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

Darren Navarrette #19.

Dig for fire.

Thrasher - October 1996 Volume 16 Number 10

Phil Shao #16.

Dump Truck.

Phil takes flight at Fort Miley. The photo was probably taken around the same time as his Thrasher cover where he grinded the top bar. It's not the same session because he's wearing a white shirt and riding a board with black wheels on the cover. This Emerica ad could almost double as a Sheep ad. It's wild to think Sole Tech had enough gas in the tank to briefly field four different shoes lines in skateboarding in the late 1990s.

Thrasher - September 1996 Volume 16 Number 9

Tim Brauch #21.

Hiding in the shadows.

Tim's ad would be the first Emerica ad that looked like an Emerica ad with the new company name. I think he's doing a mute air of some sort over a hip in the photo. Tim was moved back to the Etnies roster by December of 1997. I went with another week of Emerica because it completes the story of the changeover and established what the company would be going forward. Plus there are some cool skaters in the ads.

Thrasher - August 1996 Volume 16 Number 8

Rune Glifberg #9.

The dawn of Emerica.

This is the first formal Emerica ad from 30 years ago. It looks like they moved the whole Etnies squad over to the new brand. Etnies was then put on the back burner until the later 1990s since they were also focusing on the all-star team at éS. There are a few long forgotten names on the list. The team didn't stay this big for long as many of the riders left for other shoe companies like Axion, DC, Globe, Osiris, and Vans.

I didn't really have much going on this week. I skateboarded some, but I think I'm worn out and need a bit of a break. Hope everybody has a good weekend.

Thrasher - July 1996 Volume 16 Number 7

Gershon Mosley #8.

Automation avoidance.

GMOS was wrecking spots for a good chunk of the 1990s. He was pushing what you could do with switch stance skateboarding as well as skating mini ramps. He had previously ridden for Powell and Human before joining the A-Team in the fall of 1997. This is essentially an Emerica ad masquerading as an Etnies ad.

Thrasher - June 1996 Volume 16 Number 6