Andrew Reynolds #20.

Showtime.

The Boss does a noseslide at Food Court Skatepark in Buffalo, New York. Buffalo was one of four stops on New Balance's Running The Numbers tour. It's cool that Food Court is hosting demos and contests to help grow skateboarding in Western New York. It's also a little wild to think that Thrasher and New Balance would visit this side of the state.

Congrats to Chris Joslin on winning SOTY. I really thought Tom Schaar would win based on two incredible vert parts.

Merry Christmas and happy holidays. I hope everybody has a good weekend.

Javier Mendizabal #7.

Dark spots floating in front of my eyes.

This is some of earliest coverage of Javier in a US magazine. He was one of the first riders on Cliché in 1999 and was a staple of their team during the 2000-10s. His artwork was recently used on an album cover for Ray Barbee. The same art would make its way to a board for Ray on Krooked as a guest artist special. Javier's part in The Strongest of the Strange from 2005 is great and he's one of my favorite skaters.

North Cal was the Spanish distributor for Deluxe, NHS, Think, and other assorted brands. I'm not sure if they are still around.

I swung by the skatepark after work on Monday. It didn't seem so windy when I left the office, but it was once I got to the park. A slight rain/snow mix showed up at 5:00 PM so I gave up at that point. It was not cold out at all so losing the time to wind and snow was a bummer since the lights are still on. I did a few frontside sliders on the curb, fakie ollies on the quarter, and a frisbee toss on flat. I guess this counts as skateboarding.

The photo is credited to Carri. I'm not sure on a full name.

Thrasher - June 1998 Volume 18 Number 6

John Worthington.

Doomed Creature.

John is from Auburn, California. He has a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Sacramento State. His dad is a surfer and skater so John basically grew up on a skateboard. In addition to shredding pools for Creature, he works as a glass blower and makes all sorts of cool things. John has had some sick photos in Thrasher lately.

Doom Sayers is Omar Salazar's project. He started it when he was still riding for the Alien Workshop as a clothing company. Once the Workshop ended, he expanded Doom Sayers to include boards. Cody Chapman was a pro rider. I always intend to do a week of scans, except they don't advertise often and would sometimes use random historical photos without skateboarding in their ads.

I did get to skateboard over the weekend. I went to Jamestown Skateboard Products on Saturday afternoon. The day was warmer. However, it was also breezy and damp so I figured an indoor park was the best option. It was nice rolling around in their garage street setup. I smacked my knee. Nothing serious, but enough to kill the buzz. It sucked because skating was feeling good for a change. Sunday was cold with a few very light snow flakes in the air. Nothing ever got wet so I skated in the driveway late in the afternoon. I got in about 30 minutes before my trucks froze up.

The new Transworld Photo Annual showed up in the mail yesterday. It's cool to have an issue of TWS in print again. The annual is on the thin side and has one article plus two odd ads. Maybe that's a good format for print in 2025. The photos look great and Blair Alley put in a lot of work for the project. It's worth checking out.

The photo is by Daniel Stelly.

Thrasher - October 2018 Volume 39 Number 10

Franky Villani #3.

Snotty pivot.

Fos did Franky's first pro model graphic for Primitive so it makes sense he would ride for Heroin's wheel company.

Here's a bonus photo of Franky doing a noseblunt slide at Food Court Skatepark from the New Balance demo back in October.

It warmed up and the snow melted so I got to skateboarded in the driveway after work the last two days. It wasn't for very long due to the early sunsets, but it counted. That's about the best you can do when you live in a place with seasons.

Taylor Ballard took the photo.

Thrasher - November 2025 Volume 46 Number 11

Jason Adams #24.

Grab the rail.

Jason blasts an air at a popular street transition spot. I think this thing is out in LA. I've always been a fan of The Kid and it's cool he is still out there contributing to skateboarding.

The photo is by Taylor Ballard.

Thrasher - October 2025 Volume 46 Number 10

Kanaan & Dalton Dern.

The brothers are going to work it out.

The Dern brothers are from Apopka, Florida, which is near Orlando. Their other brother, Destin, is the one who got them into skateboarding. I think they do a YouTube channel with features about famous skate spots, in addition to their own skating. They both turned pro in the fall of 2024 in a joint effort by Zero and Heroin.

Kanaan's photo is by Kurt Hodge and Dalton's photo is by Will Owens.

Kanaan: Thrasher - December 2024 Volume 45 Number 12

Dalton: Thrasher - August 2025 Volume 46 Number 8

Nolan Houghton #2.

