Bobby Puleo #4.

More East Coast action. Bobby gets up on a tight rail.

Ari Marcopoulos scorched the photo.

Thrasher - July 1995 Volume 15 Number 7

Joe Pino.

Joe is from Washington, DC. He rode for Goodtimes, Gullwing and Reef Footwear. He got sponsored by Goodtimes after Gregg Witt sent Peter Hewitt by train from San Diego to DC to find a street skater.

Joe was into model airplanes and flying. He was also into metal and hardcore bands such as Neurosis and Rorschach.

Joe was one of the key people involved in starting the Washington Street skatepark in San Diego. This was born out of frustration of not having anything good to skate. The initial spark to start building with concrete happened when Joe built a bench at his apartment. Allegedly the Rhythm team even filmed some tricks on it.

Note: Pino is spelled wrong in the ad. I'm also going to say that it should be Olson and not Olfon.

Thrasher - March 1995 Volume 15 Number 3

For the background: Thrasher - February 1999 Volume 19 Number 2

Reese Forbes.

Like it said in yesterday's Nicotine ad: Reese Forbes next.

The rumor on the street is that this guy has a mean ollie pop.

Reese got his start on Goodtimes before heading out west and riding for Element. He was there for a while, switched to Rasa Libre and currently is on Skate Mental. Reese also picked up Nike as a sponsor sometime after the end of Natas' shoe venture, Vita. I really dig his part in Nothing But The Truth. Dan Wolfe does a damn good job with the video camera.

Thrasher - April 1995 Volume 15 Number 4

Nicotine.

Nicotine was a wheel company owned by Mike Agnew and backed by Intensity Mailorder under the banner of East Coast Urethane. They would soon expand to include Capital Skateboards, which Martinez and Stone would leave Element to ride for. Later on down the line, ECU would expand to include First Division Wheels and Silverstar.

The late Pepe Martinez with the very much still alive Chris Hall and Andy Stone are in the photo. Chris Hall was great at doing technical street tricks and really took the manual to new places in the early New Deal videos. Pepe and Andy helped make the DC scene stand out in the mid 1990s and carried on what was started by Sean Sheffey, Brian Tucci and Hall.

Thrasher - March 1995 Volume 15 Number 3

Keith Hufnagel & Joey Alvarez.

Metropolitan was a short lived wheel company done by Deluxe with a distinct New York City image. Most of the riders were East Coasters. The team included Keith Hufnagel, Ryan Hickey, Gino Iannucci, Giovanni Estevez, Mike Hernandez, Bobby Pueleo, Maurice Key, Javier Nunez, Ivan Perez and Ben Liversedge.

One of the complaints against the NYC scene that you always heard was that skateboarding was only a small part of their lifestyle, which was brought about by the number of so called chilling shots in the ads. Metropolitan was probably extra guilty of this crime, if it even is a crime. I thought it was cool to see some slices of life and the moments between the tricks.

Ari Marcopoulos took the photos for probably all the Metropolitan ads.

Thrasher - March 1995 Volume 15 Number 3

Ricky Oyola.

Ricky helped to define East Coast skateboarding in the 1990s as its own unique beast. He rode for a few different companies including Zoo York, Illuminati and Silver Star before hooking up with the New Deal at the end of the decade. His part in Seven Year Glitch is pretty smooth. When da Deal really did die, he started up Traffic.

Ryan Gee took the picture.

Thrasher - April 1995 Volume 15 Number 4

Drake Jones #2.

Style King Of The Week.

Thrasher - March 1995 Volume 15 Number 3