I was honored to be asked to contribute some of my old skateboarding photos here on Skate and Annoy. I grew up in the seventies and eighties in Arizona skating the legendary Desert Pipes, tons of empty pools, the Love Bowls, and lots more …

I now live in Seattle, I have been up here in the Northwest for 20 years. I still skate as much as I can, I love all the amazing skateparks we have here, but sometimes I miss the good old daze …

So here is my first contribution, a gallery of pipe photos I put together awhile back, enjoy !!!

For more: Desert Pipes

Cookies, chips, and soda! Actually, that used to be a diet that sustained me well around the time these boards were made. Check out these skateboards featuring the Keebler Elf, Chester the (Cheetos) Cheetah, and the Coke logo.

I was going through some old files on the computer and found this picture I took a few years ago of some weird signage at an arboretum in Illinois. Fairies use the maple seeds to windboard (much like skateboarding, but through the air). OK. It’s Magical!

Check out eBay Watch: February 2015.

The graphic on this Rolls Racer ‘Conqueror’ deck is clearly stolen from the Eddie Reategui ‘Warrior’ deck from 1988 by Alva. This bootleg even has wheel wells and comes in a vivid green, it sold on eBay a while back, but I forgot for how much.

Kevin Kowlaski has a new pro wheel model with Bones. My heart isn’t really broken, I’m just slightly bummed out because I’ve been sitting on an “Oregon Skate Parks” graphic that riffs on our Oregon State Parks logo for three years now. Then one day I walk into a skate shop and see that Kowalski’s model on Lifeblood beat me to it. I’m more of an ideas man than an action man…

I haven’t even watched the video yet, but it’s not even a limb that I have to go out on when I say prepare to be stoked.

No, this isn’t an outtake from an episode of The Prisoner. It’s a June 6, 1978 press photo from Leicester Polytechnic School. Yes, it will soon be framed on my wall.

Three models wearing the latest in Skateboard fashions designed by the Leicester Polytechnic School of fashions and textiles. They are L-R Cindy wears multi-coloured knitted stripped sweater, shorts andd leggings. Stephanie wears Navy jumpsuit with velour stripe trim and bolero, and Debie wears multi-coloured two-piece in striped velour.

I’m going to hop in the old time machine and see if I can get a date with Cindy and tell Stephanie to get a damned skateboard and stop lurking. Maybe I’ll bring back her jumpsuit for GVK.

A Secret History of the Ollie by Craig Snyder is here, and it’s a whopper. It’s two inches thick and 912 pages! It’s going to take a long time to sift through this for a proper review, but in the meantime you can get yours at OllieBook.com.

A horrible screen grab from a good video. Sometimes I like to put a little “skate” in Skate and Annoy. Check out this very short, very ready sequence.

Impact Reduction Apparel has a kickstarter campaign for their product which is essentially a soft insert for a baseball cap made out of a substance that hardens on impact, much like we profiled back in 2007. Quicksilver had originally licensed the technology for snowboarding beanies, but then not much was heard about it. It remains unclear if this is the same technology or not, but it appears to do the same thing. It’s soft and pliable until microseconds after impact, after which the outside momentarily hardens into a shell. The idea being, maybe you secretly want to wear a helmet but are embarrassed. Or maybe you just want a little bit of protection. It’s a good idea if it works, although the short nature of the back of the ball cap might make it ineffective in real world situations. Does it cover enough skull to help if you wilson? I don’t want to find out. It looks like they did some not too scientific tests with fruit and vegetables before taking a more credible approach. The product has not been certified as a helmet yet, which is part of what they want your money for. They’re going to have to rethink the “IRA” name if they want to sell this in the UK…