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

The return of treecam!

Sorry, I had the wrong town in the title. Okay, how many of you bastards knew about this and didn’t tell me? I had to check out the Sleestak blog from the earlier post today and found this. Another Dreamland park in the area? One more for the cannonball run: Pier Park to Tualatin to Donald to Newberg to McMinnville to Lincoln City.

photo: Rich Burton

The Donald bowl is one of my favorite things to skate. Last weekend I planned an excursion that avoided Pier Park. Marek, Smay, Rich, Fendick and I planned to skate West Linn skatepark and then some of us would continue on to Donald.

Milton Keynes is pretty progressive when it comes to sports. Heck, they even have korfball facilities(?!). After achieving a high level of success with a street park built at the Central Bus Station, the city or village or town of Milton Keyes (UK) decided to build a bowl park, and apparently traveled back in time to the 70’s to do so. Then there’s the strange metal rods sticking up in the middle of the shallow. Bike racks? I don’t know. Must be street style. Seriously though, this is tragic. The bus station project was unique in that they added marble skate structures to an already popular skate spot that was not meant to be. That’s a great approach. Instead of cracking down on street skaters on public property, lets make the spot more attractive. It’s been done before, and I’m all for it. Feeling emboldened, they (Milton Keynes )… I’m at a loss for words to explain this. [Source: Crossfire]

In an article titled Granny’s donation fuels funding for skate park, The Sarasota Herald-Tribune reports that Jean Berlin has donated $200,000 to an Englewood Florida skate park fundraising effort, helping to fulfill a long time dream she shared with her late husband. No only is she Oyster Creek Skate Park’s largest benefactor, she’s also topped the previous record private donation (that we know of), which was a mere $161,000 in stock. As well it should, the donation has made her a local celebrity with skaters, earning her a spot as a judge in a contest. She mentioned she wasn’t really qualified, but it didn’t matter since nobody landed on their feet anyway. Sounds like kickflip syndrome to me! She also stopped the contest to chastise an entrant for dropping the F-Bomb. Speaking of grandmothers, Have you seen the AARP commercial with a Buzzcocks soundtrack?

Dan Hughes has posted some recent shots of progress on the Battle Ground skatepark here.

Nice overview shot of the DC Rob Dyrdek Skate Plaza posted to the Skaters for Portland Skateparks skatepark poll area by someone calling himself Paul Rodriguez. Okay, I get it. Looks like a nice place to eat my lunch.

Forgive me dear readers, it has been over two weeks since my last Glenhaven update. I promise to do Pier Park grinds as penance. Looks like they are getting close to pouring the Mark A. Conahan Street Plaza.

You can find a couple more images on Skaters for Portland Skateparks.

Saturday there was snow in the big bowl. I heard that it was dry on Sunday. I went Monday afternoon. Nice sunny afternoon but the park was wet everywhere the sun didn’t hit. It was mostly unskateable. Smay went to West Linn and found the same thing. I skated the pipe for a while, then I went to get a weedburner. I wasn’t going to get shut out like that again.