Richie Belton.

Dave Carnie had an anecdote in Big Brother about Guns N' Roses. Every time he had people over to his house he would put a record on in his living room. After a little bit he would leave the room for whatever reason and when he returned, somebody had inevitably changed the music to Appetite For Destruction. He wrote that he got tired of constantly being welcomed to the jungle so he started hiding his copy of the LP. On the rock side of things, skateboarding was obsessed with Axl, Slash, and company in the early 2000s to the point of ridiculousness. It was also obsessed with David Bowie. I'm not a huge Bowie fan, but at least he has an expansive and diverse catalog of songs to pick from. We've gotten about as much milage as we're gonna get from Guns N' Roses, as was evidenced by two different G N'R shirts in yesterday's post. Girl possibly achieved maximum saturation by using a song from each artist for the soundtrack to Yeah Right! in 2003.

Big Brother - December 2003 Number 103

Kris Markovich #27.

Rock & Rollers.

Hollywood was Kris Markovich's company after he had been on Foundation for a couple of years. It was distributed by Tum Yeto and featured a few guys who had ridden for the F-Troop. Kris also brought in some of his friends to fill out the team. If I recall correctly, Markovich liked it at Foundation, but was getting some wild offers so doing his own board project again made sense. They went with the rock & roll theme that was very popular at the turn of the century. Hollywood made a promo with quite possibly the longest name ever for a video. I have it on VHS, but haven't watched it in a couple of decades. I should see how it holds up. The company was not around long before fading away into the hills.

Big Brother - October 2002 Number 89

Guy Mariano, Rudy Johnson & Tim Gavin.

Handrawn Sequences.

It's a power trio of tricks from the younger guys on the Blind team. I like the layout of the advertisement. I know Rudy was pro in late 1991/early 1992. Was Guy pro yet? This was probably The Gav's first time in a proper ad. The backside 360 ollie is so sick, especially considering the sequence was most likely taken in late 1991. I'm not sure if Mark Gonzales was still involved with Blind. He was definitely on his way out the door, if he hadn't left already. Jason Lee was still on, but would be gone by the summer. Henry Sanchez would soon be added to the team and would star with Tim in Tim & Henry's Pack of Lies video in the fall of 1992. Those were the video days.

Chops has a great new interview with Louis Carlton of Small Room fame up at the Chrome Ball Incident.

I got skateboarding a couple days this week. I did put new wheels on the new board. It was needed. I want to go skate someplace other than the driveway, but the yo-yoing weather conditions are making it difficult. I haven't been skating too well either so that is making it even less appealing to hit up a different park or spot. I hope everybody has a good weekend.

Thrasher - March 1992 Volume 12 Number 3

Coco Santiago #6.

Ride on.

Coco is from either New Jersey near Manhattan, New York City, or San Francisco. There really isn't a ton of info about him. He rode for Shut, the famous East Coast powerhouse squad that dominated all the contests in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Real would turn him pro and he would later ride for Black Label. His favorite bands included Mercyful Fate, Motörhead, Thin Lizzy, Judas Priest, and Slayer. He was part of the original Hellride crew with Jake Phelps and company. Coco was a gnarly all terrain skater for much of the 1990s before disappearing.

I hate when people crop scans. I try to avoid doing it whenever possible and mention when I do. It takes away from the context of the original. Sure there can be a lot of dead space you don't need and many a rad photo has been wrecked by being a subscription or shop ad, but it omits part of the story. I thought this picture of Coco was cool. I also wanted to include the full advertisement it ran in for reference purposes. Whatsport was a shop in SF that carried Real, Black Label, Think, and Alien Workshop goods.

Thrasher - April 1992 Volume 12 Number 4

John Cardiel #21.

Slick gossip.

The nosegrind to noseslide was a popular street move in 1992. It was right up there with running very small photo sequences. Cards was pro for Dogtown before switching to Black Label and winning Thrasher's Skater of the Year award.

It was rainy this weekend so I didn't skateboard much. I set up a new deck. The old one was definitely done, even though it felt like I barely skated the board. My ollies were popping again and I had better control on other tricks. It's weird how boards wear out and impact tricks in ways you didn't expect.

Thrasher - February 1992 Volume 12 Number 2

J.R. Neves.

"Let's enjoy the skilled bravado of Sir J.R. Neves."

