Tas & Ben Pappas.

Tas and younger brother Ben burst on the vert scene from Australia in the mid 1990s. They certainly made things more interesting by doing the technical tricks larger and more consistently. In a way they were a throwback to 1980s vertical characters, like Lee Ralph. Tas rode for Mad Circle and Ben was on the New Deal. They both would ride for Platinum to close out the decade.

Unfortunately, Ben's story does not have a happy ending. He had developed a serious problem with cocaine and was arrested for smuggling the drug at Melbourne Airport in Australia. He was found dead in the water off Victoria Pier in Melbourne in March of 2007. At the time of his death, he was a suspect in the murder of his girlfriend. Police were treating his death as suspicious and not necessarily as a suicide. There were similarities in how Ben and his girlfriend's bodies were found. I haven't found any updates on the case.

Tas resurfaced a few years ago after some injuries at the X Games, I think. The internet is a little vague and doesn't seem quite up to date. I believe that he won a contest in 2006.

I was a little reluctant to post this ad after initially thinking it was a cool skateboard photo, which it still is. I figure this website is somewhat of an absolute value on just the skateboarding aspect of life and not the other things that happen.

Thrasher - July 1995 Volume 15 Number 7