Moot grinds ditchThe 45th Street Ditch has maintained a strong, low-profile role within Austin’s skate culture for many years. Fun for many, and almost always available for a session, its future seems in doubt. Developers are cramming a movie theater and strip shopping center on the land adjacent to the ditch and how they plan to integrate the skate spot into their master plaan is at present unclear.

ditch liberation frontThe ditch has already survived an assault from authority a few years back when a city worker glued yellow traffic markers all over the surface of the ditch. I wasn’t even skating at the time, but I was outraged by this civic savagery and gathered a crack team to liberate the ditch with hammers and masonry chisels. Done and Done.

A couple weeks ago two guys thought they might modify the ditch in light of its possible impeding destruction. They globbed concrete to improve the transition between bank to wall. Neither of these two guys’ names include the words ‘Seth’ or ‘Johnson,’ by the way. Kevin, Adam, and I visited the ditch on Sunday to check out the handiwork. After a short time of skating, we were asked to leave by a security guard who informed us that we were on private property. This never used to happen in the past because the property used to belong to the state. Fortunately, the guys who had done the concrete work told us that we could drop the name, “Dennis” to get past any security guard harrassment. Apparently this guard, Dennis, happened upon them when they were laying the concrete and said he was in full-on support of people skating the ditch so long as they don’t step into the construction site or spraypaint the area. Sure enough, uttering the words “We’re friends with Dennis” cut through the crap we were hearing and the photo / skate session continued.

Here are the pics. (down at the bottom).