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.

“Camera Skate Dolly” as seen on Monoprice.

This time around we have something known as a “Protuff” skateboard, and apparently this is #5. I’ve never seen the Protuff brand, so I would have assumed it was some sort of European equivalent to Nash or Variflex, but this auction came out of Florida. As is sometimes the case with these toy store boards, there’s more than meets the eye here. The Grim Reaper comes complete with some of the oddest looking plastic trucks copers you’ve likely ever seen.

Be sure to have some extra Euros with you when skating in the wrong places in Barcelona, Spain.

When Burger restaurants try to teach you how to skateboard … seen in France

For all the talk of patents, squares and radical new design, when you look at this wheel in profile, it’s still a circle. So essentially, the only thing different about this wheel is that the grooves are zigzagged. Grooves in a wheel, even on a skateboard, are nothing new. The wave pattern may be new on a skateboard, but look at your car tires and you’ll see a more intricate version of the same thing. The main advantage they can claim is more speed from a reduced contact patch, but then again any grooved skateboard wheel already has that. However, just like a car tire, these grooves should provide better traction in rain and dirt. So they look different, but at their core, they really aren’t very different at all from traditional grooved rain wheels. Let the science fight begin! The inventors of the Shark Wheel have been pouring their own prototypes in a garage, which is pretty cool, but of course there’s a Kickstarter project to fund mass production. Even if mass produced, these wheels will probably have to be offered at a premium because the molding and finishing process is going to involve more labor than the old…

Captain Greenaway from an article in The Bold italic titled Know Your NIMBYs, a guide to San Francisco’s Loudest Citizens. This potent NIMBY opposes anything that isn’t green. That may be as simple as a lack of compost bins and/or organic food for her children at school, or the more complex issue of impinging on 420 rights. They can often be found joining forces with The Transportationazi to do things such as not allow a highway to go through residential areas and instead be routed down Van Ness Avenue. They will also change shade slightly and take on the light of The Vegan Avenger and/or The Community Gardenist to make sure that nature wins above all else. [Source: Team Print Shop]

Dreamland founder Mark Scott has a new model on Lifeblood and a short feature in 1859 Oregon Magazine. As far as the editorial goes, it’s a bit of a throwback to the pre-enlightened era of skatepark journalism, notable only for (still) getting the slang wrong. I don’t know what “looking to go ham” is, do you? Still, it’s nice to see Dreamland getting some press again. Seems like they’ve been making a push to get back in the public eye lately. My wife found this at a spa she was visiting in Newberg, Oregon of all places, site of one of the first major Dreamland triumphs. Second, I guess, if you count Lincoln City phase 1 as their first.) The pages are a bit wrinkled because she packed it in her suitcase. If you’re at a spa in Newberg and your magazine is missing pages, you know who to blame.