austin skate notes

I’ve been pretty busy lately trying to get the new ASN design running, so I should have posted this earlier. EAP will host its second Red River Slab barbecue party on Saturday. Here’s what Brandon sent me:

I talked to the guys at FAG (Find And Grind) this afternoon inquiring about the game of S.K.A.T.E. It’s cancelled for this friday due to "everyone going to make a wish" in houston. Everybody? Not me. As wrong as it is to say, man, fuck make a wish. They (FAG) are hosting a premiere of the new Consolidated video this coming Wednesday at Cary Jackson’s ramp (aka the Death Star). Get there in the early evening.

Friday is the last day to vote early for the skatepark in the Travis County Bond. Early voting locations are listed at the link the the post below. In years to come, it’s this kind of thing that means the difference between, "How come Austin only has one public skatepark?" and "Damn! Yo. Where do you want to skate today?"

While you’re in the voting mood, you might consider sending an email to Thrasher to cast your vote for Ben Gilley as Skater of the Year. Or, whoever. Put the name in the subject line of your email. soty05@thrashermagazine.com

Here is an interesting proposal put forth by the Mayor of Las Vegas in dealing with taggers. That’s the old-school Vegas spirit I miss.

Finally, Todd Falcon will do a demo at the Skatepark of Austin this Sunday. Details are available at www.toddfalcon.com. I saw him at an earth day demo a couple years back and I can only say it was an astonishing experience.

Twitter This

User Name: Password:

As rumors swirl surrounding the expected lifespan of the Red River Slab, skaters are squeezing every last drop of fun out of the spot. Brandon and his Electric After Party crew held a cool barbecue there on Saturday with a great turnout. Friday, Oct. 7th, Brown Skateboards / Find and Grind is hosting its monthly game of S.K.A.T.E there. Here are some photos I shot at the barbecue on Saturday.

I was woken up at 9:00 am that morning by a woman calling me asking what clothes she should wear. Christ. That’s a no-brainer. "Wet t-shirt and a thong," I replied. I guess she realised this was my back-pocket answer for any woman asking me that question, because Donylle Green showed up at the Austin City Bond Public Input Meeting with a button-down shirt and jeans on. The rest of the skaters who had come out to advocate for skateparks being included in the bond were similarly well-groomed. They were also extremely well-spoken. Jared Ficklin hit them with numbers and stats on the popularity of similar facilities in other communities. Nathan mended fences with the Mexican-American Cultural Center folks by thanking them for our intrusion on their property with the Red River Slab project. Kevin Mouton answered the assumed question of "how big is necessary?" by telling the Bond Committee Members, "No city has ever said they built too big of a skatepark." Afterwards, the committee members seemed very receptive to the concept. One more input meeting remains.

Following the meeting, Nathan and I drove out to CFAN ditch where we caught the tail end of the fundraiser contest for building the San Marcos public skatepark. Lots of people were rolling around out there, but I forgot my camera’s memory card, so I could only shoot crummy photos with my cellphone. That high-tech gadget was performing double-duty at the ditch as Carjack called me to ask who he should kill over the Duane Peters demo cancelling after he had already cut his massive roadtrip short by a few days to see it. Shit, the guy hangs out for 3 days with naked techno-hippie chicks at Burning Man and he’s crying about missing a skate demo?!? Shouts go out to Red Army Clothing and Conspiracy Skateboards for sponsoring the fundraiser contest.

A few more barbecue photos added to the gallery. Also check Aaron’s superior photos from the CFAN ditch contest and backyard fullpipe session.

Twitter This

User Name: Password:

Posts have gotten clogged up in the pipeline this week as I’ve been working on the new design for ASN. It’s far more pleasing to the eyes than this monstrosity, and should provide better functionality for readers. I sort of am forced to change how these articles are presented as I’ve got some ambitious literary pieces in the works that just can’t fit into this format.

Those folks down south in San Marcos are holding another CFAN skate contest to help raise money for their public concrete skatepark. There’s lots of momentum behind this project and events like this demonstrate to the community decision makers that there is demand to justify the expense of a public skatepark.

Check the Skatepark of San Marcos website for details.

http://www.sposm.org

Also competing for your attention on Saturday is a critical public input meeting at 10:00 am. This is a meeting where citizens can communicate to the City of Austin what should be included in a bond package to be presented to voters in the spring. At present, the City is considering including money for 2 public skateparks and 1 BMX park. We need to show up in force at this one as no one spoke at the previous input meeting. This page gives the location and other details. If you don’t feel comfortable with public speaking, just showing up and signing your name on the attendance form will move mountains for this cause. These bonds come along once every five to seven years, and they’re pretty much the only source of money for future public skateparks.

In case you were planning on helping Adam renovate the Banana Farm on Saturday, don’t sweat it. He drove back to Louisiana to check on his family in the Lake Charles area. He’s also going to look for lil’ moot’s dad and grandparents. They didn’t evacuate and they have not called Kevin since the storm hit last week. I think he’s postponing the work session for next weekend.

Doug King, aka the Hardest Working Man for Austin Skateboarding, is leading his crew of John Altman, Steve Kessler, and Jaimie (SPoA) in the construction of Smithville’s public skatepark. Carter Dennis stopped by the worksite and shot these photos. They could definitely use volunteer help and donated materials. With free public skateparks in the pipeline in Austin, San Marcos, Round Rock, and Smithville, Central Texas skateboarding is poised to explode in 2006.

