Another one of those young local kids that I remember as a little dude, coming out to my events with Ryan Barron and competing with all the others, but this one you could tell had some serious talent inside him, even back then.

Steven Burke was always good at skateboarding and he picked the right crew to hang out while he was growing up. Localizing the North Delta and Fleetwood skate parks, Steven skated with the best of the best from the Delta/Surrey/Langley scene. As Steven grew, he grew extra tall, and that can be a huge benefit to a skateboarder, especially one that likes to skate ledges and rails. Not afraid to try the super tech tricks, Steven Burke has proven himself to be totally amazing in the past year and I am proud to see him get put onto the Coastal Riders Team.

Skating with Jordan Zazula, Magnus Hansen, Dave Stevens and the rest of the crew all the time has definitely helped to push him along, and you know he’s only gonna get better from here.

A sincere congratulations straight from Hippie Mike buddy! You definitely deserve it.

Now go out there and kill it

Back in February there was an Open House meeting regarding a new Park they are proposing to create at 6^th and Fir in Vancouver and there was just another one today. This park will be an “All-Use Facility”, meaning good for walking, running, hanging out with friends, and just pretty much being an overall nice place. But will it include stuff to legally skateboard on? That’s up to you.

Skaters definitely showed up to the first meeting to share their input on what this park should look like and what special features would benefit us, the skateboard community. It’s like the opposite of a Skate Park Planning Meeting where you usually get a few random people that don’t skate suggesting building a pool instead.

Anyway, they came up with some options of designs and one of the options included “Skateboard Nooks or Features”. This is something that should be considered in any public park that is being created or upgraded in today’s world. Give us some obstacles or areas that are accessible, fun and legal to skate.

So now is your chance to be a part of this planning. Click the survey link below and cast your votes to help promote the facts that skaters want to be included in this future park. The pictures of the Options are not there but “Option C” is the one that has Skateboard Features in it.

Vote for Skateboard Nooks/Features in Question 5 and vote for Option C in question 8. The rest is self explanatory.

The more surveys the planning department receives back with votes towards skateboard features, the better the chances are that this park will have some. And this could start a positive trend in Vancouver and other surrounding cities to just add legal features into plans rather than feeling the pressures of building huge skate parks everywhere. We want to be included everywhere.

Git r Done!

http://vancouver.fluidsurveys.com/s/6andfir/

After so many years of controversial kick outs while Vancouver Skaters try to hammer down tricks on the UBC Campus, they are now bringing skateboarding to us.

The UBC Planning Department thought it would be a good idea to build a park on their property for the residents of UBC to enjoy. They put a certain amount of funding aside specifically for this project and connected with New Line Skate Parks to bring the thought to reality. It will be a positive addition to the community there and hopefully it creates more awareness as to how the guys skating the street obstacles there are just trying to skate, and not trying to be pests. But will it help justify those facts or will it cause a different argument where the Campus Security will just keep pointing over to the Skate Park and saying that it was built to keep people from skating the street on campus? We won’t be able to answer that question until after it opens. One thing is for certain though, it is definitely going to attract people to the Campus to check it out.

There was a lot of controversy back in November when New Line started the construction. Vancouver Local Skateboarder Sean Campbell stirred up the system a bit by complaining about the design and many people got involved in this protest for changing the design. It brought out a lots of opinions from both sides, some people liked the design and others did not. It must be very difficult to be a designer of Skate Parks now a days because skateboarders all like different styles and what one group might love another might completely hate. New Line and UBC Planning worked very hard when getting the designs for this park created and they ran an online survey as to what people wanted in the park. Over 300 people submitted their feedback and the designers had to take the requests and see what would work with the space provided as it wasn’t a huge lot and is filled with pipes, gas lines and other obstacles in the ground. Both parties agreed that they wanted to have a mixture of transition and street obstacles to help please every type of skater, but of course all the “Big Bowl Skaters” were not pleased with the 4′ half bowl. But that’s life.

Every skate park that gets built comes with complaints. There’s either too much Street and not enough Tranny, or too much Tranny and not enough Street. Or the Street Obstacles are too small or to big, or the Tranny isn’t deep enough, or too deep to learn on. No matter what, not everyone will love a new skate park anymore. We are overly spoiled with selection of Skate Parks in today’s world, especially around Southern BC.

So be excited if you want to be, or be a hater instead and don’t show up, but either way the UBC Skate Park will be a destination spot for many skaters and I’m sure it will always be busy. We’ll try to keep you posted as to when the Grand Opening is happening.

Thanks Stacy Gabriel for sharing this photo and being stoked. I’m sure we’ll be seeing him, Geoff Dermer and the Kitsch Crew shredding there often.

A moment long awaited by many hardcore shredders, the Creature Skateboards Video is ready to premiere. Creature CFSU is coming to Vancouver and showing this Friday, April 5^th at the Rickshaw – 9pm. It’s $2 to get in and the proceeds go to the Vancouver Food Bank.

If you like Creature, and you’re over 19 years old, then I suggest you go to your local street corner and bum $2 so you can afford to get in.

 Team Riders include:

Devin Appelo, Taylor Bingaman, Sean Conover, Adam “Scizzors” Effertz, Stu Graham, David Gravette, Neil Heddings, Sam Hitz, Truman Hooker, Alex Horn, Willis Kimbel, Adrian Mallory, Milton Martinez, Silent Mike, Darren Navarette, Al Partanen, Ryan Reyes & Chris Russell

Don’t miss out