I spotted this at the Beaverton Goodwill over the weekend. If you’re from the Pacific Northwest you can identify this shirt from across a crowded room, but if you aren’t you may need to see the enlargement.

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.

So I went to the Dalles, Oregon to check out the new Spohn Ranch skatepark about a week ago. I remembered to set the alarm so I could get there before it was overrun with kids. I remembered to set the timer for the coffee maker. I remembered to charge the camera battery. I remembered my tripod. I remembered my sunglasses. I remembered CD’s for the 80 mile car ride. I forgot my wallet. I forgot my skateboard. Super!

Quite possibly, the last time I was skating in Indianapolis was when I took this picture. If I was there now, I would be headed to tonight’s concert and art show to benefit the Indianapolis Skatepark Advocates. HOW? Come to Earth House on November 5, 2010. WHAT? 5 Awesome bands, some really cool artists, and lots of support to make our future skatepark happen. COST: $5–every cent goes to Indy Skatepark Advocates WHERE? 237 N East St Downtown Indy WHO? Everyone you know (it’s all ages) WHEN? November 5 7pm-11pm

Here’s a nicely shot video of a night session at the relatively new Kensington Park, err, uhm, skatepark, in Vancouver, BC.. – Thanks to Dylan Davies for the tip.

Spohn Ranch has put up a detailed video showing the installation of a prefab concrete bowl on the U.S. Millitary base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. It’s the first time I’ve seen a prefab concrete installation covered so thoroughly. Regardless of your personal feelings about prefab concrete, it’s really interesting to see it all go down. It’s striking how mechanical the whole operation is. It’s progressed to a point where they almost don’t need more than one guy on the crew who whow skatepark specific concrete finishing, it’s very mechanical. The metal coping is cast into the forms. They lower everything into place, shim it up and then pour the flat and the decks. There’s some patchwork on the seams, then welding and grinding the coping and it’s done. The process seems to work well for non-organic skateparks and single feature bowls. Imagine the equivalent of building a skatepark like you would an HO model train. Pick your pieces and arrange them. Vid after the jump.

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Newspaper from mid-level city actually publishes a decent skate photo! Astonishing considering they are essentially giving the Oregonian away these days. Not a week goes by that I don’t get a phone call practically begging me to get the Oregonian for delivered to my door for pennies on the dollar. I’d be more inclined to fill my recycling bucket with the paper if the delivery man (not a boy, because he drives a car on his route) would stop nailing the storm door with the paper and waking me up at 5 in the morning. What’s the point? Oregon lottery money has apparently been funding skateparks in some capacity, and some folks are upset because school funding is and other services have been dwindling. Oregon ballot measure 76 will extend the mandatory parks expenditures from lottery proceeds. The measure isn’t going to increase the 15%, it’s just going to make sure it can’t be diverted to other areas. I think that’s a good idea. I’m voting yes on 76. – Thanks to Colin for the tip.

Tito over at Team Pain sent in some pics from a recent lunchtime session at the Broomfield, Colorado skatepark, which is currently under construction. It appears to be almost done actually, but maybe we’re not seeing the whole park. All the sunshine in those pictures, it’s like a foreign country compared to Oregon so far this wet and dreary summer. Seriously Mom Nature, WTF?

The Oregonian had a story about the Lincoln City skatepark today. In case you haven’t been paying attention, Lincoln City is up to phase V with the new skate track. Not a bad story although they seemed to be confused about a few things like calling the pool replica is one of the park’s easiest features when I think they meant the new reservoir bowl. [Photo: Thomas Boyd /The Oregonian] – Thanks to GVK and my mom for the tip.