You knew it was out there. I didn’t even have to look very hard. Well now I know why those weird ledges are there. To prop up your ass while watching your friends just take that manual pad apart! Now let me take a moment to reminisce about the old girl. I was at a gymnastics meet with my kids near the ramp one weekend. Those gymnastics meets can last four hours and you are usually spectating from crappy surplus folding chairs or some sadistic bleachers that some dad in the booster club cobbled together by adapting plans for tiered feed sack shelving. Your kid actually performs for maybe three and a half minutes total. I have two kids doing gymnastics at different levels sometimes we are there for two sessions. Naturally I ducked out for a quick few runs on the handy vert ramp. Watch the video and read more after the jump.

I hadn’t been out to the Beaverton skatepark since we tore the old vert ramp (image at top left for reference.) down. I decided to drop by the other day and I felt physical pain when I saw the crap they put where the ramp was. Well, my sides hurt from laughing. I’m sure that’s just what all the kids wanted too. It would be really hard to descride the funky-ass ledge configuration and ledge-and-bank around the perimeter of the park. I hope some kid post up some footage on YouTube so I can see what the hell you are supposed to do with it. The centerpiece of the new section is a big intersecting-squares-two-level manual-pad thing. A couple of those low rails that the kids like so much rounds out the experience. Judging from the quality of the concrete work I’d guess the maintenance guys built it themselves or the THPRD had a Come Play in the Mud Day! Congratulations on your new facility Beaverton!

Video Days from Blind Skateboards, circa 1991. One of my all-time favorite videos. Spike Jonze was the director for this video and he definitely set the bar when it comes to filming/editing. Blind was started by Mark Gonzales in 1991. The company name is an intentional jab at his former team, Vision. This was a time when Street Skating was developing at an insane rate. Although the video is mainly street oriented; there is some vert featuring the Gonz and Jordan Richter. There’s some really good music on here as well, including Black Flag, Husker Du, Dinosaur Jr, and much more. Blind now offers this video on DVD by combining it with What If?. Featured Skaters: Mark Gonzales, Rudy Johnson, Jason Lee, Guy Mariano, and Jordan Richter run time: 24 min 0 sec – Check it Out

As you may have already noticed, we’re adding some new voices to Skate and Annoy, and Mark Conahan is the latest addition. You may know him from his

California Community Colleges Satellite Network (CCCSAT ) has some sort of series called Grant Britain Skateboarding Photographer that you can watch on satellite TV or view via webcast for free, provided you are a student of California Community Colleges. Education without boundaries, my ass! It aired already, but it airs again on 1/29 at 10:29am, 1/31 at 8:30pm, on 2/2 at 4:30pm, and on 2/3 at 8:32pm. See if you can figure it out. The CCCSAT web site is confusing as all heck. Supposedly this is Episode #124 – Typography. I find it hard to believe that Grant’s had 123 other episodes. Someone figure out how to watch this, then record it and post it on YouTube for the rest of us. Maybe Grant has more info in his blog over at the Skateboard Mag, which is where I poached that picture from, and where you’ll find recurring great shots he pulls from his extensive body of work.

Jürgen Horrwarth won the vert and was winning the mini-ramp-bowl portion of the European Skateboard Championships in Basle, Switzerland when it was rained out. There’s an interview with Jürgen on the Red Bull site. It’s supposed to be a direct link, but it’s wacky. Once the page loads you have to click on the “Visit Red Bull International” option and click the “interview” button. Another case of superfluous Flash Development gone awry…  The interview is really dry. Your time is better spent blowing it off and reading this excerpted  Claus  Grabke  interview from Juice Magazine. If you’re a die hard Jürgen Horrwarth fan, we’ve poached the whole thing after the link.

Australian man named Grant Hicks is challenging Tod Swank’s world’s largest skateboard record. Sure, there have been other contenders, and it’s not official yet, but Hick’s board is supposed to be 9 feet longer, and he’s documented the hell out of it with five of his own videos as well as an appearance on an Australian TV news program. If you’re only going to watch one of them, the TV one is your best bet. You’ll do a double-take when you hear how the anchorwoman’s thick Australian accent makes the word “deck” sound like a part of the male anatomy, leading to lots of juvenile fun with sentences like: “The father of three hopes the giant deck will help raise money for his local (unintelligible) saving club.” and “Seven month’s of hard work and Grant’s monster deck is around 9 feet longer than the current world record holders.” Wow! Dirk Diggler is rolling over in his grave. Catch all six videos after the jump.