To make up for our overall snotty temperament, we sometimes are sentenced like to do a little bit of public service. In that spirit we bring you this story about Nathan Curry, an American working in Nicaragua who is building a skatepark there in his spare time. I first found out about Nathan’s project in the Bowling Green Daily News. After tracking him down, he agreed to answer a few questions and send in some progress reports. Be the first person to correctly identify the reference in the title of this post and win…

Let’s see, directional surfboard shape and no kicktail or upturned nose. Looks like that skateboard is stuck in 60’s. At least it’s 10 years ahead of the general feel of the comic strip. Did you know that daddy once had a drinking problem?

Larry Pescatore sent in another batch of construction pics from the Wormhoudt project in San Jose. The monolith is very… monolithic in nature. 2007, a Skate Odyssey. Check out larger picture after the jump, and since I haven’t had this much fun Photoshopping Sci-fi skateboard graphic crossovers since Blade Runner, take a look at the other teasers I had to choose from.

Word travelled fast, but in case you haven’t heard, Battleground Washington opened this weekend a couple of weeks ahead of schedule. Not surprisingly, there was a major rumble between a clan of BMX riders and an irate posse of… Not really. Everyone got along fine. Photo of Mark Conahan from Earth Patrol Media.

It’s true, the helmet saved his life. Of course the article doesn’t get into why the kid was laying on his skateboard, rolling head first into the street. Jace was playing at the friend’s house a week ago, riding a skateboard “skeleton” – lying on his stomach and going headfirst down the friend’s driveway and into the street. The “daredevil,” as his mother Julie Muir calls him, didn’t see the car coming. I’m not sure if “daredevil” is what I would call this kid, but I’m glad he’s alive. I can only hope my kids don’t do something that stupid when they grow up.

That’s right. variety is the spice of life. We’re looking to add another point of view to Skate and Annoy, something we’ve heard is called street skating, as implausible as that sounds, which is not to be confused with street-style, which is being, er, uh, practiced in the shot above that I got from the Chitown Shred archives. But seriously folks. We need to cover the grittier side of skating. I love skate parks, but there’s a different vibe with skating something found as opposed to something made for skating. Help us out, and get in contact if you think you can be our man on the street. Or woman. Geographic locale is not an issue.

The Hardy Boys have been in need of an image overhaul ever since that unfortunate peeping-tom conviction. Gone are the days of titles like “The Missing Chums” and “The Mystery of Cabin Island.” Now they aren’t even books, they are graphic novels. Check out #8 in the series, the just released Board to Death. Sure it looks like it was drawn in the 80’s, but it actually just came out this month. I wonder if the fact that they were riding coffin shaped boards was a coincidence or a tribute to the fact that Frank and Joe Hardy are old school. I wonder if Chet get’s hit in the solar plexus? I wonder what a solar plexus is?

I had been pitching an idea for a regular column in Concrete Wave to the editor Michael Brooke for a long time. He kept encouraging me in a vague sort of way, so I finally decided to write up the first installment as a way to help him decide whether to shit or get off the pot. I thought (and still do) that Concrete Wave had a lot of potential because it was still kind of blank slate, and Brooke wanted to provide coverage of all aspects of the sport, kind of like the early days of Thrasher. One thing I thought it seriously lacked (besides cohesion) was personality. Thrasher had it’s columns like Ask the Doctor and Skarfing Material that along with Thatcher’s and other musings gave the mag a real, uhm, personality. I was going to try and shake things up at Concrete Wave a little, help it appeal to people besides the old and the very young, which is ironic considering I run a web site that gets some Barney criticism of it’s own. What better way to make a splash than a somewhat facetious piece about slalom skateboarding, since you know, there’s not enough slalom coverage…

What do you call that trick where you are pushing off on your skateboard and your back leg catches the rear wheel on your skateboard? Oh yeah, it’s called funny! One guy made a documentary about it. What a happy coincidence. Just yesterday I was trying to come up with an excuse to post an old video of I have of House of Neil doing the same thing. The first vid is called “Crash, Burn & Replay: A Segway Documentary” It’s pretty good, even though it flirts heavily with overkill. The second one is a short but sweet star vehicle for Neil titled “The Legends of Stenchtown,” after the Stench Ditch, a seminal, hardcore, locals only, dare I say Extreme™ skate spot in Evanston Illinois, and home to the Stenchtown crew who revolutionized skateboard slams with style.

I’m preempting another “over it” post. This clip is being passed around the web like what’s his name’s girl that is giving that stuff out to all them graffiti guys. Danimal reviewed the Girl Yeah Right! video (on VHS no less) and now the invisible skateboard sequence is all over the Interweb™ again, so you might as well watch it here too. You can catch the invisible section after the jump, or watch the whole dang video due to the magic of Interweb™ piracy and our friend Chompy.