Do you remember the pool that Mark and I caught a lot of flack for riding repeatedly? I had to laugh when I saw a full page shot of Al Partanen in the latest Concussion - #39: The Photo Issue. Apparently Davoud and photog BK didn’t get the memo about that place not being cool. I wonder if Al is pissed? The Skateboarding media conspiracy is out to fool everyone. Just think of how many potential “uncool spots” you’ve been tricked into thinking people actually enjoyed. I included a few shots from one of the sessions we had there after the jump.

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…He just loved to live that way. And he loved to steal your money. Can you blow out a spot across the street from the Police station? Battle Ground, Washington has more interesting terrain than just a skatepark going for it.

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I got back from vacation and found a free monthly neighborhood paper sitting in the pile of neglected mail. The cover story of the Sentinel is Skateboarders Without Borders. It’s about local D.I.Y. project that is not so much of a secret, but still, the article pretty much gives the exact location and shows a landmark photo that all but draws a map for you. On top of that, the author interviewed the current land owners. I heard there was a “bust” of sorts during construction but that there were no real consequences. If they weren’t already numbered, my guess is this spot is about to become extinct. I hope the guy in the interview used a fake name.

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Where’s Steve Bacon when you need him? You’re right. You rule dude. You must be so stoked.

your guys are fucking losers! ha, my friends and I skated this pool for the last 1/2 of summer w/ no one bothering us, so fuck you guys, you will NEVER be able to skate it

Don’t make me dig up pictures of the nude bowl…

Jake Brown was on the Today Show (yesterday) and the unholy corporate alliance of NBC and Microsoft has a transcript and a video excerpt on the official Today web site. Why was he on mainstream TV again? Because he recently returned to competition (at the X Games in Dubai - No, really!) again after taking the world’s most famous slam, which of course gave them a good excuse to show it again. In the video clip you can hear Meredith Vieira’s uncomfortable noises as she watches the slam, and afterwards, for a brief few sentences Matt Lauer asks Jake if he’s OK, but the tone of his voice is like mine after my two year old takes a particularly hard spill. It’s kind of creepy. Jake returned to competition on the vert ramp, but decided to avoid the mega ramp for his maiden voyage. Wise man. Check it out. Got a Mac? The video still works even though they redirect you to a page that says your browser is unsupported. You have to click through a few extra times. I wonder why Microsoft would do that?

These articles about old guys who are still skating are still being generated. The latest one from the San Francisco Chronicle it titled “Shredding Again: In which we chronicle midlife skateboarders and their return, to be schooled by 6-year-olds.” It’s a fairly lengthy article, and includes the now obligatory video piece and photo gallery, except this time they managed to get a decent action shot. See above - “Joey Vela, 38, pulls a giant backside air out of one of the giant bowls at Pacifica Skatepark. Chronicle photo by Mike Kepka.” OK, they call it a backside air instead of a frontside, but it’s still an above average photo for one of these pieces, and not bad in it’s own right. Highlights of the article/video include a 45 year old relating the story of being taught how to drop in by a 9 year old kid. Also amusing are the quotes from the young kids whose turf has been invaded by the old dudes:

From the kids’ perspective, the old-schoolers are a welcomed addition to the parks. “They rock!” said Colin Dallara, 11, from Lagunitas. “They remind me of the Z-Boys; they’re really good at axle stalls.”

Yes, axle stalls. People say Tony Alva invented them, but someone in Florida did one 1968. Ha ha. At the end of the article they point to an affiliated blog that has Tommy Guerrero’s part from Future Primitives embedded from YouTube:

San Francisco was also home to one of the country’s largest skateboarding subcultures, and this subculture would produce some of the decade’s finest skaters. The beginning of a 1985 skateboarding documentary, “Future Primitive,” shows San Francisco’s Tommy Guerrero carving, ollying and sliding his way down an avenue in the Sunset District to the chords of a bluesy skateboarding ode: “Well I’m a Future Primitive, and I skate to live.”

Ah yes, the respected documentary Future Priitives… Didn’t that win an Oscar? Right. That’s also the first time I think I’ve seen “ollieing” spelled ollying. “Ollying” may follow some sort of spelling rule, but it still looks wrong. Who makes that call? Check out Shredding Again at the San Francisco Chronicle, and if you want to recap some other efforts, try these.

No, not Mike Tyson the ear-biting tattoo-faced psychopath, but Tyson the Skateboarding Bulldog. He’s going to be on Oprah on November 6th, and Harpo has posted a schlocky preview of it on YouTube. Oprah’s got a tight lockdown on the way her image is portrayed, right down to denying others the ability to embed the videos, so you’ll have to leave the friendly confines of Skate and Annoy to watch it directly on YouTube. She does have her finger on pulse of popular culture though. After this very timely TV appearance of the popular phenomenon known as Tyson the Skateboarding Bulldog, I hear she’s going to have exclusive animation of that dancing baby from 1997.

I got an email from CSS titled “Ryan Sheckler’s Must-Haves.” First I was grossed out, and then I got curious. Man they are really giving it the hard sell. Buy his crap and you can live just like him kids! Ryan Sheckler signature jeans? FREAKING AWESOME!

This appropriately named spot is called the Bubble Banks. A reader named Mark W. pointed out that it was near the mystery spot that we found through the Disciplinary Architecture Anti-Sit Archives post. The Bubble Banks photos are from Quartersnacks.com, a NYC-centric web site that even has an online guide to various spots, complete with location, occasional direction, bust factor and visual aids. I guess in a city as big as New York it’s not a big deal to spell out all the details on spots because they are all probably blown out already. It’s not like posting an online map to something as fragile as a pool ecosystem. Check out Quartersnacks.com, named after those Little Debbie snacks you can buy for a quarter, I guess. There’s a lot of content and it looks like they put some effort into the design and concept.

Nestled in the pictures from yesterday’s post about the Anti-Sit Archives is this mystery spot allegedly somewhere in New York City. This picture shows the banks deserted at lunch time, but don’t ask the author where it is because he’s not flowing. I’m sure it’s not a mystery to the locals. Is it possible to blow out a spot like this, never having been there, not even knowing where it is? Oops! Surely this has appeared in a magazine before. Looks fun.

Update: Quartersnacks comes through with the 411

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