Thu 30 Jun 2005
Don’t forget, James "Monkey Wrench" Juneau is throwing a customer-appreciation BBQ and contest at the Skatepark of Austin today, Friday July 1st. The BBQ starts at 6:00, so bring your own food and flask. I think the contest starts about 10ish, after the park closes.
Adults only—that’s 21 and up. Cash prizes for 1st place through 6th, product prizes donated by SOA all the way up to twelf
place. $10 to enter contest. Party for free. See you on the prize stand.
Mon 27 Jun 2005
Reports are trickling in on the progress at the DIY excavation project. Earth moving and shaping seems to be the priority for now. From these photos that were sent to me last night, it looks like this project is moving along pretty rapidly.
Fans of Jeff Grosso will probably enjoy this photo of him over at IceLounge.com. It’s a site, btw, that’s supposed to be like friendster or myspace, but I think focused on skateboarding. Salman Agah seems to be running the show there. I like that the filename of the photo starts with ‘rad‘.
Speaking of internet ego-stroking, the Austin Chronicle is running their best-of 2005 voting right now on their website. They’ve got a category called "local blogger" in the media section. Look, I’m not trying to buy votes here, but let’s just say if "Seth Johnson-Austin Skate Notes" wins a plastic trophy, there’s going to be a three-keg celebration at the ASN headquarters for all readers. They also have a ‘place to skate’ category in the Outdoor – Recreation category. It will be interesting to see what comes out on top in that competition. You must fill out your name and address at the top of that form in order for your votes to count, btw.
Fri 24 Jun 2005
The final of five public input meetings took place last night where skaters pleaded the case for adding a skatepark budget to the November 2005 bond package. Of the five, I think this meeting was probably the most persuasive. About thirteen skateboarders and bicyclists were in attendance and of these, 10 spoke in support of a county skatepark. Midway through the meeting, a woman who had originally intended to speak in support of an open-spaces acquisition, announced that she was jumping ship and wanted to advocate for the skatepark. For me, it was an incredibly emotional experience that I was so proud to be a part of.
Afterwards, I drove with Cary Jackson back to his house were some folks were watching a basketball game on TV in the backyard while Michael Sieben skated the ramp. Officially, the ramp has been named the "Death Star." Shawn Rylander has already painted an R2-D2 on one of the vert walls and there is talk of incorporating a bottle of Lonestar within the image. Mancub and Adam also came by after the meeting to skate the Death Star. Mancub debuted his crail-grab backside lipslide while Michael learned frontside airs on the vert.
Carter Dennis visited Austin the other day from San Antonio. He brought news with him that the resident of the camper trailer parked next to Shallow Hal has decided to raise frogs in the popular permission pool. Right now it’s full of water and tadpoles. When Carter last stopped by Shallow Hal, he found the guy swimming around in the murky water along with the tadpoles.
Carter’s non-profit skatepark group, SK8SA, will host a table at the Velocity Games this weekend, by the way.
I spoke with some of the folks who have been working on that hole pictured below. They’re planning to do some more earthwork this Sunday. When I asked them what the design was or for specifics on details like coping, the fellow I was talking to said, "Whoever shows up gets to decide how it gets built." On the one hand, I can understand the source of this philosophy. It gets way fucking old to be working on a DIY project where non-participants are constantly recommending designs, "Hey, you guys ought to do XYZ…" Hey, you ought to pick up an 80lb bag of concrete. On the other hand, this organizational approach is sure to generate some interesting results.
Wed 22 Jun 2005
Yesterday’s International Go Skateboarding Day event hosted by Tekgnar was a complete success. Laurie and Philly did a great job organizing sponsors and inviting the media while the skaters did a pretty decent job skateboarding, eating free pizza, talking to the media, and also skateboarding. Skaters came in from as far away as Bastrop and Cedar Park. Due to the large number of participants, the only competitions held were two games of S.K.A.T.E. The winners of free boards in the games of S.K.A.T.E. were Rio and Fletcher. Fox 7 covered the skating and the Austin-American Statesman ran a photo today of Fletcher kickflipping in the Tekgnar parking lot. In Fort Worth, skaters celebrating Go Skateboarding Day weren’t so lucky. According to this article on the WFAA website, police issued tickets and even arrested one skater. Another Fort Worth skater received a $600 ticket for waxing a ledge that was already waxed.
The other day I also got a clarification from a local police officer on a frequently-disputed aspect of the law. Various friends of mine have feared drinking beer as we walk from Snappy Mart back to my house on the sidewalk. An APD officer assigned to DWI told me it was absolutely fine to drink beer while walking around in public so long as you’re not in an area that has those "no open containers" signs. He also said it was technically illegal to ride a bike and drink a beer, but he said he’s never heard of anyone ever issuing a ticket for that and that most police won’t even be aware of that. I suppose the same would go for skateboarding, but neglected to get his legal opinion on it.
Another legal issue was clairfied for me yesterday in the form of a letter I received from Donald Dietrich. Apparently you can’t send your friend panty labels donated by random women you meet in bars if your friend is incarcerated in an Ohio prison. These are classified as nuisance contraband and will be confiscated from his mail.
Tue 21 Jun 2005
Happy National Go Skateboarding Day everybody!! Tekgnar is hosting a celebration complete with pizza, a game of skate and product giveaways. Starts at noon, which is like an hour from now.
Kerry Jackson’s gargantuan ramp is now skateable. Metal covers almost the entire thing. The maiden voyage occurred saturday night in recognition of Jason Schmale’s birthday. Here are some photos from that event. Sal Barbier and a few other Plan B pros stopped by for a few seconds after doing an autograph signing at Fast Forward in the mall.
There are two more Travis County input meetings left where skaters can ask for a county-built public skatepark. The meetings have been going well with several skaters attending each one. Since different board members are presiding at each meeting, it’s important that we represent the cause in the remaining meetings. You can read more information about the Bond Input Meetings at the APSAC website.
Here are the dates and locations:
East Travis County at 6:30 pm, Wednesday, June 22, 2005
Precinct One Satellite Service Center
9301 Johnny Morris Road
West Travis County at 6:30 pm, Thursday, June 23, 2005
Precinct Three Travis County Office Complex (Courtroom)
8658 SH 71 West
Mon 20 Jun 2005
These photos were sent into Austin Skate Notes earlier Sunday evening. Not much info accompanied them other than the following two words.
