Ocean Howell #2.

"Ocean Howell typifies the new age beach hobo: scruffy, stylish and sweet."

Awesome.

More shoe companies need to keep the light gray colorway in the line up. Enough with the drips, splatters and rainbow color schemes. Just because you can screen a graphic on something, doesn't necessarily mean that you should.

Scott Starr did the camera work.

Thrasher - January 1993 Volume 13 Number 1

Steve Berra.

Backside kickflip to tail

Where to begin with Steve Berra? He started off as a vert am for Blockhead in Splendid Eye Torture and then switched over to the streets for 101, Alien Workshop, Birdhouse, Foundation and Television. He was one of my favorite pros during the 1990s, but not so much these days. I'm still looking forward to watching his part in Mind Field.

This is probably one of the last photos of him skating transition. I wish he stuck with being an all around skater instead of being strictly a street guy. If I could do backside indy 360s to fakie on vert, I'd want to make sure I kept that trick as long as possible.

The photo is by Dave Swift.

Transworld - October 1995 Volume 13 Number 10

Jordan Richter #2.

Jordan does a backside 180 kickflip at the Tracker (Climax Distribution) skatepark while wearing a Girl shirt.

Grant Brittain took the picture.

Transworld - August 1994 Volume 12 Number 8

Jordan Richter #1.

Jordan was the hot am for Santa Cruz and then cemented his place in skateboarding history with the least watched part in the Blind video. He joined up with the New Deal after Mark Gonzales and Jason Lee made their exits from Blind. He had a few tricks in the Children Of The Sun video and soon faded away from the public spotlight. You would always read rumors about him still skating in the late 1990s, but there wasn't ever much evidence to prove it.

Thrasher - May 1993 Volume 13 Number 5

Danny Sargent #2.

All my favorite pros from growing up are turning 40 this year. Danny was just in Thrasher talking about his cover from 1989 where he was doing a nosepick on a ledge.

Thrasher - May 1993 Volume 13 Number 5

Tom Groholski.

"Indy aerial at home in New Jersey."

There was a story in the Transworld gossip column about how Tom drove to a contest, wasn't feeling the scene, got back in his car and drove home. I like that.

It's another O photo.

Transworld - November 1989 Volume 7 Number 7

Kevin Staab.

The one thing that would always trip me out was how Staab would bend a rail to fit the nose of his board.

O photo.

Transworld - April 1989 Volume 7 Number 2

John Lucero #2.

Why did it take so long for Black Label to get rolling? When did it move out of your garage?

It took a long time to gain the type of popularity it has today but, to me and the true Label fans, it's always been rolling. When I switched from Lucero to Black Label in '90 I took the whole business to my garage. The garage was the warehouse, we knocked down a wall to the bedroom and that was my office, the other bedroom was the sales office. I had two roommates to help keep the rent going and I slept in the hallway on a couch. Whenever the phone rang in the morning I would answer it "Black Label," and take it from there. That went on for years. It was so small, but to the industry the name was always there. Sometimes we'd go through six-month periods without having any products at all. No boards, nothing. It almost killed us. We loved it. We lived, slept, and died Black Label.

The interview from Skateboarder had a bunch of great quotes so I decided to go with another Lucero entry.

This is a Jamie Mosberg photo from the Shut Up And Skate contest at the Skatepark Of Houston in 1988.

For the quote: Skateboarder - March 2002 Volume 11 Number 5

Transworld - April 1989 Volume 7 Number 2

John Lucero.

Are you the Godfather of street skating?

I started skating street long before the inception of street skating. In the '70s, when all the skateparks were in, I would get to skate there once a week if I was lucky. The rest of the week I just skated around the streets and hit up whatever was around. I've been doing boardslides on curbs and benches since like '78. We eventually got booted from the local park entirely, for doing dumb shit like peeing on people, and ended up skating the parking lot of the skatepark everyday. Stacey Peralta showed up one day to skate the park and we were skating the curbs out front. He told us we were going to be part of the new wave of skateboarding and that he was starting this new company called the Street Brigade. Honestly, we were just trying to make people laugh at us. Street skating was very accessible and when the skateparks started closing, the industry turned to it as the answer. To us it was just a joke.