J.R. was from Philadelphia and sadly passed away in 2009. He rode for Stereo and was pro for 151. He also rode for Scott Bourne's Unbelievers. J.R. had a mean kickflip.

I've gotten in some driveway skateboarding this week after work. It has remained chilly. Skating in the cold doesn't bug me too much, but this winter has been a strange one. I'm not really sure what is up with that.

Does anybody from Australia or New Zealand check this site? My stats show zero views from either of those fine two countries and that seems odd.

Thrasher - November 1999 Volume 19 Number 11

Mike Carroll #25.

Riding On The Wind.

Since Greg Carroll was running Lucky, obviously his brother Mike was going to be on the team.

After our latest windstorm and minimal burst of winter, the weather might finally be shifting to a more spring-like pattern. I did skateboard a little over the weekend and got to roll in the driveway yesterday. I really need to set up that new board, but it's been cold so I haven't felt like doing so.

Thrasher - August 1999 Volume 19 Number 8

Bob Burnquist #11.

Escondido shuffle.

Bob has shown up a couple times recently. He had a photo in Thrasher doing an invert on a mini ramp at a music festival they did in Texas. His decaying vert playground was in Tom Schaar's Curtains part with a guest trick from the owner himself.

Thrasher - June 1999 Volume 19 Number 6

Dan Drehobl #36.

Chromium 52100 Steel.

Dan tests his luck with a lien to tail on the top shelf. I only had one set of Lucky bearings. I think they were fine, although if I recall correctly, everybody else had problems with them. That's usually how it goes for most products and me. You kind of forget how much coverage many of the pros got back in the glory days of print media. Everybody remembers the classic photos, but then there are plenty of ads for secondary sponsors that are buried in the back pages of the mags.

Thrasher - February 1999 Volume 19 Number 2

Kenny Hughes #6.

Green bolts.

Kenny does a tailslide on a rail during the Element and DC Shoes days. Lucky was a bearing and bolt company out of the Think/Deluxe warehouse. They did expand the brand to include boards, too. I've been meaning to post more of Kenny so stumbling upon this Lucky ad was a fortunate coincidence.

Nice to see Antwuan Dixon pop up again on the cover of Thrasher.

Thrasher - January 1999 Volume 19 Number 1

Jeff Pang #5.

Thunder & lighting.

Jeff is from NYC. He rode for Shut, Underworld Element, Cream, and Zoo York. In addition to being pro for Zoo, he also served as their team manager. Later on Jeff would work at DC Shoes in the same capacity. He was working as an electrician and not skateboarding as much when Andy Howell offered him a spot on Underworld Element. There was also a chance Jeff might have gotten on Blind in the early days, but he politely declined out of loyalty to Shut.

It was warm and sunny yesterday with the always present high winds. I gave driveway skateboarding a go after work. I wasn't really landing much and was worn out, but I wanted to get outside since the weather looks cold and wet going forward.

Vert Is Dead will be back on Monday, March 16th. I've had a head cold this week so updating was not a priority.

The game plan is a week of Lucky for St. Patrick's Day. I'll do a short week later in March to finish up what I originally had scanned for this week.

Thrasher - September 1992 Volume 12 Number 9

Moses Itkonen #4.

We rule the school.

Moses skips the roll-in ramp and does a crooked grind to noseslide to revert on the ledge at Wallenberg. This Thunder ad looks much like a Real ad, which makes sense, but they usually try to separate the companies a little with the graphic design. John Shanahan had a cool photo doing an ollie over a fence and into the bank at the school recently. It's neat to see tricks at a long time spot that don't involve a different flip down a giant set of stairs.

It warmed up for the weekend. Due to a little rain and high winds, I only skateboarded on the ledges I have in my driveway. I was thinking about visiting an indoor park until I decided I was too out of sync from the stupid clock change. I probably made the right choice to get outside and enjoy the fresh air.

Thrasher - November 1992 Volume 12 Number 11

Peter Smolik #3.

Lord Pillage.

Pete rolls the dice on a backside kickflip over a roof gap. This trick would have been during his prime in the Shorty's and Osiris era. I haven't scanned a lot of his ads over the years. Pete falls into the category of being well documented already. One of the goals when I started this site was to focus on the more obscure skaters and companies. I've basically achieved that goal so that gives me the space to revisit stuff I might have skipped over earlier.

