ESPN has let out a few photos of the skate structure for X Games 17. They chose the now more commonplace method of pouring a concrete over a wooden substructure. This kind of facility is temporary and seemingly very wasteful, although the concrete and wood can be “recycled” into new concrete and new ramps. However, I’m pretty skeptical that they are going to store all that wood somewhere until the next time they use it. Landfill seems more likely. On the other hand, the Dew Tour is going a different route via a familiar name in precast concrete. Don’t confuse this with ordinary prefab, these massive pieces are cut with the aid of lasers and designed to be interchangeable and self aligning. The plan is to eventually build up a large library of interchangeable parts. If you’re confused about the strange look of these, then join the club. We’re supposed to get more information shortly, so stay tuned. SPeaking of the Dew Tour, I heard a rumor that PDX local Dave Tobin was being flown back to judge!

20 years of skate films crammed into three nights this weekend (July 22nd-24) at the Hollywood Theatre in Portland. Guest speakers and a pretty cool lineup after the jump. Presnted by Vans, so it might be coming to your (major metropolitan) neighborhood soon.

Everyone who follows the skateboarding industry in the slightest knew who Fausto Vitello was, and what his contributions were, but Eric Swenson was arguably equally as important. He took his own life outside of a police station. The San Francisco Examiner reports his friends and family believe he ended his life as a result of his struggle with a debilitating motorcycle injury. The photo above is Eric Swenson, Craig Stecyk, & Fausto Vitello, at the Independent foundry in San Francisco, CA, 1983. It was taken by Mofo and lifted from Thrasher – Thanks to anonymous tipster at Skate-Planet.com.

It’s another installment of Lloyd Kahn, the 74 76 year old skateboarder, this time in video.

Reported on PDX Downhill, Eric Nagle, a Federal attorney in Portland Oregon made a presentation tonight advocating making skateboarding illegal in the Arlington Heights neighborhood of Portland, a wealthy area in the hills where the Zoobomb happens. If you’re not a local, Zoobomb is a essentially a free for all weekly-ish downhill event that is mainly a bicycle driven, but has a fair amount of skateboarders too. (At this point in the post I need to mention that I’ve never actually been to one.) I’ve always been surprised that the neighbors didn’t organize against it, and now at long last it appears the honeymoon is over:

He (Nagle) repeatedly referred to the recent bans on skating in Laguna Beach CA, Malibu CA, and Newport Oregon as examples of the type of laws that Portland needs to enact and constantly referred to the fact that the current hard-won skating law in Portland was only passed by a 3-2 vote.

Part of what makes Zoobomb a success is the fact that public transportation via light rail operates like a ski lift. Not content to just ban skateboarding, Nagle allegedly wants to shut down the Zoo Max (train) station in evenings and pepper the surrounding terrain with speed bumps, cobblestone and perpendicular grooves. I’m not sure why Nagle has such a hard-on for skateboarders specifically, and doesn’t appear to be concerned with bikes. Next on Nagle’s agenda is a presentation to Portland’s Mayor Sam Adams, who has traditionally been in the corner of the Portland skateboarder. However, Sam’s had a rocky first term not without scandal, so there’s no telling how he’ll respond to this.

– Thanks to James Hedman for the tip.

Yessir, guilty of being delicious. BBQ benefit for the Brooklyn Street Skate Spot in Portland, Oregon on saturday the 16th. Sponosors include Unheard Skate Supply, Merde Skateboards, Rip City Skates, and Cold War Skateboards. What’s going on with Brooklyn Street? When are they going to break ground on the second half? Enquiring minds want to know.

Chris Lynch turned me on to this St louis area backyard project, the pool that cannot be named:

After hand digging, hand mixing over 650 bags of concrete, hand stacking aforementioned concrete, 63 feet of tile, and 15 different types of coping; the pool that cannot be named has reached completion.

And Actually, that was almost eight months ago. I had this labeled saved as a draft and eventually forgot about it. There are three videos, in order of completion from Show Me Pools, and the middle one is a time lapse movie.

UPDATE: Added another video with skate footage, which is slow motion for some reason. GVK must have been the filmer… Thanks to Tim Jamison.

 __________________________________________
|                    |                     |
|                    |                     |
|                    |                     |
|                    |                     |
|                    |                     |
|     @              |         @           |
|   /|_/             |      _/|__          |
|  | |_              |        |___         |
|  __/ \             |          \ |_       |
|   ___/__           |       ___/__        |
|    o   o           |        o   o        |
|__________________________________________|
|                                          |
|                    |  wow, skating this  |
|                    | street is just like |
|                    |  skating a street   |
|                    |     skate park.     |
|                    |              /      |
|           @        |           @         |
|         /|_/       |         /|_/        |
|         \|_        |        / |___       |
|        __/ \       |            \ \_     |
|         ___/__     |         ___/__      |
|          o   o     |          o   o      |
|__________________________________________|
 mc                                 7.14.11

Today’s comic was inspired by Fixed Characters.