The man behind the Black Label.

Thrasher - November 1990 Volume 9 Number 11

For the quote: Skateboarder - March 2002 Volume 11 Number 5

Ed Templeton #4.

Ed's Hot Shoes interview. The Red Hot Chili Peppers? I guess everybody who skateboarded back then liked them or at least listened to them. Ed was always consistent in his interviews by listing them and Jane's Addiction as his favorite bands. I dislike both of those bands, but there is absolutely nothing wrong with Ed. He's one of my favorite pros.

M. Fo took the portrait and Bryce Kanights got the nose bonk photo.

Thrasher - November 1990 Volume 9 Number 11

Dan Drehobl #5.

It's little stuff like this that makes skateboarding the best.

This is the 200th post on Vert Is Dead. Thanks to everybody who checks out the site and thanks to anybody that has a link to here on their website.

Joe Brook documented Dan's misery.

Slap - August 2000 Volume 9 Number 8

J.J. Rogers #3.

Up against the ceiling with a wallride.

Tomorrow is post number 200. Technically it is number 202, but there was a filler post from when I set up the website and an announcement that I was taking two weeks off in September.

Thrasher - August 1990 Volume 10 Number 8

Julien Stranger #8.

He's not falling down or anything in this one. The sizes listed for the boards are great.

Slap - April 1998 Volume 7 Number 4

Remy Stratton #4.

"Teenage pregnancy, mothers on crack, gang violence, corrupt politicians and lawsuits all killed vert."

Classic Remy with the seatbelt tailgrab to satisfy the people out there that want some vintage Acme. I really liked Acme when they first started. Although now when I look back at the ads, I don't fully see what I saw in the company. I'm not finding much stuff that is worthy of scanning. I am a fan of Ron Cameron's art and that probably had a lot to do with it.

This was from a Thrasher article looking at the demise of vert skateboarding that covered all the bases: small wheels, insurance, Steve Rocco, the lack of skateparks, etc. The issue also had John Cardiel, Barker Barrett, Jesse Neuhaus and Brian Ferdinand interviews, along with Ice - T and Remy on the cover. It was probably the best issue of Thrasher from 1992. I'm going to try and get some Brian Ferdinand on here sooner or later.

Bryce Kanights took the picture.

Thrasher - July 1992 Volume 12 Number 7

Hugh "Bod" Boyle.

Toxic Death Sentence.

Thrasher - July 1991 Volume 11 Number 7

Ethan Fowler #2.

So I thought I found a cool ad for Forties with Ethan in it that hadn't been posted. A quick check revealed that the fine Chrome Ball Incident had included the Forties ad already. However, this backside tailslide hasn't made the old guys with scanners and magazines circuit yet.

Slap - October 1997 Volume 6 Number 10

Paul Sharpe.

This dude could ollie like a champ. He could also nollie, 180 nollie and I think switch ollie pretty damn high, too. Paul rode for SMA, Consolidated and Foundation before he started Supernaut. I had one of the first Supernaut boards - a light blue/dark blue team model with a satellite dish and antennas on it. They made some good decks.

Slap - October 1996 Volume 5 Number 10

Dan Drehobl #4.

You forget how long some guys have been pro and take them for granted. Even though Dan is thought of as more of park ripper these days, he has put in his share of time on the streets. Skate everything.

Slap - March 1999 Volume 8 Number 3

Alan Petersen #2.

Gimme danger. Petersen was a beast during the 1990s up until 2004 or 5 when he retired from being pro. He started off on SMA and was one of the original riders for Consolidated. He also had a pro shoe on Puma during that company's attempt at the skate shoe market in the late 1990s. Kien "Donger" Lieu was the other pro. The skate Pumas didn't look as good as the non - skate Pumas everybody wore in 1992.

Thrasher - June 1997 Volume 17 Number 6

Jason Dill.

Prior to being abducted by the Alien Workshop, Dill rode for Sal Barbier's 23. This was after 101 for Dill and pre - Aesthetics for Sal. 23 wasn't around too long. Drake Jones did ride for them before heading off to the golf course. Dig the Photoshop work on the sign.

Chris Ortiz took the photo.

Thrasher - May 1997 Volume 17 Number 5