A 17 year old girl scout named Kaitlin Fabich is leading a push to get a skatepark built in her town. Unfortunately, this isn’t going to be about how more young girls are getting into skateboarding. You see, Kaitlin doesn’t skate, she’s just using the process to qualify for a Gold Award in Girl Scouting. It makes me doubt her long term commitment to the project, but if it helps in any way then it’s further proof that skateboarding has saturated popular culture. Aaack! Do we need more proof? I guess not. Boy Scouts have ranks, the highest being an Eagle Scout. One of the things you have to do to get that rank is to organize a community service project and log X amount of hours, as well as get X amount of volunteer hours from your peers. Girls Scouts don’t have ranks I guess, they just have awards. At 17, I think Kaitlin needs to get her ass in gear before she gets the boot for being to old. Of course, reading that she was 17 made me think of going a different direction with the post graphic, but I decided on a wholesome approach. The “Scouting” and skateboarding connection is not new. There was a division of Boy Scouts of America called Exploring that was open to older kids from around 14 -20 or so, both male and female. In the late 80’s it was not unheard of for Exploring Posts to form solely for the purpose of providing a place to skate. A private halfpipe facility that was run by an Explorer Post was covered by the Boy Scouts of America’s blanket insurance policy, at least that’s how I remember it being explained. Exploring seems to have been replaced by Venturing as far as the Boy Scouts go. Does anyone out there have any Exploring Post vert ramp stories to tell?

Still need a last minute X-mas gift for the guy that runs your favorite skateboarding web site? How about this amazing Street Smartz Interactive (talking) Skateboard skateboard?

This skateboard talks, teaches, and offers feedback! There’s nothing like it! Our amazing, interactive skateboard will have your child shredding in no time. Its unique technology actually measures foot pressure, turns, speed, and more–then offers personalized tips for improving technique. A separate coaching mode teaches popular stunts step by step, while the free-styling mode features exciting sound effects. Later, turn off the power, and your “shred head” has a cool, cutting-edge 28″ board! For kids 41-160 lbs. Requires 6 “AA” batteries (sold separately). For ages 6 and up.

Forget about hoverboards. This, is the board of the future.

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The sketchy Tony Hawk Christmas ornament was actually a McDonalds Happy Meal toy with a string attached. Danimal’s mom sent him an awesome elf skateboarding on a leaf. World Industries sells these elf sized skateboards that come packaged in a Christmas stocking.

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This was going to be a thread about the trend of municipalities closing down skateparks when they get tagged as an incentive program to stop vandalism. I was going to highlight that a new nearby park in Vancouver Washington is going to experience such closures:

our park maintenance office has decided to handle graffiti removal at the park the same way Battle Ground does at their skate park - by closing the entire park to all users until all the graffiti is removed. Depending on the severity of the graffiti, this could require several days of closure.

I was then going to ramble on about how it was obviously not the real skateboarders doing the vandalism, most likely kids that were on the periphery that might own a skateboard in the same way they would own a bike or a pogo stick if all their friends had one.

Look at the picture above. It seems like a fun place to skate right? It’s sheltered from the elements, and it’s not even illegal. If that was my local spot I’d want to take care of it, but the Creekside Underground locals are pissing it all away.

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Welsh Pete wrote “while some skate kids are smashing store owners in the face, others are rescuing babies from dumpsters…” So in the interest of fair and balanced reporting:

Four skateboarders found a crying infant girl - the umbilical cord still attached - wrapped in a blanket and left atop a trash bin Monday night in Queens, authorities said.

So check out the skateboarding guardian angels (not to be confused with the skateboarding Charlie’s Angel) in the New York Daily News. AP Video available as well. Lest any of our regular readers think we are going all soft, that’s one of the teenagers, Christopher Moncada in the shot above, and he looks little bit like a pudgy 10 year old girl. Guardian Angel art, sans skateboard, from Sykel Enterprises.

This week’s late Shot of the Week is Jack Grover killing two birds with one stone, playing a skateboarding video game while standing on his skateboard. At least he’s not sitting on the couch. I have to admit I chose this picture after running out of ideas seeing a shot of little kids goofing off on a skateboard on Skate Daily, last week I think. Check it out.

Good news for all you breeders and friends of breeders out there. Now your little tykes can learn to skate on miniature re-issues of Jason Jesse and Rob Roskopp Santa Cruz decks from the 80’s. These two boards come in at just 26 inches long and are designed for kids 7 and younger. Not scaled down, however, is the purchase price of $135 for a complete, which seems is steep. With the way re-issues (Jason Jesse, too) have been selling on eBay, I guess you could always look at it as an investment. Not shown on Little Rulers but rumored to be available, the Slasher model. Keith Meek’s slasher? I dunno. - Thanks to Judi Oyama for the tip.

Wow, that was fast. No sooner do I post about not finding any new skateboard-themed Christmas ornaments this year, then Paige sends me three links. There are nine ornaments after the jump, plus a ton from last year as well.

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Paranoia will destroy ya! We get catalogs sent to my house with all kinds of questionable and mostly overpriced crap for kids. A while ago my wife pulled out a page with a soft baby helmet and I shelved it until I got another email from Grumpy Joe that had a link to another soft helmet for adults and kids. Joe and I are in agreement on the best part of the marketing for these things:

ProtectaCap® custom-fitting soft protective headgear is ideal for children and adults who refuse to wear protective headgear.

Ok Ok, let’s not shoot fish in a barrel. I thought it was absurd until I realized that they are actually talking about other soft helmets for people with certain medical conditions. What conditions? Craniectomy, craniosynostosis, seizures, cerebral palsy, head banging, balance disorders, post surgery, hydrocephalus, shunts, microcephaly, Special Olympics, hemophilia, Parkinsons, Huntingtons, autism, and traumatic brain injuries. And let’s see, my two year old has gotten some pretty gnarly head gashes around the house. Still, I’m not going to make my three month old wear one of those. Check out the Bumper Bonnet (left) and the ProtectaCap, whose parent company is Plum Enterprises, has a web address of “plument.com,” which is almost like “plummet.”

Here at Skate and Annoy we like to keep you informed of all the really important skateboarding events. Looks like ABC is going to air He’s a bully Charlie Brown today. You’re a dick if you don’t like Snoopy. Actually, this cartoon is pretty horrible. It’s the last animated Peanuts that Charles Schulz worked on before he died. I wonder who traumatized Charles in his youth so much that he was still trying to come to terms with it as he approached his death bed. There are a couple skateboard scenes in He’s a bully Charlie Brown, most of which you can watch here. Otherwise it’s on at 7:30pm in some markets, so check your local listings.