Jerry Hsu #15.

Valiant action.

Jerry storms a ravine en route to the castle with a switch flip. He had previously ridden for Physics prior to being knighted. He would later ride for Revolution, Black Label's wheel company from the early 2000s. Nobody, myself included, remembered that Jerry rode for Darkstar, even though he had one of their stickers on his board for the May 1999 Thrasher cover. Mr. Hsu made the Halloween feature last year in an ad for Speed Demon bearings.

John Old documented Jerry's act of chivalry. The portraits are still by Dave Malenfant.

Transworld - October 1999 Volume 17 Number 10

James Craig #4.

The Dark Knights.

This ad has the full team list for Darkstar in 1999. It's mostly A-Team and World Industries guys plus a few wildcards like Mako Urabe, Frank Hirata, Chad Tim Tim, Ronnie Bertino, and Adam McNatt. I like how they kept an ongoing series of team portraits across all the ads. Darkstar also used the same wheel art for each month.

The skateboarding photo is by Seu Trinh. The portraits are by Dave Malenfant.

Transworld - August 1999 Volume 17 Number 8

Chad Fernandez #2.

Extinction Level Event.

Darkstar was initially a wheel company launched by Chet Thomas when he was riding for the A-Team. The rollers were distributed by World Industries. Once the A-Team called it a day, Chet turned Darkstar into a board line. They went with a vaguely sinister and serious medieval theme of knights and castles. There's a quasi Powell Peralta influence on the graphics. I think if Darkstar had existed back when I was a freshman in high school, I probably would've been into what they were doing. Visuals aside, the team was stacked with a lot of heavy hitters of the era.

During the late 1990s and early 2000s, Chad was winning all the jousts with handrails. He had ridden for Creature, switched to Planet Earth, and then found a spot on World. Osiris was crafting the armor for his feet. Dude was putting a hurting on all the popular big rails and gaps of the day. Check out his part from The Storm for confirmation. It basically holds up for today with a solid mix of handrails and ledge tech.

Did anybody guess that it would be Darkstar for Halloween week? I put two tiny clues in previous posts as a hint. I was trying to think of something I hadn't used already when the idea of using the shadowy knights occurred to me.

Chris Ortiz took the action photo. The portraits are by Dave Malenfant.

Transworld - June 1999 Volume 17 Number 6

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