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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The weather was iffy all weekend. I ventured over to Glenhaven. MC called me as I was leaving and told me to bring a squeegee as it had just hailed and some spots needed drying out. Half an hour later it was mostly dry, but every 10 minutes or so it would start sprinkling for a minute or so. Everyone was hitting it while they could, there were some great personal motifs going between guys that looked like anarcho pirates, kids in pajama bottoms and one guy with a mustache so big and bushy we could have used it to sweep out the bowl. I was just about to start snapping the local wildlife when another dainty but steady barrage of hail closed out the session for good, or at least another half hour or so., but I left. I should have used the time to read the manual on my flash, cause I kept blowing out the exposures instead of getting a little extra contrast on a gray day like I had hoped.

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The deep end of this pool wasn’t all that skate-able, but the shallow end woulda been a lot of fun.  I thought the snow was ironic none-the-less. Straight from Bozeman Montana I bring you some really shitty drunken point-and-shoot pictures. Rumor has it that there is an abandoned half-built hotel there with a sheet metal, sterling silver pool as well, but it’s locked up and I haven’t had time to break in and check it out yet. I do plan on it with my next trip. Even if I don’t find it, I’ve always wanted to get myself into the Bozeman Police Reports. It is one of my life goals. I think they have a 5 year old write them, and they sometimes have some pretty funny stuff in them. My favorite of today, “A dog killed two ducks”.

Yes folks, basically just an excuse to post the amusing ramblings of Skate and Annoy correspondent Damienhialation. The Bozeman Police Reports write up was pretty funny that day. It’s changed since then, but I saved it for reference. “A dog killed two ducks” is a good one, but I prefer the one from the Mother of the 15 year old boy.

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Is the rainy season over here in the Northwest? I feel sorry for you guys in the Midwest, aren’t you in four feet of snow right now? We’re in the middle of a really nice stretch of weather out here, making these indoor spots less of a draw these days. Dave Viera sent in a couple recent shots of local favorite Johnny Turgesen skating inside a nicely color coordinated facility.

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So Guess what? It’s that time again; more of the same shitty photos of the same dudes at the same shitty park in nowhere Wyoming. I bet you’re so stoked.

One thing you won’t confuse this zine with is Success. Not with all the guys going to prison, bloody fights and stepdads burning down houses… Excess is like COPS, only in skate zine form. Excess hails from Wyoming, but for some reason I was able to pick up issue #4 for free at our local indoor park in Portland. I couldn’t figure it out until I saw the fat Bacon advert spread, so now it makes sense. One of the jailbirds featured, Handsome Jack Mackeral (pictured above) also spent some time in Portland so there you have it. It’s actually a pretty good rag. Mixed in with all the depressing details of their local scene is some intelligent writing and a sense of humor. There’s a surprising feature on How to Fuck a Feminist. Instead of a bunch of crude jokes (don’t get me wrong, I like a good tasteless joke), it actually contains dating advice if there is a feminist whose pants you want to get into. I’m married so someone please let me know if it works. From the photos, there doesn’t seem to be any lack of skate spots or advertisers for that matter, but seriously, does Lowcard really need a 1/2 page plug in Excess? Excess is free if you can find it, but why not send PJ a couple bucks for your copy, it’s worth the effort and will probably make his day.

PJ and Excess - PO Box 507 - Laramie WY, 82073

Man, I had to get some actual skating up on this site today. Sonny Robertson sent in a few pictures a long time ago:

…my favorite part of skating has always been that sense of identity in time, place, friends, music, etc. that comes from a scene, be it centered around a ditch, a ramp, skatepark, etc. We had a ramp in our small town YMCA - the Box Ramp - that was in a raquetball court, touching all four walls, and we would get people dropping in from all over the place and it was just so great to be a part of. And then to go to Dallas or Houston and see the scenes at places like the Clown Ramp, which was in a sketchy-ass section of town, was just the coolest. The whole Zorlac scene was just nuts. Wish I had been a little older at the time.

I have plans to add a section that will roughly equate to “this is/was your scene” but you know how it goes with so-called plans. Rather than let them rot in my inbox (?) I’ve posted them here for your enjoyment. I’m holding out one of them for a future Shot of the Week. Yeah, that’s Jeff Phillips. More after the jump.

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Marek Litinski sent in some pics from his recent trip to his homeland, Czechoslovakia. This spot is located in Hrušovany nad Jevišovkou. They’ve got a web link for the skatepark complete with a history and construction photos. Of course I can’t read it, but it looks like it was built out in the middle of nowhere in an old government building, as evidenced by the official portraits various nefarious Russians above. Here’s what Marek had to say:

About that wooden bowl… Scene sucked, to the extend of non-existence. Placed in very small village in an obscure Czech country side. Posiblly a Czech type Donald situation. So I wouldn’t be surprised if one day somebody ripped it a new one, which isn’t gonna be spectacular in any way because those trannys are like six feet tall. That bank wallride is around twelve, which makes it not so easy to skate so thats where you get your stoke on.

What’s the meaning of the Donald reference? Donald Oregon and Putting hte cart before the horse. The city must have gotten a grant from somewhere and decided to build a park “for the kids” before there was any skateboarding to speak of. Now others will likely travel there to skate, and the town will produce a few rippers where there were no skaters there previously. You can Czech out some more pics after the jump. [Photos: Jakub "Punker" Halfar, except for the middle panel which came from Hrusovany.cz, uncredited.]

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And this should be the last construction update from me. Next shots your gonna see is all the locals skating this new “Ego” bowl here in Hood River Oregon. I can assure you that this hard-working crew will have an undisturbed amount of time in the next 3 days, breaking in the coping for everyone to enjoy.

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Jason Corley sent in a couple shots of Santa Ana California spots circa 1984:

I was just cruising around the site and thought you might appreciate a photo of what was probably the best natural ditch in Orange County back in the day. This is/was Flower Street. Located at the end of Flower Street in Santa Ana, CA. I took this one morning back in 1985. This is what the main section of this amazing ditch looked like. Thing was that it split into a “Y” at one end and further down the ditch maybe 60 yards was a smaller height transition with a long roll in, about 8 feet of flat ground that when coming down the roll in you could carve the smaller bank and then have access to a natural extension that just reached vert. I feel so lucky to have been able to slate this gem from 1983 to around 1987. Santa Ana also was home to the killer Lloyd’s Bank about 1/2 mile away. I also attached a shot of Lloyd’s Bank, the front portion. Not my best trick but I was 13 years old…

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Its going to better than a Charlie Brown Xmas for us skaters in Hood River, Oregon. Today I went down to the skatepark to drop a case of Red Bull on the hard working crew. I had to ask (Designers and Builders Graham and Mark) when the expected finish date was, they said they have stayed well within the budget, with no plans of stopping and took me on a walk around the skatepark.

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