A few days ago I went skateboarding at DOS (Department of Skateboarding for the PDX uninitiated) with a friend. This is a friend that I have known for nearly 10 years now. I friend that I met on the other side of the country, and that I have remained very close with throughout many of lifes changes: jobs, states, fatness, thinness, relationships, deaths. Everything. We used to skateboard together at work a long time ago, and we still skateboard together today.

During this session at DOS with my friend I saw a familiar face. I say familiar because it’s a face that I knew, but not one that I had seen recently. Not at all. This time, it was another friend from my days in the mountains of Colorado. I hadn’t seen him in many years. He was here on business and he did what skateboarders who travel for business do. They go to the local skatepark and ride their skateboards.

I just received an email from Neil’s mom, Shirley Heddings, and she has informed me that Neil is getting out of jail May 24th. She also hinted about a fundraiser, not sure where its going to be- from my guess it won’t be outta the state of California for quite sometime.

I’m looking forward to seeing the most natural skater back at it, he’s been pent up for a long time. I can only bet Washington St is going to be his domination, once he’s finally free of his 8X12 cement box. Anyone see the new Skateboarder, he’s already getting coverage again!

For those of you that would like to see the facts of his case go here and read. If I hear anything more- I will post it here on SKATE AND ANNOY DOT COM (annoucer voice)!

I like weird things. My friend Jason Beaudry is weird, and he too, likes weird things. So when it was time to build his ramp he decided to make one that is nearly impossible to skate. Which, is pretty weird.

Sorry, I had the wrong town in the title. Okay, how many of you bastards knew about this and didn’t tell me? I had to check out the Sleestak blog from the earlier post today and found this. Another Dreamland park in the area? One more for the cannonball run: Pier Park to Tualatin to Donald to Newberg to McMinnville to Lincoln City.

ChildSeek Network
Name: SYDNEY ROCHELLE
Abduction Type: Endangered Runaway

That’s right. A girl went to a party one weekend and never came home. After a week, police received a tip off and located the missing teen at Tony Hawk’s house. Is this Gator all over again?

Haven’t you heard? Because it rains during the winter in Portland. Egbert’s got a micro-miniramp in his garage, complete with a low ceiling and pool coping. I swear this thing is less than 3 feet tall. Sometimes the amount of fun you can have is inversely proportional to the size of the transition. Pics after the jump.

Watching the interviews with this kid will make you understand why he got tasered. It doesn’t make it right, but I would have been tempted to taser this annoying whiner myself. Campus authorities say the tasering was not because he was skateboarding, it was because he was not complying with police. A girl caught it on her cell phone and posted it on Youtube. Ironically, the original has disappeared and as of now only exists on Youtube as it has been shown on a couple different TV news shows, by pointing the news camera at a computer monitor. After the jump you can find some links to the story as well as a YouTube videos of the the news showing a YouTube video on TV. Can you deal with that? Am I blowing your tiny minds?

Dear Sleestak, I know I haven’t been around much lately, I’ve just been… Well, you know, busy. Ever since I started updating Skate and Annoy on a regular basis I haven’t had time to hang out over there very much. Listen, I think we should see other people and still be friends.

Here’s a link to a short bit on a BBC program titled North West Tonight about older skaters. It’s mainly an interview with the founder of the UK’s Middle Age Shred. The video quality isn’t great, it looks like they forgot to deinterlace it. The skating is mostly blah, and when it isn’t the camera work is bad. It does have an impossibly hip sound track considering the stuffed shirt that hosts the program. There is some cool 70’s era footage with a bitchin’ T Rex lead in. If you look close you can see an Old Man Army Falling Down deck – good graphic… From Arizona to Manchester, old men are on the rise. Catch the video and some more old man news after the jump.

Cirque De Soleil is hiring a street skater.

“We are currently seeking a Skateboard – Street Specialist for our new production at the Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York city. Please note that we are not looking for Ramp’s specialists. ”

This sounds like Daniel Gesmer’s dream job, and they are hiring immediately. [Source: Skate-Bulletin-Board]