Steve Berra #7.

Steve walked away from Airwalk to ride for Adio in 1998. He also wasn't on the brand for very long and departed for DVS around about 2000. Steve would have filmed his part in The End wearing Adios. I had a pair of his second model. I liked the shoes. They filled a nice void after it was deemed uncool to wear Airwalks with a solid and durable cupsole shoe.

The photos are by Dave Swift.

Slap - July 1998 Volume 7 Number 7

Jamie Thomas #14.

The time has come today.

Jamie was riding for Emerica prior to switching to Adio. He was on a pretty good hot streak in skateboarding, having closed out Toy Machine's Welcome To Hell in 1996 and launched Zero as a full fledged board brand in 1997. He wasn't on Adio for very long and split for Circa in 2000.

Atiba Jefferson took the photos.

Slap - July 1998 Volume 7 Number 7

Adio.

Before the Heart-o-grams and Union Jacks, Adio was launched as a super team shoe company in 1998. The brand was headed by Chris Miller and he recruited three of the top pros of the time as riders. Jamie had been on Emerica, Jeremy was on Dukes, and Steve was previously on Airwalk. Each was given a pro model shoe. They subtly launched the company without any words as a way to build intrigue in the print media days. Of course, it was rather easy to figure out who was going to be involved based on the uniqueness of each photo in the first ad. Still, it's not a bad way to get the ball rolling.

Jamie's photo was by Grant Brittain and was used in a Zero ad for the Thrill Of It All video from September 1997. Jeremy's water tower gap picture was taken by Daniel Sturt and ran on the cover of the November 1997 Thrasher. Steve's rooftop crooked grind was photographed by Dave Swift and used for the cover of the April 1997 Transworld. A giant Airwalk sticker was photoshopped off his board for the ad.

Apologies to Bam and Brian for that intro.

Three spots: Slap - March 1998 Volume 7 Number 3

Three guys skateboarding: Slap - April 1998 Volume 7 Number 4

Three guys chilling: Slap - May 1998 Volume 7 Number 5

Caz Helmstetter #2.

Lo-fi long jumper.

Caz was born in Scotland, lived in Minneapolis, and moved out to Portland. He built a bunch of ramps in the barn at his farm in the Oregon countryside. He was sponsored by Vans after winning a contest and turned pro for Natural Koncept. Caz was always down to do stuff for Big Brother because he liked the sense of fun they purveyed. He mixed it up with a bunch of park, ramp, and rail skating. Caz is gnarly. These days he works as a building inspector, has kids who skate, and still rolls around a bit.

Marissa Kaiser took the photo at Burnside and Eekawaka documented the barn jump.

Burnside: Big Brother - March 1999 Number 46

Barn gap: Big Brother - November 2000 Number 66

Kickflip transfer: Big Brother - March 2002 Number 82

Kale Sandridge.

Kale is from Hawaii. He has ridden for Alva, Hosoi, Milk, and Channel One over the years. Gravis was his shoe sponsor in the late 1990s and early 2000s. He also rode for Volcom. Kale is into totally destroying pools, punk rock, and surfing. He's got some serious mini ramp skills, too.

Dan Bourqui snapped the sequence of the bomb drop.

Bomb drop: Big Brother - January 1999 Number 44

Stalefish: Big Brother - December 2002 Number 91

Choppy Omega.

Transit Ride.

Choppy is from Portland, Oregon and a Burnside regular. He is not afraid of blasting a huge air across most of a skatepark or taking a chance on a big drop in. Choppy had the misfortune of being in an ad for a large footwear company with the worst named shoe ever. Was he one of the first to ollie the fountain gap at Love Park?

Speaking of big, the new Jack O'Grady part for Pass~Port turned out great. Yes, there are plenty of Thrill Of It All tricks, but it is edited and soundtracked in a way that makes it enjoyable to watch, instead of completely fearing for somebody's safety.

Sinski took the photos of the White Rock transfer. Michael Burnett photographed the pool and roll-in ad.

Transfer: Big Brother - September 1998 Number 40

Pool/roll in: Big Brother - August 2001 Number 75

Josh Zickert.

"I liked it so much I bought the company."

Josh is from Wisconsin. He lived in San Diego and Colorado before moving to New York City. He was a team rider who turned pro for Natural Koncept prior to buying the company with artist Katch. Josh enjoys traveling and getting radical. He has done some features for Transworld over the years, too.

Big Brother - April 2002 Number 83

Natural Koncept.

Greetings from the islands.

