Rob Welsh #11.

Neon Optical Art.

Rob preserves his graphics with a frontside bluntslide. He's riding an Aesthetics board and would turn pro for them later on in 1999. This has to be one of the more disorienting and vibrant Venture ads ever.

Vert Is Dead is on a late summer break.

I'm taking next week off from this thing. There's a chance I might take two weeks off. I'll see how it goes. I've found a few interesting items that I have to put together. It feels like I never have time for stuff any more.

I'm still looking for the Adidas Norton ad with Paulo Diaz. It was a sequence of him doing a manual trick in a garage or warehouse setting. The shoes were available from Sartorius in 1995, which corresponds to the release date I found. I've checked most of the Transworlds and Thrashers from 1994 to 1997 and haven't found anything. I'm wondering if it ran in a different mag or even a non-skating mag? I'm going to put this one on the back burner because it is driving me crazy. I don't really like Adidas so I'm not sure what my motivation is to find it beyond proving that it exists. I did find a couple of other Adidas ads. If you think Nike had an awkward initial foray into skateboarding, Adidas struck out swinging on three straight pitches.

There's been rain and early sunsets so skateboarding has been lackluster lately. I did check out the new park on the Seneca Nation's Reservation. It's a little Grindline creation with some ledges, a tiny hip, quarter pipes, and a bowled wall type of obstacle. The place is really fun and has me stoked on skateboarding again. Have a good weekend!

Slap - April 1999 Volume 8 Number 4