I remember how big a deal his shoe was back at the end of the 1990s. Pete also had a pair of signature jeans from Osiris. The gimmick was that the jeans had a velcro tab on the inside of the cuff that paired with a matching tab on the shoes. It would keep your pants from getting frayed by preventing the cuffs from touching the ground. I believe his shoe was synthetic. Funny thing is that I doubt Pete was overly picky about such a thing. My vegan friend had a pair and I know he wouldn't have bought them if the shoes used suede or leather. He had the jeans, too. I thought it was a little odd to attach your pants to your shoes, but Osiris found a market niche to occupy with an innovative product.

The weather has been alternating between dry days and rain. I've gotten in some driveway skateboarding this week and it will probably be good for today once the fog clears out. The weekend looks warmer, but with a chance of thunderstorms. I need to set up a new board with some fresh wheels. I've only skated my current board 25 times due to winter and yet it is looking worn out. Most of those times weren't very long and it's not like I'm doing anything gnarly so it feels too soon to set up a new ride. Hope everybody has a good weekend.

Slap - January 2000 Volume 9 Number 1

Tim Upson #8.

"JJ Rogers. I used to get stoked to see pictures of that guy, he was burly."

The Updog floats a heelflip over a jersey barrier for Spitfire. He's from Connecticut. Tim rode for Black Label and Anti-Hero. He was doing Hard Times Manufacturing with Brian Seber in the 2010s. I'm not sure if they are still in business. I kept flipping by this ad thinking I had scanned it already, but I never did. Tim is one of those underground rippers with that aura of mystery that makes him cool.

For the quote: Thrasher - April 1996 Volume 16 Number 4

Slap - November 1999 Volume 8 Number 11

Kris Markovich #26.

Burning up the 90s.

I don't think it would be an absurd claim to make that Kris was probably the best street skateboarder of the 1990s. Based on his body of work, few others had as many top tier video parts, photos, interviews, and overall coverage for the ten year span. I'm not flat out saying he was the best or that we even need to declare a best, but Kris was out there skating as hard as possible year in and year out. His trick selection was spot on and he avoided the pitfalls of following the trends too closely. The pundits always ding him on the sponsorship changes, which mostly happened in the early 1990s when the industry was in a state of flux. It's important to note that Kris never stopped ripping regardless of what company's board he was riding.

Slap - September 1999 Volume 8 Number 9

Reese Forbes #11.

Blinding sunlight.

Like Scott Johnston, Reese also took the Maryland to DC to California route for skateboarding. He rode for Goodtimes, turned pro for Element, and was part of Rasa Libre with Matt Field and Nate Jones. Brad Staba added him as the first professional for Skate Mental when the company went beyond making ping pong paddles and beer koozies. For shoe sponsors, I think he might have ridden for Emerica before landing on Vita and then the relaunched Nike skateboarding program. Reese was featured prominently in Dan Wolfe's Eastern Exposure video series.

I don't really have too much to say about Reese since I'm a fan of his skating and followed along with his career over the years. He didn't have a lot of interviews so there wasn't a lot of background to dig up. I'm beginning to write these profiles for people who might be stumbling on this site for the first time or if somebody skated and then stepped away for whatever reason. I'm trying to avoid writing stuff that could easily be churned out by a machine, too. That's a new creative approach that we didn't have to deal with a few years ago.

Slap - August 1999 Volume 8 Number 8

Scott Johnston #8.

Crispy clean.

Scott burns a noseblunt slide across a handrail. He's from Maryland and skated in DC a lot before getting on Think and moving out to San Francisco. Scott would turn pro for Think, switch over to Mad Circle, and end his career on Chocolate. He rode for DC Shoes and got in on the ground floor at Lakai. Scott has since moved on to being a shoe designer. During his time in SF, he used to skate vert at Max Schaaf's ramp with Max and Bob Burnquist.

It was mostly dry, although a tad on the chilly side for the weekend. I stuck with skateboarding in the driveway. I was thinking about going to an indoor park, but decided to stay home instead. I've been kind of worn out lately. I need to check the local park to see if all the snow has melted away. I figure there are probably a few drifts left. This week's warmer temperatures and rain should take care of that. I probably need to set up a new board with new wheels soon. I probably need new shoes, too.

Slap - July 1999 Volume 8 Number 7