2013 started off in the crapper for me. I’m just now emerging from a fog of strep throat that has had me laid up since New Year’s day. Here’s hoping your new year is better than the promise of a slick red curb covered in skate stoppers. Absurd Family Skate photo on Instagram. Hey! Get off my curb man!

These stickers were made a while ago by former BMX pro Taj Mihelich in protest of rules for the sake of rules. These days, when he’s not undermining the will of society’s gratuitous sign makers, he’s bringing you the skaterack, among other things. Larger after the jump, but you should check out the anecdote about the origin of these stickers over at Taj’s blog on Transworld.

L.A. is going to ban bombing hills after two recent deaths. This is also bad news for Portland skaters fighting a similar ban in the Zoo Bomb neighborhood, although the ban isn’t an outright skateboard ban. They just want skateboarders to observe the traffic laws like stop signs and speed limits. Really, you can’t blame them for that. Portland’s coalition is asking for the same thing in lieu of an outright ban. The end result is that it will still be illegal to have a speed run downhill. Skateboarders aren’t usually prone to following rules and regulations regarding our useless wooden toys. Serious hill bombing will still happen, but maybe it will keep some of the yahoos away. [Source: “Los Angeles City Council bans skateboard ‘bombing’ after San Pedro deaths” – via the Daily Breeze.]

Longboard Larry, an established and respected craftsman of custom handmade longboards in Oregon, was robbed recently. He’s offering a store credit as a reward if anyone can help with information to track down the booty or perp. – Thanks to Matthijs for the tip. The theft happened about an hour away from my house, but I found out from a guy that lives in the Netherlands.

Gotta give that to them. Funny thing is, it’s not much of a spot, just a sidewalk outside a church. – Thanks to Kevin Decker for the photo.

It doesn’t quite have the same ring to it as John Henry, but the song that was the Peach Orchard met it’s demise courtesy of the Norfolk Southern railway, the property owners. It was railway adjacent, and essentially nothing to them, but they tore it down because the lawyers said they should. Nola.com has the scoop. What did the New Orleans locals get for their trouble? Some leftover ramps from a Red Bull demo and a D.I.Y. hangover. Faster than you can say “hair of the dog,” a new spot is born. Pleasureside is it’s name, and unless I’m mistaken, it’s essentially right next door to the old spot. Even John Henry’s balls weren’t that big! – Thanks to Joey O’Mahoney for the tip.

On the way to pier 62 in new york, this caught my eye. An attempt to skate proof a jersey. Now I have seen it all – Thanks to Kevin Cann for the tip.

According to the Mercury News: Amid the worst budget crisis in city history, with even police officers worried for their jobs, city leaders last fall said San Jose’s gem of a skate park — California’s largest — would have to either be left as an unstaffed free-for-all, privatized or possibly even padlocked. Heaven forbid an unstaffed free-for-all! Then it would be just like every public skatepark in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Colorado, Illinois, Wisconsin, and probably a few other states too. – Thanks to Matthijs for the tip.

Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco was busted trying out a skateboard in his own driveway. I’d never been on a skateboard in my life, so I was literally riding it about 10 feet down my driveway just to see if I could stand on it and stay upright,” Flacco said Wednesday on “NFL Total Access.” “One of my neighbors must have called in looking for (Ravens general manager) Ozzie Newsome and left a voicemail on his secretary’s phone saying, ‘Hey, man, you got to let Joe Flacco know we’re trying to win the Super Bowl around here! He’s at home riding a skateboard. Somebody’s got to let him know what the deal is.’ Geez man, get your head in the game. True story: On the way to a skatepark assorted S&A authors once got into an argument with Grover about whether organized sports build character in young kids. Grover was massively in favor, in a boot camp sort of way. As in all kids should have a mandatory team sports tour of duty. Cut to five years later and he doesn’t want Jack to sign up for basketball because it would distract him from skateboarding. He has loosened up though,…

ESPN reports via Portland local Garric Ray that two Portland skateboarders assaulted by a security guards at Portland’s Pioneer Park finally settled the civil suit against the security company out of court. It’s been going on for a couple of years. I remember getting a tip about it when it first happened, so I checked it out. At first it was being spun as a skaters assaulting the security guards and I passed on it. Garric interviews one of the plaintiffs Brian Baca over at ESPN. That’s Brian above in a photo by Ray. I’m not sure why Garric didn’t chose to break this story directly on S&A instead of ESPN. I’m sure we pay nearly as much as ESPN… Quick, what’s double of nothing? Video of the original incident via Transworld after the jump.