Ocean Howell #6.

Projecting a stereo mood.

Ocean was one of the finest technical skaters of the early to mid 1990s before moving on to an academic life of studying architecture. He was still ripping and would pop up in Slap or get a mention from Patrick O'Dell from time to time. Occasionally his writings on how skateboarders interact with the concrete environment would be published in the mags. Ocean is currently a professor at the University of Oregon. I think the university should make commercial of him skateboarding around campus for a minute. It would really stand out in the sea of college adverts that dot the television landscape. Ocean is riding a Flip board, which isn't as shocking as it sounds since they shared an office space with Birdhouse way back when.

The weather has been rainy, windy, and cold so skateboarding hasn't been happening a lot lately for me. I think I'm in a slump and not stoked on things either. I put on some new wheels the other day and that seemed nice. It might even dry out and warm up for the weekend.

Vert Is Dead is taking a break and will be back in a week or two.

It's going to be at least a week off and maybe two or even three. I'm just burned out on computers and I want some time off. I'll post a comment once I have a schedule plan in place.

The photographs are by Rob Brown.

Transworld - March 1995 Volume 13 Number 3

Marc Johnson #18.

Trippy night at Tito's Shampoo Lounge.

Marc takes a backside tailslide down Hubba Hideout during the much simpler times of the mid 1990s. He would have riding for Maple and Etnies when the photo was taken.

Transworld - November 1995 Volume 13 Number 11

Sean Mullendore #10.

Repping the district.

Sean crushes one of the ledges at Pulaski with a switch Smith grind. He rode for a bunch of companies, including Capital, Silver Star, Circuit Wheels, Pig Wheels, and more. Sean was also on Stereo and in their very last print ad, near as I can figure. Vanilla was a clothing line created by Joyride Snowboards. The other riders included Charlie Coatney, Reese Forbes, and Satva Leung.

This dumb thing turn 17 as of today. Yippee.

Note: This ad ran opposite Sean's Check Out in Transworld.

Pete Thompson took the photo sequence.

Transworld - December 1995 Volume 13 Number 12

Mike Sinclair #2.

Team manager to the stars.

Mike gets a lofty ollie for Endless Grind back in the good old days. He currently works as the team manager for Nike and Tum Yeto. He's been in those roles for a long time now. His pet project is Slappy Trucks, which seems to be gaining popularity as a new way to hold your wheels on your board. I like finding random older ads and photos like this where the person is still involved in skateboarding after all of the years.

The photo is by Ben Knight.

Transworld - October 1995 Volume 13 Number 10

Josh Beagle #15.

Vroom Vroom.

The OG Beagle was a handrail titan back in the 1990s and was a pioneer of doing more technical tricks on banisters. He stepped away from the pro ranks to work behind the scenes at Foundation before disappearing from the scene. His middle name is Zeus.

I rummaged around some Transworlds from 1995 and managed to find enough stuff I hadn't posted for the 17th anniversary week. I've been really into the middle to late 2010s, but wanted to switch it up for a little bit.

Transworld - May 1995 Volume 13 Number 5

Ruby Lilley.

DJ Goldfish.

Ruby is from Ocean City, Maryland. She moved out to California in an RV with her mom a few years back. Her speciality is parks and transitions with a focus on some of the older tricks like crail grabs, finger flips, and going to disaster. She is sponsored by Foundation, Vans, Ace Trucks, Bronson, and Bones Wheels.

The photo is by Brian Shamanski.

Thrasher - July 2022 Volume 43 Number 7

Toby Ryan.

Real Madness.

I think Toby is the new hot am on Real, but I'm not positive on this. There isn't much concrete information on his background and I'm connecting a couple dots that most likely connect. He possibly rode for DC Shoes and hung out with the SK8MAFIA crew, too. Did Toby maybe have a Lunatic Fringe in Thrasher within the last year or two? Anyway, this is a sick vertigo inducing photo.

Chris "Rhino" Rooney documented the foolish behavior.

Thrasher - March 2019 Volume 40 Number 3

Sam Beckett.

An air of madness.

