Everyone knows the story of skateboarding in Philadelphia’s Love Park. A group called Franklin’s Paine (web site is a nightmare to navigate, no explanation anywhere of the group’s origins) has been trying to raise money for a street park to serve as a replacement for the community that was displaced at Love. So which is the more noble fight, the battle to Free Love Park or the fight for a new park built specifically for skateboarders? An agency called Red Tettemer has gotten involved in the PR and has dubbed the marketing campaign From Love Comes Paine. They’ve built a moving (but headache inducing) web site that at times seems more like a masturbatory exercise in Flash than it does a useful resource, low bandwidth version included. The design of the park is skate plaza, but taken to a more pedestrian inclusive direction than Kettering. It’s more than just landscaping, and hopefully there won’t be a huge DC logo anywhere. It looks like they are making some progress, but with $1 million down and $5 million more needed to break ground, a 2008 dig seems unlikely given that fundraising started in 2003. Do you call it a “dig” or a “scrape” when making street plazas? And yes, I know Skate and Annoy is not up for any design awards, but you try navigating those sites and see if you don’t end up frustrated. Fashion vs. function.

[Source: Creativity Online]

I’m late and I’m proud. We missed Black History month, but this board is a good excuse to wrap up some loose links I was trying to figure out what to do with. It’s a limited edition skateboard collaboration between WRG Magazine and Series Skateboards. The crossword answers are all black skaters. I can say “black” because it’s not African American History month. Only 100 decks were produced, and some still appear to be available. You can try out the crossword online in a slick presentation with clickable video cheats. Nice touch. They are giving a board away with a raffle donation. Although the deadline has passed, the links are still active. I can’t seem to find a picture of the deck anywhere besides my original source, Josh Spear.

I’ve been sitting on this Washington City Paper article about Darren Harper for a year. I couldn’t figure out what to say about it immediately so it got lost in the shuffle. I had forgotten about it until I got an email from his publicist saying “We are very interested in having Darren featured in your publication.” Err.. Ok. have you read our “publication?” Part of the press kit contained the Washington City Paper article above and an intervie in Scheme Magazine. I couldn’t find the interview online, but I did find two Stevie Williams pieces. There’s a Darren Harper video after the jump.

Heidi Kenney is taking the now familiar padded skateboards (1, 2, 3) to new levels. This is a plush skateboard she made as part of an exhibit that has long since ended at a gallery that isn’t really open. Yes, it’s old news, and only vaguely interesting in this context, but I’m cleaning house, and we love the crafty skating ladies.

Some skateboarders rallying support for a skatepark bond measure (Measure D) in Los Gatos, California had a bit of creative inspiration when the fashioned “Yes on D” signs out of broken skateboards and took to the streets to stump. this picture is from the Los Gatos Observer. Other skaters in Los Gatos experienced a little inspiration and possibly perspiration when they went on late night vigilante missions to “liberate” offending “No on D” signs. Unfortunately, someone destroyed a plant on one such mission, branding all skateboarders as “thuggish” and prompting neighbors to expect gangs of vegetation-hating freestylers overrunning the town. Even more unfortunate, some of the vigilantes may have been identified on video surveillance. Still even more unfortunate, the vote ended up going 2-1 against funding the skatepark. Opponents said it was too much money, and that the skateboarders might not use it. There is no silver lining in this cloud, but at least San Jose is only 12 miles away.

Or, “Yes, but was he wearing his airbag?” All joking aside, this technology is pretty amazing. Who ever thought that airbags could be adapted for motorcycles. Is it just a matter or time before this trickles down to skateparks? These things aren’t always as useful as the promise is. Remember the space age polymer that would harden on impact? It is being used in beanies for snowboarding as a potential helmet replacement, among other things. I talked to an individual who works for a certain Northwest based sporting goods manufacturer who says that most real world tests had results where the application turned out to be essentially worthless due to outside factors. Who cares? I just want to watch a video of a guy on a motorcycle crashing with airbags coming out of his helmet!

Speaking of the resurrection of our Lord Jebus, and finishing up the Easter Roundup is this shot of Stephen Baldwin at the LA airport carrying a religious-themed skateboard with wheels that are large enough to be some sort of miracle.

Verily, His wheels were just big enough for street skating, but when he got to the top of the mount, he worried not, for a miracle had turned the 40mm to 100mm, and there was enough urethane to feed everyone’s hunger for asphalt.

This isn’t the first time Stephen has pulled out the skateboard at an airport, and he’s starting to look like an old woman.

[Source: Gawker]

One more epic battle between skateboarders and BMX caught on video. Will it never end? Do we need to have a celebrity rap video made to stop the violence?

[Source: Fat BMX – Yes!]

My favorite Mod band that never existed, More Modern Snakes are playing an all ages show tonight at Club Bump! – Errr… right. Here’s a focus-challenged shot of a small snake run feature in Wake Forest North Carolina, built by a company called Bluestone that I had never heard of until Danimal sent me the link. I guess he knows a guy who used to be on the crew. Their web site is pretty horrible (get someone who knows how to resize an image please!) but the parks look like they have potential from what little they show. Of particular interest is a facility in Mabank, Texas that is listed as private, but looks like it might be part of some residential community as opposed to being owned by one individual. There’s no real information so it’s anyone’s guess. Looks like Bluestone has worked a few locations in Pennsylvania (Monroeville, Southpark, Imperial) as well as Delaware, Ohio and Kingsport, Tennessee. I know we’ve got readers in these states, have any of you ridden these parks?

What are these other modern snake runs I speak of? Why Lincoln City, Gabriel Park, and Naples.

In a surprising move, Concrete Wave has made a version of it’s photography retrospective book, “The Legacy of Warren Bolster” available as a free download on Silverfish Longboarding. Warren Bolster was a pioneering skate and surf photographer. The Concrete Wave Edition book had some production and layout issues that mostly disappear as a PDF. Of course, viewing them onscreen is not close to the tactile experience you get when flipping through a heavy book in your hands, but it’s free, and you can’t beat that. I’m not sure what the contractual ramifications were for releasing the book electronically for free. You may want to get it while you can. It’s a curious move to be sure, but one I can appreciate, and you should too. Check out this Steve Cathey photo from 1975. Look at his foot placement and body language. No matter what your age/discipline, you have to be able to respect that. Still available online is an interesting video interview with Warren shot shortly before the publication of his book.

Also available are the last two issues of Concrete Wave Magazine, which is nice, but they really should take a page out of Thrasher’s book and release the very first issues as a PDF. While I’m telling people what to do, Thrasher really should keep releasing more old issues as PDF’s. Someone start that petition to get the first 10 years of Thrasher online. I might even be tempted to pay a reasonable fee for that if they were done right.

Update: There are some great photos and words in this book. Definitely worth the download. They are hoping it will spark interest in print version.