Nothing like taking a hard slam while a fashion model laughs at you. For some reason, the New York Times went all the way to Paris for a fashion shoot with skateboarders. Don’t they have models and a few skateboarders in New York? They’ve got a behind-the-scenes video and a preview of some of the still photos that will be featured in a Sunday Times Magazine spread. Brace yourselves for “High-Flying Fashion” and “Haute Wheels.” and keep your eyes peeled at the last slide for a bonus Beastie Boys fashion shoot. New York readers, someone please grab us a copy when it comes out and we’ll send you a little soemthin-somethin. I like Morgan’s attitude, even though his name doesn’t sound very French. I don’t know about you, but our Skate and Annoy sessions are never surrounded by a bunch of models. Maybe they were for Stuf, a zine out of Michigan that did the whole fashion and skateboarding thing first, back in the 80’s.

[Source: The Skateboard Mag]

I saw a nicely put together video highlight of the Pier Park leg of the Oregon Trifecta on YouTube. I thought it had a fresh approach so I decided to check out the “director’s” link only to be surprised that it was one of those action sports conglomeration sites called Banquet or Banqt.com. Aside from skating, surfing, and snowboarding, they also cover BMX, FMX (Freestyle Motocross?), mountain biking, wakeboarding, skiing (!!) and something they refer to as lifestyle. Yuck. The Trifecta video is still fun to watch. Hey, that’s even MC up there on the top right. You can watch two Banquet Trifecta videos after the jump. If it’s still pictures that are more to your taste, check out Earth Patrol Media’s recent Lincoln City coverage. Thanks to JF for the video tip

Hello, my name is Mark and I’m a recovering mongo pusher. I read Chris Yandall’s exhortation to Cut the Jive and Jog when it appeared in the June 1976 issue of Skateboarder magazine and it made sense to me. On a long distance push it helps to switch up. I push both ways to this day. Turns out he’s still er, pushing the idea with his Skogging! website. I figured I would add a personal confession to the Skateboarding Sucks parade of ridicule.

My wife watched a little bit of his show on MTV and said it made her feel sorry for him. I guess his mom and dad split up, the mom is more than a little self-centered and the dad is a jerk. She said that basically, the only sympathetic character is Ryan’s eight year old brother who is having a really hard time with the divorce. I say, go on to this online Sheckler Tattoo generator at 8 equals D and have at him. Damn! Why didn’t I think of this first?

[Source: Irvine-sucks.com]
BTW – “the only site that matters?” I think you mean the only other site that matters. I do.

MC Shot of the Week is the name he uses when he moonlights as a techno-trance DJ. Our own Mark Conahan is in the Shot of the Week on Skate Daily, the week being this week. MC says there’s not a lot of overlap between Skate Daily and Skate and Annoy which means I can start reading it more regularly. I had stopped because I didn’t want there to be a situation where we were just regurgitating the same stories, even though it’s likely we both subscribe to the same Google alerts. I don’t know, seeing Conahan in a SD shot of the week sure seems like overlap to me! And here I was just about to hit up BK for a SOTW on Skate and Annoy. The Portland Skate Media Mafia is ruthless. Thanks to Orezona for the tip.

Carhartt is a work wear company that for some reason has a large presence sponsoring skateboard events in Europe, but is invisible here in the USA. Invisible except for the fact that you’ll see a lot of Carhartt being worn by some of the crews actually building skateparks over here. Mongolian Tyres is a skate video of a Carhartt sponsored skate trip to Mongolia. It’s about 38 minutes of mostly street skating totally ghetto spots in China without a lot of attitude. Very refreshing. I don’t know any other details like release date etc, except that it’s worth the watch. Chompy, why aren’t you all over this? Watch the vid after the jump.

[Source: Welsh Pete via Sleestak]

The OC Register among others is reporting that one Huntington Beach skatepark will likely be shut down due to foul language, vandalism, and sexually degrading comments made to female athletes practicing at the nearby high school field. Way to keep it real guys. Ed Templeton is a local and he says he rarely sees bad behavior. Officials at the school want it gone and the parks district seems bent on relocation. The police station across the street says there are very few if any problems with the park. It’s looking more and more like a case of the people in power just wanting it gone. They claim keeping it open will cost $300,000 for maintenance. 300k? get out of town! It’s only a 6,200 square foot park that is essentially flat! You could almost build two of those parks for that amount of money in Portland. To be fair, part of that 300k would go to a bathroom facility. It’s hard to find decent pictures of this skatepark. After checking out a few on Socal Skateparks it looks like relocation (as long as it’s nearby) might be the best thing to happen to locals. The current park (albeit via the Interweb™) looks totally unremarkable and uninspired, but Templeton says it’s a landmark in skater’s circles. Really? I feel sorry for HB.

Tony Alva had a birthday last week. Photos cropped from Glen E. Friedman (left) and Eric Staniford from the Alva Skates website Still ripping at 50!

Skate Daily has info about a birthday party event.

The city of Corpus Christi Texas banned the practice of “grinding” along their precious sea wall eight months ago, but so far have only handed out a few citations and the grinding continues. They’ve got themselves worked up in a lather to spend $50,000 on Skate Stoppers and consider an investment well spent to rid the sea walk of the evidence of grinding that is an “eyesore.” I’m sure the Skate Stoppers will eliminate all grinding. That’s money well spent, guys.
Now imagine if instead they could spend half that much money on building skateable ledges nearby for kids. Problem solved.

[Source: KRISTV.com]