The Los Angeles Times has an article on the company Cool Girls Skateboards titled No coasting for this skateboard firm. I’ve seen Cool Girls advertised in some magazines and it’s come up on other web sites. I was willing to cut them some slack on their somewhat cheesy and unoriginal graphics that look like they were designed by somebody trying to figure out how to sell stuff to little girls at Target. Why was I cutting them slack? because I assumed they were owned by women who were trying cut out a niche for themselves in a male dominated industry. The web site sure makes it seem that way. Turns out I was pretty much dead wrong. The owner, Frank Davern got into the business by accident from a side venture where he had women reporting on music and trends. I find it kind of creepy, pretending to be a bunch of women in order to sell skateboards to girls, but it’s just business right? It’s not so much unlike when other skateboard companies launch a brand that pretends to be a separate entity. Davern is selling a lot of boards online, but can’t figure out why his boards aren’t flying off the shelves in skate shops nationwide. My guess is that most skate shops don’t see a brisk trade in 8 year old girls. Still, a reported $60,000 in mostly online sales last year means some one is buying them, and more importantly, that I’m doing something wrong here. Also going unsaid, it looks like there is a business opportunity out there for women who might have a better grasp on what girls actually think is cool. Check out the article.

The beginning of the feature to be known as “I was sick for a week and now I’m recycling all kinds of things seen first on Skatedaily.net” Here’s an interview of Tony Hawk perfomed by (because they are performers, right?) ECW female wrestling star Lalya. She was either uninterested or phoning the whole thing in. Most of here responses are “Wow, that sounds amazing” or “Wow, that’s awesome.” Other than that it’s mostly the routine questions about the video game, Tony Hawk Foundation, and his roller coaster ride. Also mildly amusing: Tony trying to explain how fans of the WWE would most likely also be interested in his video game,and the photograph of Lalya that makes her look like Rita Moreno on steroids. And the hair on Tony’s chest? That’s costume and makeup for an upcoming Proving Ground commercial designed to make him look like a pigeon. There are more shots of Rodney Mullen and Ryan Sheckler getting dressed up as flying rats on Tony Hawk’s Road Journal. What was the point of this post? Oh yeah, Layla gets Extreme with Tony Hawk.

[Source: Skate Daily]

Since most of our readers are likely stuffing thier faces today, here’s a Stouffer Pizza Bread commercial circa 2002 that features a fresh faced young man who likes to walk around his kitchen fully padded up. The producers probably made sure the kid was wearing full safety gear for liability purposes or at least to set a good example. I guess they overlooked the part about skating down the middle of the street while trying to balance and eat a giant wad of pizza bread. Anybody know who this kid is?

Alyssa Milano and Colin McKay for 1 800 Collect circa 2002, captured on glorious VHS (how barbaric!) and transferred to mini DV. Now it’s on YouTube, the VHS equivalent… Who is the other guy? Shouldn’t be too hard to figure out, I mean how many black vert skaters are out there? Memorable quote: “You could remember that doing a goofy footed double fakie ollie grind.” Also features the obligatory I’m trying something crazy and I’m going to wipe out. Oh well, beats Carrot Top any day.

The News Herald reports that Bay County Parks and Recreation Department in Panama City, Florida has an extra $1.5 million or so and is trying to figure out what to do with it. One of their very bright and apparently unsolicited ideas is to build a skatepark. It’s not too often that a skatepark falls from the sky. The locals didn’t have to rally the troops or even get Matthew Lesko involved.

Here at Skate and Annoy we like to keep you informed of all the really important skateboarding events. Looks like ABC is going to air He’s a bully Charlie Brown today. You’re a dick if you don’t like Snoopy. Actually, this cartoon is pretty horrible. It’s the last animated Peanuts that Charles Schulz worked on before he died. I wonder who traumatized Charles in his youth so much that he was still trying to come to terms with it as he approached his death bed. There are a couple skateboard scenes in He’s a bully Charlie Brown, most of which you can watch here. Otherwise it’s on at 7:30pm in some markets, so check your local listings.

If you give a monkey a typewriter and an infinite amount of time, it will eventually produce the complete works of Shakespeare. It looks like someone is looking to hire a blog monkey to write about skateboarding:

I am seeking someone to write 35 unique 200-250 word Blog Articles related to skateboarding (art of skateboarding, current famous boarders, the skateboard itself and/or its parts). Your bid should be for writing ALL 30 Articles, not a per Article price. Writers must have complete command of the English language, including sentence structure, spelling, grammar, and must be able to write from a North American perspective. Having used a skateboard and/or at least familiar with the skateboard “lingo” is a must. As the articles are to be used to achieve high rankings in search engines, we require unique, high quality, well-written, keyword-rich, spider-friendly Articles. Keyword density should hover around the 5% mark.

I can’t wait to see the web site this these articles get used for. I’m sure those high search engine rankings are going to be used for the love of skateboarding and not to try and sell us some crap. Are you applying for this job? The Minneapolis Star Tribune promises to help you “Learn the lingo” with their Thrasher’s Glossary. Picture credits (a banana board, get it?) and more after the jump. So far I’ve written 233 words on this entry, maybe I’ll apply.

Read the whole comic here.

The New York times has a thing for putting skateboarding in the fashion section lately. I was going to blow of this article titled “Skateboarding Rolls Out of the Suburbs,” but the skateboarding and hip hop blogs are hyping it and you know we follow the trends around here. There’s not much to it besides the fact that black kids can now skate without being harassed by their peers. You get to see a photo of Pharrell Williams doing a street plant as well as read this choice quote from him:

“I was rapping and it was getting me nowhere, so I went back to my roots… …When I’m with rappers in the studio, they say, ‘I used to skate, too,’” Mr. Williams said. “I can only just say I was one of the ones that was willing to speak up about it.”

Wow man, that took a lot of courage to come out as a skateboarder in public in hopes of jump starting a failing rap career. He’s a regular Rosa Parks. On the plus side, they also briefly quote Stevie Williams and Steven Snyder, the former Alva rider and long time Chicago favorite now working at Uprise. Sift through the Chi-Town Shred archives if you want to see some vintage 80’s action. Snyder’s in there too. These type of articles are becoming as popular as the “Olds dudes still shredding” pieces. The article requires a free registration, but it loaded for me when I hit the “forget your password?” link. It’s also up in it’s entirety on the Concrete Wave forum.

Speaking of finding balance:

Dear Online Publisher,

We have just launched a new boardsport specific affiliate network featuring:

• Cool advertising campaigns targeted at snowboarders, skateboarders, surfers and freeskiers
• Higher earnings potential by sharing revenues with advertisers based on the shared performance of their ad creative combined with your site
• Full control over everything on your site, choosing the campaigns and tracking their performance to monitor earnings

The first campaigns are live!

• We focus on boardsports ensuring you get specific advertising that fits your content and appeals to your users
• We negotiate commissions for you ranging from 5% to 15%

NOKIA Air and Style / Freecaster.tv – big air event in Munich in December

Boardsport Warehouse – a large online retailer of snowboarding, surfing and skiing equipment

Oxbow – the legendary French surf/snowboarding clothing brand

Rider Discount – large French online retailer of surf, snow and skateboarding gear

Lucozade – the official sports drink of the UK Snowboarding Team

Blah blah blah. Awesome.