Grant Taylor #6.

If you told somebody in 1995 that Anti-Hero would still be relevant in 2025 and that half the team would ride for Nike, they'd probably say, "Wait, what?"

RIP David Lynch and Bob Uecker.

The photos are probably by Joe Brook and Max Scharff.

Thrasher - January 2024 Volume 45 Number 1

Nolan Houghton.

The Egg Men.

I see more Heroin boards than anything these days. To be fair, I live in small market and probably don't have the biggest field to gather data from. At the same time, people are riding them. Their football shaped boards have an absurd appeal. It must be a little boring for Mark "Fos" Foster to keep having draw variations of an egg, but he's a lifer and student of the game so any success is well earned. I like their ad photos. They feel raw and in your face like the 1980s.

The photo is by Dave Mount.

Thrasher - March 2024 Volume 45 Number 3

John Shanahan #4.

Smooth as ice.

This was my favorite photo of 2024. It reminds me of the early 1990s when guys like Noah Salasnek and Alan Petersen were blasting big airs on ramps.

The photo is by Mike Heikkila.

Thrasher - May 2024 Volume 45 Number 5

Elijah Berle #3.

Controversy averted.

I was fine with the Elijah after watching his episode of Thrasher's Vs. with Austyn Gillette.

Thrasher - September 2015 Volume 36 Number 9

Jamie Foy #3.

The People's Champ x 2.

As expected, Jamie picked up his second SOTY for his on-board efforts in 2024. He probably skated better this past year than when he won the award the first time. The other finalists for 2017 were Tristan Funkhouser, Riley Hawk, Tiago Lemos, Louie Lopez, Shane O'Neill, Miles Silvas, and Daan Van Der Linden. A very strong field, but perhaps lacking anybody that really stood out aside from Tiago and Shane. A couple of those guys hadn't fully established themselves as pros yet either. A new face like Jamie would generate the excitement to earn his first Rusty, whereas this time around, he opted to skateboard better than everybody else, like what Tyshawn Jones did.

This ad had to be some of Jamie's first major coverage after debuting to the masses in the August 2017 issue of Thrasher. Michael Burnett helmed a tour of the southern United States with a bunch of the hot amateurs of the day. The squad was Axel Cruysberghs, Corey Glick, Zach "Ducky" Kovacs, Tyson Peterson, Mason Silva, Jarne Verbruggen, Erick Winkowski, and Zion Wright. Mike Sinclair acted as the team manager for the journey. Burnett said it was the heaviest crew he had ever been on a trip with and felt they were gnarlier than peak Baker, Flip, and Zero. Looking over the list now, he's possibly not wrong about that.

The weather has been seasonal so far this year. Somehow I pieced together something that counted as a week of skateboarding over the last seven days. The biggest problem was some strong winds as it has been mostly dry. I even got in a trip to the Food Court Skatepark. It warmed to about 32˚ F/0˚ C for Friday and the wind quit so things felt comfortable at the park after work. Amazing what a couple small weather changes can do to improve a situation. Sunday wound up being sunny and dry so I could skate in the driveway for a while in the afternoon. It was nice not having to deal with the cold, the winds, or an early sunset. The snow appears to be back for the week ahead.

I've got the feature on the best of 2024 all scanned. That will be the posts for the three weeks. I'm working on a batch of HUF scans from 2015-17, but I keep finding new ones so it is turning into a mess. It will be cool once I get everything organized.

I'm on Bluesky now at justingoetz. I'm not exactly sure what I'm doing on there and still trying to figure the site out.

Thrasher - October 2017 Volume 38 Number 10

Ryan Lay #7.

Magic Trick.

I'm sentimental for the days when Welcome was the company featuring unique art paired with obscure synth pop and post-punk music from the 1980s and 1990s. I guess they are still that, but they tapped into something special when they made Fetish, one of the better videos of the last 10 years. Ryan Lay is an all time great and it's good that people like him are involved in skateboarding.

Vert Is Dead will be back on Monday, January 13th. It will be a review of selected highlights from 2024.

I feel like I should write a few words to wrap things up, but I don't really have much to say this go round. Skateboarding went pretty well for much of the year until we got served with some actual winter in December. The times I did skate this month were all solid, except for today's quick lunch break session. The breeze picked up right when I got to the park so I'm going to be haunted by a sloppy boardslide on a curb until the next time I get to skateboard.

Happy New Year, everybody!

The photograph is by Kyle Seidler.

Thrasher - May 2015 Volume 36 Number 5

The Back Forty.

The future is so bright that you have to wear shades.

This is one of those total headscratcher ads. I think the Back Forty was something Marc Johnson did out of Crailtap. I'm not sure if it was ever intended to be a board brand or was simply Marc being silly. Chris Roberts and Kenny Anderson were also on what I guess would be the team. Kenny did have a skateboarding sequence ad a couple months later. I don't think the project lasted more than a year.

Thrasher - April 2014 Volume 35 Number 4