Blazing Wheels and Barking Trucks was my introduction to so-called Skate Rock. I say so-called because it’s not a very cohesive term, more of what can’t be defined as opposed to a specific genre. At the time it came out, it wasn’t important that the musical styles weren’t conventional matches. It was as if having the nerve to listen to such a mess of disparate tunes was enough declare yourself a weirdo, well that and your skateboard. Seems unfathomable now though. Why must I babble on when Last Days of Man on Earth is much more succinct. You used to be able to buy a shoebox full of old Skate Rock cassettes from Thrasher. They should do a proper rerelease of the early stuff on CD. Until then you have get yours from Last Days of Man on Earth. Anyone heard the most recent Skate Rock?

Seems like I’ve heard of this Stacy Peralta character before… Skip Engblom never gave Stacy a model on Zephyr, so 31 years later Santa Monica Airlines released a limited edition of 100 Stacy Peralta signature boards, numbered and signed by Stacy and Skip. Each deck comes with a certificate of authenticity, a display case and a price tag of $775! That’s no typo. Check it out at SMA.

Kanoa Flyaway helmets back in production. After seeing a couple of concussions happen while wearing old Flyaway helmets, I came to the conclusion that I didn’t think these were very useful for much besides satisfying a park’s helmet requirement. Someone left a comment that they were being made again, but it sounded like they weren’t being mass produced, and there were no pictures on the web. Well now there is, and no matter what I said about wanting to ditch my old one before, I think I want a new one now. Looks like you can get the OG airbrush action on these. I’m not too crazy about that, or the super wide stripes, but they are a custom option so modifying shouldn’t be a problem. Check it out.

The Kanoa Flyaway helmet are now back in production, and co-sponsors the SMA team. These helmets are crafted from hand-laid surboard fiberglass with custom colored gel coat, custom paint, custom foam, D -rings and German vinyl. Most colors and stripe combinations including “aribrush “can be custom made to order.

Currrently, they are only available at Rip City in Santa Monica. Three helmets will be in stock there most times. Specific colors and stripe combinations can be custom ordered through Jim at (310) 828-0388.

This is a killer photo on the Cobb blog. Michael Cobb goes into detail about the skateboards in the photo and other he and his family had, above and beyond the plastic ones. Make sure you follow the link to see the full size version of the photo. Michael is/was the kid with the sly expression on the green board. Make sure you click the photo to enlarge because the preview cuts off one of the best parts, (shown here) the launcher for an Evel Knievel Stunt Cycle, obviously not one of the reissues. If you dig the 70’s x-mas, don’t forget to check out his 80’s x-mas post. It’s totally bitchin!

Search for Animal Chin from Powell Peralta, circa 1987. This is the third installment from the Bones Brigade Video Series. I figured since we are giving Tommy Guerrero some love, then we might as well show his “ripping style” from back when he was a kid.

I think I’ve watched this video more times than any other skate video. It’s such a classic, with loads of awful synth music. I guess they just came out with the DVD which has a bunch of bonus footage on it.

Featured Skaters: Steve Caballero, Skip Engblom, Tommy Guerrero, Tony Hawk, Mike McGill, Lance Mountain, Rodney Mullen, Jim Thiebaud, Ray Underhill, Mike Vallely

run time: 1 hr 5 min 52 sec – Check it Out

Check out this 10 minute Tommy Guerrero interview on NPR. It’s pretty good and only has a minimal amount straight media kooking on skateboarding.

I had 412 spam mails waiting for me in my junk mailbox this morning. Somehow, when sifting through them I managed to pick out one email as being potentially mislabeled. The red flag was a subject line reading Guerrero on NPR. So thanks for the tip Day Reah. This is a good place to mention that if you are contacting SnA try and stick something in the subject line that will help me fish it out of the junk mail if the spam filter catches it.

There once was an NSA contest in Louisville Kentucky called the Bluegrass Aggression Session, and nobody came to watch it. Somehow they let me on floor to take pictures during the practices and prelims. There were other guys from organizations like Lapper Magazine, Stuf, and even a certain GBJ. There was a monster vert ramp and a street course as well. On the left we have Eddie Reategui, and on the right we have the same obstacle, different viewpoint. Skater unknown. Full frame and enlargements after the jump.

15 questions for Lance Mountain compiled from the community over at Old Man Army. From the serious to the absurd, there’s a question in there (#14) that reminds me of something we would have asked in the early days of Skate And Annoy. Check it out.

This is a great shot. Beer drinking while skating a pool… but then factor in the bottle. The legendary Thrasher photog and Drunk Injun, MoFo is selling some prints like this 1983 shot of Jay Alabamy at Doris’ Pool. The prices are reasonable, plus it’s history. This is also a good place to mention his massive 28 page feature in the new issue (Vol. 5 No. 3,) of Concrete Wave. Six of these pages are available for download from the Concrete Wave web site. If the kiddies don’t know who he is, that’s a good place to start.

Between all the posts about BS involving skateboarding, I sometimes forget that most people just want to see pictures. Here’s a shot taken about this time of the year in 1997 at an indoor mini ramp at a skate shop in Iowa City, Iowa called “Smokin B’s.” I don’t think it’s around anymore. The only shop I found online was a place called The Full Kit. That’s Chris Swan on the coping with (future) Dr. Brad on deck. Bone Man was in town visiting his momma, so a couple of us converged from Illinois. Click the pic to see it enlarged. 1997 was 10 years ago. Does that count as back in the day?