A skate buddy of mine from a different life (Bob Mechtly) sent me these pictures of this old metal timber pipe/ditch in Sweden that isn’t being used today. He said it’s about 450 yards long. What he didn’t say, was how it rode and what he was doing there. Dang. Looks like Michigan. Was this a timber waterslide? Good luck wading through the internet trying to find that information. It seems like a track would have made more sense than pumping water, unless they were able to divert a natural water source. But then the downstream… oh right. This is a skateboarding web site and not the Bureau of Land Management. Looks like a lot of fun. Rarely do we see something skateable that is so long… Enlargements after the jump. UPDATE: There was a little bit of a mix up. These Aren’t Bob’s photos, I’m tracking down the originals.

… which is alright by me, thank you very much. The Airspeed crew was out on a Sunday taking advantage of a break in the rain. What a great setting for the Gabriel Park skatepark. Probably won’t be too hard to get the family to go along to this one if you can get them away from those videogames.

Published in January of 1982, (!) Skate Punk #2 is from the collection of John Drummond and the then 17 year old mind of Steve Caballero. It looks like it was produced on a fancy copying machine with some sort of photo enhancing technology, and the paper is heavier too. Not too surprising since Robert Caballero is listed as the publisher with One Way Press (also in an advert) so I’m guessing his father (brother?) owned a print shop. There are the prerequisite adverts for Powell and Thrasher, and a lot of photos. There’s an interview with Steve Caballero – how did he get that? When asked who he thought would be his main competition, Steve replied Billy Ruff! Also amusing in hindsight is Steve’s answer to when he thought he was in his prime, as if he had peaked already. Answer: Right after the Gold Cup series. What else? Gig reviews at Briner Hall where fights break out and the cops shut it down. A contest on Steve’s ramp, Corey O’Brien am spotlight and the 9th street Punk Pool. Also of interest: A mention of an entity called “The Pool Exchange”, Caballero riding on Tracker Trucks and Sio (?)…

Considered passing on this post, but to hell with Enemy Combatant. We all know what “Love” means, or what “Love Is” (the comic strip or the the cartoon character named Courtney?) I dunno. “Thoroughly depressing” is how I would describe the Kurt Cobain action figure and limited edition Kurt Cobain Converse shoes complete with drawings and text from his journal. Also available in the model his wife he killed himself in. How tasteful. – Thanks to Rich for the tip.

The new Lake Cunningham Park set to open looks amazing in the pictures, but it’s rubbing the locals the wrong way. Kind of like a Klamath Falls situation squared. The San Jose Metro reported: Although everyone agrees that the park is a massive benefit to San Jose, they admit that the mandatory pads rule might turn off a few folks, as will the fees, which are $2 per day or $50 per year—along with a $6 for parking. “It’s a great park, but it’s already got two negatives against it as far as the street skaters go,” explained Caballero. “Street skaters don’t like to wear pads. It’s not very comfortable for them. They can get away with helmets, but wearing knee pads and elbow pads—it just doesn’t feel like street skating. It’s like something else. It doesn’t feel natural. That, and paying to get in and paying to park. So I would say three negatives.” Echos exactly what we’ve been hearing in the comments here almost since day one. It’s hard to imagine how a city so in a region so rich in skate history could be so clueless in this day and age. It made the front page of…

Last Saturday there were two events coincidentally planned for the same day at Portland’s Pier Park. One was a neighborhood cleanup championed by Mark Conahan and the other was some sort of Pier Park locals appreciation event organized by Chris Nukala. There was a short speech and some short spot-driven contests with plenty of giveaways. I arrived late to the cleanup and and had to leave early and in a hurry, due to, well, you know. I didn’t get any decent shots, but Michael from The Skateboard Archives was there snapping away, so I’ll link if he posts anything. Also, GVK cameras were on the scene for a little while. Otherwise, this is what you get. UPDATE: More cleanup coverage on EPM. UPDATE: More coverage on The Skateboad Archives.

What’s wrong with this picture, besides the fact that you can’t figure out why it’s here?

I got a short email from a guy telling me how much he enjoyed Skate and Annoy. His signature included his own web site, DIY Skate. Was it just a cheap ploy to get me to feature his site here? I don’t know and I don’t care, because DIY Skate is pretty impressive. DIY Skate has a healthy amount of detailed ramp and obstacle plans, with more on the way. There are plans for making board presses and even board molds, with alternate methods. These plans are uniformly illustrated with the help of CAD-type renders. Terminology is explained and resources have been collected. Need glue, veneer, or a jack to build a board press? DIY Skate has the links and sometimes even knows what the minimum orders are. Projects feature a difficulty rating, average cost, materials list and tools list. Right now the resources of DIY Skate are concentrated on wooden skate terrain and skateboard construction. What’s missing is concrete terrain and some of the more artsy-fartsy stuff like screenprinting and zine making, but fortunately you can get some of that right here! The design of DIY Skate is no nonsense, and has minimal, non-intrusive advertising. Check out DIY Skate…

Check out this video titled Skaterpede from Wall of Gray. Yes, it’s Wall of Gray week on Skate and Annoy. He’s got a different take on skate videos, and a nice break from the usual.