Dave Cawdrey was a former pro skateboarder in Seattle during the 90’s. I didn’t get to the Pacific Northwest until late 1998 so I never really heard about him, but maybe you have. Dave is now living out the rest of his brief life in Bend Oregon. I say “brief” because he suffers from ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease). This Seattle Times article is a long, sad but good read about his life before and after diagnosis in 2000. Skateboarding is a recurring element in the story. Dave’s physical deterioration contrasts the physical development of one of his sons, who has taken up skateboarding. It’s an atypically poignant case of a father living vicariously through his son. It’s a tear jerker for sure. After reading about Dave and his family’s situation, it makes me want to puke when I see guys like this that think they have it bad and want to have everything handed to them on a silver platter.

Hey fellas here is a video from late last summer. I figured I would put it up so we could have something to look forward to. See you at the park. Peace Off.

Extreme sports enthusiasts can’t wait to get their hands on this one – and attach it to their helmet, arm, leg or bike! David Addington brought a Oregon Scientific ATC1000 helmetcam to Pier Park a couple of weeks ago. I put together a few of the clips with some of the photos from that day. Check out the 15 frame per second motion sickness inducing video. What’s it like doing an air across the top of the mousehole? Read on.

A few days ago I went skateboarding at DOS (Department of Skateboarding for the PDX uninitiated) with a friend. This is a friend that I have known for nearly 10 years now. I friend that I met on the other side of the country, and that I have remained very close with throughout many of lifes changes: jobs, states, fatness, thinness, relationships, deaths. Everything. We used to skateboard together at work a long time ago, and we still skateboard together today. During this session at DOS with my friend I saw a familiar face. I say familiar because it’s a face that I knew, but not one that I had seen recently. Not at all. This time, it was another friend from my days in the mountains of Colorado. I hadn’t seen him in many years. He was here on business and he did what skateboarders who travel for business do. They go to the local skatepark and ride their skateboards.

I just received an email from Neil’s mom, Shirley Heddings, and she has informed me that Neil is getting out of jail May 24th. She also hinted about a fundraiser, not sure where its going to be- from my guess it won’t be outta the state of California for quite sometime. I’m looking forward to seeing the most natural skater back at it, he’s been pent up for a long time. I can only bet Washington St is going to be his domination, once he’s finally free of his 8X12 cement box. Anyone see the new Skateboarder, he’s already getting coverage again! For those of you that would like to see the facts of his case go here and read. If I hear anything more- I will post it here on SKATE AND ANNOY DOT COM (annoucer voice)!

I like weird things. My friend Jason Beaudry is weird, and he too, likes weird things. So when it was time to build his ramp he decided to make one that is nearly impossible to skate. Which, is pretty weird.

Zero Hero from Zorlac Skateboards, circa 1991. I’ve watched this video quite a few times. It has some really good vert skating, and the kind of street skating that still had tons of potential behind it. More about Zorlac Skateboards after the jump!

Colin at Bacon Skateboards forwarded a link to a Benji Galloway interview on Skateboarder Magazine’s website. Check out the two photo sequences: one a backside-lipslide over the steps at Donald and the other a backslide-tailslide over some other pool steps. Sick! Benji is an amazing skater and has been incredible to watch in the Oregon Trifecta. He won the 2005 series. Bacon’s Southern Slaughter Tour video also looks pretty insane. The 162MB video is available for download. photo: Kyle Bunker

Unless you happen to be around PDX right now, in which case winter is fully on vacation and spring is in command. Sessions have been happening daily at Pier, West Linn and every other concrete shrine around Oregon over the past week as a nice, sunny high pressure system has delivered clear blue skies and a complete lack of precip of any kind. Friday myself, Capozzi and Jon Brown headed out to West Linn for it’s first dry day in a while. Rebel Chuck was there, along with a few of the locals. It felt very good to grind around that corner again. The fall from the top to crushing hip blow didn’t feel good, but sometimes that’s the price you pay. The coping at West Linn is awesome. It’s that right mix of concrete pool coping gnar, but still in shape enough to move through. Don’t get me wrong, it’s definitely not steel pipe, but you can get through it with enough inertia and speed. That’s the way it’s supposed to be. Capozzi worked out body jars while Brown flew around, frustrating the children with his runs that emcopass the entire park. The fact that he does this in…

The Story from H-Street, circa 1997. This is the sixth video in the H-Street Box Set. This is a really long video, it even gives you the timing of each section so that you can fast-forward to each part. Of course, this was back in VHS times, so the timing means nothing now. H-street was the brainchild of Mike Ternansky(along with Mike Carroll, Matt Hensley, Danny Way and Sal Barbier), who formed Plan B, and Tony Magnusson, who now runs Osiris. I had to include the Story of Iron Cross, which is an interview with Art and Steve Godoy from Skate and Annoy 6. Featured Skaters: Ron Allen, Jordan Andreen, Felix Arguelles, Barker Barrett, Andre Camacho, Colby Carter, Chad Conner, John DeAgo, Jason Ellis, Kit Erickson, James Frazier, Trent Gaines, Buster Halterman, Eric Jueden, Kien “Donger” Lieu, Brian Lotti, Cheyne Magnusson, Tony Magnusson, Dennis Martin, Chris Miller, Jeremy Owens, John Reeves, Mark Roach, Jason Rogers, Ally Roller, Shane Rosson, Noah Salasnek, Brennand Schoeffel, Sean Sheffey, Jovontae Turner, Aaron Vincent, Danny Way, and Paul Zuanich run time: 2 hr 32 min 19 sec – Check it Out