Finally, here’s a link to some cool photos of a new park in Mammoth, California. It’s not officially opened, but they had some pros stop by to check it out. Of particular interest is the shot of Jeff Grosso in the first cradle he’s ever skated.

As people have reminded, the other two cool events happening this weekend are a barbecue at Red River Slab starting at 5:00 pm that seems to be organized by Electric Afterparty. The other is the demo at Skatepark of Austin on Sunday. John Lucero, Lance Mountain, Duane Peters, and Chaz Pineda. Wow.

Twitter This

User Name: Password:

The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina has brought more than 5,000 evacuees to Austin where they’re mostly being housed in the convention center downtown. Kevin, Adam, and I went down there the other day to see if we could help, or even house some of them. As we milled about through the crowd, we came across a trio of messy guys wearing skate shoes. "This is all we could grab," they told us as they showed us their skate decks. "Where are you guys from?" I asked. Two of them said they were from Birmingham, Alabama, and the other one had been living in California before the storm. Like the rest of the people stranded in the convention center, they seemed bored out of their skulls. "Wanna come skate? We have room in our truck for just one guy, so who’s it going to be?" I said. They discussed it among themselves for a few moments, and finally the dark-haired burly guy agreed to come with us. Later I asked him how they decided who would come and he told me they were concerned that we were going to gang-rape and rob whoever came with us. I asked him why he volunteered. He answered, "I thought it would be worth it for a chance to skate."

Here are some photos from that session.

Carter Dennis is still recovering from breaking his forearm in half, but he’s in good enough shape to help Doug King (of Rex Ramps fame) build a concrete ledge at the LBJ Skatepark in San Antonio. As is always the case with Doug’s work, it looks like a pro-calibur job. Here are some photos on Carter’s site. Looks like one of the best things going in that skatepark.

Enjoying the extended holiday weekend, Find and Grind premiered the forthcoming Red Dragons skate video sunday night. I brought out my video projector and we showed it against the wall of the shop with a really solid turnout of skaters. It’s got some fun parts, especially the Danny Way section, which makes great use of the Team America theme song. We also showed a preview of a video by iPath and one that Flint is making locally. Both looked extremely promising.

Donyelle Green, from Marble Falls, would like everyone to come out to their skate jam this saturday. They’ve got a slab poured as a temporary public skatepark and the oft-mentioned Doug King has built some props on it. The skate jam is intended to demonstrate the intense demand for a real public skatepark there. With all the quarries in the area, whatever facility they get built is likely to have granite ledges galore.

I’d finally like to give a big thanks to the Skateboard Mag, which just ran a small article on Austin Skate Notes and said a whole bunch of kind things about me in this month’s issue. That was really cool.

Twitter This

User Name: Password:

I got a letter from Donnie D the other day. It’s a 4-pager. He answered my request for what are the Top 10 Most Popular TV Shows in Prison. Here’s the list:

1. American Idol
2. Price is Right
3. 24
4. Jerry Springer
5. Desperate Housewives
6. Big Brother
7. Maury Povich
8. WWF
9. Any brainless bullshit you can think of

Looking at that list and thinking about how there’s only one tv set being shared among like 30 guys and knowing I’m not really tough enough to change the channel, I’m not so sure the ass-raping is the worst thing about going to prison. BTW, Donnie has 3 years and 10 months left.

Starting Friday is the annual tax-free clothes weekend at all Texas retailers. Buy your shoes, pants, shorts, or whatever at your local skate shop without paying sales tax. I’m planning on stocking up on a few pairs of those iPath Kenny Reeds at the only store I know of that sells them– Find and Grind. Here’s a list of the types of garments that qualify for the tax-free program. Football pants and golf gloves do not qualify, but lingerie, basball caps, and diapers do(o).

Yesterday evening I stopped by the Red River Slab to shoot photos of people skating the new manual pad. There was a pretty healthy turnout. From the photos, it looks like people mostly just do nose grinds on it, but in reality, there were a bunch of different tricks going down. I just happened to end up with a bunch of nosegrind shots.

Twitter This

User Name: Password:

Tekgnar held its second annual summer skatefest at the ARC public skate facility this afternoon. Skaters competed in two seperate age divisions and then a best-trick contest. Tia Carrera and another band played. Mayor Will Wynn came to discuss the city’s current skatepark plans and also to announce that the City of Austin has officially designated the Red River Slab as an official skate spot. This is on a temporary basis and depends on the skateboarders taking responsibility for keeping it clean of litter, graffiti, and so forth.

Then I jumped on the mic to further discuss the importance of this partnership and why it’s in the interest of skateboarders to hold up our part of the bargain.Working without notes, I ended up missing a few points, which I’ll throw in here. For starters, Tax Free clothes weekend is coming up. I’d like to encourage all skaters to buy their new shoes, pants, shirts, etc. at area skate shops like Tekgnar, Union, Skatepark of Austin, and Find and Grind. These shops are supporting the local skate scene and need your support. Those internet mailorder outfits and mall stores like Tyler’s aren’t going to be in for the long haul and they certainly aren’t contributing anything to the Austin Skate Scene. The other thing I meant to say about the Red River Slab is that the Thrasher King of the Road tour is going to stop in Austin next month and they’ll probably hit that spot.

Wish I had more photos, but it was a pretty hectic afternoon. Laurie and Philly from Tekgnar deserve HUGE CREDIT for putting this event together. Great job.

Twitter This

User Name: Password: