Dylan Witkin #2.

Actual superstar of BMX.

Dylan was a new rider on Foundation for Oddity. This roll-in was the first trick in his part. He crushed a lot of big handrails and gaps in the section. A fun fact is that the Grateful Dead are one of his favorite bands.

Thrasher - November 2016 Volume 37 Number 11

Aidan Campbell & Dakota Servold.

Filling in the gaps.

Aidan and Dakota are both long time Foundation pros who still ride for the company today. Each had a gnarly part in Oddity. This was Aidan's last trick. He takes the frontside bluntslide to fakie off the end of the wall. Aidan skates a lot of rails and ditches. Dakota had been pro for a few years and was starting to establish himself as a high quality handrail destroyer.

Note: Tum Yeto rotates their ads so Foundation wasn't always in the mags every month. They did make an advertising push to promote Oddity at the end of 2016 and leading up to its premiere in 2017. I was hoping to find one more ad in the 'zine collage style, but I couldn't. That doesn't mean it doesn't exist, I simply couldn't find it.

Aidan: Thrasher - March 2016 Volume 37 Number 3

Dakota: Thrasher - August 2016 Volume 37 Number 8

Foundation's Oddity.

Oddities.

Foundation released a video in 2017 called Oddity. It was filmed by top notch videographer Don Luong. I think it was only released online, but Foundation does occasionally do short runs of DVDs. Gripes over physical formats aside, the team at the time was Corey Duffel, Corey Glick, Ryan Spencer, Nick Merlino, Joey Ragali, Dylan Witkin, Dakota Servold, Aidan Campbell, and Cole Wilson. Oddity had the expected high quality music curation that often happens with F-Troop flicks, except I'm ticked they didn't use the song "Oddity" by The Clean. It would've been perfect to work that tune in there somehow. I dig the Swank 'zine style for the ads. That's why I picked this era of Foundation for the week.

Congratulations to Nelly Morville for being moved up to the driver's seat at Limosine with a pro model.

One: Thrasher - December 2016 Volume 37 Number 12

Two: Thrasher - March 2017 Volume 38 Number 3

Kevin Bækkel #2.

Keep on pushing.

The word is that Kevin is off Emerica. I think a few other long time riders haven't been on the team for a while either, like Jeremy Leabres and Rob Pace. Since nobody keeps updated team rider pages on their websites, who actually knows what is going on? All that we hear are vague rumors that the industry is not in a good spot right now, which mirrors most of the last decade or so. It sucks that a company like Emerica is in a slump. At the same time, their shoe designs have been stuck in skateboarding's boat shoe era from 2010. It's not the most practical of styles to stick with so that doesn't help. I like their team and always enjoy the videos, but since physical media is dead, they aren't bringing in extra cash from DVD sales. Things are looking grim, even though everybody is out there skateboarding and churning out more videos than are humanly possible to take in.

The photograph is by Kyle Duval.

Thrasher - May 2018 Volume 39 Number 5

Collin Provost #11.

Chillin' with the dogs.

Collin had a classic part in Emerica's Made video from 2013. He blasts around a bunch of ditches, gaps, ledges, and parks to the sounds of Witchcraft and Radio Moscow. Made was such a good video with a quick run time, strong editing, Emerica appropriate music, and ripping parts from Jeremy Leabres, Leo Romero, and Brandon Westgate. They don't make 'em like that any more.

The weather has been assorted flavors of spring for the week. I started tinkering around with trying some different tricks that I used to be able to do. The results have been mixed. I had fun the one day, but not the other. That's how it goes, I guess. I definitely need to set up a new board soon. I want to start going to the local park again, but it has been too windy on the lake since December. Happy spring.

Thrasher - April 2018 Volume 39 Number 4

Jon Dickson #6.

Ice fishing.

It's always a frontside flip with Jon.

Thrasher - March 2018 Volume 39 Number 3

Kader Sylla #2.

Focused.

I like how Emerica picks a different font for each team rider. They used a hand drawn version of Impact, the font Baker uses, for Kader's name. He didn't ride for Emerica for very long and would be on Vans by later on in 2018. Kader switched to Adidas in 2021. He left Baker for Violet in 2023 and scored a Thrasher cover in 2024.

These ads were a very odd shade of green. I'm not sure if I made them better, worse, or correctly scanned the color.

Thrasher - February 2018 Volume 39 Number 2