I think England built a lot of public parks in the 70’s and instead of bulldozing the outdoor ones after the bust, they just left them to rot in the elements. House of Neil, can I get a confirmation? The Hackney Bumps is a 70’s era skatespot in London that is still going. There’s an event called the Hackney Olympics that takes place with some regularity. It seems like it might be a localized and smaller version of Skatopia. This year’s Olympics are on August 9th. My favorite quote from the web site: Some people still claim that they can’t find HACKNEY BUMPS. I find this remarkable. Some people also claim that you will get killed when you go to HACKNEY BUMPS. That is not really true, though the kids that burnt the vespa and the (motor)bikes on the photos above DID have REAL guns, though they could not care less about the skateboarders… Video and flyer after the jump. – Thanks to Tony Gunnarsson for the tip.

The Gorge Games went off in Hood river last weekend. We didn’t cover it – Estes, this was your time to shine! Looks like it will be broadcast by Fox Sports Networks August 18 – 22. The Gorge Games featured slalom and and bowl-riding skateboarding, plus wind surfing and a bunch of other Extreme!™ sports you’re not interested in. It’s kind of like a localized X-Games for Hood River, Oregon, which if you didn’t already know, is supposed to be one of the premier spots for wind powered water sports. It’s a major event in Oregon tourism. I heard legendary skater Tom “Wally” Inouye was heavily involved in the Gorge Games this year. So far all I have is a little slalom coverage. The photo above is from a Flickr stream belonging to Carvethebowl. There’s also video footage after the jump where you can see one of the Fox cameramen following the action on a skateboard. The announcer is mildy amusing. It’s almost golf-style reserved, polite and quiet, except broadcast over a loudspeaker. – Thanks to Judy Oyama for the tip. That’s her on the left.

Hi Skaters. When will you get sick of this? Before me or not? Earlier this year Howie and the boys had a little skate party. I went down with my video camera and caught some of the footage. If it looks like fun it’s because it was. U missed it. Party down Grover. [Update: Added Vimeo version of video, should look a lot better.]

Here’s a few belated pics of the opening of the new skatepark in San Francisco taken by Hidehiko Fujiwara.

I never know what sort of reactions a post will get. Sometimes I can be spot on with a prediction, and other times when I hesitate to make a particular post, the comments flood in when it goes live. I made a quick public service announcement on Friday about the opening of Gabriel Park skate park, and it touched a nerve. Shortly thereafter I received a comic from a source that wishes to remain anonymous. All things considered, it’s pretty damned funny, so I’m posting it.

I don’t read Thrasher with any sort of regularity anymore, sometimes I flip through it at the hippie grocery store in my neighborhood. however, I bought the last issue so I could check out an alleged Naked Raygun interview. Since I had already bought the cow instead of stealing the milk for free, (or maybe I was there to buy milk) I read the rest of it and was really surprised. A couple features caught my attention, especially a China/Vietnam tour diary by Michael Burnett. I had it in the back of my head to make a rainy day post about how I might start reading Thrasher more regularly. Cue plate of shrimp coincidence. Michael Burnett is having a book release/photo show/reading at Cal’s Pharmacy in Portland tomorrow, July 11th from 7-10 with live music by Yes Father. The book appears to be called… The Outskirts of Awesome. DISCLAIMER: I took the liberty of replacing the original photo on the official flyer with a different picture I poached from his web site. Artists really love it when you appropriate and mess with their vision. Don’t let them tell you any different. Even if they seem like they are getting irate…

Here’s part two of the remnants of the Indy tour visting Pier Park. Don’t forget about part one.

Yesterday I had plans to meet up with an out-of-state friend of mine who was in town to skate some Portland area parks. I had assorted obligations for most of the day, but I definitely wanted to hook up for his last session at least. I got a text message that he was headed from Gabriel Glenhaven to Pier Park, so that’s where we were going to meet. A short while later I got the text message above. I have to be honest, my first thought was negative. I wanted to skate with my friend and not watch the Indy tour circus. That’s not a dig at Independent or their team, I just figured the park would be jam packed full of onlookers and there would be a heated session going on – meaning we’d have to stick to other parts of the park or go elsewhere if we wanted to actually skate. When MC showed up for the carpool and said he hoped the Indy team wanted to skate street… So how did it go? MC via email: Any good shots? That was fun, much better than a Trifecta style blowout.

One of my pet peeves in the industry is when magazines devote a huge spread to (Fill in favorite skateboard team) goes on tour to (Fill in exotic or mundane location). I mean how lame is that when a magazine can’t be bothered to come up with their own ideas so they end up having five pages of product placement advertising under the guise of editorial content, not to mention a full page advert from one of the same spots in the feature. That’s why, when I heard Colin Sharp was going to join his team in Sweden for a week in the middle of their tour, I practically begged him to bring a camera and shoot some pictures. You won’t find a Bacon advertisement anywhere on Skate and Annoy, unless you count the 10% of the time they show up at the top of every page… I thought I was going to be getting some awesome Malmo contest overage… but I got this tour diary instead. I kid, but only because I love. If you think this post graphic looks disgusting, you should see the version with the blue and yellow bacon. My Thanks to Colin for taking the…

Sleestock 2008. So I got hurt rumor has it Finley knocked himself out and got hauled off in an ambulance, he wins. I would have liked to get more footage but circumstance dictated otherwise. Enjoy this stuff I am going to to visit the vicodin couch. Party off.