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

Richard Kirby & Stormy Pruitt.

Film Grain.

Here's a pair of shredders for Torque. Richard would go on to ride for Santa Cruz and run a company called Big Mess in the 2010s. He has rails on his board, which was uncommon for 1995-96. I think he is wearing some Duffs. Richard might also play in some bands. Stormy is an Atlanta ripper from the 1990s. I don't know too much about him. He'd always pop up any time the mags visited the South.

Richard's photo is by Noah Martineau.

Richard: Slap - February 1996 Volume 5 Number 2

Stormy: Slap - November 1996 Volume 5 Number 11

Thomas Taylor #2.

High Tension.

Torque was an Atlanta based company run by the late Thomas Taylor. He also ran the Stratosphere shop. His son Grant took after the old man and can really tear it up on a skateboard. Thomas sponsored a lot of Atlanta locals along with fellow Southerners for Torque. Sadly, he passed away in 2023.

The photos are by Alf Elder.

Slap - January 1997 Volume 6 Number 1