Go big or go home.
Chris is from Hawaiian Gardens, California. He rides for Plan B, Etnies, Acitve, Bones Wheels, Venture, and Grizzly Grip. His recent section in the Album video from Etnies is full of difficult flip tricks done down huge sets of stairs and gaps. I'm not a giant fan of that type of skateboarding, but you have to respect how ridiculous the stuff is that he does and how cleanly he pulls it off. Chris has even battled a few knee injuries and still keeps doing the old carcass toss.
Does anybody have some requests for later on in September? I've got about two weeks of newer stuff scanned that will take me to the middle of the month, but then I'm not sure what to post. There was request for the CCS Summer 1996 catalog that I'll work into the mix at some point.
Thrasher - June 2016 Volume 37 Number 6
7 comments:
Let's see some Shannon May.
Joslin now rides for Indy
I’ve been thinking about all the random attempts at innovation in skateboarding over the past 30 plus years-blacktop, boneite, rip grip, ubolt hardware, stick on rails, copers and lappers, etc etc and that could make an interesting week or two of content
Is Joslin on Indy a recent thing? The Plan B site still had him on Venture, but there’s an Independent sticker on his board for the recent Thrasher interview.
Shannon has been on here once already. I’ll see if he had more ads.
https://vertisdead.blogspot.com/2016/09/shannon-may.html
I did two weeks of gimmicks. Topics covered included metal decks, misunderstood trucks, rails, colored grip, skateboarding’s war on the screwdriver, the Osiris G-Bag, and more. Go to either April and May 2014 or March 2015 on the list at the side.
Things are at a point where I’ve covered everything I wanted when I started doing this and then expanded to cover everything else that came up. I’m honestly thinking about making Vert Is Dead a weekly thing once 2019 hits.
It’s hard when a project takes on so much momentum that it becomes too big to stop in some ways. Lately I’ve been thinking about how its been over a decade that “skateboard nostalgia “ has been a cottage industry but the era that people are nostalgic for was only about 4-5 years long, tops.
The nostalgia thing is weird. I'm sort of over it completely. Like how many board re-issues do we need? Skateboarding has always had a relatively small cast of characters so most of the good stories have been repeated or retold often enough.
On the other hand, it is good skateboarding is acknowledging the history because that didn't used to happen. And for people who are older like us, we've heard a lot of these stories before so it does get repetitive. At the same, there will be younger skaters who have never heard this stuff before and maybe they can learn something. Look at how everybody is riding rails on their boards and doing no complys, for example.
Most of the people doing the nostalgia stuff grew up in the late 80s/early 90s and those are the years they are going to remember the best because it was all new and exciting. That doesn't necessarily make those years the best, even though they kind of are. That's just the time frame that resonated the most with that generation. Flip's Sorry video is the game changer to a younger person, the same way Video Days was a game changer to an older person, and maybe the way the Converse vid will hype a kid starting out skating today. There are different eras of skateboarding. Each has its share of pluses and minuses. I've been trying to keep that perspective in mind when I do this site because I like many things about all of the different eras.
Skateboarding is also very much based in the present moment and centered around the act of going skating. That appeals to me because I'm getting older and don't know how much longer I can keep doing it, although I feel I've got many years left in the tank still. I like new stuff, as is illustrated by my record collecting habits. I don't dig through crates for used classics and prefer to follow new releases only.
It's also fascinating how the kids are super into the late 90s DC Shoes tech stuff. That makes sense because it was 20 years ago so enough time has passed to revisit those days. And there was something special about those days, too.
There has to be a proper balance of know your past/know what is current. Skateboarding never knows when to say when so that will always be a problem. How else did we wind up thinking 38 mm wheels were a good idea?
How much my knees have left in the tank remains to be seen but it is interesting to balance the current ness of skateboarding as something I do with the history of skateboarding as something I’ve lived through. What’s going on now is almost terrifying, in terms of size and sheer gnar but it’s refreshing to see all terrains being skated and appreciated. I look back on the 38 mm wheel days as the most limited and limiting time to be a skater. The past should never be better than now, I think and skateboarding should be something you do not something you are. I look forward to my kids setting up and ripping all the reissue decks I’ve got around the house one day
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