Louie Barletta #12.

Happy Halloween!

Evil Lou slashes a noseslide across a burning plinth. This was the ad that prompted a Speed Demons week since it seems to be such an out of character sponsor for Mr. Barletta. For as much as the running gag about his age casts him as a permanent 21 year old, Louie has always seemed like a grownup to me. And by the early 2000s, Dwindle was strictly for the kids. I understand the convenience of getting bearings from your board sponsor, but I sort of figured Louie would take a pass on that option.

I've been trying to get in some skateboarding while it has been mild and we still have daylight. It's been raining the last couple days and the forecast going forward looks wet. I've been successful in rolling around, but again have had mixed results with how I'm skating. Like I've written before, I'll land enough to think I can still skate, yet I never really get a full, fun session out of it.

Have a good weekend, party smart, and don't forget to change the batteries in your smoke detectors when you flip the clocks back an hour.

Transworld - November 2002 Volume 20 Number 11

Jerry Hsu #13.

Escape the Flames.

Jerry jumps across a fiery chasm. I'm guessing this is probably a switch hardflip. He's riding a Louie Barletta enjoi board with the London calling graphic and wearing some Osiris. Speed Demons seems like such an odd sponsor for Jerry, but you do need bearings and the company is run out of the same office as his board sponsor so it makes sense.

Transworld - October 2002 Volume 20 Number 10

Josh Kasper #2.

Fire & Brimstone.

Josh launches a grab into the pits of hell. The art department directly took the copy from one of Josh's Blind ads of the time and used it for a Speed Demons ad. This is a vintage early days of World Industries type of move.

Transworld - August 2002 Volume 20 Number 8

Kanten Russell #2.

Depths of Hell.

Kanten takes a switch flight down a large piece of evil real estate.

Seu Trinh documented the plunge into the abyss.

Transworld - May 2002 Volume 20 Number 5

Mike Crum #8.

Demonic Hellfire.

Welcome to Halloween week 2025. I'm amazed I keep finding new spooky stuff year after year. Speed Demons was a bearing company out of the World Industries camp. It started in the late 1990s and borrowed from the same cartoon aesthetic that was used for World and Blind. They went bonkers with the layers in Photoshop to create ads with the flames of hell. The team was mostly Dwindle riders along with a few others like Chany Jeanguenin, Anthony Mosley, Tom Penny, and Geoff Rowley. Speed Demons eventually expanded to include wheels and price point boards. After the demise of Dwindle, I'm not sure what happened to the brand, but I speculate it will live on as a zombie company. That's some truly scary stuff right there.

Seu Trinh captured Mike's soul for all eternity.

Transworld - April 2002 Volume 20 Number 4

Patrick Praman.

The end number.

Patrick was born in Bangkok, Thailand and moved to the states when he was a little kid. He grew up in Virginia. He got into skateboarding while living in Virginia and would film in DC, Maryland, and North Carolina. Deluxe hooked him up with Real, Thunder, and Spitfire. Patrick made the move out to California and was part of Thrasher's Am Scramble 2022 tour. He turned pro for Real in the summer of 2023. For the demo, Patrick did a number of tricks over the bump to bar. In addition to this backside noseblunt, he also did a nollie heelflip to noseslide on the hubba.

I dumb lucked into this photo and caught the light from the filmer's camera illuminating Patrick. Some moderate lifting in Photoshop was enough to make it look good.

It will be something quickly demonic for next week.

For the info: Thrasher - February 2023 Volume 44 Number 2

Andrew Reynolds #19.

Florida Marlin.

The Boss skated the whole time and had tricks for the entire park. You got to see the classics: kickflips, frontside flips, a kickflip shifty or two, and a varial heelflip over the picnic table. He did a noseslide down the hubba and some frontside ollies on the quarter pipes. Andrew was riding a Kevin "Spanky" Long deck and wearing a Florida Marlins hat. He had his pro model sneaker from New Balance on his feet, too. I'm sure he was who the majority of the crowd wanted to see the most and Reynolds delivered.

One highlight of the demo was Jake Hayes blasting a 360 flip over the bump to bar behind Andrew. Wilton Souza skated a bunch. Justin Henry landed a frontside shove-it to backside 50-50 on the hubba. Brian Reid also had a bunch of tricks over the bar, including landing in a 50-50. Brian was really good and did a lot of unique transfers around the park. He has a similar jump over the whole spot approach that Brandon Westgate has. I was stoked on his skating and wish I'd gotten a picture of him.