Richard Kirby #2.

Richard was an all around shredder in the mid to late 1990s for Santa Cruz. He is doing Big Mess Skateboards these days.

Thrasher - December 1997 Volume 17 Number 12

Joel Price.

"My 17 year old ollie photo won’t have a photo blog credit associated with it because it was shot before blogs were invented. Back then people just talked to each other. It was a weird time." - Michael Sieben

That has nothing to do with Joel's back tail. I just like the quote. I like the photo, too.

I watched Toy Machine's Brainwash again last night. That's a nice video. I like Dan Lutheran's style. There's also a TM tour article written by Michael Burnett in the new issue of Thrasher, which is my formula for a great issue of the mag. As an added bonus, Sieben breaks down skateboard nostalgia.

The Chrome Ball Incident kept it Real all week long and nothing went horribly wrong like those skits on Dave Chappelle. Great work, Chops. I'm looking forward to seeing the Real video.

One more week of 1997 and then it's either onto 1998 or something different.

Slap - November 1997 Volume 6 Number 11

Edward Devera.

From Real to Mad Circle to ATM, Ed is still going today. It seems like it was only yesterday when he was bickering with Shawn Mandoli and laying down some smooth tech lines in the first Real video.

Slap - July 1997 Volume 6 Number 7

Sergei Trudnowski #2.

While they aren't Matt Reason's 63mm street crushers, 60mm is still approaching monster truck status. For a bit of perspective, 60mm would have been considered a slightly smaller street wheel in 1988 that very well could have been used by freestylers.

The photo is by Skip.

Thrasher - September 1997 Volume 17 Number 9

Caesar Singh #3.

Do you like it when you see a person wearing your shirt or riding your board?

I love it! I don't see it that often, but when I do, I get hyped. It's a definite ego-booster. They probably don't even care about you, they just like the board. I think I'm the shit for at least five minutes.

Caesar always seems to go over well.

Chris Ortiz take a ton of photos.

For the quote: Transworld - July 1996 Volume 14 Number 7

Transworld - April 1997 Volume 15 Number 4

Anthony Correa.

A Zoo York minute.

Dimitry Elyashkevich snapped the photo.

Slap - July 1997 Volume 6 Number 7

Josh Kasper.

"Josh Kasper cross-trains for the big gaps by jumping off the roof, hoping to make a big splash on the scene with his balls-out maneuvers."

I couldn't find the Gonz pic I wanted and the Vans ad announcing the debut of Simon Woodstock's pro model was maybe just barely stepping outside the boundaries of good taste, so a Benihana into a pool is about right for April Fools' Day.

Michael Burnett risked water damage to his camera to get this photo.

Thrasher - November 1997 Volume 17 Number 11