Hood River Oregon is starting another phase starting Oct 12th. A local firm of skaters have been hired to design and build a “Camcorder” style bowl that will spine into the main skate area. Projected finish time is going to vary due to winter weather conditions approaching the Columbia Gorge region. Stay tuned for more details as they arrive- but for now- check out this sweet design they are working on- some tweaking is going to occur. Finished bowl will be 3ft to 4ft to 5ft, with progressive big transistions are the goal. No Pool coping was discussed, but the older advanced skaters asked for the 5ft part to have something with Pool coping. In summary, the Hood River Parks and Recreation have received a $50,000 dollar grant to continue improving the skatepark. Local skaters have voiced their opinion and a skater owned design firm is being contracted to do the work. Stay tuned.

This web comic from The Book of Biff is followed by a tale of woe featuring bike on skate action. There but for watching where I’m going, go I.

Day Two: Duel AKA Rad Ramp Racer for the Commodore 64, from 1990.

Here we have the classic BMX vs Skateboard battle. Is it a bare knuckled fight to the finish like the duel scene in Thrashin’? Stay tuned to find out. Man I wish I could see a closeup of that video cover. Does anyone recognize the picture?

Is there anyway you guys could post some info about the Michael Tubb’s benefit being held on Friday Oct. 5 in Portland, OR. Trying to make some money for Tubb’s hospital bills due to head trauma from a skating accident. I’m sure you have heard the news, if not check out his recovery site – mtubbs.com. Tubb’s is from Tempe AZ, but has lived up in Portland for the last 2 summers. I would be really stoked if you guys helped to pass this benefit info along.

But of course!

Tubb’s benefit art, and skate silent auction
Oct. 5 @ the Chesterfield, in Portland, OR
1111 E. Burnside

Rotten Apple Media has an archive of California Cheap Skates mail order catalogs that range from 1991 to 2001. The CCS branding that they switched to made me forget that these guys used to call themselves California Cheap Skates. Aside form being an trip through nostalgia, it’s also interesting from a historic point of view, at least if you are one of the geeks frequenting Skate and Annoy. You can trace the de-evolution of skateboard shapes and graphics. In 1991 most of the boards offered had a distinguishable nose and tail, but the shapes in general had already become homogenized. In 1992 you can see the appearance of the the popsicle stick as we know it, as well as the trend towards copyright infringement in art direction. By 1993 there are no longer any shaped boards available, and the general number of companies starts to increase dramatically so the board pictures get smaller and smaller. It’s not until 1997 that a few alternative shapes start to turn up again, mostly in the form of longboards. Those earlier years are also interesting if you look at the offerings from some of the giant names in skateboarding, especially when you put them in the perspective that they are about to see their world collapse. I have a bunch of these catalogs in a pile as well, but mine mostly start where this collection ends. I think I was aiming at documenting all the board graphics that I could. Check out Rotten Apple Media’s catalog collection if you are feeling archeological. The only downside is that the scans are not very large.

Thanks to Dan Hughes at Northwest Skater for the tip.

I ribbed them about the lack of photos we got from the grand opening of the new Dunedin Florida park, and David Adams replied that they are too busy skating to take pictures. Fair enough. He did, however, take the time to scan and send in this 1979 postcard of the now defunct Clearwater Florida skatepark, which he said was the last park of it’s kind (until Dunedin) in the west central Florida area. (Did you know there’s cement parks in North Port and Sarasota?) The caption reads “GBM in full take off mode! Awwwk Awwwwkk!!” David also mentions that Ed Womble, George McClellan and himself were on the Clearwater Skatepark team back then, and are still skating today. If you take a look at this postcard, your first reaction might be “Yuck!”, but man, wouldn’t it be fun to go back in time and skate one of these sprawling concrete landscapes? I wouldn’t want all my parks to be like this, but you make your own fun, and I see fun written all over the place. If you’re in the mood for something newer, Chuck Dyer has some shots from opening day of Dunedin.

In honor of EA’s Skate and Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground, which the Interweb™! can’t seem to shut up about. I’m going to bring you seven days of bad skateboarding video games.

Day One: Cheap Skate for the Commodore 64, from 1988.

Look out! That guy has to dodge meteors! Talk about skate harassment. Giant skateboard with Speed Racer mountain climbing wheels? Check! Button down shirt with smart sweater over the top? Check! (Sorry, this is a U.K. game, so I think “sweater” should read “jumper”)

The Old Man Army crew decided to take off for a weekend to go down to San Diego to see what all of the hoopla was about at the ASR show. They wanted to meet in person a few of the people in the industry that they have dealings with. The only other thing on their agenda was to get a couple of pictures of the kooky skateboard gadgets for the Skate and Annoy.

Check out: 2007 ASR with OMA

I thought we would get a lot more pictures from the Dunedin Florida skatepark opening, but so far all I have is a few from local Ed Womble, which includes a shot of Monty Nolder. You guys must have a poser’s scene down there, you don’t deserve a good skatepark! Haw haw! I kid! Check out the pictures after the jump.