Dreamland is building two more skateparks in the Portland area right now. Holly Farm is a small skatespot in Southwest Portland. I had kind of written it off as something that was going to be for neighborhood kids but it is looking gnarly. That wall behind the spine looks six foot tall and the front pocket looks about eight. They are planning a KGW banks treatment around the outside.

Meanwhile, two miles down the road, Tigard is also in progress. It is not as far along but it’s bigger.

Troy Sliter sent in some pictures from a recent road trip he took to New Mexico. I’ve never skated there, have you? I like the look of that ditch, that’s for sure.

Outside Magazine? At first I thought this was going to be some real news, Tony Hawk coming out of the closet as the first highly successful openly gay skateboarder would certainly be news. Yeah I know there are other openly gay skateboarders out there, but nobody at Tony’s level. Turns out I was thinking of Out Magazine. Outside Online has an interview with both Tony Hawk and Shaun White, comparing career moves and their relationship as mentor and.. mentee? Err.. One of the best quotes:

HAWK: Someone came to me once and wanted to do a signature Hawk cologne. I was like, “Of what? Sweaty pads? Am I wringing out my pads into a little perfume bottle?”
WHITE: I’ve been sent like 20 movie scripts. And the first lines are always “What up, brah?” Nope, nope, nope.

It’s a good interview that shows a bit of the human side of these two larger than life personalities. At four pages long, this interview is still way too short. I wish they had made a longer version available instead of just mirroring the print edition, which is what I’m assuming they did. we like to poke fun of some of (well most, actually) Tony’s marketing decisions here on SnA, but it’s pretty good natured. He does give an awful lot of time and money towards building new skateparks, and you can’t fault that. read the interview here. Thanks to SnA commenter Mac for the tip off.

John Aguilar sent in more construction pics of phase two of the Bellingham Washington skatepark. Here’s the links to his two previous pics.

Source: Asscciated Press

(07-03) 08:48 PDT LITTLE ROCK, (AP) —
A police officer who appeared to choke a skateboarder and put two others in a headlock in a video posted online used appropriate force when making his arrests, an internal police investigation found.

The Hot Springs Police Department Internal Affairs Board found the use of force was within the police department’s policy on non-deadly force and recommended “no changes to this policy.” The decision was released Monday.

Officer Joey Williams confronted a situation that “would have overwhelmed any single officer” when he stopped those breaking a Hot Springs city ordinance by skateboarding on a downtown sidewalk June 21, the report said.

However, Williams was faulted for leaving a handcuffed suspect unattended while chasing another youth in the resort town’s historic Bathhouse Row.

Williams has been on administrative leave since the video hit YouTube on June 25. Police said he would return to active duty Thursday in the city’s downtown.

“I think it was fair,” City Manager Kent Myers said. Witnesses “consistently supported the actions of the officer and his efforts to control the situation.”

Video from a business’ security cameras shows 10 skateboarders rolling down the city sidewalk at a good clip, followed by Williams, who sprints past the last skater.

A video taken by skateboarders and later posted on YouTube shows Williams on top of one of the skaters, apparently choking him. The video also showed Williams putting another two skateboarders in a headlock, and the officer can later be heard threatening to use pepper spray on a skateboarder lying on the ground.

Police said they arrested Matthew Jon McCormack, 21, and Skylar Nalls, 19, both of Hot Springs, and four juveniles. McCormack faces a misdemeanor battery charge accusing him of pushing or striking a 67-year-old city employee during the melee. Nalls was cited for skateboarding and faces misdemeanor charges of fleeing and obstructing governmental operations.

McCormack has previously disputed many of the police allegations, especially his battery charge. He has said he pulled on the city employee’s arm after the man lifted a girl off her feet in a choke-hold.

Hot Springs is a resort town about 50 miles west of Little Rock.

My son is about to turn two years old and he’s already obsessed with skateboarding. (Hmmm, I wonder why?) Seriously, one of the first 20 words out his mouth was “skateboard,” although pronounced as “sateboard.” I tried to make his first birthday celebration a small affair, but my wife nixed that idea, just as she’s vetoed all of my plans for sanity on his second birthday. While preparing for the over-celebration this year, she came across a mess of Tony Hawk’s Boom Boom Huck Jam birthday decorations and party favors. Yes, there’s more than just that excellent likeness of Tony on that cake topper.

The Simpsons Movie is having a so-called contest to see which city named Springfield gets to host the premier of the movie. I say “so-called” because it’s pretty obvious that Springfield Oregon is the inspiration for the city, given that Groening used to live in Oregon and lot of the character names can be found on the street signs of Portland predating the show. The contests involves each city making a video plea for their case. Why do we care? Because tony Hawk makes an appearance in Springfield Oregon’s video. [Source: Oregon Live]

There is a Bay Area arts website called Fecal Face that I read regularly. A lot of the names you see at those skateboard art shows show up on the Fecal.

This bowl showed up there recently. Sounds like it’s in Oakland. Anybody know what the story is here? Is it a DIY skate project or is it a fishpond? One more photo after the jump.

Not much to say about this 1981 clip of Tony Hawk on the old children’s show Captain Kangaroo. I didn’t know the Captain was still on the air in 1981. It’s a little disappointing actually, since Tony’s appearance isn’t live on set with the Captain. Instead, it’s just video footage of tony skating Del Mar on a Steve Caballero board no less. The Captain’s crew even managed to record an old sea chanty titled Skateboard Johnny, not to be confused with the song Skateboard Johnny featured in this collection of 70’s skateboard tunes, or this UK child molester named Skateboard Johnny. Watch the video after the jump.

[Source: Wall of Gray]