John Rattray #7.

The Migrating Bird.

John was on Osiris prior to éS. After éS ended, he popped in for a year at New Balance before taking a job with Nike. This trick was in his part in Cold War, the Zero video from 2013. He's wearing an assortment of éS, Adidas, and New Balance in the section.

I got the new Grains video on DVD the other day. I watched about 15 minutes of Tollway last night before I was too tired and had to go to bed. I hate to throw around the phrase "Instant Classic", but Kevin DelGrosso has done it again with his well titled and meticulously crafted approach to documenting skateboarding in the Midwest.

Transworld - August 2010 Volume 28 Number 8

Justin Eldridge.

Dislocated finger.

Justin is from the Los Angeles area of California. For somebody who has been pro and in the spotlight for a long time, it was actually kind of tough finding info on him. His part in Yeah Right! was compact and hard hitting with a bunch of handrail tricks. Justin's favorite skaters include Guy Mariano, Eric Koston, Rick Howard, Mike Carroll, and Marc Johnson. As of 2009, he liked Lil Wayne and A Tribe Called Quest for tunes. He also liked Cadillacs, sushi, and living near the beach.

For the info: Transworld - March 2009 Volume 27 Number 3

Transworld - July 2010 Volume 28 Number 7

Mike Anderson #4.

Human Cannonball.

Mike was granted pro status for Krooked in the summer of 2010. He also had a shoe on éS before they closed up shop. Mark Gonzales sneakily turned Mike pro while on a Krooked tour of New York City. He had some boards printed up and shipped to an art gallery in the Big Apple. While the team was skating around, Mark suggested they stop in to check out the art. The gallery curator was in on Mark's plan and had the boards hanging on the wall to surprise Mike. I don't think that idea would have worked with anybody other than Mark. Ed Templeton could probably pull it off with Toy Machine and that's about it.

Transworld - June 2010 Volume 28 Number 6

Rick McCrank #10.

Multiples.

Crankers spins out of a gnarly 50-50 at Le Dome in Paris, France. I put together a week of éS from 2010. This was the last full year for the company as Sole Tech placed the brand on hiatus in the summer of 2011, based on an article on ESPN by Adam Salo. They still had a solid team and added some new riders, like Bobby Worrest and Kevin Terpening. Rick would go on to ride for Lakai and eventually Vans in the years after this ad.

I got a batch of DGK scanned and ready, but didn't feel like posting them this week so I'm saving them for later. The Stevie Williams vs. Nike dustup made me want to wait for a little bit.

I took the weekend off from skateboarding. I figure I needed a break since I've haven't been skating well for me lately. I'll see if it helps. On the plus side, I did get caught up with everything around the house.

The sequence is by Eric Antoine.

Transworld - January 2010 Volume 28 Number 1

Jordan Trahan.

Static Ender.

Jordan is from Lafayette, Louisiana. He was pro for 5Boro and has been on Chocolate for a while now. Some of his favorite skaters include Tim O'Connor, Keith Hufnagel, Jack Sabback, Nate Broussard, and Jimmy Lannon. New Balance has been his shoe sponsor for over a decade. I like how Chocolate incorporates parts of New Orleans culture into his graphics.

It has been toasty this week. I actually had fun for a change last night skateboarding in the driveway.

Work was extra busy the last five days so there might not be anything for next week. I'm not exactly sure yet and don't really have any ideas. I'll see how it goes over the weekend.

Thrasher - December 2015 Volume 36 Number 12

Arto Saari & PJ Ladd.

Flippin' legends.

Arto was riding for Gravis prior to New Balance. I believe he has contributed photography work for them over the years. Since PJ and New Balance are both from Boston, it made sense to add a local legend to the team. I think he was on DC, but he also might have been floating in shoe sponsor limbo in 2012. I like how Arto got into both pool skating and photography as he grew older.

Arto: Thrasher - September 2015 Volume 36 Number 9

PJ: Thrasher - October 2015 Volume 36 Number 10

Levi Brown #2.

"Levi Brown is a rad stylish underrated skater." - John Rattray

Now this is more like it. New Balance found their artistic direction and everything clicked from there on out. Levi was pro for Element and moved over to office life at New Balance.

RIP Ozzy. Go watch Fred Gall's part in Timecode for some heavy duty grimy shredding that might as well be on the streets of Birmingham.

Thrasher - July 2015 Volume 36 Number 7