Working with a local contractor, California Skateparks has finished their first of numerous skateparks in Israel. This 7,000  square foot park is located in Arad, a city about twenty minutes west of the Dead Sea.  The park consists of a centrally located bowl along with a perimeter street area of banks, steps, hubbas, and rails. The local skaters are extremely excited about the new skatepark and are looking forward to the next two phases of skatepark additions in the upcoming years. Look for more skateparks in Israel from CA Skateparks coming in the spring of 2012.

 The new skatepark about to be completed in Arad, Israel is progressing as planned. CA Skateparks is finishing up the skatepark construction on the bowl today along with pouring all the street features in this 7,000 square foot street plaza designed by Wormhout. Check back for completion photos!

California Skateparks crew has been soaking up the Colorado sun for the past few weeks! We have been working as a specialty sub-contractor on Trail Winds Skatepark in Thornton, Colorado. CA Skateparks teamed up with ECI Construction to help modify the skatepark designs for this new park to ensure the build of the best skatepark possible. The skateboarders of Thornton can expect a skatepark of street and transitions with trannys and banks. This highly anticipated skatepark is due to open towards the end of the month.

The calm before the storm

Under the strange circumstances of Hurricane Irene wreaking havoc on the eastern seaboard and the Street League Skateboarding championships being moved ahead one day, Sean Malto held off Chris Cole and the seemingly unbeatable Nyjah Huston to take home the $200,000 and the title of 2011 Street League Champion. A large crowd came out in spite of the weather warnings and transit closures to cheer on the world’s best skateboarders at the Prudential Center in downtown Newark, New Jersey. The course was highly challenging and the leaders changed on nearly every trick attempt due to the intense level that all of the skaters were competing for the title.

To the winner go the spoils

During the Tech Section battle Ryan Sheckler, Paul Rodriguez, and Chaz Ortiz got off to fast scoring start with Chris Cole right at their heels. Nyjah Huston kept pace as did Sean Malto with amazingly varied approaches to the flat bar rails, the ledge / planter combos, and the up and down rails. To everyone’s surprise, Ryan Sheckler and Mike Mo Capaldi ended up being eliminated as the scores continued to climb with everyone upping the difficulty on every trick attempt. Mikey Taylor, Shane O’Neill, and Billy Marks all advanced to the line section, along with Cole, Rodriguez, Ortiz, and Malto, who lead going into the Line Section with an 8.6.

Ryan Sheckler

Shane O’Neill

Billy Marks

Mikey Taylor

On the Line Section, the eight remaining skaters fought it out, upping the ante. Chaz Ortiz used the huge launch kicker to his advantage, tossing up huge backside 180 flips to flat. Sean Malto kept everybody guessing with switch lines and was a perfect 5 for 5. Chris Cole’s power moves took him into the lead. After a few misses Nyjah Huston started to pour it on with his patented combination tricks. Mikey Taylor stayed in the hunt putting together solid runs. Paul Rodriguez put together some of his most powerful skating in the 2011 Street League season to stay right near the top. Shane O’Neill and Billy Marks threw down a couple of amazing lines, but fell just short of making it to the Big Section finals.

Hurricane Irene couldn’t keep the fans away

Chaz Ortiz

Paul Rodriguez

Chris Cole

Cole fans

The Big Section finals featured some of the most exciting and technically difficult tricks yet seen at any Street League event on a monster 11-stair set with drawn out hubba ledges and a tough and fast center rail. Mikey Taylor put the ledges and rail to good use, scoring well on 2 attempts. Paul Rodriguez threw down nearly everything switch and landed 2 very high scores landing bolts-perfect. Chaz Ortiz put down 4 clean tricks, taking a solid shot at the win. The top 3 skaters all remained in contention for the win, right down to their final tricks. Chris Cole held the lead for a while, and had a shot at taking it all right down to his final trick attempt. Chris ended up taking 3rd place and also won the best trick award for the 3 sections by scoring a huge 9.6 for his 360 flip to 50-50 on the hubba ledge. After taking the first 3 Street League events of the year, Nyjah Huston was almost expected to easily take the finals. Nyjah made his case during the Big Section finals by scoring a perfect 7 of 7 tricks to put the pressure on Sean Malto. Malto, however wasn’t going to give it up. Sean had taken a heavy slam in Glendale AZ at tour stop #3 and couldn’t skate the finals that day, so he was out for redemption in New Jersey. His perfect 7 for 7 trick count in the finals sealed his victory and a $200,000 payday. After the finals had finished, Chaz Ortiz laid down a one-man demo in the Wonka Free Ride best trick event to take home $10,000.

