An addition to the Hurley Surfing Australia High Performance Centre in the form of a wave-shaped miniramp with airbags on the high end is supposed to help Australian Surfers learn aerial maneuvers in the ocean. While the jury out on how much of this training actually carries over to actual waves, it sure looks like fun. They should make everyone ride actual surfboards with skateboard trucks mounted on them, or possibly even Streetboardz. It worked for Simon Woodstock! More details at Surfing Australia.

ABC News and just about everyone else has reported that the Tokyo Olympic Committee has recommended adding skateboarding to the 2020 Olympics. This is by no means a done deal, the host country gets to recommend one or more sports, and Japan recommended 5, 6 actually if count Baseball separate from Softball, which you should. Baseball being the mens’ competition and softball for women. The other three are sport climbing, karate, and surfing. The International Olympic Committee will decide which if any to include in August of 2016. The chances seem pretty good however. Surfing conditions can’t be guaranteed unless they build an amazing inland wave facility, and how would the surfing community respond to that? Now that Street League has ironed out a decent spectator friendly competition format, (If you’re into that, not that there’s anything wrong with it…) we might just see skateboarding in the Olympics, whether you want to or not. Who is behind the push to get skateboarding in the Olympics? There’s a shady organization called the World Skateboarding Federation for one. Their web site appears to be down, so I can’t comment on the board members or their mission as I’m writing this post. All I have to go on right now is “WSF is actively working with many national federations and government agencies around the world to provide leadership and guidance to ensure a very positive experience for all skateboarders and their fans at the games.” Hmmm…. Remember when marijuana use temporarily lost a snowboarder his gold medal? THC is now officially on the banned list. Get with the times Anti Doping Agency. The High Times.

Red Bull has an interesting documentary on the Montreal, Quebec skate scene with the ulterior motive of furthering the case of getting good public skateparks built. Dire Skate is a 22 minute film made by Dan Mathieu of Exposé skateboard magazine. It delves into some history of the scene, including Big O, an atrocious city-funded skatepark built by a generic construction company, as well as efforts to legalize a famous Love Park style spot. Definitely worth watching.

– Thanks to Kevin -Live for the tip.

Check it.

If you approach (or leave) Daubenspeck Skatepark in Bingen, WA. from the right direction you’ll pass up this lovely ditch. This (Grindline) park is a good one in case you’re wondering, but you’ll get no pictures from me for now. Just one shot of the nearby ditch. I didn’t even see it until we were leaving. Unfortunately, we had an injured party so I didn’t stop to session. Looks steep and rough, but potentially lots of fun, right?

Lowcard has footage of the Junk Jam put on in by Jivaro and others a couple weeks ago. Don’t let the edit make you think this was sparsely attended,because it was packed full of people, and a lot of fun, even for old-timers. I have to take issue with Lowcard’s description of the venue as an “underutilized schoolyard,” because if you actually live in the neighborhood you’d see it packed with kids on occasion, even when school isn’t in session. Of course, that doesn’t mean it couldn’t use some permanent skate fixtures. Junk Jam was rad. All kinds of things to skate for all skill levels.

Street League will be including a Women’s division for the first time ever in Chicago on October 14th. First place prize is $30,000, which beats the mens X-Games purse. Competing in this first group a Lacey Baker Samaria Brevard, Leticia Bufoni, Marisa Dal Santo, Pamela Rose, Alexis Sablone, Alana Smith, and Vanessa Torres. The event will be streamed live online at StreetLeague.com with a condensed version airing on the 18th on FS1 as well as streaming FOXSportsGO. The regular inclusion of a women’s division in Street League should do well to promote both women’s professional and amateur skateboarding. Congratulations ladies!

I’ve got two magazines worth of vintage skatemag ads scanned and posted in the gallery, one from the 70’s and another from the 80’s. I’ve got loads of scans from the 70’s ready to add and some interesting UK-based ads to scan from the 80’s but I figured I’d better do at least one mag from the 90’s or I’d likely never get to it since that’s the decade I find inherently less interesting. Shoe adverts are in abundance. Companies and pros sprung up overnight like mushrooms and disappeared just as quickly after you come down from the bad trip. There are companies I can’t ever remember seeing and due to esoteric ad copy I can’t even tell what the product is that is being advertised. For instance, this ad for Silverstar has me scratching my head. While I actually like the aesthetic and the nonsensical message has a certain poetry, I can’t tell you what Silverstar is without a historical reference. One thing I do enjoy about the ads from this era is seeing the once mighty gasp for new life in the changed industry landscape, with companies like Vision stooping as low as to republish pictures of Mark Gonzales from the 80’s. And of course, there are the baggy jeans. The 90’s weren’t a total waste, It’s nice to see early ads for guys like Jason Adams who are still in the mix today.

I’m going to be taking a break from regular content here on Skate and Annoy to plow through some 90’s ads. On the plus side, there usually isn’t a lot of ad copy for me to transcribe, so they go pretty quickly. After that, I’m going to get caught up on posting some stockpiles of 80’s skatezines.

Check it.

Check out eBay Watch: June 2015.