austin skate notes

After months of inclement weather, Oklahoma’s third public, concrete skatepark has opened to much fanfare. The crowds are dense at the park, requiring early morning sessions to skate the street course without risk of collisions. There’s also a six-foot deep bowl adjacent to the street course.

Like Round Rock’s popular Wag-a-Bag convenience store, Broken Arrow’s skatepark enjoys a 24-hour soft-drink supplier called Kum-and-Go just down the street. I don’t know what else to say except that if you’re anywhere in the state of Oklahoma, it’s worth a visit.

Here are some photos I shot the other day at the Broken Arrow Skatepark. 

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Contrary to what the cloud-filled skies were saying on Friday and Saturday, both the Round Rock Skatepark Grand Opening (Friday evening) and the Mabel Davis Skate Fest (Saturday afternoon) went off with strong attendance at both events. The crowd of skaters and spectators in Round Rock dwarfed the city staff’s anticipation. Those in attendance enjoyed free pizza, drinks, and a few blender-like runs in the bowl and street course without a drop of rain. Here are some photos I shot at the opening and from the night before.

Intermittent rain showers doused the Skate Fest at Mabel Davis, but the die-hards held out to compete in the free contest. I don’t have all the placings yet, but I can recall the bowl contest results: (more…)

The City of Austin and Austin’s only authorized Nike SB dealer, Tekgnar, is hosting a free skate contest at Mabel Davis this weekend. In it’s second year at that venue, this fest will feature a bowl jam as well as a street competition. I don’t have a lot of time to hype this up, but I’m going to be judging, so if you might have yelled swear words at me out of a car window recently, perhaps you should have shown a bit more respect if you were hoping to make the cut.

 

The internationally-observed day of skateboarding is scheduled to occur tomorrow. Local events have been organized by area skate shops and a restaurant. Red Bull will fuel competitors chasing the best trick title at the Austin High Ditch.

In case you were thinking going to see Shrek 3 would be a great way to celebrate Go Skateboarding Day, don’t. This third installment really doesn’t live up to the quality put into those previous two cartoon films. Just an FYI.

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Mustache Skate Shop in Round Rock is hosting a barbecue at the Clay Madsen bowl this sunday. Click the flyer for more details.

Maybe some of the Vans riders will still be in town after their autograph signing at the Barton Creek Square Vans store on Saturday. Here’s a whopping-big flier to download if you want to see photos of the guys who’ll be at the signing and then later doing a barbecue / demo at Mabel Davis. Anthony Van Engelem, Dylan Reider, Johnny Layton, and Angel Ramirez are listed. Call the Vans store for more details: 512-306-0738.

dylan reider @ 2005 Velocity Games

Folks are organizing in New Braunfels to lobby and fund raise for a public skatepark in the same community boasting the world’s largest water park. Sorry for the late notice, but today at 5:30pm is an organizational meeting for this group calling itself JAWS. Carter has more details on the sk8sa.org site.

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