Steve Grover reports that the new Cannon Beach skatepark by Placed to Ride is done. If it’s done, why is no one skateboarding in these pics? I can already hear the complaints about how much better the old park was. Brad says it’s small but fun.

According to the Cannon Beach Chamber of Commerce Information Center, the park is open today.

I’ll be up there this weekend, but alas, not to skate. You may see me a little at the Sammamish skatepark with my nephew and son, but that’s about it. Family obligations again. If you’re not tied down like me, there’s a contest going on right now at Del Mar… I mean there’s a opening day demo/contest for the Bellvue Wa skate plaza. That’s TODAY folks, 3:30 to 10 p.m. There’s a $3000 purse (!) and a demo by the Nike SB team. Next week there’s a Girl/Antihero tour and a crazy contest weekend in Port Angeles – Park slalom and doubles bowl riding Saturday, and if you win the bowlriders contest on Sunday, Lib Tech will fly you to SWEDEN to compete at the finals. bowlriders Here’s another one for later on in the month, the 4th annual Sleestak Trash (oops, Thrash) Bash BBQ at Bainbridge Island. The flyer says Saturday, May 31st, although it’s not yet on the Sleestak calendar for some reason. Look closely a that flyer, Bobcat is guaranteeing sunshine!

– Sleecrest out!

The Surf Flyer appears to be a European phenomenon. At least nobody from North America has chimed in about them. This one comes to us from Dean Tyrell ( It’s his week!) Believe me when I say that there are virtually no other shots of the vintage Surf Flyer skateboard anywhere on the web, so help me Google. The wheels of these things were supposed to be near rubber-like and super slow. On the detail shots you can see some sort of weird bearing covers that probably didn’t help either. The trucks are another winning design that looks more like ’60s technology than ’70s. Can anyone date these? Follow through to see more pictures of a Surf Flyer than you’ll likely ever want to. Someone has to do it.

UPDATE: Lots of comments on this post and a picture of one near mint. Good reading. Also, check out this Flyer Land Surfer advert from 1977. So “Surf Flyer” is a misnomer. The brand is called Flyer, and boards were called Land Surfer.

In Orange, CA the Team Pain crew just got done demolishing the vert ramp (don’t blame them!) in the Vans skate park at The Block and replaced it with a 80ft wide mini ramp. They also rebuilt the street course. There’s a bunch of concrete work to on their news site. (Come on guys, get your web programmer to facilitate direct links to the news items! That goes for you too Airspeed.)

And the winner for the highest glass ceiling on a skatepark builder’s concrete team has got to go to Airspeed. This is a detail of one of their pictures of recent progress at the Gabriel Park site. There’s probably a woman on another concrete crew out there somewhere else, but three? Yes, I know there are women involved with skatepark building companies in other positions, I’m talking about the work crews specifically. Airspeed is cranking on Gabriel Park. Check it out. Update: EPM has some new construction shots.

– Thanks to Sonny for the tip.

D.I.Y. concrete projects are being birthed everywhere these days. Unlike the D.I.Y. vert ramp heydays, these bowls will probably be around for a lot longer. This one attributed to Hermann is in the St Louis area, and it is getting close to being finished. It’s only a matter of time before the weather breaks for them out there. I mean it’s sunny in Oregon, fer chrissakes! Check out some more picks of this Midwest Gem.

Yes, you know the type. Hanging out here all he time instead of skateboarding… Oh wait. That’s me. These shots were taken in late 1999 with an early consumer digital camera. The lighting is kind of crappy. It’s battery powered, and the troll stands on a turntable set into the skateboard that spins as the it rolls. Hence the name “Turn 360°” Whee! I hate those little troll dolls. This one is about 8 inches tall if I remember correctly. It was annoying enough just to open these images, I’m not about to go dig around for it in the boxes of my basement.

I love a zine with a good punchline for a title. Way High Kick Turn #1 is another one from the collection of John Drummond. There’s even a couple photos of him skating in there. There’s no date on the zine anywhere, but it does say that Zack Grove finished 2nd in the AM spot of the CASL Del Mar competion on May 16th. We could date it from a CASL schedule if anyone has one. Way High Kick Turn was published out of Moraga, California by Garry Mcleod and Marc Saito. James Carter is listed as the publisher. Garry Mcleod was in charge of photography, with additional submissions from Erick Elleson, Luke Ogden and Brian Temmerand. Way High Kick Turn #1 is 24 half letter sized pages on white paper from a copier with some sort of photo screening capability. The subtitle on the cover is “Picture Book,” and that’s what it is fro the most part. What little text present (mostly captions) is typewritten. I’m not sure, but it appears that this is a copy of a copy. Some of the pages have tell-tale artifacts on them, and it looks like one of them wasn’t lined up properly in the copier. It affects two pages, but I realigned one of them. In any case, the copy was probably made not long after the original came out, since it’s yellowed with age as well.

This scene was 100% vert ramp action.

Featuring: James Carter, Marc Saito, Bod Boyle, Steve Douglas, Jeff hedges, Greg Aguilar, John “Livmo” Drummond, Ben Peligrino, Steve Caballero, Zack Grove, Lawrence Walker, J.J. Valera, John Harris, Ken Harris, Kristy, Tom Bertinuson, Chris Lowe

Spots: Grapefruit Ramp BBQ, Chicken Ramp

Honorable Mentions: Concrete Jungle Skateshop, Metropolitan Life & Rogers/Pacific furnished the copiers. Tom Bertinuson of “Skaterdater” – not sure if he’s affiliated with the film or what. Chris Lowe gets props for being aggro and not wearing pads. A name change is said to be coming, but I don’t know why, because “Way High Kick Turn” is pretty funny.

Check out Way High Kick Turn #1

UPDATE: Comments moved to the gallery.