Jason Dill #2.

Closing out Alien Workshop week is a young Dill during the Black Label days. It's kind of hard to imagine that he rode for any other company besides the Sect. I want to say that he is doing a nollie heelflip with some sort of varial involved, but I am not too sure. Although with how the board flips and the position of his front foot, could this be a pressure flip?

I watched Dill's parts in Skate More and Mindfield last night. His gear does veer towards the ridiculous in Skate More, which I think he has acknowledged in a recent interview. He did pull off some interesting moves with lots of variations on ollies over fire hydrants to manuals, which makes me appreciate the part. The problem I have with Mindfield is the use of Animal Collective songs. The band's music just does not work for skateboarding. It seems to go against the grain with the action that is happening on the screen. Jake Johnson does some raw tricks and it doesn't sink in as to what he is doing because "My Girls" is such a safe song. I had to watch his part a couple of times to realize exactly how gnarly and difficult the things he was doing were. If that makes any sense.

Anyway, enough rambling. I'm a fan of Dill.

Steve Sherman took the sequence.

Transworld - September 1992 Volume 10 Number 9

Duane Pitre & Rob Dyrdek #2.

I know this has been online elsewhere, but I needed something to fill out Alien Workshop week. Rob should feature Duane on his show sometime. I don't know how well avant-garde electro acoustic compositions will go over with the kids, but they need to broaden their horizons a little.

***

In regards to Counterfit, I remember that company. They were basically selling blank goods and could charge a little less for them. The CIA stood for Counterfit Industries America. Their logo was a rip off of the 7-11 logo. One of my friends got flowed boards and wheels from them. He probably had some of the shirts, too. Their boards were this weird green color. Tony Tieu and James Qua were riders who would end up pro for other companies.

***

I'm in the clear for the Jason Dill ad I want to post tomorrow. I got scared when I saw Chrome Ball had Jason today. Chops has been killing it lately with Jeff Grosso, Ben Schroeder, Sean Mullendore and the John Drake interview.

Transworld - January 1992 Volume 10 Number 1

Thomas Morgan #3.

Thomas turned pro eighteen years ago today.

After Alien started with veteran pros Neil Blender and Steve Claar along with new kids Rob Dyrdek and Duane Pitre, they turned a few of the ams into professionals in 1992. This meant boards with their names on them for Bo Turner, Scott Conklin and John Drake, too. Fred Gall, Josh Kalis and Lennie Kirk were added to the team over the next four years. Unlike with a lot of companies during the 1990s, there weren't a lot of team changes at the Workshop. They also tended to develop their own talent rather than just pick up the latest hot am. It seemed like they would find riders from obscure places and that just added to the mysterious nature of the company that was illustrated in the ads and videos.

Transworld - March 1992 Volume 10 Number 3

Rob Dyrdek.

Plastic and embroidery.

When Santa Cruz came out with their Everslick plastic bottom boards, all the other companies soon jumped on the bandwagon with mixed results. The layer of plastic made boards pop weird and sometimes added a lot of weight. Plan B slicks seemed to work well and be the most like wood boards. I had a couple, but soon went back to good old plain wood. The wooden skateboard deck is seriously one of those things that falls under the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" category. Plexi-Lam was what Alien called their version. I like the name and logo. I only ever had wood boards from the Workshop and have no idea how well Plexi-Lam worked.

One odd little fashion trend that happened in 1992 was the use of embroidered logos on clothing. All the ads were hyping this for whatever reason. You would end up paying a little more for a t-shirt that had a tiny logo stitched on it that was most likely ripped off from a sports team or gas station. Brilliant. I'm glad things went back to screen printing art on t-shirts quickly.

Transworld - June 1992 Volume 10 Number 6

Scott Conklin.

I think his part in Timecode is great, mainly for the music. Scott does have a few good tricks, too. It's this band called Interstate 10 and the song is "The Jetty", if my memory is correct. I'm going to venture a guess that it is probably Scott's band or possibly something related to Duane Pitre. Anyway, it's an awesome little song.

Transworld - August 1992 Volume 10 Number 8

Curtis Hsiang #2.

"Thrills are cheap in this day and age, but Curtis Hsiang paid $90 for this frontside thruster."

Rest in peace, Curtis.

"I read something Curtis Hsiang wrote about how there was this pool in Berkeley and it was dry only once every five years, and every time it was empty, that was the biggest thing. That's insane. He didn't say, "Blah blah blah did this trick there, or, "Blah blah blah did this trick." It was the fact that you could only skate it for a week or two every five years, and it brought everybody together to skate. That's what skateboarding was for him. It was his friends coming together to skate something that wasn't around all the time. It's not about who's who in the X Games and who's done the biggest kickflip down the biggest set of stairs. There's always going to be somebody better; there's always going to be somebody doing something bigger; that's not what real skateboarding's about. It's about your friends and it's about having fun." - Louie Barletta

Bryce Kanights snapped the picture.

For the quote: Slap - December 2000 Volume 9 Number 12

Thrasher - April 1992 Volume 12 Number 4

Jason Lee #2.

A signature Jason Lee mute grab.

I've always wondered why this photo wound up in a local shop ad and not as editorial content. Must have been a little pre Hollywood magic from Jason. Usually back then most shop ads were black and white with a bunch of little pictures of decks or just a list of products.

The photo is by Spike Jonze. Note that it says Jones on the fire hydrant.

Transworld - January 1992 Volume 10 Number 1

Jeron Wilson & Jeff Klindt.

RIP Jeff Klindt: 8/20/1965 - 1/20/2004

Jeron throws down some early 1990s tech with a 5-0 to switch crooks and a switch 360 flip. I'm a fan of Jeron and this is some of the first coverage he would have gotten.

I was a freshman in college when this ad came out. I always thought Jeff's little story about the Real team squeezing into one apartment was hilarious. One of my friends would read my Thrashers for the music news and he thought it was funny, too. He especially liked how it ended with "life is good" to positively summarize the experience of getting kicked out.

Thrasher - November 1992 Volume 12 Number 11

Alphonzo Rawls.

"I'm at Alphonzo's. He forgot to leave me the key." - Jeremy Klein

Much like Danny Way, Alphonzo was one of those guys who skated both street and vert far better than most. He turned pro for H - Street and then rode for Natural and Expedition during the 1990s before he kind of just faded away in the 2000s.

Daniel Sturt took the photo.

Transworld - April 1992 Volume 10 Number 4

Kareem Campbell.

Back to the grind.

Kareem pulls off a frontside ollie late shove it on a mini ramp. This would have been when he was on World Industries for the first time. He left to ride for Blue in the middle of 1992 with Chris Pastras and Jason Lee before returning to World to start building his empire. Kareem started the much loved Menace in 1993 or so. Due to a few copyright issues, Menace changed names twice, first to All City and then City Stars. He also started Axion footwear. Kareem is still doing City Stars these days, along with Push Distribution.

Thrasher - April 1992 Volume 12 Number 4

Doing Research.

Vert Is Dead will return with new stuff on January 18. I need a break.

It's going to be things from the 1992 - 1993 era.

Leave any requests in the comments or send me an email.

Thanks to everybody who follows this site.

Mark Gonzales #6.

Happy New Year.

Get it straight, ride Krooked.

Transworld - February 1989 Volume 7 Number 1