austin skate notes

Get your sessions in quick. A meeting with the city this morning resulted in a decision to temporarily fence off the mini ramp to ensure that sod will take root and grow on the berms to stabilize the soil. Funds are also being raised privately to install stairs on each corner of the ramp to provide an easy climb up to the decks. The fence will likely go up before the end of this week.

Consumer beware: Home Depot is gouging rental customers by charging a $5.00 gas surcharge regardless of how much gas you have in the tank of rental equipment you return.

Another PPMR volunteer has suffered a serious injury. Lee Brooks was visiting Orcas Island on a skate trip last week and broke his foot while just taking a step off his board. The report I heard indicated that he underwent surgery for the injury.

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Since the demise of the Skatepark of Houston on Orange Grove, it’s been a difficult sell to get me to visit Houston. Even the grand opening of Grindline’s recently completed mammoth public skatepark was a ‘maybe.’ In the late eighties, I’d drive from Lake Charles, Louisiana, to Houston in the rain just to skate the indoor mini-ramp. But with all the cool stuff around Austin to skate, there hasn’t been much of an incentive for me to take a skate roadtrip in a while. Closer than Amarillo and Orcas Island, the new public skatepark in Houston has now returned Bushwick Bill’s hometown to the top of my skate roadtrip destinations list.

This $2.75 million concrete skate behemoth is the largest privately fundraised public skatepark in the nation. It’s also Houston’s first concrete public skatepark (as opposed to its many prefab crap facilities), which has introduced much hysteria and concern on the part of city officials. As a response, Houston’s Parks and Recreation Department is running it like a public swimming pool and is staffing the skatepark with supervisors who will enforce a rule requiring visitors to wear helmets. Even so, it’s an amazing facility complete with lights for evening skating (closes at 10:00 PM) and a great view of the downtown Houston skyline. Although street purists will fault the facility’s lack of a plaza aesthetic, the layout does have a wide variety of terrain. There are banks, hips, quarterpipes, bank-to-jersey barriers, sloped manual pads, rails, mellow bowls, godzilla bowls, cradles, and a very accessible kidney pool replica.

In spite of the typically brutal Houston heat, the grand opening ceremony was phenomenal. A bunch of pro skaters on the Independent 30th Anniversary Tour showed up along with most of the Black Label team and an unknown number of ripping amateurs and old-timey Texas pro skaters. It was cool to see Hosoi snap backside ollie tailgrabs in the kidney pool, but I was more impressed to see the family reunion session of Ken Fillion, Jason Espeseth, Gene Hare, Troy Chasen, Bryan Pennington, Dave Donaldson, and Chris Gentry all skating together in the Kahuna-esque combi-bowl.

I came back with a ton of content, which I’ll add to ASN as I get it all edited. For now, I’ve posted a video teaser from the kidney bowl session and a few photos over on the APSAC website.

Before visiting, you’ll want to check the directions, hours, and rules for the Houston Public Skatepark.

The Skatepark of San Marcos is holding it’s first birthday party this Saturday. Stop by to skate June 7th to enjoy free hotdogs, gatorade, and cake.
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This past October, local skateboarder / artist, Johnny Walker, was traveling through rural Cambodia when he came upon some kids riding unique hand-made, gravity-powered vehicles on the only concrete in the area. He shot these photos which he passed on to Austin Skate Notes for publication. The small wheels beneath the baggy pants of the nineties are like monster truck tires compared to these rides.

Meanwhile, in Uganda, impoverished skateboarders have created their own little scene that is certainly an inspiration to anyone who has ever bitched about not having anything to skate in their town. Here’s a cool skate vid made by the local Ugandan skateboarders.

Speaking of skateboarding artists like Johnny W., Meghan Turner sent in an email reminding artists that Friday is the deadline for submitting applications to participate in the Art in Public Places installation to be located at the new Central Austin skatepark. Here’s her note with other details about the application process. (more…)

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So today after work, I noticed the drive-in movie theater by the contractor supply store was showing a double feature of Blades of Glory and Norbit. I had no interest in the latter, and a little interest in the former. The commercials on cable tv suggested that BOG was a transparent cash-grab on Will Ferrell’s popularity. I thought it would be a collection of ridiculous scenes mocking figure skating and / or all forms of skating. But it was a Drive In, and I was hooked. (more…)

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In the movie Rushmore, Bill Murray’s character tells Jason Schwartzman’s character that he served in the Vietnam war. Schwartzman’s character responds with his own question, “Were you in the shit?”

This funny exchange needs no explanation, but it frequently comes to mind while I’m here in Tyler, Texas helping Dave Reynold’s Lonestar Skateparks crew construct a skatepark. (more…)

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One of the perks in independent publishing is the freebies big companies send zine makers and web writers so that they’ll get their products reviewed and promoted. Here at Austin Skate Notes, the schwag stream has sadly been nearly zilch.

Then on Friday, I was treated by Grindline, to a chauferred roadtrip to check out one of the skateparks they built last year that I hadn’t yet visited. The 3.5 hour ride each way to San Angelo’s public skatepark turned out to be well worth the time and effort.

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