Illinois’ legendary skatespot known as the Elgin pipes, named after the town of Elgin where they resided. Legends, myths and truths trickled throughout the Midwest like.. oh I don’t know, hazardous chemicals leaching into the water table? Here’s a few I remember, located next to a mental hospital, someone was murdered there, spikes welded on to keep skaters out… the list goes on. This is Michael Hammecker with a tail stall to nose grab. Let’s hear some Elgin pipes stories. Enlarge-o-rama.

That’s right, fully passing off press releases as content here on Skate and Annoy. We’ve got readers in Canada. F-U hosers! Video after the jump. And, oh yeah, this 16 year old kid named Will Cristofaro rides for Control.

“Like wo-ow, he must be headed for some kind of cosmic freak out!” OK, I’m quoting Skateboard Madness claymation scene from memory, so maybe that’s not exactly right. These two (1 – 2) iron-on skateboard t-shirt transfers from the 70’s are available where else, but eBay. I beleive it was in the R. Crumb documentary where he revealed that he hated how the hippies had appropriated the “Keep on Truckin” illustration. Not sure what h’d have to say about “Keep on Boarding,” except for maybe Street is neat! Now that the market is saturated in skateboard graphic books, I’d like to see a well done book covering only skateboard t-shirts. Wouldn’t you? Catch these two groovy transfers after the jump, and what the hell, why not watch the Skateboard Madness claymation sequence, as well as a “tribute” after the jump. Hey, look out!

A housing development in El Paso required a large drainage ditch. Skate activists Paul Zimmerman (president of the El Paso Skatepark Association) and another guy who goes by PC (?) managed to get the city and builders on the same page. Instead of a ditch that was accidentally skateable and possibly restricted from skating, the end result is a multi-use facility with tranny added specifically to make it more skateable. Apparently, some funds were diverted from a slab and prefab ramp park, no word on whether or not there are complainers on that front. You can get an explanation of the project here on Skatepark.org and a photo essay on the process hosted on Photobucket. The whole thing was hand stacked. [Source: Austin Skate Notes]

A reader named Ollie (no really) sent in a few shots of his project which goes by the name Candy Ramp because of the piñata used in the christening ceremony. It’s two feet tall with a three foot tall section that goest to vert. Then there’s a six and a half foot tall tombstone made out of a coffee table. Hey, the whole thing was built in under a week, what do you expect? I expect to get hurt when I go over there to ride this thing, but I also expect to have fun. Pics after the jump.

The Benton County Skateboard Association has some updates they wanted pass on. I’ve paired them with some photos from a gentleman who falls within the BCSA jurisdiction. You all know him (and love him) as ColinWalshRules.

I didn’t make any posts on Black Friday, but this works better for Cyber Monday since you might have a hard time finding this in an actual shop. So why not pick up this limited edition Skull and Candy Cane board that is not actually a Blind send up, but something the folks at Powell Peralta cooked up. Out of character? Perhaps. Santa Cruz and Powell appear to be engaged in some sort of protracted nostalgia trench warfare. Get yours at SoCal Skateshop and elsewhere, I’d imagine. – Thanks to Eric Cherry for the tip.

All hail the return of Saturday Starrs, as well you should. Scott Starr is the ultimate skateboard film historian. He covers the surfing world too, but that’s not for me to judge. Here’s another piece of history that would most likely had been lost to the ages were it not for Scott’s diligence. It’s the opening sequence from a 1977 East Coast skateboarding and surfing film titled Hard Waves, Soft Wheels. Scott’s YouTube channels keep getting shut down, and so a lot of the embedded videos stop working. I’ve gone back and re-populated the ones that he’s uploaded again, in case you are in the mood. It’s like the third or fourth time that I’ve had to do this. We’ll see how long it lasts again. Awesome period piece music in this sequence. UPDATE: I had the wrong video embedded, but it’s fixed now. If you are jonesing for that Captain Kangaroo appearance, it’s over here.

Remember this shot of the week? The board that Jim Gray is riding in the picture, the Sidecut, has been reissued by G&S, but exactly who that entity is, that’s anyones guess. There appears to be an official web site, but the email contact gets bounced back. I’m pretty sure the G&S trademark has traded hands a few times, but I can’t get any confirmation. There are some online skateshops offering boards autographed by Steve Cathey, which according to SkateLegends.com is also coincidentally the guy who signed Jim Gray to G&S. I was curious why he would sign this board and not some others like his some retro-themed offerings with his picture on it. The answer turned up at Cal Streets. The sidecut was designed for Steve, but at the time Cathey felt he was a little overexposed commercially, so he declined to have his name put on it. Minutiae, minutiae, minutiae, but that’s why you’re here, right?

So we did skulls in a bowl, which was ridiculous, and that’s probably what prompted Jeff Haynes to send me a link to this video called Octopus. It’s a facelift for a bowl in the skatepark of Lugano, which is in Switzerland. The artist(s) this time is called Nevercrew.