Word travelled fast, but in case you haven’t heard, Battleground Washington opened this weekend a couple of weeks ahead of schedule. Not surprisingly, there was a major rumble between a clan of BMX riders and an irate posse of… Not really. Everyone got along fine. Photo of Mark Conahan from Earth Patrol Media.

It’s true, the helmet saved his life. Of course the article doesn’t get into why the kid was laying on his skateboard, rolling head first into the street. Jace was playing at the friend’s house a week ago, riding a skateboard “skeleton” – lying on his stomach and going headfirst down the friend’s driveway and into the street. The “daredevil,” as his mother Julie Muir calls him, didn’t see the car coming. I’m not sure if “daredevil” is what I would call this kid, but I’m glad he’s alive. I can only hope my kids don’t do something that stupid when they grow up.

That’s right. variety is the spice of life. We’re looking to add another point of view to Skate and Annoy, something we’ve heard is called street skating, as implausible as that sounds, which is not to be confused with street-style, which is being, er, uh, practiced in the shot above that I got from the Chitown Shred archives. But seriously folks. We need to cover the grittier side of skating. I love skate parks, but there’s a different vibe with skating something found as opposed to something made for skating. Help us out, and get in contact if you think you can be our man on the street. Or woman. Geographic locale is not an issue.

The Hardy Boys have been in need of an image overhaul ever since that unfortunate peeping-tom conviction. Gone are the days of titles like “The Missing Chums” and “The Mystery of Cabin Island.” Now they aren’t even books, they are graphic novels. Check out #8 in the series, the just released Board to Death. Sure it looks like it was drawn in the 80’s, but it actually just came out this month. I wonder if the fact that they were riding coffin shaped boards was a coincidence or a tribute to the fact that Frank and Joe Hardy are old school. I wonder if Chet get’s hit in the solar plexus? I wonder what a solar plexus is?

I had been pitching an idea for a regular column in Concrete Wave to the editor Michael Brooke for a long time. He kept encouraging me in a vague sort of way, so I finally decided to write up the first installment as a way to help him decide whether to shit or get off the pot. I thought (and still do) that Concrete Wave had a lot of potential because it was still kind of blank slate, and Brooke wanted to provide coverage of all aspects of the sport, kind of like the early days of Thrasher. One thing I thought it seriously lacked (besides cohesion) was personality. Thrasher had it’s columns like Ask the Doctor and Skarfing Material that along with Thatcher’s and other musings gave the mag a real, uhm, personality. I was going to try and shake things up at Concrete Wave a little, help it appeal to people besides the old and the very young, which is ironic considering I run a web site that gets some Barney criticism of it’s own. What better way to make a splash than a somewhat facetious piece about slalom skateboarding, since you know, there’s not enough slalom coverage…

…has been Glenhaven. It has been amazing how empty Pier has been. Too many times in the last week I have been in on my own private session, praying that I don’t get seriously hurt in the 11.5″ abyss. I can only imagine the wrath of the local kids as they heckle my bloody carcass. Trying to talk them into hauling said carcass out of there wouldn’t be too fun either. I can’t skate Pier every day, especially not by myself. It simply hurts too much. I am no Mark Conahan. I wish I was, but I am not. I need to take a couple of days off between sessions at Pier, and Glenhaven has become a perfect filler. The mini bowl is great for somebody like me (old, fat and not very skilled) as it reminds me of my Masonite mini-ramp youth. The hip in the center is pure butter. The pool is gnarl, but less gnarl than Donald. There are always great sessions full of kids who are tearing that thing to little pieces. It’s great to see kids half my age able to appreciate (and destroy) pools. I thought that tranny was dead, right? Dave Viera came…

What do you call that trick where you are pushing off on your skateboard and your back leg catches the rear wheel on your skateboard? Oh yeah, it’s called funny! One guy made a documentary about it. What a happy coincidence. Just yesterday I was trying to come up with an excuse to post an old video of I have of House of Neil doing the same thing. The first vid is called “Crash, Burn & Replay: A Segway Documentary” It’s pretty good, even though it flirts heavily with overkill. The second one is a short but sweet star vehicle for Neil titled “The Legends of Stenchtown,” after the Stench Ditch, a seminal, hardcore, locals only, dare I say Extreme™ skate spot in Evanston Illinois, and home to the Stenchtown crew who revolutionized skateboard slams with style.