There’s a thing called the Pepsi Refresh Project that is advertising disguised as public service, still, a great idea nonetheless. At least this form of advertisement does someone else some good too. Ideas are presented, and people vote on the project that deserves to get the cash, in this case, 250k.
Homebase skate shop is spearheading an effort to get the rest of the Bethlehem skate plaza funded. Right now they are in about 11th place. All you have to do is go to this Pepsi Refresh page and cast a vote tied to your Facebook login or an optional Pepsi login, which to me suggests you can both, as long as you have two email accounts. So Skate and Annoy readers, let’s add another drop in to the bucket of support already given. We may not have the draw of the Berrics, but we can still help out. It won’t cost you anything but 20 seconds of you time. Do it now, or at least befre the end of the month.

A recent study published in the Journal of Social Psychological and Personality Science reports that the presence of an attractive woman elevates testosterone and physical risk taking in young men. According to Sage Journals Online:

The authors report a field experiment with skateboarders that demonstrates that physical risk taking by young men increases in the presence of an attractive female. This increased risk taking leads to more successes but also more crash landings in front of a female observer. Mediational analyses suggest that this increase in risk taking is caused in part by elevated testosterone levels of men who performed in front of the attractive female. In addition, skateboarders’ risk taking was predicted by their performance on a reversal-learning task, reversal-learning performance was disrupted by the presence of the attractive female, and the female’s presence moderated the observed relationship between risk taking and reversal learning. These results suggest that men use physical risk taking as a sexual display strategy, and they provide suggestive evidence regarding possible hormonal and neural mechanisms.

I used to have a graphic reserved for this. Where is it? Oh yeah, right here. The pinup girl above right was a sticker design found on eBay somewhere, I lost my spotlight comments. is that your sexy look or are you pissed off? I kind of prefer Charlotte Diesel.

– Thanks to Steve B for the tip. [Source: Ars Technica]

A Sofia Maldonado has a mural up in Times Square, NYC that has made some locals hopping mad, although you wouldn’t be able to guess why if you only saw the part we’re featuring here. Sonia is of Cuban and Puerto Rican descent. She was also involved in a project called Skate My Patria that brought skateboard equipment donations to Cuba in 2009.

– Thanks to David Illingworth for the tip

I only fly a couple times a year. I used to bring my skateboard with me as a carry on, but with laptops, camera bags and especially kids, it became more of a hassle than it was worth, so I began to look for skate bag options. I had one of those old Thrasher bags that were essentially oversized duffle bags from back in the day, but the zipper crapped out. It wasn’t very heavy duty and didn’t inspire great confidence as far as aiport travel. Enter the Body Bag from Old Man Army. It’s oversized enough to fit multiple skateboards and gear. In fact, mine is packed right now with my board, my kid’s board, my helmet and pads, and his helmet, plus my clothes. OMA really researched this before they had them made. They aren’t just some random bag rebranded as a skate bag. It’s got a million pockets, tie downs and straps, including a removable shoulder strap. There two spots on the bottom where you can unzip and poke your trucks through the bottom of the bag if you want. The inside looks like a space suit. They researched the maximum dimensions for luggage and made this thing as big as possible without falling into the oversized category. The zipper is heavy duty. and it opens super wide while still retaining it’s shape. I’ve had mine for a while now, made a bunch of cross country flights with connections, and it still looks as brand new as the day I got it. I can’t recommend this thing enough. Get yours from Old Man Army. Oh yeah, I’m headed to Florida. Spring Break! Whoo hoo!

I’m pretty sure the statute of limitations has expired on this crime. I’m riding a pink Hosoi hammerhead that was such a p.o.s. that it was probably a bootleg, so that ought to put it into perspective. I don’t remember who took these pics, Maybe it was House of Neil, but it more likely was a college roommate becasue I have a distinct memory of this being taken outside one of the campus mail rooms by some of the dorms at the University of Illinois- go Triad! This would have been shortly before I got kicked out, errrr, uh dropped out of college. Hey, it’s only campus police. The jokes on you guys, because you let me back in, and I graduated.

I hate this band. I hate the music actually, but I saw a Behind the Music episode on them that made me change my opinion of them. They seem like decent enough fellows that had a dream, went for it, and actually made it. The music, not so great. Another image from the Vintage T-Shirts book by Lisa Kidner and Sam Knee. Enlarge-rama.

Skatepark Itaguará Club, thanks to Eduardo Yndyo Tassara Rodrigues and Skate Curiosidade.

KC propped a video camera on a rock while he pitched in to help with Lincoln City 5. Check out the vid after the jump. Looks like no fun. no fun at all. Dude! Stop blowing out the public skateparks!

The audio interviews are flying. The “brain” behind Bacon Skateboards has a radio show on pdx.fm. He’s on the internet air live on Thursdays at 2pm Pacific time. He’s got five shows under his belt, most of the guests have something to do with skateboarding. He’s had George Cutright the current team manger from Adidas, and our own Mark Conahan. The interviews are only a half hour and are a good listen even if you have no idea who the person is. I’m working my way backwards through them. I made it to Jeremy Robert Johnson, which is a good one. I’m going to check out some of his books. The point is… GVK interviewed live today at 2pm.

Still need your fix of skaters from Michigan? Check out the John Doe ZIne interview of Bill Tocco and Bill Danforth.

Yes.

Thanks to an update from MC, you can now view the animation outtakes from the surf movies this graphic was taken from.