Jason Corley sent in a couple shots of Santa Ana California spots circa 1984: I was just cruising around the site and thought you might appreciate a photo of what was probably the best natural ditch in Orange County back in the day. This is/was Flower Street. Located at the end of Flower Street in Santa Ana, CA. I took this one morning back in 1985. This is what the main section of this amazing ditch looked like. Thing was that it split into a “Y” at one end and further down the ditch maybe 60 yards was a smaller height transition with a long roll in, about 8 feet of flat ground that when coming down the roll in you could carve the smaller bank and then have access to a natural extension that just reached vert. I feel so lucky to have been able to slate this gem from 1983 to around 1987. Santa Ana also was home to the killer Lloyd’s Bank about 1/2 mile away. I also attached a shot of Lloyd’s Bank, the front portion. Not my best trick but I was 13 years old…

The Royal Hawaiian Pool Service has a page documenting the Poi Bowl that is right up our obsessive compulsive alley. It’s a famous pool that aside from being skated, also had the honor of appearing in several episodes of Hawaii Five-O. RHPS has some pics from magazine appearances, a skateboard graphic tribute, and a little video footage from TV as well.

Late tuesday night I got a call from Chris Stevens, whom I never hang out with and have never given my phone number. Turns out he was bombing a parking garage with some of the Eastside Longboards crew. Our (Eastide) paths almost never cross, except when I’m covering the odd slalom event, which as happened exactly once. Anyway, back at the parking garage, Chris basically met Aaron in the elevator on the way up to bomb the parking garage. Somehow my name got mentioned. On the way down there was a tussle that lead to Aaron colliding with a parked car at speed and blacking out for something like 20 minutes. Maybe there were convulsions? I can’t remember. Chris Stevens’ almost immediate 911 call got the ambulance there quickly and the paramedics left with him. Aaron was only on a first name basis with the guys he was skating with, and nobody had his phone number or knew where he lived. Chris somehow remembered my last name and called 411 to get my number so I could notify his wife, who was very, very grateful to Chris for calling the ambulance and calling me so I could let her know.…

Through a random act of Google, while searching the web for pictures of David Lee Roth on a skateboard (no joke!) a stumbled on Mohammad Burney’s travel pictures. Man this guy travels a lot. Japan, Greece, Saudi Arabia, Kenya, Morocco, Malaysia, New York, Kuwait, Egypt, England and India, which is where the bowl above resides. One of the three pictures (1, 2, 3) Shows that it is some sort of astronomical observational tool. Check out that coping. If you decide to ride this bowl and are take a chance on getting stoned to death by an angry mob, at least use copers. I’m not sure how Google pulled up this page in my search for “David Lee Roth” and “skateboard,” but it did. There’s a way to view it with comments enabled, and he’s essentially got reams and reams of comment spam. Maybe that’s where it came from.

This appropriately named spot is called the Bubble Banks. A reader named Mark W. pointed out that it was near the mystery spot that we found through the Disciplinary Architecture Anti-Sit Archives post. The Bubble Banks photos are from Quartersnacks.com, a NYC-centric web site that even has an online guide to various spots, complete with location, occasional direction, bust factor and visual aids. I guess in a city as big as New York it’s not a big deal to spell out all the details on spots because they are all probably blown out already. It’s not like posting an online map to something as fragile as a pool ecosystem. Check out Quartersnacks.com, named after those Little Debbie snacks you can buy for a quarter, I guess. There’s a lot of content and it looks like they put some effort into the design and concept.

Nestled in the pictures from yesterday’s post about the Anti-Sit Archives is this mystery spot allegedly somewhere in New York City. This picture shows the banks deserted at lunch time, but don’t ask the author where it is because he’s not flowing. I’m sure it’s not a mystery to the locals. Is it possible to blow out a spot like this, never having been there, not even knowing where it is? Oops! Surely this has appeared in a magazine before. Looks fun. Update: Quartersnacks comes through with the 411

We pretend to be a legitimate source of information on skateboarding and culture here at SnA, but really we’re just a couple of guys wise cracking at a keyboard. Nothing illustrates that more than the fact that I have two links in this post that were supposed to be related, but I’ve lost my notes and context so can’t make a thoughtful analysis. Aww hell, I’m posting it anyway. First we have a gallery of anti skating devices called Unsubtle deterrents. None of the photos are amazing, but the collection sure has an nice calming effect for some reason, even though it should make my blood boil. I only wish they were all the same size and orientation. Next we have a paper by Ocean Howell titled “The Poetics of Security: Skateboarding, Urban Design, and the New Public Space” Sure it’s a bit dry, but the gist is that “skateboarding is exceptionally good at drawing attention to the quietly exclusionary nature of the new public space.” In other words, public spaces are being designed to force the public to use them in ways that the public doesn’t necessarily want to. It’s like the grandmother that gives you $10 for your…

We’ve had a few risque posts here lately, so I thought I’d be open handed and fair by putting up something for the ladies… This exotic dance team will be appearing at the Scab and Flab nightly for your enjoyment. Try the chicken fried steak and don’t forget to tip your waitress. So drink it in, and don’t thank me all at once. And, yes, summer is over.

This Titan missile silo complex located one and a half hours west of Spokane Washington is for sale. $1.5 million dollars gets you 57 acres, three missile silos, thirteen other underground buildings and the most expensive street skating spot you can find. At least you won’t go to prison for barging it. Looks like a great spot for a photo shoot. [Source: Gizmodo]

Australia’s Herald Sun has an article titled Skaters shun parks for concrete jungle that talks about how kids still don’t want to be confined to skateparks. While Melbourne is upping it’s skateboard deterrent budget to $50,000 a year, the city of Boroondara has an annual budget of $100,000 a year for skatepark development. 100k Australian is only about $86,000 in US dollars, but it’s still nothing to sneeze at. One of the popular street skating spots that kids keep barging is called Docklands, which near as I can tell is a redeveloped waterfront plaza that used to be, well, docks. The article mentions YouTube videos of Docklands, so I did a cursory search. There appears to be a nicely finished pedestrian park as well as a bunch of more industrial areas that appear to be abandoned or in disuse. You can watch a couple vids after the jump.