Jason Jessee.

Start the machine.

The picture is by Daniel Harold Sturt.

Transworld - December 1988 Volume 6 Number 6

Dave Crabb.

Dave was pro for Toxic. He was on Life's A Beach for clothing and had some sick street skating in the Skaters From Uranus video.

It looks like Dave is the owner of a bed and breakfast in Northland, New Zealand these days. The place is called Crab Cove and looks nice. It says on the website that Dave can even take you skateboarding.

Transworld - November 1989 Volume 7 Number 7

Steve Douglas.

Steve was pro for Schmitt Stix and New Deal before moving behind the scenes in the industry. He is from Crystal Palace in London, England.

I have a friend in London who was living very close to Crystal Palace in Gypsy Hill. Both times I visited him, all I could think of was Steve Douglas when I would see the signs. My friend was close to the Stockwell skatepark, too. I got to skate there. It's a fun place.

The hurricane sequence is by Bryce Kanights. The stills are by Dan Schaaf.

Transworld - October 1988 Volume 6 Number 5

Jim Gray #2.

I'm pretty sure this is a fakie ollie. I like doing that trick.

Tod Swank was the photographer.

Transworld - December 1988 Volume 6 Number 6

Jeff Phillips #9.

This was left in the comments last year by one of Jeff's friends named Ronny. I thought it was pretty cool and cleaned it up a bit.

Jeff was one of the best friends I have ever had and to this day, I still miss him dearly. I first met him in junior high and we were on the Wizard Skatepark team together. To say he was an amazing skateboarder is an understatement. I often tell people that yeah, he was great in many, many contests, but a few of us got to know what it was like to skate with Jeff on a Tuesday afternoon in some backyard mini-ramp or a local pool or something and he was always driven.

Like a lot of his Dallas friends, we lived vicariously through Jeff's life and his worldwide travels. Many of us were simply sponsored by Jeff himself. He took good care of us, floated us boards, trucks, wheels, clothes, etc. For a good long time, all I ever had was Jeff Phillips boards. If you go through the stack of old decks in my garage, it's just one Phillips deck after another. When Jeff was on Gullwing, we rode Gullwings, when he switched to Tracker, we all switched to Tracker. He took good care of all of us, but the fun we all shared with him is missed more than any free deck ever.

I don't know if the beating Hawk while on acid thing was true or not, but they were two different types of skaters altogether. You'd go to a contest and Hawk would be practicing and doing the same routine over and over. Perfectly, of course. Jeff on the other hand, was BURLY. Just freaking, balls to the wall, burly.

I remember one time, me, Jeff, our buddy Robert B. and Dirt went to a Houston contest in my car. We stopped just outside of Dallas for some drink for the road. It was the 80s, a different era. Jeff bought one of those boxes of wine and proceeded to drink the whole thing on the way to Houston. There might've been a joint or two passed around the car (wink wink). We got to the Skatepark of Houston and Jeff just rolled out of the car, grabbed his board from the back, went straight to the vert ramp, no pads, no practice and proceeded to tear it down. Freaking 8' straightleg frontside airs, Mctwist, those big ass foot plants that he was known for, those smooth inverts that he made look so easy, etc, just cranking them all out right there on the spot. That was the difference. I know Hawk is the best skater ever and he has marketed himself well and made a ton of money and has provided for his family quite well, but in my opinion (which is obviously skewed) there hasn't been another skater as burly and rad as my friend Jeff Phillips.

For those of you who never got to see him skate in person- damn, sorry for your loss. It was amazing and like I said before- yeah, he ruled a lot of contests, but you should've seen him on a Tuesday afternoon with no one around, no cameras, no crowds, no freaking fear.

Jeff, I love you my friend and we all miss you!!
-ronny

Yes, Mouse took the picture.

Transworld - August 1989 Volume 7 Number 4

Christian Hosoi.

Happy holidays.

Classic Holmes.

It's a M. Fo. photo.

Transworld - February 1989 Volume 7 Number 1

Reese Simpson #3.

I always get requests for Reese.

Lance Mountain's appearance on the Crail Couch was a good one.

Jeff Phillips on Friday. I'm not sure who will be tomorrow. Given what I've posted for the week already, it will probably be a classic from Gonz, Lance or maybe Tommy G.

If it's a Life's A Beach/BBC ad, then you know Mouse took the photo.

Transworld - September 1989 Volume 7 Number 5

Tom Groholski #3.

What did you say about street skating in another interview that caused controversy?

I just said that it was imitation vertical because a lot of the tricks people are doing seem to be dorked vertical tricks. Don't get me wrong, there's some rad stuff, but I'd much rather skate vertical. It's more of a rush to skate vert. With vertical comes speed. I mean, as soon as you drop into the ramp you're going nearly as fast as if you were shooting a hill. Not to mention, after you blast an air. There's no way in the world you can beat that. Street skating is fun when you're bored with vert.

Are you saying that's the only time people should do it?

Well, that's the only time I feel like doing it. I don't ever go, "Yeah, let's go session this curb."

Geoff Graham was the photographer.

The quote is from an interview with Glen Friedman: Thrasher - September 1989 Volume 9 Number 9

Thrasher - December 1990 Volume 10 Number 12

Neil Blender #4.

I always liked this ad. I miss the original Timberwolves logo.

To provide an answer to a question from earlier, Neil's board with the scorpion graphic was designed as a street board.

O photo.

Transworld - February 1990 Volume 8 Number 2

Steve Alba.

I figure you can't have one Alba brother without the other. Salba just keeps on going. Decades.

Thrasher - May 1989 Volume 9 Number 5

Mickie Alba.

This might be the most subtle ad Vision ever ran.

