Not completely out of touch with what the Members sang about, but in this case it’s the “Ka-chunk. Ka-chunk” sound of wheels rolling over the metal plates of prefab ramps in suburban Chicago. I skated my former hometown’s Centennial Park Skate Facility in Naperville Illinois. It’s about 4 years old and prefab, so I was expecting the worst. The surface was in surprisingly good shape given the weather extremes in the Chicago area, have I been mislead about the evils of prefab? No, it turns out they are replacing the surface annually, according to one local. So much for saving money by going prefab.

In Calgary there’s an Aryan Guard member who lives within eyesight of a skatepark and makes regular visits there trying to recruit kids for white supremacist causes. He allegedly uses cigarettes to bribe underage skaters! It’s kind of like a (more) bizarre skate church. You’d think he’d want the white kids to live longer and not die from lung cancer, but then again, there’s not a lot of logic to white supremacy in the first place. Well, old Willis (That’s lil’ Hitler’s name) went down to physically confront a multiracial group of youth from Anti-Racist Action Calgary at the skatepark and got beat down. The graphic above comes from an article on the web site called the 325 Collective. There’s no definition of the collective anywhere and the site is pretty amateurish and mixed in message. Somehow they’ve got anti-fascism and anti-racism mixed in with a pro-graffiti message. Oh those little anarchist rascals. It looks like they modified a graphic from a Czech organization called Good Night White Pride that seems to be about ridding hardcore (punk) music from the influence of neo-nazism. Everyone knows the best way to combat violent ideologies is by threatening violence. It worked for Ghandi, right? OK, let me make this clear for our slow readers who can’t decipher sarcasm. I find anarchists groups amusing and I am anti-white supremacy or any other type of supremacy besides Skateboard Supremacy. I’d like to give a shoutout to anyone flying the SHARP flag.

From Dennis the Menace, August 7th. I guess I should have tipped off MC. Although I’m not sure this is the type of skate comic he’s interested in. Dennis’s unnamed friend must be sporting clear grip tape.

Okay, this might be of more interest to Rollerbladers but a few of our brothers out there need to pull their pants up. I believe Kilwag is heading to the Great Lakes region this weekend. If he decides to head over to Michigan he might want to pack a belt or maybe some bikini briefs, because underwear visible above the pants is now a crime in Flint Quick we need to make some bumper stickers. 93 days to a year in jail?!

Got this off the Black Label blog.

Some of the guys on Skull and Bones are taking the grayscale Ashes to Ashes and Dust to Dust Santa Cruz reissues and adding their own color. Some are truly remarkable. Some people use paint pens or markers, while others sand the decks first, then apply color. Amazing craftsmanship. Click here to see a comparison, but you have to see the full size images to fully appreciate them.

You’ve seen it under construction, and now here’s the newly/nearly finished Modern Skate & Surf skatepark in suburban Detroit (Royal Oak), Michigan. Now you may ask yourself, where is my beautiful house? Does Skate and Annoy have some sort of unholy arrangement with Team Pain? The answer is no, it’s just that Tito is kind enough keep us supplied.

Answering the call of redattore capo Kilwag for more street coverage. I found a few segments captured in HD. I can’t speak for everyone, but when I bought my first high definition television I sought out HD content to watch. Just to see what the hell I was paying for, didn’t matter what it was, if it was in HD I’d watch it. Somehow placating myself to justify my purchase I suppose. In the end I don’t care one way or the other as I’m into substance over visuals when it comes to my TV viewing.

With the commodities like digital video cameras, HD is arriving to skate videos. Consumer based HD cameras are <$1000 now. Some of the bigger brands in skateboarding such as Girl and DC are even shooting with the RED camera costing over $20,000 for a setup.  Even Lakai’s video Fully Flared is heading to Bluray discs. Videos and more after the jump. Thanks to Skate Fairy for images and info.

Help! I’m creatively bankrupt! (AKA Skate and Annoy is looking for contributors.) Skate and Annoy is looking for a few more good contributors. Sure, the benefits are mostly limited to the respect/scorn of your peers, but think of the glory…

More pics from Team Pain showing Colorado Springs concrete work in progress. There’s some pretty cool looking tile in some of them. Come on Tito, make with the close ups!

The LA Times reports that skaters and BMX riders alike are not too happy with ESPN’s Superpark course built by a BMX crew. The main complaints are “too small” and “tight transitions,” although you’d be hard pressed to tell by some of the photos. The Flying Tomato reminds us that this is the first year for the event, and next years will likely be better. Shaun White may be right, or he may just be more interested in making bad miniseries for HP computers. I seem to recall hearing that some of the early vert ramps in the X Games were kind of crappy too, but they eventually go that right. With more money on the line now, they’ll probably get right on that. Although the general public seems to only be interested in the Mega Ramp. [Photo: Los Angeles Times] – Thanks to Mac for the tip.