According to the Des Moines Regional Skatepark committee, this final design will be the largest open skatepark in the United States. I’m not sure what they mean by “open.” Maybe that’s to counter facilities like Woodward, although they could have said “public” instead. Is there some monstrous indoor skatepark that I’m unaware of? Even the square footage listing of 65,000 is below the official 68,000 listed for Lake Cunningham. I always thought Louisville was largest, but it only weighs in at 44,000 square feet. DMRS is in need of a comprehensive overhead floorpan on their site. California Skateparks designed the park.

We first mentioned Joe Cialglia back in 2012 when he was named in a lawsuit for fixing skatepark bids and defrauding the City of Los Angeles in the process. Well somehow this slipped by (our crack staff) and we failed to report that in 2013, Ciaglia agreed to pay $65,000 dollars to settle the whole thing, while admitting to no wrong doing and not being barred from bidding on new contracts with the city. While yes, this is old news, we’d just like to take the opportunity to remind you that the skatepark company Joe Cialglia owns is none other than California Skateparks. Check out this article in the LA Weekly for all the sordid details. That’s Ciaglia on the far right wearing the Street League t-shirt in the photo above from LA Weekly.

Not really a Snake run, but more of a skate trail at Woodward. Which one? I don’t know, but it was made by California Skateparks. Looks like a lot of fun. I’d like to see more sprawling skateable terrain out there.

…In which Skate and Annoy takes a momentary time out from snarky comments to put on the serious hat of a legitimate editorial news outlet.

UPDATE: A Spohn spokesperson has pointed out that Spohn is not a plaintiff in any lawsuit against California Skateparks or ARC ramps:

FYI we never filed a lawsuit against ARC (we were a whistleblower in that one) and are definitely not filing one against CA Skateparks.

We simply protested their bid rigging practices with the City of LA. No one is suing anyone.

…We made a complaint under the LA Contractor Responsibility Ordinance based on allegations that CA failed to disclose Ciaglia’s interests in his various entities including Site Design Group and Street League, failure to disclose lawsuits against California (Skateparks), failure to disclose his relationship with Dyrdek as part of the multiple millions in sole sourced contracts, attempting to bid rig a previous bid, etc.

The City of LA requires disclosure of all of those things as part of its very restrictive pre-qualification process. Right now, the City is investigating. But there is no lawsuit from Spohn against CA Sk8 or Joe.

All we are trying to get is a fair shot at the projects in the City where we live and pay taxes

On behalf of Skate and Annoy, I sincerely regret misrepresenting facts. Original post below:

At first glance the headline is shocking, Rob Dyrdek and a business associate accused of fraud, collusion, bid-rigging and perjury. Then you have to consider the source, another lawsuit filed by Spohn Ranch. (Correction:Spohn has not filed suit against ARC or California Skateparks. See above. ) And it would be easy to dismiss the investigation as sour grapes, but there’s some meat to it after all. The business of so-called donations of park designs contingent on the contract being awarded to specific construction companies certainly has the appearance of impropriety. If you’re going to make a donation, make it without strings attached, for the benefit of the community and not your buddy/partner’s construction company. Especially when it’s a donation that most design/build firms are happy to make when regulations allow. If you read through all the complaints you’ll be left with the impression that their operational practices are misleading if not outright shady. According to Celebsleaze (UPDATE: Appears to be a website set up explicitly for the purpose of providing links to documentation on the investigation. The rest of the site allegedly contains wholesale plagiarism.) both Dyrdek and California Skateparks make cash contributions back to L.A. City Council members who pushed deals through with the city. Yeah, I know, there goes my credibility, but it’s documented. Still, nobody ever sued their way into a profitable business, tech industry notwithstanding. Spohn Ranch might do better to let their skateparks speak for them instead of the lawyers. But then again, it must be nice for a skatepark builder to have the wheels greased by a major celebrity skateboarder who “donates” designs.

[ Source Celeb Sleaze via Commonwealth Skateboarding on Facebook. ] – Photo: Construction Currents, a construction industry website that also has coverage.

The Maloof Money Cup is leaving permanent skate structures on each stop of their tour. This facility is scheduled to be built in South Africa by California Ramp Works. The mini mega ramp isn’t going to stay, but the vert ramp and street course will remain. Interestingly enough, I recently heard from a contract employee of the Maloof Money Cup that they let a bunch of people go due to an alleged… money shortage. True or not, this is some good news for the South African scene. Between skatepark donations and alternative construction methods, this is like the arms race of arena skatepark extravaganzas.

MRZ has posted some great pre-opening day photos of a new skatepark in the LA (Moorpark) area called Poindexter Park. Head on over to Concrete Disciples to see them. It’s a California Skateparks project. Lance Mountain designed the bowl (above right) after a backyard spot named the Buddah pool. There are some construction shots, where esle, but Concrete Disciples? There is supposed to be some sort of snake run feature but so far I can’t find any photos.

– Thanks to Keith Cote for the tip.

I always wondered how they built the X Games mega ramp, and this is not what I expected. California Skate Parks is the builder, and their PR firm is trying to drum up some press, offering interviews, tours and such. Do any of you guys have any (reasonable) questions? Maybe we could make it a group effort. (FYI I’ve got a killer Brian Brannon interview coming up!)