Jessie Van Roechoudt #6.

Kelowna's Finest.

Jessie was a ripper in the late 1990s and early 2000s. She was pro for Rookie, Vans, Venture, and FTC. These days she works as a marketing manager at Adidas.

Skateboard clothing always perplexes me, especially when bigger brand names try to enter the field. You know they aren't going to stick around, simply based on the track record of previous clothing endeavors. Once a brand makes a skate line, there is a running countdown clock until they either go out of business or cut the team to move in a different direction. For example, Louie Lopez left his longtime clothing sponsor of Volcom to ride for Noah within the last year. I'm completely fine with him making a change, but why pick Noah? They had a skateboard team once and released a shoegaze soundtracked video that garnered them some support. They then cut the team, did a bit of a rebrand, and are back for round two. That doesn't sound like the best choice of company to get involved with. Louie is a bigger name with a definite fanbase so maybe he can make it work for them, but the odds aren't really in his favor. How long until they either close up shop and/or decide skateboarding isn't cool?

Congrats to Miles Silvas on winning SOTY. I'm a little late with that, but whatever. The part Miles had was really good and featured that intangible quality to make it stand out from the others. I thought Tony Hawk really should have won to close out his pro career in a sense.

The photo is by Richard Hart.

Transworld - November 2001 Volume 19 Number 11