I’m pretty sure we posted a picture of this ramp some time ago. It’s Chad from Small Beating. New surface, new concrete coping. Wheee! Man that looks small.

– Thanks to Theo for the tip.

Steve Madden designs shoes. My wife is a fan. I thought he just did women’s shoes, but apparently he does shoes for guys. I’m not sure what the back story is, but I’m going to go out on what I assume is a very, very strong limb and guess that the “Skater shoes line is designed to be fashion over function. I guess it’s possible he did some research, maybe had the guy in the photo doing some product testing. Possible, but not likely.

– Thanks to Sarib for the tip.

…in Echo, Oregon. Thanks to Sam from Skate Oregon for this report:

Eastern Oregon continues blowing up with the little town of Echo (population 700) opening a nice little “Community Skatepark” this afternoon. Grindline made them a great 4000 square foot (?) concrete shape not dissimilar to Portland’s Gabriel Park: shallow top to hip hip deeper bowl. It is open to skateboards, inline skates, and bikes.

While not yet on the official city web page, they do have a Facebook page for the skatepark. And of course, Sam has some shots up at the granddaddy skatepark sites, SkateOregon. Now I have to go look up Echo, Oregon on Google Maps.

There are two versions of this Sharpie commercial playing right now. The gist is that Sharpies help you express yourself. What if you couldn’t express yourself? There would be no protests, passion, art…. or graffiti. You’ll notice they covered over the expressions spray painted on the bowl.

Here’s the official trailer for the forthcoming video game Shaun White Skateboarding.
There are some folks that think it’s going to be revolutionary, but I’m more of the mindset that developers are running out of evolutionary steps to make skateboarding video games different. Fortunately, they aren’t running out of ways to make exciting commercials. One interesting thing, it’s his first skateboarding game and he doesn’t even make an appearance in the trailer.

– Thanks to Eric Cherry for the tip.

Chuck Treece and McRad will be playing a record release party in Hollywood on june 10th at Space 15Twenty. Flyer after the jump. New record? What label? Bigger flyer after the jump.

Former Blockhead skater and artist Ron Cameron is having a solo art show titled Dismantled Hope that runs from June 9th-16th at the Encinitas, California library. The opening is Friday, June 11th from 6-9pm.

There’s a spot in Panama called the Albrook ditch. It looks pretty harsh. The locals are working on a DIY addition to make it work. Clearly, it works already. There’s before and after video of the ditch being skated, but they are making improvements. I wonder if these guys argue about whether or not it makes sense to goof on scooters. I doubt it. Fresh air everyone. Get some in Panama. Insert Van Halen joke here. Skateboarding Panama provides video coverage.

– Thanks to Mirlo for the tip.