Nyjah Huston

Sean Malto

Congratulations Sean!

Chaz Ortiz, winner of the Wonka Free Ride best trick contest

Joe C of CA Skateparks and Sen Malto 2011 Street League Skateboarding champion

Street League 2011 is a wrap, and all 4 events were truly spectacular. We can’t wait for Street League 2012! Congratulations to all of the skaters and Rob Dyrdeck for putting on an amazing series.

Rockaway Skatepark in New York is set to open this Fall, 2011 ! California Skateparks was a specialty skatepark contractor, and Site Design Group was the skatepark designer for this 15,700 square foot project.  New York skatepark is plaza styled with smooth transitions. California Skateparks is excited to bring their 8th skatepark to New York.

The 2011 Hood Games took place on July 23, 2011 at the African American Culture Complex in San Francisco.  Karl’s Kauses Inc, a nonprofit youth focused initiative, has teamed up with California Skate Parks, Shred and Butter within SF Recreation and Parks and vitamin water to produce a one of kind skateboarding infused community celebration. The day-long event ran from 10am until 9pm and was free for everyone.  Daytime activities included pro skateboarding demos, live back to back performances showcasing hip hop master Farshawn and Martin Luther from the Roots, food, games and more! Special invited celebrity guests include: Terry Kennedy, Stevie Williams, Karl Watson, Nyjah Huston, Quentin Scott (Oakland Raiders), Vernon Davis (49ers), Rob Young and more! Below are some photos below, courtesy of  7×7 SF. Click to see more photos.

The Worlds Largest Skateboard and the California Skateparks motor-home has made the 680 mile round-trip journey to Glendale, AZ and back to Upland, CA all in one piece. These two eye fixtures at Street League Arizona made a stir as fans were able to strike a pose and capture a photo in front of each of them.

Head to Worlds Largest Skateboard  website for more information and the record breaking facts associated with the board. As for our CA Skateparks motor-home..keep your eye out.

X Games 17 is set to kick off next week in Los Angeles with some of the most complex and innovative courses ever seen in skateboarding event history. The Superpark skatepark was designed and built by CA Skateparks and the Skatepark Street Course was designed by California Rampworks and collaboratively built by California Rampworks (CARampworks.com) and CA Skateparks (CASkateparks.com). Both events should feature some of the best skateboarding ever seen at X Games. Stay tuned for updates and complete coverage from the events.

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On Friday July 22nd, 2011, the city of Los Angeles held it’s grand opening for the Westchester Skate Plaza. The 13,000 square foot Skate Plaza was designed and built by CA Skateparks and features a variety of elements designed for hardcore street skating. Eric Koston and Steve Berra of the Berrics were on hand for the opening celebration along with a host of other pros including Luan Oliviera, David Gonzales, Curren Caples, Pat Duffy, Kurtis Colamonico, and Braydon Szfranski. Champion of the skate plaza project and Los Angeles city councilmember Bill Rosendahl presided over the day’s events. Skaters came from as far away as Carson City, Nevada to skate the plaza on opening day. The Westchester Skate Plaza was made possible by funding from the city of Los Angeles and a generous contribution from the Annenberg Foundation. CA Skateparks donated some extra features to round out this excellent new skate facility.

Huge turnout at the opening!

These guys came all the way from Carson City, Nevada to skate the new Westchester Skate Plaza…

And ripped it up!

Eric Koston and Joe C

Pat Duffy

The youngsters love the new plaza!

