Ohio has a few renegade skateboard companies, including one called Sleezy Skates. In their own words: homemade spray painted planks from the heart of southern ohio. skatopia lurkers. doin it fer the kids in the sticks! These are a few of my favorites at the top. Although really crude, they have a large “body of work” that has definitely has an outsider art appeal. What more would you expect from the land of Skatopia and Devo? Check out Sleezy Skates.

I don’t know what the heck they are building out in Hood River, but the more I see the better it gets. Carl Warren sent these pics of some expansion work. They are labeled “Mouse Trap” which calls to mind Pier Park, but the images don’t make it obvious. Whatever it is, I can’t wait till it’s done.

Whenever Jyme (Jymie?) George used to come in to travel with the Surf Ohio crew, he always had stacks of stickers and t-shirts to give away, printed by the guys at Graphics Lab, who were just starting out at the time. Jyme let me enter the first big amateur contest in Dayton even though I didn’t have a sponsor, under the condition that I had better not embarrass him. I actually made the first cut, but I basically blew my wad and didn’t have anything else left to show. Lacking any reserves in my bag of tricks, I decided to repeat my first run on a plastic toy skateboard. Needless to say, I didn’t advance again. I must have accumulated 5-10 different Surf Ohio shirts in a few short years. Instead of hoarding them all, I only hoarded half of them, and gave the rest away to a bunch of friends.

Clockwise from top left: Fuck Helmets, Longboard Radness, Saktepark Vermin, Kidney Bowl Boxing. Aside from the usually funny commentary shots, there’s also a lot of, you know, actual skating and skatespots the likes of which you don’t see here. Check out John Doe Zine, the web site, straight outta Wyoming. I think they still do print issues too.

I mean really… at least as far as different types of terrain goes. Hood River is definitely becoming Lincoln City East. My hat’s off to whoever is running the show over there. Good job. Mike Estes sent in eight shots of the new snake run-ish feature that looks like it wraps around hte back side of the park. There’s a shot from Carl Warren too. Actually, Carl also has a ton of earlier construction shots up as well. Hood River is a good place to be a skater.

Tiny scene report. Pier Park was jumping yesterday – old guys skating the bowl, young guys skating the street section, a young concrete rodeo type flipping units in the mid bowl, parents and their kids, neighboorhood urchins yelling threats and obscenities at one another down in the pipe. Grover had both of his kids with him. Probably the first time I’ve held a bottle for a feeding infant while riding to the skatepark. I snapped this one with my phone on the way out.

I got back from vacation and found a free monthly neighborhood paper sitting in the pile of neglected mail. The cover story of the Sentinel is Skateboarders Without Borders. It’s about local D.I.Y. project that is not so much of a secret, but still, the article pretty much gives the exact location and shows a landmark photo that all but draws a map for you. On top of that, the author interviewed the current land owners. I heard there was a “bust” of sorts during construction but that there were no real consequences. If they weren’t already numbered, my guess is this spot is about to become extinct. I hope the guy in the interview used a fake name.

The weather was iffy all weekend. I ventured over to Glenhaven. MC called me as I was leaving and told me to bring a squeegee as it had just hailed and some spots needed drying out. Half an hour later it was mostly dry, but every 10 minutes or so it would start sprinkling for a minute or so. Everyone was hitting it while they could, there were some great personal motifs going between guys that looked like anarcho pirates, kids in pajama bottoms and one guy with a mustache so big and bushy we could have used it to sweep out the bowl. I was just about to start snapping the local wildlife when another dainty but steady barrage of hail closed out the session for good, or at least another half hour or so., but I left. I should have used the time to read the manual on my flash, cause I kept blowing out the exposures instead of getting a little extra contrast on a gray day like I had hoped.

The deep end of this pool wasn’t all that skate-able, but the shallow end woulda been a lot of fun.  I thought the snow was ironic none-the-less. Straight from Bozeman Montana I bring you some really shitty drunken point-and-shoot pictures. Rumor has it that there is an abandoned half-built hotel there with a sheet metal, sterling silver pool as well, but it’s locked up and I haven’t had time to break in and check it out yet. I do plan on it with my next trip. Even if I don’t find it, I’ve always wanted to get myself into the Bozeman Police Reports. It is one of my life goals. I think they have a 5 year old write them, and they sometimes have some pretty funny stuff in them. My favorite of today, “A dog killed two ducks”. Yes folks, basically just an excuse to post the amusing ramblings of Skate and Annoy correspondent Damienhialation. The Bozeman Police Reports write up was pretty funny that day. It’s changed since then, but I saved it for reference. “A dog killed two ducks” is a good one, but I prefer the one from the Mother of the 15 year old boy.

Is the rainy season over here in the Northwest? I feel sorry for you guys in the Midwest, aren’t you in four feet of snow right now? We’re in the middle of a really nice stretch of weather out here, making these indoor spots less of a draw these days. Dave Viera sent in a couple recent shots of local favorite Johnny Turgesen skating inside a nicely color coordinated facility.