The Tony Hawk Foundation donated $30,000 to expand the building efforts of Ride It Sculpture Park, located in the wild, wild Midwest of the urban Detroit wasteland. Powerhouse Productions started the original product. I’m sure my friends are sick of hearing me say this, but I swear if I didn’t have kids and a mortgage, I’d move to Detroit. A man could reinvent himself there. [Source: Evergreen Skateparks]

Holy cow. Bill Danforth doing his best Popeye impression at Kristian Svitak’s ramp. I had no idea BIll Was so… old. All those gratuitous pro models must be wearing him down. In all seriousness, I have nothing but respect for Bill, and I bought myself a handful of his Alva decks with the tri-tail. Loved that board. BIll Danforth. Grover knows him from his days in Michigan. Both those guys are hilarious. Hey Kristian and Regulator, you keep making these videos, I’ll keep posting every (other) of of them. Danforth’s got a model on 1031. Midwest uber alles. UPDATE: Added Bill’s video part from the 1989 video “Young Gunz.”

A while back I was periodically updating the archive of periodicals, aka the 80’s Skate Zine Gallery. I’ve been lagging and sorely sagging. meanwhile, there’s Local Chaos out of Ann Arbor, Michigan whose print issues span 1984 to the present day, with a short period of abstinence. LC has more zines scanned in their archives (from all over) than I probably have in my whole collection. Time to get back on the horse.

The Friends of the Ann Arbor Skatepark are trying to raise money for a free public skatepark. One of the things they’ve organized is an entry into the Pepsi Refresh project, a very clever public relations scheme that still ultimately does do a lot of good for the public. Thing is, they don’t just give it away to anyone, they put it to a vote. What I want you to do is visit the project page and vote, it won’t cost you a nickel, and they’ve got a real chance to win. They’re ranked 16th right now. Andy MacDonald hailed from Ann Arbor, Michigan, and he graciously appeared in the projects YouTube video. Those other guys look familiar too… Check it out after the jump., but don’t forget to vote! I think you can vote once a day in December. (That being said, 30k to finalize a skatepark design? You guys need to find a good design/build firm to comp that design fee. Our readers can recommend a few…

The audio interviews are flying. The “brain” behind Bacon Skateboards has a radio show on pdx.fm. He’s on the internet air live on Thursdays at 2pm Pacific time. He’s got five shows under his belt, most of the guests have something to do with skateboarding. He’s had George Cutright the current team manger from Adidas, and our own Mark Conahan. The interviews are only a half hour and are a good listen even if you have no idea who the person is. I’m working my way backwards through them. I made it to Jeremy Robert Johnson, which is a good one. I’m going to check out some of his books. The point is… GVK interviewed live today at 2pm. Still need your fix of skaters from Michigan? Check out the John Doe ZIne interview of Bill Tocco and Bill Danforth.

There’s not much I can say about this “invention,” except I particularly dig the shoes and pants in the close up shot. A sharp dressed man can sell anything in Swartz Creek, Michigan. Skaterhusseindave, we expect a full report. I am selling a custom built board with a caster wheel on one end that will allow the user to spin around 180 and 360 degrees and a closed wheel on the other end. The board is made of red oak with 24 gauge Aluminum in the middle. Custom skateboard comes fully assembled. Each board is custom made upon order thus the long delivery time. Since each board is custom made thus no returns will be accepted. The seller doesn’t explain what the casters or rubber stoppers are for, so you are on your own there. He has zero transactions on eBay so far, so you can be the first. – Thanks to Matthijs van Wijk for the tip.

I’ve been contemplating some designs for skate spots in my head lately. One idea that I’ve had for a while consists of parallel tracks of wave like bumps varying in frequency and staggered side by side. Watching this video was both disappointing (because it’s kind of been done) and validating at the same time. It looks pretty great for found terrain, but if it was built for skating I’d lie to see the tracks staggered and directly adjacent. I have to applaud the length of these things though, they certainly didn’t skimp on the concrete. – Thanks to our resident secret bike spy in the house, Mike Estes. Update: Added some actual skate footage too.