Along with social media posts, Surfer Today has confirmed that Patti McGee passed away on Oct 15th at the age of 79 due to complications from a recent stroke. Patti was the world’s first female professional skateboarder, and the first female to appear on the cover of a skateboarding magazine. Many people remember her iconic cover of Life Magazine as well, likely the first appearance of a skateboarder on the cover of a non-skateboarding magazine. Patti appeared on the TV game show What’s My Line? in 1965 as well as other TV programs with Mike Douglas and  The Johnny Carson Show, as well as a Bell Telephone commercial. She was the first female inducted into the Skateboarding Hall of Fame. Juice Magazine has an interview with Patti conducted in 2017 by Steve Olson. By all accounts she was a lovely and inspiring person to all who knew her. A true legend. Photo: Patti McGee

This edition of Australian pro skateboarders and companies I did not know existed is brought to you by Ken Macleod, who posted a picture of a Ken Gibbons pro model. I tried to find something about it/him (Ken) and that led me to the photography of Chris Stroh, whose portfolio is primarily surfing, but also includes some 80’s era skateboarding. That’s Ken in the photo above, in the bowl at a place called “Five Dock,” circa 1986. Unfortunately, Ken was the victim of a hit-and-run and died in 2006. I scraped the web for more bits and pieces on Ken and Bonzer and managed to find a few items.

I’m a couple weeks remiss in posting about the death of Otis ‘O’ Barthoulameu. Anyone who read skate mags in the 80’s will remember that “O – Photo” byline. Encinitas Magazine has a remembrance of O that spans several spreads and start on page 24.

Pacific Northwest legend Pat Quirk, known simply as Q passed away. (no details) You may know him from his appearances in Fruit of the Vine and other videos. He was gung-ho, that’s for sure, the hot sauce at any session he was part of, even if he wasn’t riding.

Happy Halloween bummer. D.H. Peligro passed away this weekend. Plastic Surgery Disasters had a major impact on this editor and his world view… The impact has not worn off. All those parents groups were right, punk rock does poison your mind!

With sadness I learned that founding member of the Surf Punks, Drew Steele has passed away after a battle with cancer. Against all odds, the Surf Punks had a huge influence on me as a teenager growing up in the Midwest. I first heard them on the Dr. Demento show, and saw them briefly mentioned in a blurb about “violent surf culture punk music” in Time magazine of all places. The picture above is from Drew’s Instagram feed shortly after Dennis Dragon passed in 2017. Bonus shot of the making of the iconic cover of My Beach featuring the first (?) skateboard-as-guitar after the jump.

It’s being reported that iconic 70’s skateboarder Ellen O’Neal Deason has passed away. I can’ find any first hand sources but is being repeated by reputable people who would know, like Jim Goodrich, the guy behind the lens in both of these photos. She had reputation as a phenomenal freestyler, and yes, one of the earliest well-know female skateboarders, in the company of Patti McGee and Peggy Oki. Ellen was inducted into the Skateboarding Hall of Fame in 2014. Editor’s Note: The absence of any mention of the death of Jeff Grosso earlier the year was not intentional, and was due to the fact that Skate and Annoy was more-or-less offline this Spring.

That’s the story. Anthony Huber died trying to disarm Kyle Rittenhouse at a BLM protest. Kyle shot 3 people and killed 2. He is a domestic terrorist. Comments will be moderated heavily on this pos, bootlickers and racists need not apply. Photos: Left: Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images | Right Chicago Sun Times.  

Jake Phelps, longest running editor of Thrasher Magazine, dead at 56. Cause of death has not been released.