Along with social media posts, Surfer Today has confirmed that Patti McGee passed away on Oct 15th at the age of 79 due to complications from a recent stroke. Patti was the world’s first female professional skateboarder, and the first female to appear on the cover of a skateboarding magazine. Many people remember her iconic cover of Life Magazine as well, likely the first appearance of a skateboarder on the cover of a non-skateboarding magazine. Patti appeared on the TV game show What’s My Line? in 1965 as well as other TV programs with Mike Douglas and  The Johnny Carson Show, as well as a Bell Telephone commercial. She was the first female inducted into the Skateboarding Hall of Fame. Juice Magazine has an interview with Patti conducted in 2017 by Steve Olson. By all accounts she was a lovely and inspiring person to all who knew her. A true legend. Photo: Patti McGee

Up to this point I’ve avoided posting any AI generated skateboarding content. While researching some pics a reader sent in (anyone ever hear of a Jordy brand skateboard?) my image search came up with some bizarre AI generated skateboards on the stock art site Freepik that were too good/bad to ignore. It looks like someone dumped a bunch of skateboard images that were generated by AI, which is fine and dandy for a generic image, but they must not have proofed these. It turns out the only thing AI is worse at generating than human hands is skateboard trucks, and the spelling of the word “skateboard.”

Day 7 (!) of 7 Days of Jughead! I made it! This is volume 2, issue #34 of Jughead published in June of 1992. It has a couple of stories with skateboarding, I Was a Teenage Jughead and Lessons in Skateboarding. Even Jughead himself asks, is this a joke?

It’s day 4 of 7 days of Jughead, and Jughead v2 #29 from 1992 is a big one. The thrust of the main story is the adage don’t judge a book by it’s cover. Major Spoiler Alert: Grandma Jones is friends with some skate punks who buy groceries for her and in return she lets them have band practice in her garage. Meanwhile Jughead is completely out of the loop. Spend some time with your Grandma Jughead, you never know how those punks will take advantage of her kindness… but it turns out the punks are tired of being misunderstood. They give (!) Jughead an extra skateboard, and Grandma Jones’ guitar teacher (wild!) encourages Jughead to be his own person, so Jughead reinvents himself as a skate punk! It turns out this short-lived character transformation was not well received by the Archie community… Yes, there is an Archie community. In any case, there’s a lot to unpack in my favorite episode of Freaks and Geeks… errr… uhm, Jughead.

It’s day 3 of 7 days of Jughead! This is Jughead Volume 2 #28 from December of 1991. The first thing you might notice is the corner box illustration which hints at radicalness as well as an announcement declaring the inside pages are made from recycled pages, which is a change from the recycled stories usually featured in Archie titles. This is actually kind of a crazy cover for this imprint, but it was the 90’s and you have to assume they were trying to stay hip.

You know my love for the Surf Punks. Futurismo is adding a rerelease of Locals Only to compliment the My Beach reissue. Unlike the My Beach reissue, Locals Only has two bonus tracks, and I’ve never heard them before. This is exciting to me, and at least one other person I’m sure. Be happy for me. Then take a moment to reflect on the fact that a band like the Surf Punks could not have crawled out of the primordial slime in any other time and place than late 70’s Southern California, and yet you have the import these masterful reissues from the UK.

Day two of 7 Days of Jughead features the story “Skateboard Fever” from issue 272 of Jughead, published in 1978. I don’ know why I didn’t go chronologically and post this one first, but I’m already posting Archie comics, so all taste and logic has gone by the wayside. This story is once again set in the hallways of Riverdale High. Poor Principal Weatherbee, or “the Bee” as Jughead refers to him, spent decades either purposefully or accidentally trying to learn how to skateboard, but he never gets the hang of it. Highlights include Veronica calling the guys “bean bags,” and Betty acting like a Karen – “It’s against the rules to skateboard in school!”

This is the beginning of the sacred holiday here at Skate and Annoy known respectfully as the 7 days of Jughead. We’ll see if I have the intestinal fortitude to actually follow through with it, so here goes. Let’s start with Jughead #13, AKA Volume 2 #13, from 1989. The first series started in 1949, but volume 2 started in 1987. This issue features story called “Roll Model” that takes place in the hallways of Riverdale High, like half of all Archie-realted skateboarding stories. Oh, the antics… The tomfoolery! Shenanigans!

Douchebag rightwing video personality Tim Pool tried to co-opt a local DIY scene in Martinsburg, WV by throwing money at them unsolicited. When rebuffed publicly, he ended up buying the property as an “investment.” While the spot still remains open, and skateable, the locals are less than keene to engage anymore due to uncertainty about what Pool will do, and not wanting to be involved with a guy who associates with White Nationalists and says things like “Vice President Kamala Harris is Hitler and Stalin combined but times 200.” To be fair, the spot looks like it could use a cash infusion, but Pool’s offer (20k!) was for the purse in a trick contest and not for the spot itself. According to the article, Pool himself admitted he bought the spot partially to get back at the “woke” crowd that didn’t want his involvement. The locals have been taunting him (“Tim Pool can’t slappy.”) and he has posted videos to debunk that, bragging about his “first try” tricks. So yeah, another stable genius. Money can’t buy you a decent personality. Yo, Barry, can you believe this? Source: Washington Post via Yahoo News. Thanks to Troy Sliter for the tip.

If you were exposed to it as a child and have a good heart you’re likely a fan of Richard Scarry’s children’s books and characters. Lowly Worm was always one of my favorites because he was so ridiculous looking and had such of zest for life despite not having any appendages. Super 7 has a line of licensed Richard Scarry merch that includes action figures and this very excellent t-shirt. After a quick inventory of my Super 7 related posts Ive realized that I’m constantly complaining about the price, so I’m not going to continue the traditions. I’m the proud owner of this t-shirt thanks to Father’s Day, and even if it wasn’t a gift, it’s still reasonably priced. You can get an action figure combo with Huckle Cat and Lowly that unfortunately does not include a skateboard but is still moderately priced. On the right is a rug spotted at a street fair in Bellingham Washington. I can’ recall if this is an actual illustration from a. Richard Scarry book but my gut says it is, and if I ever get to that storage unit I’ll see if I can find out what book it came from. Cars and…