Skate and Annoy: Daily
Moose On the Loose
Skunks, old men, children, rats, raccoons, and automobiles… Those are all things we’re accustomed to seeing in the Venn diagram of “things that get stuck in skateparks.” Now we can add moose to the list too. This moose calf was rescued by Colorado Parks and Wildlife at the Breckenridge Skatepark. Apparently the mother was nearby and calmly waited for her calf to be rescued, which is lucky because Moose are not an animal you want to mess with. Just ask Natasha and Boris. Source: Team Pain Skateparks.
A Tale of Two Skatewings
Is it worth $1196? Is it worth $20? On the left, an auction item shipping from the U.K. that is in excellent condition, but seems to be overvalued for sure. On the right, this one sold on Facebook marketplace, locally in Ballarat Victoria, Australia. I dare you to find a web site with more coverage of the Skatewing, it can’t be done!
Rock And Roll Love Letter
The year is maybe 1976 and I am just getting into skateboarding because my dad bought my mom a yellow plastic Roller Derby skateboard at the Sears Catalog Store. If your town wasn’t big enough to have a full-fledged Sears, you got a small shop with a handful of tables of merchandise and a counter where you could place orders from the catalog and it would be delivered. My small town happened to be Midland Michigan, a mere 20 minutes or so away from Bay City Michigan, the town that was nearest to where the dart landed on the map on the band named The Bay City Rollers. I was a huge fan of Rock and Roll Love Letter, and of course Saturday Night. Cut to 2009 when Neil covers a Bay City Roller skateboard in Ebay Watch, proclaiming I must be kicking myself for not winning that, and he was correct. I did some digging and kept my eyes peeled for this board, but I didn’t see one again until 2025. UPDATE: Added a picture of the band actually rolling as well as a second color way!
Commodore 64 Maniac
A reader in Italy (!) sent in some pictures of their own Commodore 64 skateboard after trying to find some info on it online. At this point in time it looks like Skate and Annoy is the premier authority on this phenomena. And by “premier authority” what I actually mean is, we’re the only one posting about it, and we’re quick to capitalize on the 2 people in the world searching for this. What’s going on here? It seems likely that whatever discount Chinese or Taiwanese manufacturer that originally made the legitimate Commodore 64 promo decks decided that they could make some more money off bootlegging what they assumed was a skateboard brand with some brand recognition. Another possibility is that this is a promo product for the C6 Game Maniac Mansion. The game actually features a doctor as character. However the board omits the word “mansion” so who knows. UPDATE: Thanks to Dan for pointing out this is the graphic from the English company Pacer. A quick internet search brought up a post we made about the Pacer Maniac in 2014. I’m slipping… – Thanks to Simone for the pics.
The Tennis Courts in Sokolov, Czech Republic.
Check out this refurbished tennis court in Sokolov, Czech Republic, built by Bonidee Skateparks. These guys have some good looking sites in their portfolio, mostly street plaza oriented but with the occasional very light sprinkle of transition. Stuff that looks fun even to an old zine editor…. This park is a little confusing to look at in pictures, almost like bad AI, but not as jarring as this tennis court from 2008. SOURCE: Blunt Magazine. (Hey web-scrapers, see how easy that was to do?)
Stunt Wood Insanity
In today’s episode of WTF is going in skateboarding, I’m just doing my part to save the industry and get more skateparks built by trying to make sure the Red Bull company get’s their maximum ROI on this world record drop-in by Sandro Dias. Is this skateboarding? Technically. Is this an insane human achievement? Yes. Is this an insane waste of money? Yes. We’ve all driven buy a building with a transition and thought “I bet you could skate that!” whether or not it was practical. Who was the old record holder? I’m guessing Danny Way, but do I care enough to confirm it. No. They probably mention it in the video.
Forest Grove, Oregon
I was in Forest Grove to watch the mighty Boxers play soccer and had some time to kill before the kickoff, so I walked over to check out the local skatepark. Lincoln Park Skatepark was (poorly) designed and built by Site Design Group in 2004. It has that early 2000’s vibe of “I know how to pour concrete but I don’t understand the scales of transitions or how to set coping.” There are some street plaza elements that are successful, but the concrete picnic table looks like it was made to fit NBA players and the volcanoes are steep and tall, one of them comically so. There is one section of a very long quarter pipe that has “noping” and nothing on the opposing. side. Still, the skateboarding locals are friendly and it’s better than nothing. That’s Xavier on the long rail slide above.
A Fool and His Money…
There was a time when a skateboard selling for $6,000 at auction would raise eyebrows. I’m not sure what to make of this insanity. The Tony Hawk’s 900 Collection bids closed at Julien’s Auction and some skateboards and related paraphernalia sold for some truly astounding numbers. So astounding that it makes you wonder if Julien’s is a real thing or not, but it is. The deck Tony Hawk landed his first 900 on sold for $1,152,000. That cannot be right. Is it right? How about 57k for a pair of sweaty kneepads? Some of this might make sense conceding the proceeds are going towards Tony’s charity, The Skatepark Project. My first thought was that somebody or some corporation bought these items at knowingly inflated prices with an eye towards deductions, but you can only deduct the amount you overpaid for the items, and the IRS bases this off the items value listed the auction catalog. In the case of the the 900 board, the estimated value was between $500,00-$700,000. That deduction could be worth less than half of what they paid. It’s also worth noting that the auction listings state that “a portion of the proceeds” will go to the…
SBA Stands for Square Peg, Round Hole
SBA actually stands for, wait for it… Skate Board Association. Despite an incredibly pedestrian name, the idea behind it is somewhat interesting. It’s another skateboarding league with a couple differences. Coed teams compete against each other, and everybody gets paid something, even if they don’t make the podium. Now I have to admit, I assume these are differences, because I pay zero attention to the ins and outs of the other skateboarding competitions. Seeing a coed team of skateboarders compete against other coed teams is something I’d watch least once. Who is paying for this and what are their motives? Some investors, including Professional basketball player and former skateboarder Gary Payton II. – Thanks to Will Powers for the tip.
40 year Birthday of a Blockhead
Reposting this because I can relate to the story of starting a skateboard company out of a garage. I can relate to all of it, except the part where the company is successful… From Blockhead Dave: Wow! Has it really been 40 years since I screen-printed my very first batch of skateboards in my parents’ garage? It was late spring 1985, I was fresh from a screen printing class at Sierra College, and had never printed more than 1 or 2 of anything. I had 60 red Streetstyle boards manufactured by Uncle Wiggley and I was nervous as hell, but no choice but to just go for it. I pulled the squeegee over and over again, honing my skills as I went along, then I laid each board in the driveway to dry, since I hadn’t built any racks yet. Well, I made it happen, and there were 60 skateboards with my art and my company name on them and just like that I was in business! You can get on elf the limited Streetstyles in old school or the new school hole patterns starting Wednesday (9/24) at noon PST











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