For those keeping track, and I’m guessing that’s about three other people, I’ve resurrected the Broken Kingpins column name in Skate and Annoy. This time around, instead of covering all the roster hopping and product release junk like we used to in our ancient print issues, I’m using it for all the miscellaneous links that don’t merit their own post. Besides, there are about a million other web sites that can tell you who has new shoe models and who got kicked off of what tour. [Photo: Denver Post / Andy Cross]

The Science Channel’s How it’s Made program featured skateboards as one of the items that they show… how they are made. For some reason they chose the skateboarding segment to include some gratuitous “history of” narration and crappy animation. None of the other products got the extra dog and pony show. The skateboarder in the picture above seems to be caught in some sort of time-space wormhole anomaly where he is forced to dress like the late 70’s but ride a skateboard that looks like it was designed in the 50’s. Every skateboard manufacturing process seems to vary a little, but the basics are the same. If you’ve never seen this type of thing before it can be interesting. These guys are using the heat transfer process to apply the “decorations” as they call it. The video does not show how the heat transfers are printed (similar to printing t-shirt transfers, colors are printed in reverse order on a flat substrate.) but does show them being applied. The shapes are cut out by hand using an interesting shaping template and what I think is a planer. I’ve never seen it done that way before. Actually, a factory using heat transfers…

No, the guy in the bottom left picture is not a rabid Adam Ant fan going through a Prince Charming phase, it’s Toronto skateboarder Ben Davis after he got hit by a car while skateboarding in the street. A security camera caught the whole thing on tape, and City News reported on it. The street is supposed to be one that gets a lot of foot, bicycle and skateboard traffic. It’s not a major artery, and some residents even want it closed to automobile traffic all together. It’s not shocking that Ben got hit by a car, after all, he was in the middle of the street going against traffic. The interesting bit here (aside from gawking at the carnage) is the fact that the car driver got off scott free and Ben is the one who got the ticket. Check it out. [Source: Altered Skateboarding] Postscript: I had a hard time picking a Prince Charming link to reference, check out this alternative.

This was a Canadian zine out of Ontario. I’ve got four issues, the latest I have is #17. That’s Freezine as in “freezing,” not “free.” This is a good one, not a lot of reading or actual skate photographs if you analyze it, but put together well enough to make it seem like you were getting a lot.

It must be ladies night at Skate and Annoy. Either that or Canada days. I stumbled across a site called Skirtboarders. There’s nothing there yet, but the corresponding MySpace page has photos and video of this crew of gals from Montreal. I’ve actually seen a girl ride a skateboard in a skirt before. It was a bit odd at first, but it didn’t seem to cause her any problems and soon it was a non-issue. The Skirtboarders are working on a video. You can watch a pretty smooth trailer after the jump. It’s always good to see a fresh viewpoint of skateboarding, even if we are a little slanted in perspective around here.

Actually those guys aren’t actually trying to spread any musical gospel, I’ve just been dying for an excuse to use the STFU acronym in a post title. Pierre Luc Gagnon Says “Skate Culture Isn’t Just About Punk Rock Anymore” in an article in Chart Attack (Your Canadian Music Source, eh?) and Tony Hawk is narrating a feature documentary on the 90’s punk scene.

SkateGirl is a one hour long documentary about the movement of professional women’s skateboarding. There is a showing of SkateGirl on February 3rd in Vancouver BC’s Antisocial shop, but it’s not on their web site right now. Update: It’s up now. Susanne Tabata is in your extended network is the director. You can check out a clip after the jump. [Source: Skull Skates]

Skull Skates just posted a small gallery of 70’s skateboard images featuring Canadian skaters and/or Canadian skate spots. There is one shot from Olympia Washington plus wall rides and Russ Howell spinning 360’s (whee!) too. Check it out here. UPDATE: Looks like one of those pics is our own Mark Conahan. We swapped it out on the right side. Nice woody. Nice flowing locks man. Groovy. Full size here.

Every city has a core skate spot. It may not be perfect, but it embodies the heart and soul of scene. When you visit that city, you already know about the spot and you make a point of hitting it. For Vancouver that spot may be China Creek. It’s got a lot of history outside of skateboarding too. It used to be the site of an actual creek, as well as a velodrome in the 50’s and 60’s. In 1979 China Creek became Vancouver’s first public skate park when two mellow coping and edge-free 70’s style bowls were poured, and that’s about the last time the city did anything with the property. The Jaks have held a contest there for years. In the meantime, some of the surrounding areas “lost their luster” and the overall park location filled with the usual assortment of characters that homeowners find disconcerting. The future of the skate park looked grim when the parks department came up with some cash for a facelift of the property. There were three options presented for the skate park part of the park: Leave it where it is, bulldoze and move to a different corner, or bulldoze and move…

I’ve seen pics of this spot in the mags over the years, and while they may have said Big O in some of the captions, they pretty much never said where the damn thing was, which is Montreal. It’s one of the more iconic skate spots, that’s for sure, especially since it’s not designed for skateboarding. Every time a picture would turn up I’d be surprised that it was still around and hadn’t been skate-stopped. Turns out it was going to be destroyed, but now it lives. MudScout Media is publishing a book about it called Pipe Fiends. If you are in Montreal on Dec. 15 you can go to the book launch from 8-12 pm at NEST (3673 St-Dominique, Montreal). If you are looking for more info, the Montreal Mirror has an article, SaveThePipe appears to be the de facto web presence, and Parfond.com currently has 62 (!) images in a gallery dedicated to the spot. Stop and think about the fact that such a small spot is important enough and has been around long enough to merit having it’s own book. Pretty amazing. Photo credits: The Color images are from MudScout and the b&w are from Parfond.com.