Larry Stevenson,founder of Makaha Skateboards, publisher of Surf Guide and Poweredge Magazines and inventor of the kick tail passed away at age 82. RIP indeed. Update: Obituaries in the NY Times and LA Times.

Great video, really. Captures two decades of skating, the innocence of youth, humor. It’s magic, and I’m not (very) drunk. She’s so Rad is the band, In Circles is the song. Bonus: The band’s web site has an unexplained still of J. Mascis doing the double daffy. These guys may or may not be from New Zealand.

There’s a Tony Hawk-branded series of books for young teens (or tweens?) called Tony Hawk’s 900 Revolution. There’s no mission statement about the series being designed to engage kids in reading other than a tagline on the front page that says “Join the reading revolution.” You can read sample chapters and find out about characters like Omar, who is “aggressive and inventive, and often likened to Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers.” The premise of the series: At the dawn of the new millennium, Tony Hawk landed the first-ever 900, finally capturing the Holy Grail of skateboarding. At that moment in time, everything changed. A mysterious force shattered his board and scattered the pieces across the globe. Today, a talented group of teens unite in an eternal quest to bring the board – and its power – back together again. Adventure, action sports, and sci-fi rolled into one super-hot series! Your kid (or you with a cleverly disguised entry) can win a chance to appear as a character in a future book. They look a little bit like comic books don’t they? They aren’t but they do have a 16 page graphic novel insert. Extreme!™

If you’re a model or a regular gal posing for a photographer’s portfolio, it’s only a matter of time before someone sticks a skateboard in you hands. Hey, you’re casual, radical, and fashionable. These photos were both brought to my attention by MC, so you can guess what his web surfing habits are like… Up top: Valerie Van Der Graaf photographed by? These pictures are i a few places on the Interwebs™, but I can’t find a credit for them so here’s a random link. Bottom: From the portfolio of Shannon Lee Miller, as seen on White Zine.

From the Onion, truly America’s greatest news source. I heard a piece about the Onion on NPR’s This American Life. As interesting as it was, it kind of sucked the joy out of it a little. Reminded me of a science fiction story I read where scientists analyzed humor and discovered the actual cause of what made people laugh, at which point nothing was funny to anyone, anywhere, anymore. What was the name of that story? Anyone? [Source: Westway]

Outsider trade magazine articles on skateboarding and skateparks can usually be summed up by one or more of the following generalizations: uninformed, boring, misleading, or a steaming pile of excrement. When they aren’t it’s always because they were written by someone in the know, in this case, Portland skateboarding fixture Ben Wixon, who aside from being a teacher is also involved with Skaters for Public Skateparks and something called Drop Into Skateboarding, an organization formed by a few other names you might recognize. Aside from having a stimulating title, Recreation Management published an article titled The Evolution of Public Skateparks, written by Ben. You can read it online, or look for the cover at a very boring and/or thorough newsstand near you. What’s the takeaway? Two things. The push for more integrated spaces as opposed to an isolated facility in the middle of nowhere, and: The experts surveyed unanimously agreed that concrete surfaces have overwhelmingly become the material of choice for skateboarding performance and durability. It’s not a fascinating read, but you have to think of the target audience. The only beef I have is that it looks like they used a picture of a Skatepark in Indiana and label…

Riizoli New York is publishing a book containing every cover from the first 30 years of Thrasher Magazine called Maximum Rad: The Iconic Covers of Thrasher Magazine, with an introduction written by Craig Stecyk. There are 250 pages of covers, some full page, some are quarter page. It’s being released on February 21st, and Skate and Annoy has a copy for one lucky S&A reader. Just leave a comment in the post, deadline is February 21st at midnight. Don’t bother trying to butter up the editor, it’s random.

I first I thought this was a gag, but now I’m betting it’s a carefully crafted fishing attempt to pad the email lists of Viagra spammers. And no, it’s not because I joined the site and got all kinds of spam. I didn’t get any after I joined… wait, I mean I didn’t join, I swear! Funny how if you reload the page, only women (ages 19 – 61!) are featured among the random “Real Member Profiles” featured. They also start repeating fairly quickly. I hate to link to this, because I’m sure it’s going to hurt our Google rankings, but here’s your chance to Date Skaters. I’m pretty sure some of them are posers. – Thanks to Quartersnacks for the tip.

Thanks to the good folks (Jack Smith) at the Skateboarder’s Journal, we have 3 subscriptions (Published quarterly, normally $25 a year) to give away. Same rules as last time, leave a comment in this post and 3 winners will be chosen at random. Contest ends on February 9th at midnight. In the mean time, check out the Skateboarder’s Journal online community and Facebook page. WINNERS: Jeff (Me! Me! Me!), Talentless Quitter, and Idahosk8gringo. Thanks again to the Skateboarder’s Journal.

I love watching old footage of skateboarding on TV, and it has nothing to do with the abundance of mustaches. This is almost 20 minutes of an ABC broadcast of the Catalina Classic from 1977, uploaded by someone at NHS who has resurrected the Roadrider brand. The cast of characters in these events is no more cartoonish than you’d find at today’s events, but man the 70’s were corny. Downhill, slalom and freestyle are shown, with a bunch of names you’ll recognize if you follow skateboard history, or even had a subscription to Thrasher in the first few years. The slalom guys had it dialed in, but the downhill guys (I’m going to catch flack for this) look like they would get smoked by today’s downhill crew with all the speed wobbles in evidence. Those guys need sails. Check it out after the jump. – Thanks to Matthijs for the tip