Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Chet Thomas #4.



"Did a certain manu's hard-working employee take exception to a recent Chet Thomas advert? Did he not send a letter to Public land? Does Ed Reategui now gleefully carry around the letter and laugh derisively? Is this the beginning of a war between the blue-collar types and the glamour boys?"

It was a big deal when Chet left Powell Peralta to turn pro for the brand new Public Skateboards. It probably shouldn't have been as big a deal since he would soon be riding for Santa Cruz and Public would be gone. This might have been their only ad.

For the gossip: Thrasher - April 1992 Volume 12 Number 4

Transworld - January 1992 Volume 10 Number 1

8 comments:

Ben said...

When I skated for New School they sent me a couple of Public boards. There were two of Chet's boards put out. A Chester Cheeto and Elmer Fudd ripoff. Just like New School boards at the time I swear they were using old Alva wood. It was thick, heavy, and had a super steep tale.

natenola said...

Public was around for a little while, Chet won a pro contest and beat a bunch of super popular pros and i remember it being a pretty big deal and everyone freaking out on how good he was. There's a Jason Lee photo thats semi popular of him backside flipping over a small bike rack and it's from that contest, there was also a short Public section in the first New School video i think it was mostly a Chet part with a couple of clips of Eddie doing 5-0s on Todd Congleires ramp.

natenola said...

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_4OE2LlxxWrc/Sq8D2hsmoMI/AAAAAAAAFio/PeGE383ySSU/s1600-h/leetextbookchrome.jpg
that contest

Ben said...

I have a skate question for you. When did board graphics go from being silk-screened to heat-transfers?

Justin said...

I could see Alva boards getting recycled. Same company, different name.

I'll need to check when Chet got on Santa Cruz. I would be surprised if Public lasted more than six months. That contest was a big deal because it was all junk stuff meant to be more like street than a bunch of quarter pipes. He got a Thrasher cover soon after.

I'm not sure when they started doing heat transfers. Maybe in the early 2000s? I've done a pretty good job of avoiding them. I'll see if there is anything on the internet about this.

ilana said...

Heat transfers go back further than I thought... Channel One ad with AVE from 1995 talking about sublimated (that is, heat-transfered) graphics: http://skately.com/library/ads/channel-one-anthony-van-engelen-1995 (look in the lower right corner text)

justin said...

I just remembered Powell had sublimated boards in 1992 or 93.

natenola said...

Theres a video with Greg from Chapman talking about how they were the first to use them, idk if gives an actual date but the video is probaly on their website somewhere.