This is snake run is the first pour from Dreamland Skateparks at work in Eugene, Oregon. I’m not exactly sure if the entire park is already funded, but Skaters for Eugene Skateparks managed to raise $57,000, and look, work has begun! Additional shot after the jump. – Thanks to Sarib Khalsa for the pics.

The news about the new skatepark design meeting in Tampa got me thinking about the Bro Bowl. Ages ago I posted about a Bro Bowl documentary that was in progress, so I decided to see if anything ever came from it. They finished it, and it’s available for viewing in it’s entirety. The opening sequence starts off a bit rough, but once you get past that, it’s pretty good. Notably missing, however, if an interview with the guy who designed and built the place, Joel Jackson. The Tampa Bay Times interviewed him in conjunction with the Bro Bowl being nominated for the National Register of Historic Places as one of only two 70’s era public skateparks still in existence in the USA. The par was originally surrounded by housing projects, but the whole area is slated for redevelopment. It’s not quite the same situation as Southbank, the redevelopment is in advance of a State of Florida Department of Transportation edict to widen the road adjacent to the skatepark. The city has advised locals to accept a the funding of a replacement park as the best possible outcome, over any temporary reprieve that activism may be able to achieve. The history…

Public meeting to unveil and discuss the proposed design for a new skatepark in Tampa, Florida, to be built by Florida’s own Team Pain. The meeting will be held October 8th, at SPOT.

The Tony Hawk Foundation donated $30,000 to expand the building efforts of Ride It Sculpture Park, located in the wild, wild Midwest of the urban Detroit wasteland. Powerhouse Productions started the original product. I’m sure my friends are sick of hearing me say this, but I swear if I didn’t have kids and a mortgage, I’d move to Detroit. A man could reinvent himself there. [Source: Evergreen Skateparks]

“They did a great design, they changed only one thing from what we wanted,” O’Gara said, adding: “We’re really excited and ecstatic that this is happening.” And yet no mention of who designed, or is involved with the construction of the soon to be largest (25,000 square feet) skatepark in LA. You’d think someone with a $2 million dollar construction and design budget would want to brag a little. It’s the Sun Valley neighborhood. (Isn’t all of California sun valley?) Any guesses? [Source: Concrete Disciples]

Gvk Trip to east coast. Stop. Produces sotw at Northside skatepark in the heart of Norfolk, VA. Stop. The kid had it 4 out of 7 trys. Stop. Old man Gvk Couldn’t make it straight. Stop. Cease Transmission.

LaSalle Park, currently under construction by Evergreen Skateparks. I want one of those things in my town.

The shot in the top frame of a newly completed skatepark in the UK looked pretty clean and made me want to find out more about the spot. In the course of looking it up I saw that the builder Four One Four Skateparks, are using the CNC process to cut transitions and horizontal some supports, especially on bowl corners. It’s interesting that they use a stepped completely horizontal approach in those bowl corners. Notice that where the surface meets the back braces are not perpendicular. Instead they rest on two adjacent corners. I’m not sure if that makes in difference in the longevity of the bowl, but it’s got to make the design and assembly process a hell of a lot faster. I’ve always held wooden bowl builders in high esteem, and this approach means any monkey could assemble it. It’s a case of nostalgia vs. progress, but I can’t imagine there are that many ramp builders out there with access to big enough CNC machinery. Some of the shots on the site make it look like the surface isn’t included in the CNC process though, so there’s still room for John Henry on the ramp building floor. This…

We went to the new skatepark in Happy Valley, Oregon last night. This detail of bizarro Rich captured in panorama mode actually does a good job of representing our disjointed session there. Not visible in this shot are the 30 some odd kids roaming the perimeter. Imagine your entire peripheral vision filled with kids on skateboards, scooters, wiggle sticks and bikes, all about to run into you. It was pinball city.

Evergreen Skateparks is making progress on the Happy Valley skate spot. It looks like it has a couple interesting features already. They are splitting the construction updates between Facebook and their official site.