Jeremy Wray #14.

Splendid Eye Torture 50-50s.

Jeremy displays some serious handrail virtuosity in 1996. I tried to scan as much of the Dukes stuff as I could so it is all in one place. The company wasn't around for very long and it made sense to group everything together instead of saving something for later. I wanted to include the shoes for the sake of archiving the past.

Jeremy got his sponsorship start on Blockhead, Thunder, and Spitfire. Even being a big Blockhead fan, I tend to forget that he rode for Dave Bergthold's skateplank company because you primarily associate him with Color, Plan B, and Element. His late brother Jonas was also sponsored and rode for Black Label, Clean, Platinum, and Media over the years. Jeremy is still out there skateboarding and making art.

Vert Is Dead will be back for a dark Halloween week starting on Monday, October 26th.

I set up a new board. I'm giving an 8.25" a try. It feels about the same as the odd 8.125" shape that I've been riding for years. The slightly wider board seems more stable. I wanted to try it out when the weather was decent enough to figure whether it will work or not. I've been skating like crap for the last couple months so it hasn't been a lot of fun. I think I need to take a break to give my knees and ankles some time off. I'm also trying to take advantage of the nice fall we've been having so I still want to get outside as much as I can. Have a good weekend!

The skateboarding photos are by Daniel H. Sturt.

Up: Transworld - June 1996 Volume 14 Number 6

Down: Transworld - July 1996 Volume 14 Number 7

Shoes: Transworld - October 1995 Volume 13 Number 10

Jerry Fowler & Rick Jaramillo.

Demolishing & Destroying.

Dukes expanded the team to include Jerry and Rick in 1997. Jerry was on Rhythm and Rick was riding for Planet Earth at the time. I think these were the only ads each guy had for Dukes. The company wasn't around much longer due to some business shuffling by Steve Rocco. Jerry would go on to ride for Converse while Rick was winding down the pro skateboarding side of his life. These shoes are somewhat bulky and odd looking. They venture out into strange Airwalk territory. In reviewing the models Dukes made, I like the first Jeremy Wray shoe the best.

Chris Ortiz got to go take pictures of skateboarding while Atiba Jefferson was stuck in the office getting photos of the shoes.

Jerry: Transworld - July 1997 Volume 15 Number 7

Rick: Transworld - September 1997 Volume 15 Number 9

Pat Channita #2.

High Ya!

Pat was the second rider for Dukes. Since he is friends with Jeremy Wray and they both rode for Plan B, it was easy to see why he was added to the team. It's got to be a little awkward being a pro for a company and being in all the ads so I bet Jeremy was good with having a month off. I forgot Pat had a part in All Systems Go!, the classic video from 1998 by Pig Wheels. I gave the video a fresh viewing today and it made me nostalgic for Josh Beagle's music selections.

Daniel H. Sturt took the photo.

Transworld - September 1996 Volume 14 Number 9

Jeremy Wray #13.

Raising the bar.

Jeremy's great-uncle was the cartoonist Mort Walker, the creator of Beetle Bailey and Hi & Lois.

The photos are by Daniel H. Strut.

Noseslide: Transworld - October 1995 Volume 13 Number 10

Backside lip: Transwold - February 1996 Volume 14 Number 2

Jeremy Wray #12.

Dukes was Jeremy Wray's shoe company. These are the first two ads from 1995. He had previously ridden for Airwalk and would move on to Adio when Dukes ended. The shoe line was distributed by Plan B/World Industries so I'm making the educated guess that Duffs handled the manufacturing of the kicks. Daniel H. Strut was the photographer and brought his distinctive images to the project. Jeremy was in nearly all the ads. At the same time, he was productive enough and pushing skateboarding forward so there was no shortage of amazing photos. I didn't pay too much attention to Dukes since I wasn't really into Plan B and the assorted affiliated World stuff, but as enough years have passed, the ads have held up great. It's strange to think skateboarding supported its own shoe brands enough that a pro could reasonably do his own thing thirty years ago.

Lipslide: Transworld - July 1995 Volume 13 Number 7

Ollie: Transworld - August 1995 Volume 13 Number 8

Gershon Mosley #9.

Overlap.

Gershon does a switch Smith grind on a handrail. Based on his Transworld interview from December 1995, he was into hip hop and The Sundays for music. Some of his favorite skaters were Marc Johnson, Jamie Thomas, and Mike Vallely. He was stoked on skating vert and felt it was a natural progression from mini ramps. GMOS rode for Simple before Etnies/Emerica.

This is the ender on the look back at the transition from Etnies to Emerica. It was interesting to see how the changes happened. There was some team shuffling and riders departed for other sponsors as skateboarding grew in popularity in the later half of the 1990s. For instance, Gershon moved on to Osiris by November of 1997 and then switched to Globe by the end of 1998. Another fun one is Rune Glifberg. He was on Airwalk after Emerica and possibly departed Airwalk after his October 1998 Slap cover where he was wearing Vans. He belonged on Axion anyway. It's cool that Emerica is still going today, even with all the up and downs that go with skateboarding.

Vert Is Dead is taking a fall break.

I'll fire this thing up again on Monday, October 12th.

I might end up only doing two weeks of stuff this month. I've got something dark planned for Halloween and could opt to take it easy. I'll see how it goes. I've been skateboarding a little after work since the weather has been still been warm. Have a good one!

Thrasher - January 1997 Volume 17 Number 1

Chris Senn #16.

Overground.

It somehow made sense that Chris won Thrasher's SOTY for 1995. I can't really explain it, but it seemed like the correct choice at the time. This is perhaps because SOTY was a tad more low key back then and not the all out marketing campaign it has become in the last 15 years. The March 1996 issue that announced Chris had won featured Ron Whaley on the cover with only a blurb proclaiming the Senn Dog as the top skater of 1995. He did have a full interview. The award was an important thing, yet it was also treated with less reverence. When Eric Koston won for 1996, he cool guy'd an interview and the mag ran two pages of photos, which included a sequence from the X-Games. It's interesting how things change over time and to note the differences between different eras.

Thrasher - November 1996 Volume 16 Number 11