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.

Shallow Hal San AntonioCarter 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.