ESPN gathered a panel of experts to rate the difficulty of 60 sports based on 10 criteria. Skateboarding came in at 37, sandwiched between difficult distance swimming and sprints in track and field. Some noticeable more difficult sports include badminton and team handball while the easier sports include calf roping, golf and table tennis. Settling the argument once and for all, skateboarding ranked 16 sports harder than rollerskating (and presumably rollerblading), which tied with cheerleading. Gentlemen, start your pom pom jokes! Check it out: ESPN [ via About.com ] Bonus: A link to the artist that painted the center picture you’ve probably seen all over the web but assumed it was Photoshopped and not a painting.

Seems like I’ve heard of this Stacy Peralta character before… Skip Engblom never gave Stacy a model on Zephyr, so 31 years later Santa Monica Airlines released a limited edition of 100 Stacy Peralta signature boards, numbered and signed by Stacy and Skip. Each deck comes with a certificate of authenticity, a display case and a price tag of $775! That’s no typo. Check it out at SMA.

Kanoa Flyaway helmets back in production. After seeing a couple of concussions happen while wearing old Flyaway helmets, I came to the conclusion that I didn’t think these were very useful for much besides satisfying a park’s helmet requirement. Someone left a comment that they were being made again, but it sounded like they weren’t being mass produced, and there were no pictures on the web. Well now there is, and no matter what I said about wanting to ditch my old one before, I think I want a new one now. Looks like you can get the OG airbrush action on these. I’m not too crazy about that, or the super wide stripes, but they are a custom option so modifying shouldn’t be a problem. Check it out. The Kanoa Flyaway helmet are now back in production, and co-sponsors the SMA team. These helmets are crafted from hand-laid surboard fiberglass with custom colored gel coat, custom paint, custom foam, D -rings and German vinyl. Most colors and stripe combinations including “aribrush “can be custom made to order. Currrently, they are only available at Rip City in Santa Monica. Three helmets will be in stock there most times. Specific colors…

No, this guy isn’t crying because he rides rollerblades. He’s a practitioner of extreme unicycling. I’ve seen pics of the odd unicycle guy at a skate park, but I’ve never witnessed one in person. These guys have a DVD coming out titled “Under No Influence,” and they claim anything done on a skateboard can be done on a unicycle. The video is actually fun to watch. They did a good job taking the piss out of traditional skate videos (see the car scene) while managing some uh, radical moves. Of course, they are still on unicycles, so… What about their claim? Well, there are lots of rack-shots, some rail slides, and the equivalent of what would be grinds and ollies. Oh yeah, and acid drops too. They look kind of funny (besides being on unicycles) and the pacing is slow. See for yourself after the jump.

Skate and Annoy welcomes Mike Estes to our stable of performing web monkeys. Among other things, he’s the former editor of the defunct SkatePDXdaily. He’s figuring out the quirks of our “system” now. Here’s an excerpt from his profile: Currently I live in Hood River, OR- I’m a dad, I work in an office 14 hours a day, and when I get outside I make sure I enjoy every second of it by either skating, biking, shooting pictures of my super hot wife, I’m just a sales rep for the entire NW region (ORE, WA, ID, MT & AK) for a few action sports brands. I also talent scout for the next big name in any sport. I got good eyes, and I have a crystal ball that let’s me see your future. And the scarey part, I have eyes all over the world that flow constant information my way. I do it all without a myspace too, imagine that. To those of you “on staff” who didn’t get proper introductions, I’ve been away for a week and I barely made any posts, and this was a quick one. Vibe the new guy!

Not really, just for me. By the time I got done with all the family and holiday obligations I only had a couple of days to skate, and of course it rained on both of them. As I was loading up the car with luggage to head to the airport I snapped this frustrating shot of a boy and his dad walking with skateboards. Come on guys, it’s sunny! Start skating while you can. Helmets on a private drive? Yuck. Somehow I got through my whole childhood riding bikes and skateboards in the streets without a helmet.

Here we are stuck in the middle of winter, there’s just enough snow on the ground here in Hood River to keep our skatepark out of service. I do have some new resourceful places to expose that should “tame the skate voices” in my head about skating. I’m gazing at my skateboard as I post this- its peeking out at me from the closet where its been for a month now. Oh the torture. Skater: Chris Haslam Visiting Hood River last Oct for the “Grease Not Gas” Dakine West Cost Tour

This is a killer photo on the Cobb blog. Michael Cobb goes into detail about the skateboards in the photo and other he and his family had, above and beyond the plastic ones. Make sure you follow the link to see the full size version of the photo. Michael is/was the kid with the sly expression on the green board. Make sure you click the photo to enlarge because the preview cuts off one of the best parts, (shown here) the launcher for an Evel Knievel Stunt Cycle, obviously not one of the reissues. If you dig the 70’s x-mas, don’t forget to check out his 80’s x-mas post. It’s totally bitchin!

Twas the night before x-mas in Sarasota and all through the concrete, not a creature was ripping, not even in St Pete. Har har har. I wouldn’t know about Tampa or St. Pete, I was in Sarasota and there wasn’t a lot of action at the park today. I guess there was some sort of big event that people were possibly preparing for or something. Here’s a guy named Rob who was carving the hell out this joint on some sort of alternative long board. Every time he went over the top of a transition you could hear his board scrape bottom. Click to enlarge.

Merry X-treme-mas! Ho, ho, haaar! Here’s a wrap up of skateboard Christmas ornaments. Sorry Jews, Muslims, Mormans, Rastafarians, Pastafarians, Pan-Africans, etc… Nothing against you. Praise Jeebus and give thanks to Batman.