Well it’s that time of the decade again… What time is it, you ask? It’s time for another site redesign. The old one served pretty well for a long time, but wasn’t really mobile proof and was not very efficient on the server side. Blah blah blah… Time for a stripped down version. It’s a work in progress, not all functionality is present, and there are bound to be some bugs. Features, Reviews, and Galleries are still on the old templates, but should be chaining over in the very near future. Working on this fairly massive, and mostly under the hood change has taken precedent over new posts, but it won’t be long before regular updates are thing again.  The rest of the Skate and Annoy “network” is going to require a little tinkering before the old framework is abandoned, so bear with me.

These are stills from a 1998 Time Life/BBC documentary on Erwin Rommel’s death titled “What Really Happened to Rommel – Secrets That Won WWII.” This footage shows Rommel with friends and family riding what appears to be some sort of homemade roller coaster track on a cart that resembles a skateboard. There is no explanation for this event in the voiceover.If the video plays from the beginning, go ahead and skip to the 32 minute mark. – Thanks to Caveman for the tip.

It’s impossible to tell if there is any validity to this story in We Are The Mighty. Their mission is “Capturing, empowering, and celebrating the voice of today’s military community,” but I’m skeptical. It seems more likely their mission is generating click-bait revenue from the military community, but I could be wrong. There’s almost no additional information in the post, other than to say they didn’t adopt them. Check out the story The Marine Corps tested a skateboard unit in the 1990s if you dare. If you leave the window open long enough, it will eventually crash.

Another skateboard appearance in the Bizarro strip. I have no idea when the original publication date is. This image showed up in a facebook feed. – Thanks to Jim Ferrell for the tip.

This is the actor  Milo Ventimiglia appearing on the cover and inside the November, 2018 issue of Men’s Journal, with a skateboard. He looks pretty comfortable on that cut down waterski. – Thanks to Tim Rafferty for the tip.

I saw this Santa doll on a skateboard (with ski poles) at a Holliday x-mas party. which after 9 years, finally explains this weird looking thing.

Massive, massive influence for myself and Neil. I didn’t get to see them live until ’91 or so, but those records were on heavy rotation for so long… still are. – Randy

Two comic book, two different millennium. On the left we have Frank Thorne’s Ribit #1 from 1989. Frank is probably best known for Red Sonja, but what exactly is Ribit? “Ribit was created by a female sorcerer named Sahtee. Ribit was a lizard and a pet of Thong, who is Sahtee’s aide. Thong is a good-natured fat man who constantly wishes for a woman to love.” Well OK then. That (mute?) stinkbug grab can be excused since Ribit appears to be part frog. That board though… Check out that deck; No bushings, no nose, no tail, and nearly symmetrical. Good thing those trucks can’t pivot, or the wheelbase on those giant rails would be deadly. Fun! I didn’t shell out $15 to find out I there are other skateboarding panels inside. On the right is a Ghost Rider comic with a variant cover #1 that might have come out in 2018 even though it references the 80’s too. Marvel released a ton of variant covers, but I can’t find this one anywhere except in a blind link to reddit. From the looks of the other variant covers, they don’t appear to have anything to do with the actual stories inside.…

Speed Wobble IPA is a collaboration between Bustin Boards and Key Brewing out of Dundalk, Maryland. The original post on the Bustin site mentions an April canning date, but the post itself has no date. The beer isn’t listed on Key Brewing web site. Those cans were found in a store this week, so you should still be able to get some if you live in the right area. Me, I live in the IPA capital of the world, and I’m sick of them. Go to any Portland area grocery store and you’ll be overwhelmed with craft beer choices, mostly local. The trouble is, 2/3 of the selection are IPAs. I counted 42 varieties of IPA’s at my local Safeway this summer. – Thanks to Scott Carr for the tip and photo.

These pics of David Lee Roth on a skateboard have been floating around the interwebs for more than a decade. I’ve never been able to track down the original source. Also, I don’t really care about Eddie so much, but there he is. The real reason for this post is that I just learned that the single Pretty Woman was recorded in Dennis Dragon’s studio in Malibu California. This tidbit came from The Van Halen News Desk, a brief blurb in their post on the story behind Van Halen’s (Oh) Pretty Woman. They don’t even mention him by name: “Van Halen’s original demo for the song (which remains uncirculated) was recorded in Malibu, CA, in a 16-track studio owned by the brother of Daryl Dragon (one-half of the 1970s singing duo the Captain and Tennille).”