Propeller hat.

Nolan is from Placentia, California. He rides for Heroin, Ace Trucks, Pepper Griptape, and Opus Footwear. His preferred terrain is DIY skateparks and ditches. Nolan is not adverse to doing assorted boneless or finger flip tricks.

The scenic western landscape is by Taylor Ballard.

Thrasher - September 2024 Volume 45 Number 9

Swampy.

Swamp Thing.

I found two ads for Snot Wheels that I liked and put together a week of creations by Mark "Fos" Foster. He's been running Heroin Skateboards since 1998 and probably does the graphic design for your favorite company or pro. The egg shaped wide boards by Heroin have been extremely popular the last couple of years. They aren't really cup of tea, but I'm happy to see a lifer like Fos make something that a lot of people enjoy.

It snowed this weekend and I had a head cold so no skateboarding once again.

The photo is by Taylor Ballard.

Thrasher - August 2024 Volume 45 Number 8

Shiloh Greathouse #4.

Genius Street.

Shiloh does a kickflip to frontside noseslide out on the streets. This was the last of World Industries ads from the series. They promptly went on to hawking Wet Willy and Flame Boy silliness with their advertising dollars after this. It's a bit of a shame as it would've been cool to keep doing stuff along these lines. Shiloh was on World for a long time. He had a solid part in Love Child back in 1992. He would later ride for Deca, Bueno, Elwood, and Dekline. There's probably a couple other sponsors I'm forgetting for one of the better names in pro skateboarding.

We've had snow for the last two weeks so I haven't been able to roll at all. The weather has been just dicey enough to make a trip to indoor park unfeasible, too. If it was a smidge warmer, skateboarding probably would have been possible since I've kept the driveway cleared out and we haven't gotten that much of the white stuff. The weekend looks messy with a potential storm. I'll see how it goes. I wouldn't mind the time off from skating so much if I was actually getting a few other mundane chores done, but I'm not. Have a good one.

Big Brother - December 1998 Issue 43

Mike Crum #9.

Visionary.

The Nollie Lama pilots a switch pop shove-it over a vert channel. You can't go wrong with a good backyard ramp. Mike rode for Vision, Prime, and World Industries over his pro career. He was sponsored by Duffs, Recs, and DVS for shoes. I like his no handed approach to vert. It is progression without delving into the strange realm of doing new tricks simply because they have not been done before.

Transworld - December 1998 Volume 16 Number 12

Rob "Sluggo" Boyce #7.

Concrete Wilderness.

Rob launches a backflip out of the bowl at a Vancouver skatepark. The stunt made the cover of the May 1998 issue of Transworld. Rob rode for G & S and Real. He was on Real even before Tommy Guerrero and Jim Thiebaud were on. Jeff Klindt and Steve Ruge offered him a spot at the very beginning of the company during a contest at Linda Vista. Henry Sanchez was the only other rider at the time. Sluggo would turn pro for Real in 1991 and would switch to World Industries a couple years later. David Gravette would also score the cover of Transworld with a backflip in 2012.

Transworld - November 1998 Volume 16 Number 11

Daewon Song #9.

King Tech.

This is the series of ads that I was thinking of from the sequential vert week. For World Industries in 1998, they are not that bad. You get Daewon entering into the prime of his school yard furniture moving era, which probably resulted from being really good at skateboarding and the boredom of skating the same things every day.

Transworld has once again entered the print realm with a photo annual issue. I ordered a copy and we'll see how it turns out. It's good that they are back in some form in the real world.

Big Brother - July 1998 Issue 38

Kareem Campbell & Enrique Lorenzo.

Filler.

When I did the week of vert sequences, I was thinking of a series of ads that World Industries did in 1998. A quick browsing of the Chrome Ball Incident turned up nothing so I tracked them down myself. For Flame Boy/Wet Willy era World, they weren't terrible because they left those characters out. However, World only ran four ads in the series so I needed something else to fill out the week. That's why it is a double shot of Kareem and Enrique. Both of these are sick photos, especially Kareem's ollie, that are ruined with some little kiddie cartoons. In an era that was defined by fresh or not, I'm surprised skaters stuck with World.

There was a full size poster of the Kareem ad. I don't think it had the characters on it.

In a related note, CCS is doing a reissue of some assorted Flame Boy and Wet Willy boards and clothing. Nostalgia has maybe finally worn out its welcome.

Mr. Campbell: Transworld - April 1998 Volume 16 Number 4

Mr. Lorenzo: Transworld - May 1998 Volume 16 Number 5