What the heck is going on here? Mike from Old Man Army sent in a couple pics thoughtfully (and sensitively) titled Rainbows in the desert. It makes a lot more sense when you see them full frame.

When he was alive, my father worked for a blood sucking chemical corporation. His job essentially was to sell the little plastic pellets that other blood sucking companies use to make all kinds of things from TV shells to styrofoam cups. The last time anyone gave a crap about the planet was back in the 70’s. Remember the big green “E?” It was about that time that my father began to be involved in learning about recycling plastics. I think it all started when one of his clients got scared by the hippies. For many years they had been packaging their corporate death burgers in styrofoam containers, and it was my Dad’s job to manage that sales relationship, because he ultimately sold the plastic pellets. When the fast food joint went to paper packaging due to public pressure from environmentalists, the writing was on the wall. The Blood sucking chemical corporation decided to investigate and push recycling technologies to combat a potential loss of business.

Fascinating huh? But what does this have to do with green skateboards? Every time plastic is recycled it becomes less and less usable in practical applications. It’s basically only a couple iterations away from ending up as a brown lunch tray in a school cafeteria or correctional facility. And really, how many of those do we need? Green skateboard technologies applied to longboards are nice but not particularly effective in terms of environmental impact unless they can be used to produce a respectable short board for the kids that are going through a deck every three weeks. That’s the reason skateboards have reportedly become the worlds top consumer of hard maple. The market segment for longboards is dramatically smaller than short boards, and once sold, a longboard tends to remain in use over a much longer time period. In fact a year or more isn’t unusual at all.

That being said, the latest entry into alternative green skateboard construction is a Brazillian joint effort between a Let’s EVO and materials developer Fibra Sustainable Design. And it looks like a leaf!

[Source: Treehugger.com] – Thanks to Denny Renshaw for the tip.

This is not my beautiful web site. This is not commentary on the art of Mark Gonzales. This is not a love song. Darn it all if I did’t already include recycling in the title the first time I posted something about the Gonz’ performance art fencing getup. This time is was going to be in reference to the fact that I’m doing a lot of housecleaning on the old hard drives of Skate and Annoy, and as a result you’ll be seeing a lot of less than fresh news. Yes, these items will likely have appeared elsewhere first. For instance, I just had a URL for the image of this Mark Gonzales action figure from Caught in the Crossfire, forwarded to me from MC. Caught in the Crossfire has no search feature so I couldn’t get the info. Eventually I tracked it to this undated post. It looks like they originally got it from Skate Daily (big surprise) and they have no search feature either. This is a disturbing trend. So in keeping with the post-modernist theory that it didn’t happen unless it is archived on Skate and Annoy, I bring you this Mike Leavitt hand carved Mark Gonzales action figure, limited to an edition of 10, from way back in 2006. I don’t care if you’ve seen it before, becasue you’ve never seen it in conjunction with a link to the original performance art that inspired it. An now I can move one more thing to the “finished” folder. If I had waited another year, the original event that inspired this action figure would be 10 years old. This is for the 20 year old skaters who obsess over the Gonz.

Checking back on the Lake Delton, Wisconsin skatepark we mentioned last fall, and it looks like Dreamland finished ahead of schedule due to a span of unseasonable good weather. Good news for locals right? Not so much. Dreamland finished work on October 30th, but shortly thereafter Wisconsin got back on track with a deep frost, and local contractors are unable to finish the parking lot and walkways. As is often the case in these situations, the park is officially closed until the work can be finished in Spring of this year. I have to have to believe it is being barged though. (It is. The police are handing out criminal tresspassing violations.) It’s in the 30’s this week in Lake Delton, and when I lived in the Midwest, that was prime winter skating weather. Although now that seems insane to me. Dreamland’s site isn’t updated with the final plan or pictures, but the semi official web site for the skatepark has info on the park (No bikes or scooters, directions, etc..) as well as gallery of pictures. Breaking news, looks like they are still fishing for donations to finish the surrounding area. Lake Delton is asking for gravel, fencing and concrete among other items. There’s a few videos of Dreamland crew finishing and riding the park after the jump.

I’m gradually amping up for an upcoming trip to Florida. You might say over-amping, considering the Florida links around here in the past few days. Or maybe just working on cultivating our niche-niche markets. Here’s a Morris Eaddy shot of Todd Morrow taken at the Dunedin Skatepark, Florida, back in October of ’07. Click to enlarge.

Who is up for being Skate and Annoy’s on the scene correspondent for this Skatepark of Baltimore fundraiser? We’re interested the skateable art part especially. There are no details on this March 15th event on the official SOB site, which looks like it hasn’t been updated since October of last year. Fortunately, Seth Levy sent us an email. What is it the third anniversary of? “Three years of not having anything built yet but maybe soon hopefully.” Stick with it! And we’re serious about wanting to get some coverage of the event if anyone is up for it.

We get all kinds of great skateboarding business opportunities sent to the SnA corporate offices.

Dear Sir/Madam,

How are you? I hope everything goes very well at your side.

We are a specialized manufacturer and exporter which mainly deals with various kinds of skateboard shoes. Attached are some new styles of our products for your reference, pls check. If any interest, pls don’t hesitate to contact with us.

Any comments from you will be highly appreciated.

B.Rgds,
Steven

TOPWAY INDUSTRIAL CO., LTD.
Quanzhou City,Fujian,China

This week’s Shot of the Week is comes from Rok Konecnik in Slovenia, home of about 1/4 of my ancestors, where they like to stand around on miniramps with stuffed birds of prey, which is exactly why my grandmother’s family was forced to leave under cover of darkness.

Hey! I am Rok, 26 year old skater from slovenia (” Where the fuck is that?” Ask Marek Llitinsky…..) I was wondering if you could do me a favor and give me Marek’s email adress. I am planning a solo mission to Oregon and I guess he could give me some pointers. We are both from the eastern front:)
our scene here is blablablabla, so its my dream to go there and make my fucking dreams come true. At least my dreams are possible, imagine if I whished a Ferrari.

So there you have it. And he sent me a strange picture to prove he wasn’t a “wannabe” – not that I cared. Normally I wouldn’t post shots of backflip flyout dismounts, but in this case I’ll make an exception in the interest of promoting cultural exchanges. Check it out.

Well, not really. Lance Robson sent in a link to more coverage of the 2008 Florida Bowl Riders Cup at Cocoa Beach via his photo set on Flickr. Top down that’s Benji Galloway (Yeah Benji coverage!) Donovan Rice, and Jesse Martinez. And yes, Hooters was an official sponsor, something I learned on Tim Ebaugh’s slide show. How about some Hooters girl-on-girl-on-longboard action? Wait a minute, two girls riding the same, uh, err… longboard. But doesn’t that make them kooks? I’m conflicted.

To recap:

A slideshow from Photographer Tim Ebaugh.

Some photos from Santa Ana Dave: The Pros – The Masters

Rickloose Florida Bowl Riders cup set on Flickr