We thought we might be able sneak in a quick session at the end of the day. Local streets had dried up so we went for it. The closer we got, the wetter the windshield became. When we got there, a few kids were camped out in the pipe. More pics of this momentous session after the jump.

Sorry about the crappy phonecam photo. I didn’t bring a camera. My favorite detail is the new tombstone at the top end of the street section. It’s near the center of the photo and covered – maybe eight foot tall. Looks like everything is formed up. The tractor was gone.

Northwest Skater has some new photos of the Irrigon, Oregon skatepark being built by Grindline. Brick coping, hobbit doorway, bumpy rock lip. Lots of unusual stuff going into this one.

While we were out… Seattle’s City Center skate park or SeaSk8 as it sometimes gets called, was demolished to make way for a new Bill Gates foundation complex. January 3 of 2007 marked the second time in recent years that the city of Seattle tore down a perfectly good skatepark to appease developers. Of course some might argue that the Seattle Center park was not exactly perfectly good. As with Ballard, more money was allocated to replacing the skatepark. Talk about inefficiency, why not just build two new parks and leave the old ones accessible? It’s clear that I don’t understand or appreciate eminent domain and the wheels of commerce. Pre/post demolition pics, links and more after the jump. [Credits: Demo Picture – Auggiedawg, Fascist Bill Gates – The Software War

Judi Oyama – Judi Oyama was born and raised in Santa Cruz, has been skateboarding for 33 years (currently ranked first in the World in slalom masters), and is an artist and graphic designer for Giro/Bell Sports. Judi worked with local skate artist Jimbo Phillips and concrete artist David Pettigrew to create a proposal for the park’s strongest visual element, the 18′ full pipe. A graphic grey-tone wave illustration will be transferred onto the full pipe using sandblasting and other concrete sculpting techniques. In addition to highlighting the wave form of the full pipe and addressing the park’s proximity to the ocean, the finished piece will also serve the functional need of discouraging park visitors from climbing on the wave form. I didn’t realize the public art aspect of the new Santa Cruz skatepark was done with the help of Jimbo Phillips. Judi herself sent in a link to some shots of the wave graphic preparation. Turns out it was sandblasted. Check it out. Also, check out the Santa Cruz Skate Park Blog.

Yeah, I’ll take any excuse to get in a good Surf Punks reference. The City of Santa Cruz has a brand new skatepark ready to open on February 22nd. As part of the public art provision of the Parks Board, the full pipe was designed to look like a wave. Making a required public art portion of a skatepark actually skateable has been done before. It’s a great idea. everyone should do it. Links and more pics of Mike Fox park after the jump. [Photos: Wormhoudt – Source: Sleestak]

Thor was good enough to brave the wrath of John Dalton to give us a photo essay progress report on Battle Ground Washington’s skate park. Looks like it’s getting close. This looks like it will be a great park for riders of different disciplines to mix. Street brethren, bowl bros, we can all get along. Check it out.

Vox Footwear and Dreamland Skateparks made this short video which features the construction of Pier Park, some Wilsonville skatepark footage and a few other extras. I don’t know what the plan is for getting this out to the public but you should try to get a copy of it. The footage of Peter Hewitt going over the mousehole is … words fail me. Dave Hupp shot it. Update: the disc will be available as a shrinkwrap gift in a upcoming The Skateboard Mag issue and a gift with purchase for CCS that will help the sale of the Dreamland Shoe.

These photos were smuggled to our agents at the cost of many Bothan lives. Grindline is building this at an undisclosed location.

Actual bricks are out because of expense. Costs have also skyrocketed on dyeing the concrete. But Dreamland did do a test on stamping a brick texture into the concrete of the street areabanks. Word is it skated all right. This was a rough test and it’s a little well, rough. Finishing would be better if they go with it. What do you think? Would you prefer the fastest, smoothest surface possible or some simulation of brick banks or some combination? At lower right is the stamp used to texture the concrete. Please comment on the bricks post at Skaters for Portland Skateparks