Bob Burnquist.

Bob is from Brazil and started wrecking havoc on vert ramps in the mid 1990s due to his huge bag of switch tricks.

Thrasher - May 1996 Volume 16 Number 5

Pat Smith.

Pat is a one time Black Label rider from Maryland. It looks like he is doing Coda Skateboards these days in New York City.

The photos are credited to a David B.

Slap - May 1996 Volume 5 Number 5

Tommy Guerrero & Jim Thiebaud.

Happy Thanksgiving.

This was a Real ad from the 15th anniversary issue of Thrasher. The photos at that point were ten and eleven years old. That was almost fifteen years ago now. Both guys are still rolling to this day.*

* I follow Thiebaud on Twitter and know that technically as of this moment he isn't skating due to an injury, but he will be again shortly. Get well soon.

Vert Is Dead will be back on Monday.

Thrasher - January 1996 Volume 16 Number 1

Jason Guthrie & Thomas Taylor.

Torque was a company out of Atlanta run by Thomas Taylor. Taylor was an am for Schmitt Stix back in the day. He runs Stratosphere skateboard shop, too. His son, Grant, is pro for Alien Workshop and has to be one of the most well rounded skaters out there today.

The photos are credited to Alf Elder.

Slap - April 1996 Volume 5 Number 4

Julien Stranger #10.

Upwardly mobile vagrant.

It's a little weird seeing Julien wearing shoes that aren't Vans.

The ad for Fucktards.

Thrasher - February 1996 Volume 16 Number 2

Ronnie Creager.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Transworld - August 1996 Volume 14 Number 8

Laban Pheidias #3.

There are a few rumors floating around the internet that Sheep Shoes might be back in business. This is an ad from when they were just getting started. The company was done by Sole Tech and featured vegan friendly footwear in addition to dead cows for your feet. Their designs were nice and simple. I liked the brand and wore the shoes in the 1990s, but I'm not sure I could wear them today. Something about the name Sheep made sense at that point in the culture of skateboarding, whereas it doesn't necessarily do the same today. Somethings are better left as a memory.

Transworld - July 1996 Volume 14 Number 7

Jim Greco.

Grecs back in the Birdhouse days. What a long, strange trip it has been from then to now.

Sean Cronan was the photographer.

Transworld - August 1996 Volume 14 Number 8

Kenny Hughes.

"I'm gonna be a Jedi."

I liked watching Kenny's big and casual style in the old Element videos.

*

If anybody out there has any pictures, videos or stories about Mike Bouchard, please feel free to contact his sister Pamela at djandbg@msn.com. The family is working on putting together a memorial for him.

Ryan Gee took the photo.

Slap - August 1996 Volume 5 Number 8

Donny Humes.

It's a Fine Art Friday.

Donny is a Columbus, Ohio local who has been putting out his Smelly Curb 'zine since the 1980s.

There's so much good skateboard stuff going on right now:

1. Chrome Ball Incident's interview with Justin Girard

2. Dan Watson's sponsor me video for the Roger Sticker Team.

3. Going skateboarding after work for thirty minutes before the darkness sets in. Stupid stinkin' clock change.

Thrasher - February 1996 Volume 16 Number 2

Caesar Singh #2.

Caesar delivers a hard trick caught clean.

For those of you who want to relive part of the 1990s, Five-O Threads has some new Gino Iannucci and Henry Sanchez t-shirts for sale.

Chris Ortiz takes a lot of photos.

Slap - January 1996 Volume 5 Number 1

Steve Olson #2.

Steve Olson was a character.

It's interesting that back in the 1990s the mags always made it a point to refer to Foundation's Steve Olson as the younger or the new school guy, so as to avoid confusion with the elder Steve Olson. This was probably done for the older guys more than for us youngsters. Nowadays the kids might not know who this Olson was, but know all about Alex's dad.

Thrasher - February 1996 Volume 16 Number 2

Mike Bouchard.

RIP Mike.

I scanned this in last week because I always liked the Sub Zero board graphic. Then when I got the new issue of Thrasher yesterday, I was bummed to see that he had passed away.

This was written by Ricky Oyola on the Traffic website:

"I got news this past week that a good friend of mine has passed away. Mike "Boosh" Bouchard died in his sleep. I don't know what to say really but I know he had friends in the skate community from all over world. He was a ripper to say the least and he definitely stoked me out to go skating. He spent time in Colorado and in Florida but always made it back home here in and around Philly. We had great times blazing the streets of Philly, hitting Love and beyond. A more closer time period is when he lived a few blocks from me in South Philly and we started skating the warehouse. In the beginning of the warehouse days, we would skate with the whole squad getting used to all the different trannies and then him and I would come back during the days while all the hessians were at work and we would try and learn all the lines we saw the previous night. Without his presence and push I would have never learned to skate the warehouse the way I did and some of you might remember a sequence I shot there that I coined "THE BOOSH RIDE". I tried to get that phrase known but still fuckers call it a hippie wall ride. You need someone to help push you and Boosh was my partner in crime for a good stretch. He was always down to help me with my crazy concoctions that at least we called skate spots. He had no fear when it came to grinding shit, realistically I don't think he had fear in general. He was a go for it type guy, there to give you the extra motivation if you needed it. Had Far East, a company out of Florida would have stuck around I am sure more of you would have heard about him. He had some clips in my New Deal 7 Year Glitch part and he had a classic Thrasher cover shot from Love shot by Kelly Ryan. Rest in Peace my friend."

*

If it was Phillie and 1996, then Ryan Gee was taking the photo.

Slap - November 1996 Volume 5 Number 11

Sam Hitz & Brian Seber.

Let's see if I remember how to do this.

I figured I'd start back up continuing from where things left off with notorious blader hater Sam Hitz. He was on Creature the first time around and is on the resurrected version as well. He plays in the band Shed, who have been making evil noise since 1999. Emerica did a collaboration shoe with Shed over the summer. I don't think Hitz had any footage in Stay Gold, which is a shame. His Big Brother interview was epic.

Brian Seber rode for Black Label and Anti-Hero. It looks like he is involved with a company called Hardtimes Manufacturing these days.

Was Wheelie Company a precursor to Landspeed Wheels? I can't think of the name of the artist who was behind the visual image of the company, but I can picture his profile in Slap perfectly. The internet is turning up nothing but Bam Margera and CKY references. Not exactly what I'm looking for.

Wez Lundry and Donny Humes took the photos.

Thrasher - March 1996 Volume 16 Number 3