Australia’s Herald Sun has an article titled Skaters shun parks for concrete jungle that talks about how kids still don’t want to be confined to skateparks. While Melbourne is upping it’s skateboard deterrent budget to $50,000 a year, the city of Boroondara has an annual budget of $100,000 a year for skatepark development. 100k Australian is only about $86,000 in US dollars, but it’s still nothing to sneeze at. One of the popular street skating spots that kids keep barging is called Docklands, which near as I can tell is a redeveloped waterfront plaza that used to be, well, docks. The article mentions YouTube videos of Docklands, so I did a cursory search. There appears to be a nicely finished pedestrian park as well as a bunch of more industrial areas that appear to be abandoned or in disuse. You can watch a couple vids after the jump.

Haw haw! The Vancouver Skateboard Coalition

But does it cover up pad rot? Jay Meer flowed me this at the Board of Art show where he was exhibiting a cool bronze cast of a skateboard and some great photos. A little dude blunt sliding a kidney pool is way better than a little tree. Check out Hiphopsmellz.com.

The City of Portland held it’s Skateboarding in Portland retrospective art show last night, titled Board of Art. I’m not sure that description is entirely accurate though, as the “history” aspect of the show seemed to be solely visible in the Burnside documentary trailer. The rest was art on the wall of the City Commissioner’s office. Oh yeah, and did I mention, there was a mini ramp in front of City Hall?!! Only in Portland! Check out some pics after the jump. [Update: Added more photos from MC.] There’s more…

Jeff Kendall is the new Vice President of NHS. That means he’s the guy who is actually responsible for making sure Santa Cruz and it’s related companies stay in business. If you had to guess 20 years ago, which Santa Cruz pro would end up actually running Santa Cruz, it would have likely been Rob Roskopp. Check out Jeff Kendall’s humble beginnings on former Transworld Skateboarding editor Britt Parrott’s MESS (Mid-Eastern Skateboard Series) tribute site. I just ran in to Britt at my neighborhood grocery store a couple days ago, where he threatened to come session with us again. Let’s see if he Googles his own name.

I don’t watch the X-Games, even if I come across them by accident. I know, it’s hard to believe. When I came into work this morning a coworker in his 40’s who doesn’t skate had already emailed me about Jake Browns’s slam to flat on the mega ramp. It’s every vert rider’s worse nightmare, multiplied by 10. That’s right, he fell almost to flat from 15 feet above the coping. How tall are those mega ramps? 20, 30ft? Unofficial word is that he fell about 45-50 ft. It’s sickening to watch, but he actually walked off under his own power 20 minutes later. Jake Brown is the luckiest skateboarder alive on this day. Cringe through the vid after the jump. [Update: Added an alternate, extra gnarly camera angle.] [Update: That was fast! The New York Times has article about Jake’s slam and the inherent dangers of the Mega Ramp. Requires free registration – or read it here]

The Tuscaloosa News has a fascinating article titled LIVING ON THE EDGE – Skate park attracts enthusiasts, competitive boarders. Critical analysis of this thought provoking and controversial article after the jump.

For those keeping track, and I’m guessing that’s about three other people, I’ve resurrected the Broken Kingpins column name in Skate and Annoy. This time around, instead of covering all the roster hopping and product release junk like we used to in our ancient print issues, I’m using it for all the miscellaneous links that don’t merit their own post. Besides, there are about a million other web sites that can tell you who has new shoe models and who got kicked off of what tour. [Photo: Denver Post / Andy Cross]