Old friend of Skate and Annoy Bob Mechtly sent in these pictures of a Tony Hawk demo at Six Flags. Bob didn’t send any details, but near as I can tell from the color cast of these pictures, the event was held in the late 70’s, probably underwater. But seriously folks! Take my wife, please! Maybe it was just an added attraction, or maybe he was promoting the new Tony Hawk’s Big Spin ride, which would be odd since these shots are from Missouri and the Big Spin is at a different Six Flags in Texas. I love the kid looking in the opposite direction as if to say “I wish I was riding on that roller coaster instead of sitting on my dad’s shoulders watching this carnival sideshow.” Check out the size of that screen. Jeebus, that’s huge!

Mike V. landed a gig blogging about hockey for Anaheim’s Mighty Ducks which isn’t a big deal except that in the May 28th entry he claims to have created skateboard hockey. I’ll bet there are a few Jaks who might care to contradict him. I seem to remember skateboard hockey in the mid eighties when mike V was just an amateur. Maybe he just meant that he created it on his own without knowing others were already doing it.

Stock imagery of skateboarding was stock in the 80’s until the last couple of years. Sure, the cheap and free online resources still have a lot of cheesy clip art believe me, I have collected a lot of it, but most stock imagery of skateboarding has gotten a lot more current. I think there was one photo session of an 80’s vert dog skater that was used forever. I recall in the 90’s and early 00’s he was on everything from watch packaging to toys and more. Here are two recent examples of stock houses advertising in consecutive issues of the design magazine Print. Hey Masterfile, that elbow pad probably hasn’t been available for sale in over 10 years.

Skate and Annoy is guilty of negligence. We ignored the story of the closing of a large percentage of skateparks in Nebraska last fall, due to the Nebraska Supreme Court’s decision that cities were not immune to personal injury lawsuits on public land. Basically, some lady twisted her ankle in a hole in a field at a public festival somewhere in Nebraska, and since we are the Jerry Springer nation, she decided to sue whatever public municipality held the event. Cities and the like are usually immune from frivolous lawsuits of the “I tripped on your sidewalk” variety, but this possible relative of Cleetus the Slack Jawed Yokel, had her day in court. Suddenly, Chicken Littles in cities and towns all over Nebraska decided they needed to close skateparks until the law changed. Curiously, as near as I can tell, no basketball courts or baseball fields were closed. The aptly named Omaha Sen. Mike Friend, stepped up to the plate (sorry, there’s no skateboard analogy for that. Should it be dropped in? ) and proposed a bill to change that. The bill has passed and the Governor intends to sign it. So please forgive us, last month’s 55 loyal readers…

Let’s see, directional surfboard shape and no kicktail or upturned nose. Looks like that skateboard is stuck in 60’s. At least it’s 10 years ahead of the general feel of the comic strip. Did you know that daddy once had a drinking problem?

It’s true, the helmet saved his life. Of course the article doesn’t get into why the kid was laying on his skateboard, rolling head first into the street. Jace was playing at the friend’s house a week ago, riding a skateboard “skeleton” – lying on his stomach and going headfirst down the friend’s driveway and into the street. The “daredevil,” as his mother Julie Muir calls him, didn’t see the car coming. I’m not sure if “daredevil” is what I would call this kid, but I’m glad he’s alive. I can only hope my kids don’t do something that stupid when they grow up.

The Hardy Boys have been in need of an image overhaul ever since that unfortunate peeping-tom conviction. Gone are the days of titles like “The Missing Chums” and “The Mystery of Cabin Island.” Now they aren’t even books, they are graphic novels. Check out #8 in the series, the just released Board to Death. Sure it looks like it was drawn in the 80’s, but it actually just came out this month. I wonder if the fact that they were riding coffin shaped boards was a coincidence or a tribute to the fact that Frank and Joe Hardy are old school. I wonder if Chet get’s hit in the solar plexus? I wonder what a solar plexus is?

I try to refrain from commenting on shoe stuff as a rule, which is why we didn’t mention Lance Mountain jumping ship to Nike SB (oops, too late). Here’s an article in the OC Register showcasing the opulent wealth of Sole Technologies owner Pierre André Senizergues. It’s a feature that is kind of like MTV’s Cribs for a-holes. Eat the rich. Pierre André Senizergues lived in a van when he arrived in California from France as a young man of 21. He spent his days in the sunshine, skateboarding at the beach. At night, he’d move from parking lot to parking lot until he found a safe spot to sleep. Now, 22 years later, he owns four homes, including two waterfront locations in Newport Beach. Along the way, he built a $200 million skateboard-shoe company in Lake Forest, Sole Technology Inc.

Old people and computers mix about as well as old people and skateboards. Utah’s KLS 5 TV news did a story on the nationwide trend of car surfing, or being pulled behind a car on a skateboard. They call it a nationwide phenomenon because they found four (yes, 4!!!) videos of car surfing on YouTube. Better call out the National Guard! Actually, the term “car surfing” refers to climbing out of your car and standing on top while it coasts, but the fact that there are some 700 plus videos of that on Youtube didn’t deter the aged staff of KLS 5 in Salt Lake City Utah from making up their own terminology and declaring it a trend. (Car Surfing Becoming a Dangerous Trend in Utah!) The guy in the top shot is actually wearing a lei while riding to the soundtrack of the Beach Boys Surfin USA. Of course, there is the obligatory Back to the Future reference. The main point of the news piece is to point out how dangerous car surfing is. They even bring in an “injury prevention specialists” to corroborate the obvious. Lei boy wipes out after his so-called friends start pelting him with sports…

The Unted States isn’t the only xenophobic country. France has been trying to figure out how keep it real, French, that is, sometimes getting very angry about the dilution of French culture. Certainly not helping his countrymen in this respect, pro (?) skateboarder Jean Postec just signed a deal to endorse the Right Guard® Xtreme line of antiperspirant and deodorant products. Adding insult to injury, the French aren’t exactly known for their use of deodorant in the first place. Why don’t you know who Jean Postec is? Because he’s French and a vert skater!