Matt Reason #2.

Skateboarding needed a change in the mid 1990s. Small wheels and big pants had started to fade away and flip tricks were being caught clean instead of rolled on the ground. Newly emerging companies like Zoo York and Capital started to bring the East Coast style into the picture. Skateboarding was getting popular enough that it really wasn't just a California thing any more.

A lot of pros on the West Coast were complaining about the East Coast guys bringing back tricks like wallrides and busting out pole jams because they felt this was regressing skateboarding. Rather than regressing things, I look at it as more of a necessary simplification. Bring back the basics - going fast, grinding stuff and actually pushing from spot to spot. That last one is going to be more dependent upon location, but the idea of rolling around rather than filming at one spot for six hours was a big improvement. Once you have the basics down and can do them going fast, then progression will start to happen. They also rode big boards and big wheels. The gear was the right tool to accomplish those tricks. In essence, they started to make skateboarding fun again and appeal to those who lost interest when things got too technical. And more often than not, those wallrides and pole jams were switch. Matt and Fred Gall were also both doing a lot of tech and switch tricks, too.

Sub Zero is a shop in Philadelphia that might be still around. The internet results were questionable and their MySpace hasn't been checked in a couple of months. At any rate, they had a who's who of top Phillie names for shop riders in the early to mid 1990s and ran a few ads in the mags. You would often see Matt Reason and Ricky Oyola riding shop boards in photos.

R.I.P. J.R. Neves.

I'll go through the archives soon and post a scan. Did he ride for 151?

Slap - September 1996 Volume 5 Number 9