Jaime Reyes #5.

Long distance traveler.

Since New York is known as the city that never sleeps, it is easy to see why Rookie went with so many nocturnal advertisements. I like how they took chances with arty photos, too. Jaime landed a spot on Real when Jim Thiebuad and Tommy Guerrero were visiting Hawaii in 1993 or 94. She did a nollie heelflip in front of Jim and he was impressed enough to add her to the team. Later she would move to NYC and turn pro for Rookie. Jaime had a Thrasher cover in April 1994. This pretty much wraps up my look back at Rookie as I've covered nearly everything with them. They definitely made a positive impact on skateboarding in the late 1990s.

I set up a new board with new trucks for the week. The breaking in process has not been going smoothly. I want to see if I can get the new bushings to work before I replace them with some old ones. Add in that I can't really skateboard very well any more so things just aren't fun right now. I need to get a new pair of shoes going, but I'm waiting until I get the trucks dialed in first. We shall see how it goes. Hope everybody out there has a good weekend.

Grant Kino and Giovanni Reda took the pictures.

K-grind: Slap - July 1998 Volume 7 Number 7

Kickflip: Slap - June 1999 Volume 8 Number 6

Jessie Van Roechoudt #9.

Nighttime ghosts of the old city.

Alexis Zavialoff and Joe Brook were the photographers.

Stairs: Slap - October 1997 Volume 6 Number 10

Nite: Slap - June 1998 Volume 7 Number 6

Shane Medanich.

Night & Day Flights.

Shane is from Eastchester, New York. He moved out to San Francisco after riding for Rookie. He's a musician and the founding drummer for skate rock titans Hightower. Shane was also the music editor for Lowcard. It appears he is still playing a lot of music and possibly works as a teacher.

The photos are by Tim Stanton and Giovanni Reda.

Ollie: Slap - September 1998 Volume 7 Number 9

Banks: Slap - April 1999 Volume 8 Number 4

Rookie 1999.

Orange & Blue.

Rookie had established itself with a solid team and very well designed advertisements by 1999. They found their NYC niche and added a few people to the roster. I don't really have much else to add as the story has been told fairly well already. This week is probably about the last batch of Rookie scans as I've posted the bulk of them. Many of the remaining ads have sequences with small photos and I never like how those look. I don't know. Just appreciate the cool photos and sensible fonts.

The photographs are by Angela Boatwright, Gabe Morford, and Mike O'Meally.

Slap - May 1999 Volume 8 Number 5

Rookie 1997.

The New York you don't know.

I think this is the first ad for Rookie. I like how they contrast their version of the city with the famous landmarks and the Zoo York/Supreme/Metropolitan crew. The New York City based company began as a clothing line by Catharine Lyons and Elska von Hatzfeldt that expanded into a proper skateboard entity. I'm mildly surprised Rookie debuted in Big Brother as they seem out of place in that mag, but it makes sense with the NYC connection to Dimitry Elyashkevich. I don't believe they had any other ads in Big Brother and stuck with Slap for the bulk of their existence.

It was nice to see the Knicks win a championship. Nothing against the Spurs, but this was probably New York's best chance to get a ring.

The photos are by Dimitry.

Big Brother - Spring 1997 Number 25

Ryan Wilburn & Anthony Furlong.

Torquing some air.

A pair of Southern rippers blast off for Torque. This was probably both guys first bigger sponsor. Ryan was on Stereo by the end of 1997 before switching over to Consolidated. Anthony is from Georgia and has ridden for Zoo York. That's about all the info I have on him. The graphic design for Torque was pretty decent. That's what caught my eye. It's very much of the middle 1990s, but also avoids the pitfalls of the era.

The park has been empty and the winds have calmed down so I've been going there to skateboard in the evenings lately. It's nice to roll around fast. I'm not really skating so great any more for me and it is wearing me out. I'll get a few tricks every time out that make me think I can still do this and the rest of the time is frustrating. I might just need some new trucks. And on that note, hope everybody has a good weekend.

Pete Thompson took his camera to the Skate Park of Tampa for Anthony's photo.

Ryan: Big Brother - June 1997 Issue 26

Anthony: Big Brother - December 1997 Issue 31

Chad Kramer.

Monster centipede.

Chad is from the Reading, Pennsylvania area. He'd make appearances in the mags when they trekked out east. There's a possibility he skated with Bam Margera and his crew. I don't know anything about him other than he had a lot of ads for Torque and could obviously skate transitions.

I think that's East Coast vert legend Dan Tag in the frontside feeble ad.

One photo is credited to Back. I'm not sure on a full name.

Back tail: Big Brother - Spring 1997 Issue 25

Flip: Big Brother - September 1997 Issue 28

Feeble: Big Brother - October 1998 Issue 41