Following in the footsteps of notable British vert skaters such as Steve Douglas, Hugh "Bod" Boyle, and Andy Scott is Norwich's own Sam Beckett. He turned pro for Blind a few years back and then made switch over to Madness in 2018. An interesting tidbit is that his pro model on Blind was issued in conjunction with Darren Navarrette's Skeleton Key. Sam is currently pro for Opera and involved with the Skateboard GB project.

The picture is by James Griffiths.

Thrasher - January 2021 Volume 42 Number 1

Clay Kreiner.

Clay is from Simpsonville, South Carolina. He gravitated toward parks and was hooked up by Woodward early on. Some of his favorite skaters include Grant Taylor, Raven Tershy, Ishod Wair, Zion Wright, and Alex Perelson. Clay currently rides for Opera, Indy, and Nike. He basically flies around skateparks doing the wild transfers that don't seem possible without pads. Clay even did a backflip on vert, which might have been inspired by Rob "Sluggo" Boyce.

Madness did some unique shapes, cutaways, and printing jobs on their boards. I don't know if I'd necessarily want to ride one of the decks, but they do look neat.

The photos are by Bailey Schreiner and Chris Dangaard.

BW: Thrasher - September 2019 Volume 40 Number 9

Boards: Thrasher - August 2020 Volume 41 Number 8

Madness.

Phantom of the Opera.

Madness was a vert oriented division of Dwindle that was started by Bill Weiss in the fall of 2018. The original team was Sam Beckett, Jack Fardell, Clay Kreiner, and Alex Perelson. The artwork was a mix of Francisco Goya and pop stylings. They were not afraid to create some unique shaped boards either. The team specialized in parks, vert ramps, and transitions. This seemed like a somewhat odd theme to base a company around, but I think they found a good niche to occupy. Shaped boards with creative artwork were popular back in 2018 thanks to Welcome and Polar so they capitalized on that to an extent. I'd see Madness decks around so I imagine they did a decent amount of business. It also felt genuine given Bill's background as a vert skater. The Madness ended when Dwindle collapsed in the fall of 2022. In the time since, Bill launched Opera Skateboards, which carries on along the same lines as Madness and with much of the same team.

Madness: Thrasher - September 2018 Volume 39 Number 9

Boards: Thrasher - October 2018 Volume 39 Number 10

Tom Schaar.

Vintage Ozzy.

Tom is from Malibu, California. He grew up with skateboarding and obtained fame as a small kid by spinning around a lot at assorted vert and mega ramp contests. Fortunately, that was a phase of his youth and he expanded his trick pallet to be more well rounded as the years went by. He was pro for Element and joined up with the growing ramp riding crew at Birdhouse in 2024. Tom recently dropped a heavy duty part called Vert's Not Dead that puts his unique spin on the big ramps with tricks inspired by the likes of Bob Burnquist, Colin McKay, Tony Hawk, Alex Perelson, Danny Way, Rune Glifberg, and more.

The weather has been rainy and spring-like over the last couple weeks so I've only been skateboarding in the driveway. It's been OK, but I haven't really been skating great for me and I think that's gotten in my head. I blame getting older more than anything. Or maybe it's just a bushing on my front truck that needs to be replaced. That's probably it.

Chris "Rhino" Rooney took the photograph.

Thrasher - March 2020 Volume 41 Number 3

Mami Tezuka.

Dancing on the ceiling.

Mami is from Shiga, Japan. She's pro for Blood Wizard and is a park specialist. Mami is friends with Lizzie Armanto. Her Smith grinds, feebles, and crailslides are all top notch.

The photo is by Tim Aguilar.

Thrasher - August 2022 Volume 43 Number 8

Elliot Sloan.

The Sloanyard.

Elliot is from Manhattan and relocated to California to skate vert. He learned how to skate on the few ramps that were in the New York and New Jersey area. Given the Big Apple's propensity for street skateboarding, it's a tad amazing that's what he picked, but he was inspired by Tony Hawk's 900 at a young age and stuck with it. Elliot would sometimes skate with Ivory and Shelter Serra and Rich and Sanford Lopez. He later would meet East Coast vert legends Tom Boyle, Darren Menditto, and Dan Tag. With a little bit of luck and an assist from Pierre-Luc Gagnon, Elliot bought a house in 2012 where he was able to install a giant ramp complex, similar to what Bob Burnquist has. ESPN even rented out his yard for an X-Games contest. His sponsors include Birdhouse, Fallen, Thunder, Skatelite, and Bones Wheels. Elliot is also into electronic music and scored his Monster Energy part himself with an appropriately titled song called "Ode To Rune".