The girls were ripping.

In some of the most intense action seen yet in the history of STREET LEAGUE SKATEBOARDING,  Nyjah Huston came away victorious for the third time in a row taking home $150,000 dollars making his total winnings $450,000 for the 2011 season and keeping his perfect record intact in front of a crowd of over 16,000 fans. Ryan Sheckler took 2nd and Chris Cole took 3rd to round out the top 3 spots.

Nyjah Huston, 3-peat!

The California Skateparks designed-and-built course was the most challenging yet and the skaters pushed themselves to the limit, throwing down high-risk tricks. Sean Malto had to withdraw from the finals due to an injury he suffered during warm-ups and Eric Koston took his place. We are glad to report that Sean is okay after taking a heavy slam. The other 24 SLS pro riders unanimously voted to give Sean with the $7000 Zumiez 24-7 Award for his tenacity and skills.

During the first segment of the finals on the Tech Section of the course, Nyjah Huston came on late with a kickflip to back smith down the kinked rail scoring an impressive 8.9. Chris Cole was close behind with an 8.4 score for his 360 ollie to boardslide on the kinked rail. Luan Oliviera scored an 8.3 with a switch 360 flip up and over the gap to manual off. Ryan Sheckler and Shane O’Neill stayed in the hunt with tying 8.0 scores. Paul Rodriguez, Billy Marks, and Tommy Sandoval also advanced. At the end of the tech section, Eric Koston and Chaz Ortiz were eliminated.
The finals then moved on to the Line Section where Ryan Sheckler took over 2nd place and narrowed the gap between himself and Nyjah Huston, coming away with a combined score of 39.8 to Nyjah’s 41.6. Chris Cole dropped into 3rd with a combined score of 29.4. Paul Rodriguez, Billy Marks, and Shane O’Neill also advanced, while Tommy Sandoval and Luan Oliviera were narrowly edged out.

On the last section of the day the insanely huge stair set and hubba rails forced all of the skaters to dispense with any fear and attack with everything they had. Billy Marks took 6th with his highest scoring trick being a kickflip nose slide down the massive hubba rail. Shane O’Neill’s tech wizardry landed him in 5th including switch backside flip down the stair set. Paul Rodriguez nailed down the number 4 spot with the second highest scoring trick in the big section, a pinpoint perfect 360 kickflip down the big set. Chris Cole battled hard on the big section trying ridiculously difficult tricks. Chris came away with the highest scoring trick in the big section, a 360 kickflip to 50-50 down the hubba rail. Cole was awarded the Monster Energy Best Trick and $15,000 for that trick. Ryan Sheckler and Nyjah Huston were neck and neck until the final 2 tricks. In the end Ryan was narrowly edged out in spite of his frontside half cab kickflip down the big set. Nyjah set down a perfect kickflip 5-0 and a backside 180 nose grind down the big hubba to seal his win.

After the finals finished, The action got hot in the Wonka Free Ride Best Trick contest. Between Mikey Taylor, Nyjah Huston, Tommy Sandoval, and Chris Cole, it was nearly to close to call the winner. Mikey came through with a 270 to switch front boardslide down the big hubba, and Nyjah threw down a kickflip back tail slide big spin out. Tommy Sandoval had a bag full of tricks including a frontside 360 down the big set and backside 180 heelflip up and over the gap and rail block to flat. In the end Chris Cole took it with a backside noseblunt down the big hubba and came out $10,000 richer.
Next stop, New Jersey on August 28th for the STREET LEAGUE 2011 finals. The top ten pros have been selected and the stage is set for the most intense skateboarding competition ever! Stay tuned!

Full House

Sean Malto, Zumiez 24-7 Award winner

Eric Koston

Chaz Ortiz

Luan Oliviera

Tommy Sandoval

Billy Marks

Shane O’Neill

Paul Rodriguez

Chris Cole

Ryan Sheckler

Nyjah Huston

Chris Cole backside nose blunt for the Wonka best trick award.

Chris Cole, Joe C, and the Street League Dime Squad