Brandon Westgate #6.

No tow-ins.

Brandon has maintained his mastery of giant street ollies and kickflips after all these years as was shown in Intervals, the latest New Balance video. It's too bad he's stuck in board sponsor purgatory by riding for Element, but it somehow seems to be working for him. What's more impressive is that Brandon relied on his legs to get the speed for nearly every trick he did in the part. Modern skateboarding, with its reliance on tow-ins to jump a gap or rail and then crash into a wall upon landing, is uninspiring to watch. I'd rather watch Westgate push.

Thrasher - December 2015 Volume 36 Number 12

Peter Hewitt #20.

Joe Pino's old ledge spot.

Pete gets inverted at the famous Washington Street skateboard park. The place has been around for 25 years now. Thrasher had a story on its history in the November issue. Joe started building concrete benches back in 1999 due to a lack of spots in San Diego. A bench and a flatbar eventually grew into a massive concrete park underneath a bridge.

I know Dickies has had a skateboard team for a while and I was curious who else rode for them. In 2015, they were giving free clothes to Vincent Alvarez, Stevie Perez, Ronnie Sandoval, and Jon Sciano to name a few. I believe Jim Greco was a rider at some point, too. Vincent and Ronnie are still formally on the team in 2024. I imagine Dickies flows a number of other skaters gear, too.

The photograph is by Sam Muller.

Thrasher - December 2015 Volume 36 Number 12

Ed Templeton #35.

Yellowish green.

Ed goes for a long boardslide ride in the heyday of Emerica. Jamie Thomas has a new shoe company called WARSAW. Ed is possibly involved and has at the least drawn the logo.

I probably should've gone to the UMA Landsleds demo at Food Court this weekend, but it wasn't really going to fit into my schedule. I did check back in at Jamestown Skateboard Products. I hadn't been there in a couple of months. They added a 10" high, extra long, wide straight ledge to their garage street course. The ledge doubles as a stage for when they have bands. It really makes the street setup a lot more fun. The crew from Lowcard visited for the annual King of the Ramp contest and will have an article on the event in their next issue. That's about all the local skate gossip I've got.

Transworld - February 2002 Volume 20 Number 2

Rob Welsh #9.

All things pass into the night.

Lakai as we've known it for the last quarter century is done. Crailtap posted a thank you video that fully implied the people who made the company are no longer involved. I imagine the brand will live on as some phantom entity until the venture capitalists put it out to pasture, but it won't be the same and nobody is going to buy the shoes. I'm a tad bummed out over all this. It's going to be weird not wearing Lakai after 25 years.

Transworld - November 2003 Volume 21 Number 11

Kerry Getz #8.

Our showroom is next door.

I'm always stoked on any Kerry Getz coverage. He was such a powerhouse of a skater in the late 1990s and early 2000s. His gap out to frontside slider was in Mosaic, the Habitat video from 2003.

This contest was wild. Did anybody win it?

The photo is by Ryan Gee.

Transworld - November 2002 Volume 20 Number 11

Adrian Lopez #2.

Technical Zero.

Adrian was probably the most technically inclined of the skaters on Zero until Wilton Souza came along in 2024. He was throwing down switch 360 flips in his video parts to go along with the expected rail stunts.

Paul "Skin" Phillips was the photographer.

Transworld - October 2002 Volume 20 Number 10

Karl Watson #5.

Best griptape out there.

I always rode Black Magic for grip until it started getting kind of crappy so I switched over to Jessup. I've never had any problems with it in the years since. The design staff did a respectable job piecing this ad together with the griptape in the background.

Thrasher - October 2002 Volume 22 Number 10