title of this post and win…

Larry Pescatore sent in another batch of construction pics from the Wormhoudt project in San Jose. The monolith is very… monolithic in nature. 2007, a Skate Odyssey. Check out larger picture after the jump, and since I haven’t had this much fun Photoshopping Sci-fi skateboard graphic crossovers since Blade Runner, take a look at the other teasers I had to choose from.

Word travelled fast, but in case you haven’t heard, Battleground Washington opened this weekend a couple of weeks ahead of schedule. Not surprisingly, there was a major rumble between a clan of BMX riders and an irate posse of… Not really. Everyone got along fine. Photo of Mark Conahan from Earth Patrol Media.

…has been Glenhaven. It has been amazing how empty Pier has been. Too many times in the last week I have been in on my own private session, praying that I don’t get seriously hurt in the 11.5″ abyss. I can only imagine the wrath of the local kids as they heckle my bloody carcass. Trying to talk them into hauling said carcass out of there wouldn’t be too fun either. I can’t skate Pier every day, especially not by myself. It simply hurts too much. I am no Mark Conahan. I wish I was, but I am not. I need to take a couple of days off between sessions at Pier, and Glenhaven has become a perfect filler. The mini bowl is great for somebody like me (old, fat and not very skilled) as it reminds me of my Masonite mini-ramp youth. The hip in the center is pure butter. The pool is gnarl, but less gnarl than Donald. There are always great sessions full of kids who are tearing that thing to little pieces. It’s great to see kids half my age able to appreciate (and destroy) pools. I thought that tranny was dead, right? Dave Viera came…

Check out construction pics from the Vancouver Washington skatepark. I was origianlly just going to link to Dan Hughes’ shots but then I figured it was worth the trek since I only live 12 miles from the spot. This park has been in the works so long without progress, it was starting to seem like Bigfoot – Have you heard about the mythical skatepark that Vancouver is building? No, it really exists! I think those Washington locals were trying to keep it a secret. (Curse you, Thor!) The skatepark is part of the Pacific Community Park Extreme Sports Complex. The larger park is not set to open until 2008 (!!) but I got the word from a Parks and Rec representative (Thanks Jilayne!) that they are investigating the possibility of opening the skatepark in July or August of this year. The skatepark looks like it could be done sooner. Perhaps they need the trespassing citation fines to fund the rest of the park. The plans look kind of generic, but the tour I received made it obvious that there were lines everywhere. I think it will be a very fun park, and yes, the street area hasn’t been started yet.…