Natural Koncept is a company from Hawaii that was started in the mid 1990s by Sean Starn and some guy named Howie. They built a cult following based on their ads that featured gnarly ripping and trippy psychedelic art by Katch. The space between the N and K in their logo is actually the shapes of the Hawaiian islands. They have been around a while and are actually still going to this day, except they are now based in New York City.

Peter Savage took the photo of Roger, Blair Alley snapped the photo of Dave, and Andrew Hutchison got the photo of Brendan.

Roger Cabudol: Big Brother - February 1999 Number 45

Bobby Rodriguez: Big Brother - July 2002 Number 86

Dave Davis: Big Brother - September 2003 Number 100

Brendan Leung: Big Brother - February 2004 Number 105

Bobby Puleo #10.

Shangri-La.

Bobby put in a pitstop at Infamous after the Mad Circle ended and before riding for enjoi. For as long as I've been skateboarding, I don't think I had watched any of Bobby's video parts until yesterday. I had a general sense of how he skated, but I'd never seen the full scope of his efforts. He makes some rough and gnarly things that wouldn't even register as spots work.

Slap - May 1999 Volume 8 Number 5

Chris & Jones Keeffe.

The Keeffe brothers are from Queens, New York. Chris rode for Capital, Element, Zoo, Duffs, and Venture over the years. Jones was sponsored by Supreme and Metropolitan. Chris was pro. Jones never got the professional nod. I don't have much other info on either guy. I thought Chris maybe got a Transworld interview, but I couldn't find it or didn't look in the right place. I feel like they pop up in the assorted R.B. Umali video projects so that's how I know of them.

The picture of Jones is by Giovanni Reda and the picture of Chris is by Mike O'Meally.

Jones: Big Brother - October 1998 Number 41

Chris: Big Brother - April 1999 Number 47

Mike Hernandez #3.

Garbage day.

Mike floats a kickflip over some big city trash.

Sam Glucksman took the picture.

Big Brother - December 1998 Number 43

Jahmal Williams #6.

Change in speak.

I like how Jahmal sometimes wears classic skateboard t-shirts in his video parts. He's wearing a Mike Vallely Powell Peralta shirt in Toy Machine's Live and he's sporting a Natas Kaupas shirt in Static V. That one might be a reissue, not that it matters much.

The photos are by Gary Land.

Chilling: Big Brother - November 1998 Number 42

K-grinding: Slap - November 1998 Volume 7 Number 11

Ben Liversedge #6.

Famous New Yorkers.

Infamous was a New York City based company in the late 1990s. They also ran a wheel company called Blue Light. Both brands were only around for a couple of years. The team included Ben, Jahmal Williams, Mike Hernandez, Ryan Hickey, the Keeffe brothers, Ivan Perez, Joey Alvarez, Bobby Puleo, and a few others. I don't think Ryan ever had an ad. This is probably their first advertisement. Infamous would have been Ben's new board sponsor after leaving Real.

Giovanni Reda took the photo.

Big Brother - September 1998 Number 40

Brian Anderson #10.

Checking the footage with PJ Ladd, Rick Howard, and Mike Carroll.

I dig how BA is skating while everybody else is chilling. Brian had a full solo part tacked onto the end of Fourstar's Super Champion Funzone DVD from 2005. I didn't remember the part and was curious about it when Aaron Meza mentioned it on his interview at Heckride. Sure enough the part is included in the bonus section. The part opens with a stray cat running around and then you get Brian busting some big ollies, kickflips, and 360 flips set to the sounds of The White Stripes. Brad Staba even shows up for a couple of tricks.

I like the new Hot Plate DVD by Marshall Nicholson. It's a Florida heavy video filmed between 2015 and 2020. Some of the clips were in Spirit Quest and other projects. You can't go wrong with more Jimmy Lannon footage.

The Skateboard Mag - August 2005 Issue 17

Raymond Molinar #3.

Raymond was always good for some intricate street skateboarding over the years. He rode for Popwar, Habitat, Stereo, and WKND during his pro career. I want to say that he works for Converse these days. Raymond is very much into photography and recently published a book of pictures.

I put together a batch of Infamous for next week and I've got the Natural Koncept week planned, but I still need to scan everything. It was a process to figure out the best way to organize everything, but I think I came up with a good solution. I think I'm also going to take a week off from this thing at the end of the month.

I think I was skating better in the 25 degree weather than I am in the 60 degree weather.

The Skateboard Mag - February 2006 Issue 23

Anthony Van Engelen #9.

