Josh Kalis #16.

Three Stripes.

The early days of Adidas sponsoring skaters recently came up on the Mostly Skateboarding podcast. I'm inclined to believe Josh was on Adidas for a hot minute by virtue of being in an ad for them. He was wearing shell toes on the cover of the November 1995 issue of Transworld, too. Julien Stranger is also wearing these shoes in an Anti-Hero ad from February of 1996 so Adidas must've been making some effort to get into skateboarding. Did Josh ever discuss the sponsorship? I don't recall him doing so, but he does give a lot of interviews so I could've easily missed it. I wonder if this was maybe a one-off advertising project? It's an interesting little detour before Josh would find his home at DC Shoes. It would take more than a few years before Adidas finally staked out their space in the skateboard footwear marketplace.

Transworld - June 1996 Volume 14 Number 6

Roman Gonzalez.

Classical architecture.

Roman is from Paris and lives in Marsille. He's been on Polar a long time and turned pro in 2021. I don't know too much about him. I keep buying his boards because they are always in the size I like. This is a good use of the two shot sequence, which can sometimes look very awkward.

I set up a new board last night. You can probably figure out from the post what it is. I've been trying to skate the park a little more since the lights are on and the sun sets earlier. I want to get to some of the other local parks, but never have the time or the weather ends up being weird. Skateboarding hasn't really been a lot of fun lately. I keep trying, but nothing ever clicks. It's getting frustrating. Have a good weekend.

Thrasher - March 2021 Volume 42 Number 3

Daniel Bergström.

Computer Age.

Daniel Bergström, formerly Håkansson, had the last part in Strongest of the Strange. This was Pontus Alv's first video from 2005 that laid the framework for what Polar would be. Daniel is from Malmö, Sweden and likes to skate odd, crusty spots. I only know a minimal amount of information about him. I feel content with one video part from twenty years ago where he absolutely crushed every spot to the sounds of Sonic Youth covering Neil Young.

The photo is by Nils Svensson. I had to crop it a little since it awkwardly ran across two pages.

Free - March/April 2022 Issue 41

Dave Mayhew #4.

Enjoy hats.

It's a bit of that classic Marc Johnson humor. In an era when everything was either hesh and serious or fresh and serious, a little silliness went a long way to stand out from what everybody else was doing. That's the spirit Marc brought to skateboarding and part of why he was so important.

Transworld - May 2001 Volume 19 Number 5

Spitfire Fun Facts.

Nitpicking.

The flame head logo actually first appeared in the May 1992 issue of Thrasher. It was in most of the ads after that. I'm not sure how they got December 1993 beyond somebody not doing enough research. I'm more than a little surprised Billy Pepper was mentioned in the Mag.

The bit about Frank Gerwer sending riders he wasn't stoked on the wrong size wheels is pure comedy gold.

Thrasher - December 2025 Volume 46 Number 12

Bam Margera & Matt Hensley.

The lonesome crowded west.

I was wondering why Bam's new Zero ad was lacking the impact of Daniel Sturt's iconic picture of Matt Hensley. I didn't recall the big trees being there. It turns out the world's largest cowboy hat and boots were moved to a new location in 2003 so it is impossible to take the same photograph again. In all honesty, Bam's photo is very good, especially when you see it in print, but it doesn't have the sense of space that elevates the picture of Matt to a classic image of the American open road.

The photos are by Green Gage and Daniel H. Sturt.

Bam: Thrasher - September 2026 Volume 47 Number 9

Matt: Transworld - February 1992 Volume 10 Number 2

Jake Johnson #9.

Keep on complying.

Jake steps to a no-comply over a famous Barcelona barrier. I thought this was a sick photo when it came out over a decade ago and it has held up enough in the information overload age to stay in my memory. I unintentionally wound up with back to back no-comply covers.

Has anybody ever hit for the cycle on covers by being on all the mags? That would be Thrasher, Transworld, Slap, Big Brother, Skateboarder, and The Skateboard Mag. You'd get some bonus points if you made it on the front of Poweredge, Warp, Heckler, or Stance, too. I think maybe one to three pros have done the Big Six plus Poweredge.

I completely forgot to include Transworld in the week. Oops.

Have a good weekend!

The photo is by Dan Zaslavsky.

Thrasher - October 2015 Volume 36 Number 10