Everyone seems to think this is the Gurnee, Illinois skatepark, but I think it technically belongs to Warren Township, which is adjacent to Gurnee, home of Six Flags Great America and the lovely accompanying ditch. What’s the scoop on this park? Keep reading.

In case you missed the live webcast, Fuel Tv has some Tampa Pro footage online. You’ll have to download their special vidoe player, but it’s a thoroughly painless process. It’s a slick player, supposed to be hiccup free (wasn’t for me..) but I don’t understand why they go through the trouble to roll their own. I guess that’s why our vids are all low-def exercises in YouTube patience. Maybe we need to re-examine the SnA “business model.” Newsflash. Contest videos are pretty boring. I watched the first ten minutes of the 30 minute best trick contest, and there was only a handful of people who actually landed anything – less than one a minute. Right now there are five videos up, and GVK is going to have to get on horn and complain about the utter absence of the vert footage, because there actually was a pro vert contest too… That’s OK, vert contests are pretty boring to watch unedited too. Seriously, have you gone back and tried to watch any of the 80’s vert contest videos? Once the nostalgia wears off (usually in the first five minutes) it can be hard to stay awake. There’s almost seven hours of…

What’s wit these companies that start with “V?” After posting about the first ever symmetrical board that was made by Vision, I came across this post on Vert is Dead about the evolution of the new truck hole pattern. Ocean Howell may have been the first guy to drill his own baseplates, and Venture was apparently the first truck company to offer it as a stock option. I guess everyone else just copied them. Does anyone know who the first board company was to offer the new, smaller mounting pattern? One thing I’d like to know is how did the industry standardize on the first pattern? If you’ve never seen some old trucks from the early 70’s, they all had their own mounting patterns. Boards came undrilled, and you could buy special guide to help drill them straight. Was there some sort of round table meeting with the big truck companies, or did the board manufacturers drive that decision. Were there arguments and hold outs? Some of the plastic boards had multiple mounting holes molded into them, as if they wanted to be be able to mount trucks from different manufacturers in case a supplier had problems.

SKATECULTURA is from Brazil, and it documents vintage skateboarding through multiple decades, from a Brazilian perspective. There’s also a little of the current scene sprinkled in there, with an emphasis on Brasil’s most famous skateboarding export, Bob Burnquist. It looks like there was a slew Brazilian skate magazines at one time, some of them looked pretty sophisticated. Clockwise from the top left: A special Tony Hawk poster edition of Overall. Revista Yeah #1, Overall#15, Yeah Skarte #1, and Overall #13. There other magazines like Tribo with adverts for skate shoes you’ve never heard of like Qix, and skateboard companies like Torlay.

I haven’t been paying attention to Richie Jackson lately, not through any conscious decision. Like a lot of people, I am a huge fan of his video parts from Death, so I was excited to check this out too. Not too stoked on this Ipath clip, and a big part of it is probably the weak music. I get it, he loves the 60’s, however the soundtrack stokes me like a wet dishrag. Something a little more uptempo might have served him better. No matter, the last ten seconds of the video are worth it. [Source: Respect Authority]

This advert for Vision skateboards V6 concave came from the 1989 July issue of Thrasher. It’s hard to tell from the tone of the advert in this time period whether or not they were being facetious. It’s essentially the precursor to today’s modern popsicle boards, only they took it a little bit further. The ad copy says it’s completely symmetrical and evenly balanced. How is it that Vision could have been a good three or so years ahead of the curve and still manage to disappear by the time everyone caught up?

Road Trip! Matt Klein is throwing a party as a fundraiser for the expansion of his backyard skate oasis. We rode through there nine months ago on a skate trip. Matt is a great guy and the bowl is rad! I can’t wait check out his new additions. coincidentally there are a couple of new skateparks open down that way – Myrtle Creek and Winston. More BBQ details after the jump.

Spotted on Flickr, this Russian postcard has a caption that roughly translates to: When Gosha received a new skateboard he thought it was the best present in the world. However, within half an hour he realized that the best present would be new frontal teeth. Unlike the monkey made famous in Big Brother who appeared with Ryan Sheckler and Bob Bunquist in MVP2: Most Vertical Primate, this monkey doesn’t need a special snowboard style binding for his front foot. My three year oid kid would watch that damn movie 24-7 if I’d let him.

From the police blotter of the Salinas Californian, an item of interest. I wish they had photos. I wonder why we never hear about interior decorators breaking into abandoned buildings and fixing the place up: …a few throw pillows, some nice curtains…

How is your stimulus check hanging? On the one hand, the economic downturn is good news for skaters. We’ve all been made redundantly aware of the fact that their are a lot of empty pools associated with mortgage foreclosures. Even the Mayor of San Francisco knows about it. Apparently, Gavin Newsom is very concerned that something must be done about teenagers who use google maps to find foreclosed homes with pools, so that they can then drain the pools and skateboard in them…ruining the pools and lowering the property value. Another upside, funding the pad nanny position at public skateparks is no longer a priority in communities like Watauga County, NC. All the skateparks in San Diego and Ocean Beach are no longer pay-to-play for the same reason. While some cities like Portsmouth, VA have to put off plans for new skateparks, at least one town, Pawtucket, Rhode Island is going to get a brand new skatepark as a direct result of Obama’s stimulus plan. You can check out a video highlighting how the toothless residents feel about this use of federal funds after the jump. – Thanks to Sean Mykael for the tip. Obama skate logo courtesy of AGP.