David Gravette's footage at the new Thrasher park is sweet. That place looks like a lot of fun.

Mike Ballard took the picture.

Transworld - January 1990 Volume 8 Number 1

Buck Smith #2.

No doubts on this one.

The photo is by Bill Thomas.

Transworld - August 1990 Volume 8 Number 8

Roger Bridges.

I got Swanked.

The fakie footplant is a cool looking trick.

Transworld - December 1988 Volume 6 Number 6

Skarfing Material.

I think this needs to return to Thrasher.

M. Fo took the photo of Ben Schroeder's feet.

Thrasher - September 1990 Volume 10 Number 9

Powell Peralta vs. Blind #2.

The response from Blind was to make a series of boards that were silly rip offs of famous Powell Peralta graphics. The upside down logo is a nice touch, too.

I wonder what the creative split behind this idea was between Mark and Steve Rocco. This ad was a big deal because it took a direct shot at Powell, who at that time were still one of the leading companies in the industry.

This never occurred to me at the time, but I do wonder what Lance, Ray and Tony were thinking when they saw the ad that made fun of small companies. I can imagine they were used to getting dressed up in silly outfits for various projects and the photo shoot wouldn't have seemed that unusual. Still, I'm sure they had a good idea of what was happening and it probably didn't feel like a good time.

Transworld - July 1991 Volume 9 Number 7

Powell Peralta vs. Blind #1.

The landscape of skateboarding started to change in 1990 and 1991. There was a shift from the bigger companies - Powell Peralta, Vision, Santa Cruz, G & S, etc - toward smaller, skater owned operations. The emphasis moved from vert skating to street skating. Even though the next couple of years were some of the worst for skateboarding in a business sense, it paved the way for a rebirth of skateboarding in the mid 1990s that has gotten things to where they are today. For better or worse.

A lot of pros looked to start their own companies as a means to be involved in skateboarding after they retired. Some of these ventures lasted and are now the basis of the skateboard industry while others faded away quickly. Every month there was something new and team changes were happening at the drop of a hat. This Powell Peralta ad makes fun of just that. Of course if the folks at PP had known how the next few years would turn out, they might not have been so quick to throw stones and point fingers. Looking at things over the last twenty years, Powell has turned from an industry leader into a sort of AAA affiliate to the major leagues* of skateboarding.

* I'm sure I didn't come up with that baseball comparison and give credit to whoever the original author might be. I don't have the time or motivation to search through old Boil The Ocean or Frozen In Carbonite columns right now.

Transworld - March 1991 Volume 9 Number 3

Steve Caballero.

I need some new kicks for two reasons - my skate shoes are done and winter is approaching fast. The search is not going well.

If you can put a cup sole on an ugly ass high top, why can't you put a cup sole on a decent looking low top? It's been done before and it works really well.

Why does the Dennis Busenitz shoe have twice as much tongue as is needed? He's a skateboarder, not a soccer player.

Why does every company insist on making all their shoes as rip offs of the Half Cab? If I wanted a pair of Half Cabs, I'd buy a pair of Vans, not your lame ass copy.

I have two college degrees in Fine Art. I may not be Josef Albers in my knowledge of color theory, but I do know what colors go together and why. It's pretty damn obvious that a lot of the shoe designers out there don't. Skateboard footwear should not look like something Rainbow Brite would wear.

Enough with the plaid. Unlike vert, ska really is dead.

Transworld - February 1991 Volume 9 Number 2

Powell Peralta Street Style Wheel.

These were some good wheels. I had them in green.

Transworld - December 1988 Volume 6 Number 6

Tony Hawk.

My first skateboard was a Variflex complete I got at the discount department store Brand Names. It really wasn't a bad place to buy electronics and other assorted things, but not so much for skateboards.

My first good board was a silver Tony Hawk. I bought it at Avenue Skates on Elmwood Avenue in Buffalo. I still have the deck. I got a complete with red Gullwing Pro IIIs that had metal baseplates and red Kryptonics wheels. The wheels were nice and soft, which was probably a good choice for the street quality in my town. I had the full board safety gear set up - nosebone, rails, skidplate and copers. I missed out on the laper, which was probably a good thing.

I remember Avenue Skates being jam packed full of gear. Elmwood Avenue in Buffalo has a lot of small businesses that often make use of old houses so you get some interesting stores. The store wasn't very big and the back wall was covered in decks. If I had any real clue about what I was buying back then, I bet I would have picked out something different. It's funny because today there is no way I would have bought red wheels or trucks. I hate the color red. I could go for a silver board again.

Transworld - December 1988 Volume 6 Number 6

The Blockheads.

The classic Blockhead team.

I wish I'd written for that 'zine. I didn't even notice that in the ad back then. Getting stuff like that in the mail is way cooler than the internet.

Photos:
Steve Sherman - Jim
Marks Waters - Mark
Chip Morton - Sam

Thrasher - September 1989 Volume 9 Number 9

Wade Speyer #4.

Slayer.

Bill Thomas took the action photo and M. Fo took the portrait.

Thrasher - September 1990 Volume 10 Number 9

Mike Youssefpour #3.

I've been saying I would upload this sooner or later and that day has finally come.

The photos are by Joel Cherry.

Thrasher - September 1990 Volume 10 Number 9

Chris Miller #7.

In case you didn't know:

Tony Trujillo is on Four Star now.

Ed and Deanna Templeton have a vegan food blog.

There's a cool photo of Ben Schroeder on the Thrasher website that Michael Burnett just posted in his Burnout column.

I have a lot of work to do this week.

And Chris Miller is still awesome.

O photo.

Transworld - April 1989 Volume 7 Number 2