Archive for the 'D.I.Y.' Category

Wintertime Solutions for Lack of Usable Concrete
Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008

Here at Skate and Annoy, we recognize that many of our readers, particularly in the Midwest, are facing a difficult time in the life of a skater: the preparation for winter. Many are squeezing sessions in before the snow, ice, or rain sets in. The winter alienates many riders who recognize snowboarding and snow skating, as pictured above from The Snow Life, as insufficient substitutes for skateboards.

Each year, skaters fall out of practice and even quit skateboarding after they recognize that their “summer legs” have atrophied into wonky and clumsy appendages by the end of the winter. Many tears are shed over the tremendous task of re-learning even simple maneuvers, such as ollies.

For those who are considering measures to simulate a real skateboarding experience, check this out. The folks at wikiHow.com were kind enough to the skateboard community to post an instructional on how to create a diy pseudo-skatespot in your own backyard. Unfortunately for skaters, however, this idea is crap.

Marginal Way from the eyes of a tourist
Friday, August 29th, 2008

Marginal Way Skatepark

I’m continuing the recent trend of having visitors from other states sending in photos of skate spots in my own geographical proximity that I am apparently too lazy to shoot on my own. This time it’s Hidehiko Fujiwara who went to Marginal Way and did some surveillance.

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Rolling Stone discovers Skatopia
Thursday, August 14th, 2008

Rolling Stone covers Skatopia

The previous issue (1058) of Rolling Stone had a feature on Skatopia. It would never occur to me to actually pick up a copy of that magazine, so I missed it. The web site has a photo gallery that you have to get ten pictures into before you can actually see any skating. they’ve also got “exclusive” footage from a trailer for Skatopia, The Movie that is supposed to be out in 2009. I haven’t seen the article so I don’t know how long, bad or interesting it is. I seem to remember Rolling Stone had an article about Dogtown that predated the documentary, but if you search for it now yo uhave to sift through endless Lords of Dogtown reviews and and soundtrack information. - Thanks to Michael Brooke and Larry for the tip.

There’s blowing out a spot and then there’s really blowing it out
Wednesday, August 13th, 2008

Portland Sentinel on Skateboarders Without Borders

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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Skateboarding in a kids’ book
Tuesday, August 12th, 2008

Otter Skates kids book

Lulu.com is an on-demand publisher. They will print copies of your book when someone wants to buy one. Kind of like a vanity press although no one has to pay unless they actually want the book. The Hopeless Old Men On Skateboards collections and Hugo and that Dumb Skateboard are available through Lulu and here’s another example. Otter Learns to Skateboard by Rhett Saugier is available as a soft-cover book for purchase or a free download. Although there are some good things about it, editing and art direction would have helped. Which illustrates how easy it is to get a book printed, even if you lack professional know-how.

Round frame made from old decks
Thursday, August 7th, 2008

skate frame by Ryry

Nooo! you could have sold those on Ebay!

A crafty use for those old skate decks. There’s some math in there but also a bonehead version. How to make a skateboard frame on Instructables. Hmmm, maybe with some biscuit joinery you could make that thing strong enough to ride, or a non-skid toilet seat!

D.I.Y. concrete quarterpipe
Friday, July 25th, 2008

DIY Concrete Quarter pipe

Joesf Heffner sent in a few pics of a backyard project he is working on. Looks like a concrete quarterpipe with a little run up. Hopefully he’ll chime in with the approximate costs and time involved. Enlarge those pics after the jump.

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More Brotherhood
Friday, July 11th, 2008

Brotherhood Plaza - Stockholm, Sweden

We’re looking forward to more progress at Brotherhood Plaza in Stockholm Sweden. I may have had a Swedish girlfriend for about 15 minutes once in the 90’s, although I ‘m not sure she’d agree. I’d like to see something like that here. (The DIY street plaza, not my Swedish pretend ex-girlfriend. She said she was some sort of youth sailing champion. Elena, where are you? No, don’t answer that, I’m married with kids.) I did hear back from David Krug, the man behind Brotherhood. He shed a little light on the D.I.Y. street plaza project. There’s a lot of photos on the official site, but not a lot of actual information. In fact I think his short email says more than the official site, at least in English.

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D.I.Y. not just for tranny
Tuesday, July 8th, 2008

Brotherhood Plaza - Stockholm Sweden

One stop on the recent Bacon tour of Sweden was the Brotherhood Plaza (Skarpnäck?) in Stockholm. The big shot above is Tim Johnson as taken by David Krug. David has been the driving force behind the plaza for the past four years. It’s essentially a Burnside-style sanctioned D.I.Y. skatepark, except instead of being tranny-centric, it’s all street plaza. The place looks like a fertile spot for many fun sessions. This isn’t a plaza with existing obstacles being sanctioned for skating, it’s built from the ground up for skateboarding. You can’t get a good overview from the few pictures above, you really need to spend some time checking out the photos and video on the Brotherhood Plaza web site. Bonus: After the jump you’ll find three pictures from Bacon’s visit.

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More Zines on the way
Friday, June 20th, 2008

Zines from the collection of Sonny Robertson

I’ve just about exhausted the collection of John Drummond. I was looking at my collection of skate zines, trying to decide how to proceed, but the decision has been made for me thanks to the generous loan of one Sonny Robertson, whose pictures have appeared once, twice , three times (…a lady). You can look forward to such titles as Preparation S, Dirt Rag, Pad Rot, EA Zine, The Abandon Manifesto and The Page. There’s also an issue of Underbelly that dates to the year 2000 thathas some interesting items in it. Don’t get you panties in a bunch. These zines were carefully placed for the photo above. Click to enlarge.