“Shape of, a buzzkill. Form of… A Doberman Pinscher. Wonder Twin powers, Activate!” Everyone and their brother knew about this spot. I found out about it late in the game and still put off going there for several weeks. By the time I made it, the days were numbered and it didn’t really have anything to do with the spot being blown out. The house had been sold and it was only a matter of time before the new owner moved in. The first order of business apparently, is to put up a sign like this one. Some people can’t take a hint though, and actually had to make a high speed exit under duress from the Doberman Pinscher. One person even threw a “fitz” and went back over for a forgotten can kozie. This bowl has a couple of names, but apparently the obvious choice of “Scarecrow bowl” did not make the cut. Rich, stop trying to make fetch Hush happen… These shots were taken a mere 3 days before the dog moved in and the party ended. Apparently, no matter how much of a pro you claim to be, whether photographer or skater, and offers to mow the…

The new park starts with the demolition! I went to go check out the progress on the St Johns Skatepark tear down after the first day, and here it is. Not much to say here. There was already a kid inside skating when I got there. Several others arrived a few minutes later and were in a state of bewilderment. It seems they had no idea that the park was being torn down to make room for another one. They thought we were just losing a spot!

By Kilwag and House of Neil: Written 2001? Posted 5-01-06 Yeah… When we started making print issues again in 2002 we ran through our old contacts trying to find anyone we could possibly have some kind of connection with in the modern skate industry world. Today h’e’s known for Foundation and Tumyeto, but We got a bit ahead of ourselves and jumped on the chance to re-interview Tod Swank since he made the mistake of replying to us. We figured we had better do it shortly after he agreed so he wouldn’t have time to rethink his answer. Then, in true Skate And Annoy fashion, we sat on the completed interview for about 4 years. That’s why the Interweb is great, it lets you publish almost instantly. And so, without further ado… Oh wait… A little background, the time period was pre-Dogtown and Z-Boys movie, shortly after the launch of-Deathbox USA. Tod sent us a bunch of crappy photos too. Don’t blame us. I don’t even know if the more recent pictures are actually him or just some guy he knows. Somehow I don’t think he took this interview with the degree of levity that was appropriate. I mean, we’re…

Florida Road Trip 2006 – By Kilwag: Posted 4-24-06 Is it still a road trip if you fly there? I went to Florida to visit the mother-in-law again. I had all kinds of plans for side trips and hooking up with contacts and checking out the spots, but fortune, toddlers and and mother-in-laws all conspired against me. I barely had time to skate at all. Sarasota It was my second trip to the Sarasota Park, which seems to be holding up well. Different crowd hanging out this time, which could be expected since it had been at least a year. Florida is the Land That Time Forgot… at least as far as rollerblades are concerned. Kids are still rollerblading in abundance. Even weirder still, there’s a uniquely Floridian species of kid who proudly enjoys both skating AND rollerblading. Creationists have beaten Darwin here, because those kids refuse to evolve! I felt like a Puritan explorer trying to talk the native women into covering their exposed breasts. They have no shame. It’s not like Sarasota is the Galapagos Islands of skateparks. The kids were the same on the other coast of Florida too. In general, the kids at the Florida parks…

Spring Break Illinois! By Danterra: Posted 4-19-06 The winter skating scene in Illinois looks so awesome! I can’t remember why I left in the first place! – k.ed This year I spent my spring break time in the Midwest of all places visiting family, I didn’t see any boobies or drunk college chicks but I was able to skate a couple of parks. The first place I got to ride was Champaign, IL. What a big bummer this park is. Its all concrete and I heard that it cost somewhere around $300,000. Unfortunately it was built by someone who had never built a skatepark or least a good skatepark. The “street” area which used to consist of 2 big sausage-like lumps of concrete now only has one, the city removed one of them and now there is nothing but a big flat space in the middle, wow so street-like. The rest of the street area has a couple of ledges and rails and a quarter pipe with some super-coping that sticks out almost 2 inches. The other main feature of the park is the spine ramp. This ramp is probably close to 4 feet tall with transitions that rival the…

Tight metal full pipes in Portland. Rusty, dusty, loud and rejected. Sessioned 3-05-06. Posted 3-20-06 A short session, not super satisfying session. Hard to ride. So few pictures. We tried.

Sessioned 2-09-06. Posted 3-20-06. Why not play hookie from work and check out the new bowl at Lincoln City Oregon? A foot of tiled vert around the entire perimiter. Sweet. We stared the day in Mcminnville Or, so there are a couple pics from there too.

This idea comes from a post originally found on SkatersForPublicSkateparks.org. As usual, we thought we’d poach it and see if we could squeeze a little extra info out in case anyone wanted to try it themselves. Basically, the idea is to make granite coping from leftover pieces of granite used in countertops, or really any place you can find it. You need to cut it to size first, glue them together with masonry glue if you need extra width, cut 45 degree angles off the corners to make shaping it easier, then grind away. Granted, (not granite) that’s not a lot of information, but it’s a start. The following information comes from Thomas who put the ramp together and Carmen Castaldo of Castaldo Stone & Tile, who was also involved in the project. Carmen also provided pictures. Thanks to Dan Hughes for the original post, some pictures,  and facilitating this page here.

Stapelbaddsparken in Malmo, Sweden – Photos Stefan Hauser This is what I Like to see, features where I just post pictures and don’t have to write up a bunch of text. In keeping with our tradition of being your number one source for skatepark progress in Sweden… We bring you a bunch of photos of Stapelbaddsparken in Malmo, Sweden. included are construction pics as well as the finished product. Thanks once again to Placed To Ride’s own Stefan Hauser. Go to Sweden. That’s a lot of pictures. Ready for more?

John Aguilar sends us pictures of Mexico all the time. I’ve been trying to get him to write a feature for a while now, but he’s a busy guy. So far all I have out of him is a paragraph and a some captions. Rather than sit on this forever, I thought we should post what we have. John’s been skating through two skateboard booms, and he’s not stopping anytime soon. The first bunch of pictures are mainly from the 80’s. Towards the end it’s all the Mexico City park. John sometimes hosts the Old School Jam in Mexico City, which is worth a feature itself. I think Thrasher might have actually covered it once, I can’t remember. Hopefully I’ll make it down there once. Until then, take it away John… Skateboarding in Mexico! By John Aguilar. Skateboarding in Mexico has been around for quite a time now, back in the late 70´s beginning of the 80´s there were several skate parks , like “el gran batazo” which had a snake run and the funny thing is that it had those baseball hitting cages. Arround it which was mainly the reason of the name of the place, then there was…