The photo is by Will Owens.

Thrasher - April 2021 Volume 42 Number 4

Alex Perelson #2.

Influencer.

Alex is one of the skaters that the current crop of vert rippers often cite as an influence. He was professional for Real, but in one of those rare anomalies, didn't have a pro board with them as far as I can recall. His part in Since Day One is great and you won't use the vert button on it. There was a brief moment on Welcome before Alex found a home on Madness, the transition friendly company Bill Weiss started with Dwindle. Once Dwindle came to an end, he stuck with Bill to ride for Opera Skateboards. Many years ago I watched one of those vert contests on TV and Alex's first trick was to drop in on the extension to do a frontside 50-50 across the whole ramp. That's a ridiculous move when you think about it.

The photograph is by Brian Fick.

Thrasher - November 2012 Volume 32 Number 11

Mike Frazier & Darren Navarrette.

Stereo creatures.

With recent video parts from Tom Schaar, the duo of Jimmy Wilkins and Shea Donovan, and Elliot Sloan, the plan was to do a week of newer vertical skaters. So anyway, here's two vert legends who are in the ballpark of over/under 50 years old. Skatelite is a durable ramp surface material that's better than masonite or plywood. They've been around since the tail end of the 1990s.

Thrasher - June 2023 Volume 34 Number 6

Erick Winkowski #4.

"Erick's skating is a breath of fresh air after we've all been huffing gasoline 'til we're green in the face for the past 15 years. Watching him skate reminds me of what made me want to get a skateboard 33 years ago - it wasn't necessarily about what tricks you could do, it was how you did them. For a long time skating seemed to have evolved into just spinning and flipping everything. What happened to putting your own spin on skating and making shit unique? It's dying with the generation of my heroes, the guys before my peers and I started skating (Neil Blender, Lance Mountain, Ben Schroeder, Jeff Phillips, Jeff Kendall). Those guys all have unique, distinctive styles and personalities. In my era, guys got into progressing at such an accelerated rate that all the qualities that got me hyped in the first place seem to be left by the wayside. The first time I saw a clip of Erick, I knew he got it. If he were born an era before me, he would have been in that group of heroes that I mentioned, and that's good company!" - Mike Frazier

It's a bird's eye view of an interesting Erick Winkowski trick. I dig how this has that 1980s feel, which makes sense given the boards he prefers to ride. I don't think Erick is still on Emerica, along with a couple other long time riders. I know he sells boards, which maybe didn't carry over to footwear. Skateboarding is getting rather bleak these days.

It took forever to find the quote from Mike. I remembered the article in Thrasher where assorted pros chimed in on what they thought was cool about Erick. They even got a Neil Blender blurb. The feature was a bit older than I thought it was.

For the quote: Thrasher - September 2019 Volume 40 Number 9

Thrasher - October 2018 Volume 39 Number 10

Victor Aceves #2.

Bondo.

Victor was a ripper who maybe got lost a little in the great content glut of the universe we live in. He's doing an Allen Losi grind down a handrail. I believe this trick was also called a bag lady and was popular in the halcyon days of H-Street. I was never sure who Victor's board sponsor was. He rode for Toy Machine, Baker, and Foundation. The Baker connection would explain why he's riding a Deathwish deck in the photo.

Emerica sponsored a trio of new young ams in 2017 with Victor, Zach Allen, and Kader Sylla. I imagine they were hoping to have found a new group of skaters who would be on the team for a long time. They more or less struck gold when they added Bryan Herman, Kevin Long, Leo Romero, and Braydon Szafranksi to the roster in the early 2000s. That type of success is hard to duplicate. As far as I know, Victor is out of the sponsored skateboarding world, Zach is professional for Baker, and Kader is holding it down in the pro ranks for Violet and Adidas.

Thrasher - November 2018 Volume 39 Number 11