When I watched Ragdoll's part in Pig's Slaughterhouse video, I noticed that he skated to "Search & Destroy" by The Stooges. That's the same tune Anthony used for his part in Photosynthesis. It struck me as a little odd given the relatively short time gap between the two videos. Although this sort of thing has happened before with Queen and David Bowie's "Under Pressure" being used both by Element and Birdhouse within a one year span.

Speaking of music in skateboard videos, Zach Moore created a phony commercial for a CD compilation of all the classic tracks used in parts over the years. It even comes with a bonus third disc of the worst music in videos and I couldn't agree more with the first selection.

The Skateboard Mag - February 2006 Issue 23

Josh Kalis #10.

This ad marked the 10th anniversary of Josh riding for the Alien Workshop. He had been on Toy Machine prior to being abducted. Josh left for DGK in 2009 at some point after the Mind Field video was released. He is still rolling with DGK these days and skating DIY spots in the cold Michigan winter.

Speaking of Michigan, Chops has a fascinating new interview with Sean Sheffey up at the Chrome Ball Incident.

The photo is by Ryan Gee.

The Skateboard Mag - September 2005 Issue 18

Leo Romero #8.

Leaping Leo.

Leo blasts a gap to the parking lot. I think he was on Foundation in 2005, but would soon switch to Baker. He returned to Tum Yeto as a rider for Toy Machine in 2009 and is still there to this day. I dig how hard he charges at everything and wrecks all the spots. I watched his part in Stay Gold again and I had kind of forgotten how great it was.

The college here has a new art exhibit up with an impressive collection from a local collector. It was cool to see a painting by former Powell Peralta freestyler Cameron Martin next to works by Andy Warhol, Willem de Kooning, Frank Gehry, and more.

The Skateboard Mag - September 2005 Issue 18

Brian Wenning #4.

Bright blue sky.

Brian was the champ of switch backside 180 and 360 ollies. He also had complete command of switch heelflips.

I saw two bald eagles fly over when I was skateboarding in the driveway yesterday after work.

Mike Blabac took the picture.

The Skateboard Mag - October 2005 Issue 19

Anthony "Ragdoll" Scalamere #2.

Icarus Line.

After departing the Black Label, Ragdoll kept up his total spot destruction on Pig. The folks at Tum Yeto briefly expanded their wheel company to include boards in the early 2000s. His part in 2005's Slaughterhouse is all choice cuts with lots of street grabs, snappy backside 360 ollies, technical tricks, and big gap hi-jinx.

The Skateboard Mag - March 2006 Issue 24

Brandon Westgate #5.

Big apple hardflip.

Brandon recently released a new video part for New Balance. It's full of his signature big ollies up, down, and over everything. He also does a lot of tailslides, sometimes with a kickflip out, on a variety of ledges and obstacles.

Brian Uyeda took the photo.

The Skateboard Mag - January 2006 Issue 22

Antwuan Dixon.

Pizza and ice cream for breakfast.

Antwuan split his time growing up between Carson and Victorville, California. He actually was sponsored by the extremely short lived company called Young Guns before giving his tape to Beagle at a party. Beagle passed it along to Andrew Reynolds and Antwuan was added to the Baker team. He quickly picked up éS as a sponsor, too. He turned pro for Baker and later made the in-house shuffle over to Deathwish. Antwuan would switch to Supra for his footwear. He had the most relaxed style with perfect foot placement on all his tricks, even when he was jumping down big gaps and stairs. His flip tricks looked effortless and his debut part in 2005's Baker 3 video earned him a ton of fans. Unfortunately, Antwuan has gone through some serious struggles in his life. At the same time, he's also only in his early 30s so who knows what the future holds.

For the info: The Skateboard Mag - February 2006 Issue 23

The Skateboard Mag - December 2005 Issue 21

Justin Strubing #4.

There's a tour article in Transworld from the early 2000s with an awesome quote about Justin. I think they're on a trip around Europe and wind up skating some weird art installation. The author said everybody else was struggling at the spot, except for Justin, who had no problems blasting ollies on the messed up surface. The writer surmised that since Strubing grew up skating Derby, he was a complete natural at any and all odd transitions. I'll stumble upon the story every once in a while and then forget to mark it. I believe it was in the back when Transworld was super thick so it's like trying to find a needle in a haystack. I want to say I found the story again when I put together the Alien Workshop feature last fall, but didn't write down where it was. Someday I'll get it right. This is really bugging me for some reason.

I got skateboarding 16 times in February. There were no cheap ones either, like where I just did a couple ollies and powerslides on a slightly wet street and counted it. Given all the snow and cold we had, I'm a little amazed.

The photo is by Joe Brook.

The Skateboard Mag - March 2006 Issue 24