I been to the edge, and there I stood and looked down. You know I lost a lot of friends there baby, I got no time to mess around. So if you want it got to bleed for it baby.
John Aguilar sent in this Jeremy Brown photo of his buddy John Veitch grabbing a frontside edger in the bowl at Bellingham Washington. That’s an edger, not an air. I like to toss the old backside edger into a session on a regular basis, but fronstide edgers are courting disaster and not disasters. This is the largest size file he had, so I can’t show you a close up of the wheel on the coping. Love the edger.
High temperature today was 38° in Portland – pretty stiff east wind too. Even though the sun was shining it was miserable enough to prevent people from enjoying outdoor activities. Even with school out for the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday, at noon, most of Glenhaven Park’s 15.69 acres was deserted, no joggers, no kids on the playground, no soccer, tennis or baseball. All 22 users of the park could be found in the quarter-acre skatepark. We need more skateparks. Of course, all the other missing outdoor types might have been out doing positive things for the community.Photo from Antigrav remote
Some time in 2003 Steve Grover was skating by himself at the West Linn skatepark in the middle of the day. Steve Olson showed up out of the blue and took a few runs. Then he got out an old Polaroid camera and asked Steve Grover if he would snap a few shots. Grover said sure, but also suggested that he get to keep a couple. It was a win-win situation. Check out the Shot of the Week, plus a bonus alternate shot after the jump.
Sure, we had construction pictures of San Jose’s Lake Cunningham skatepark outthewazoo and then some, but nobody cares about that once the park is open. Especially when you have a photo session with Lance Mountain, Steve Cabellero, Salba, and Rick “Ask the Doctor” Blackhart. Head on over to Concrete Disciples for the always adept MRZ photos. The server has been hit or miss since for a while now, just try back later if it doesn’t load. – Thanks to JF for the tip.
Long time Portland community activist, skateshop owner and skateboarding supporter (duh!) Howard Weiner has dropped out of the race for Portland City Council. He is endorsing candidate Jim Middaugh who happens to be Chief of Staff for City Commissioner Erik Sten. This is disappointing for Portland’s public skatepark skate scene, and it raises two obvious questions. First, can I get my $5 back? And second, will this set a precedent of City Commissioner Chief of Staffs running for office – meaning when can we expect SPS board member and Sam Adams‘ Chief of Staff, Tom Miller to make a run for it?
This really short kid goes to private school, has a girl-sh sounding name (Ailene, pronounced Ilene.) practices freestyle and pushes mongo. That’s enough to make him a punching bag at many schools, or at least quarantined for some sort of sociology experiment, but Ailene seems to be doing OK. I had this video as an aside for a link to an article titled “Teach Your Child How to Skateboard,” but it’s boring and Ailene’s “How to skateboard for beginners” is much more entertaining. He made it for a class project. He goes over some basics and then gets his non-skating friend
Bruce to bust his ass trying the moves. I was about to scrap the whole post until the video got past the standing on a board part and Ailene started busting out with the freestyle moves. One of the the trick tips is the casper. The casper? Where did this kid even see a casper? After a litany of freestyle how-to’s (which I’m sure is the order of how most kids learn to skate) Ailene finally shows a kickflip as an afterthought in the “extras” section. You know that move where you half step off the board and it ends up wrapped around your legs? Apparently, it’s called the flamingo. Who knew? Ailene did, I guess.
The plot thickens. Jacksonville’s skatepark, although designed by Pillar Designs, will use Spohn Ranch prefab concrete, as seen in the images above. Why would you want to do that? Price is my guess. It’s probably cheaper than hiring a crew of experts to work on site. You make these things in a factory using unskilled labor for the most part, and haul them out on site, play a little connect the dots and seal up the joints. Probably takes less time too. Is it worth it? If you look at the limited designs available on the site, you’ll notice that like wooden prefab parks, all you get is one transition and one height with the exception of an extension here and there. So basically, one corner or pocket is going to be the same as every other one in that park or any other park made by Spohn. A definite improvement over prefab wood, but no substitute or draw like something made by a craftsmen. Pure utilitarianism. I suppose if budget were the main concern it would be better than nothing. Also, prefab concrete is probably the cheapest and easiest way for a city to make a small one hitter skate spot. I suppose that’s an acceptable use, although sometimes you can still get a reasonably priced tiny skatespot built by concrete artists.
Has anyone skated one of these prefab concrete skateparks? Of course people have, but I’m talking about our readers. Taking a look at Spohn Ranch, I have a feeling I may may have without knowing it. Of course you can’t really look at much of what they have to offer without filling out a request form, as if their park designs layout are somehow valuable. I think you can get that experience for free by playing a demo of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater.
