Charlie Wilkins.

Charlie was one of the four pros for Mike Vallely's Transit. He came over at the start with Mike and Stacy Lowery from Powell. Vert powerhouse Tom Boyle was the other rider. Charlie rode for 5boro after Transit and retired from the professional ranks in 2008. He also rode for Maple, Etnies and Sheep. Along with a bunch of all terrain ripping, Charlie is unfortunately best remembered from his clip in 411 with the oozing blood clot on his leg. Black pus. And I'm not talking about the drummer from Lightning Bolt's solo project either.

Slap - June 1998 Volume 7 Number 6

Judd Hertzler.

"Judd Hertzler contains a different fabric from the norm - possibly in a hard-to-follow paisley pattern. He's been on more missions than Charlie's Angels and continues migration between Sacramento and his original Connecticut stomping grounds. The art you see is most likely pulled from one of several journals Judd frequently updates during travel or while discovering new music. His mind is original, his size is massive, his art is mathematically sound, and his skating is inspirational. Judd rates Alaska as a future prospect, but has a lifetime goal to session every back alley in America. Try to catch a glimpse of the gentle giant and his paisley personality." - Peter McBride

Judd was pro for Foundation. I think he also rode for Arsenal and Scott Bourne's Unbelievers. Adio, too.

Note the Andre The Giant has a posse and Scarecrow stickers on Judd's sketchbook.

I maybe should have saved the final size of this at a slightly larger size so you could read more of the writing. Oops. It's looking like I'm going to take next week off from doing this so I've been using up whatever I have scanned in. I need a break.

The photos are by Grant Britain and Jason Case.

Transworld - March 1998 Volume 16 Number 3

Mike Santarossa.

I've been meaning to put some Mike on here for a while, but never found anything at the right time. He was one of the first pros to email me after checking this site out. Mike rode for Acme, Think, Prime and Powell. He was also on Etnies.

Scott Starr took the picture.

Big Brother - July 1998 Issue 38

Anthony Correa #2.

Zoo Butters.

I always liked the old New York gold and navy blue license plates from the 1980s.

It's a Giovanni Reda photo.

Slap - June 1998 Volume 7 Number 6

Ray Barbee #2.

Clothing for cannibalistichumanoidundergroundchickens.

Do you have to be pro to win Thrasher's S.O.T.Y. award? I'm asking because Raven Tershy is skating everything like it's a three foot mini ramp.

Copenhagen dreaming.

Slap - March 1998 Volume 7 Number 3

Rob Welsh.

Wu-Welsh up in this piece.

Are we still allowed to use the Wu-Tang reference with Rob or is that not cool any more? Given that this is a historical website, I think it is era appropriate.

Rob is from Maine, relocated to San Francisco and currently resides in Arizona. Rob turned pro for Mad Circle. He has had boards out on Aesthetics, Zoo York and Santa Cruz. These days he is on Expedition and Lakai. Rob is a San Francisco Giants fan and even has a blogged about team leather jacket.

Slap - May 1998 Volume 7 Number 5

Shamil Randle #2.

It's the obscure ones on Girl and Chocolate that everybody likes.

RIP Eric Swenson.

Slap - April 1998 Volume 7 Number 4

Ricky Oyola #4.

Are we supposed to go skateboarding today or something? I bet Ricky is pushing around somewhere right now.

Destructo was started out of Giant Distribution in the late 1990s. The original truck team included Donny Barley, Rodney Mullen and Kris Markovich. Giant encompassed Element, Mad Circle, New Deal and Speed Metal at the time. Mad Circle would soon be dropped and Black Label would be brought into the fold. I believe that at some point Element became its own entity independent of Giant, but I'm not sure on the specifics. I used to know and then it became forgotten information. Destructo is still going today with a team of Arto Saari, Sammy Winter, Steve Forstner, Jake Johnson and Tony Cervantes.

Transworld - February 1998 Volume 16 Number 2

Mike York.

Straight outta Locash.

Stamina was Julio De La Cruz's clothing company at the end of the 1990s.

Mike Blabac took the photo.

Transworld - April 1998 Volume 16 Number 4

Kris Markovich #10.

It's been a while since I posted any Markovich. What's this guy been up to lately? He had a bunch of new photos with that interview in Skateboarder a year and a half ago, but there hasn't much since. All I want is one more video part from this guy. He could even do it all on a mini ramp and it would still be better than most videos today.

Inness is Matt Hensley's clothing company. They have been in business since 1996, which is a lifetime and then some for a skateboard clothing effort. The name is taken from the Scottish clan name of Matt's late mother. They sponsor a variety of skateboards and bands.

Transworld - February 1998 Volume 16 Number 2

Nanda Zipp.

Nanda rode for Sonic, Physics, Thunder and Este. His name is Hindu in origin. He got into skateboarding when he moved to Visalia, California at age eleven. This was at the time when Tom Knox was ruling and Karma Tsocheff was starting to come up. Nanda even skated vert. During the time he was pro, he was going to college and studying graphic design.

It looks like Nanda is doing a couple of things these days. His name comes up with a company called SiteForm, which lists him as the creative director. SiteForm is a website design and marketing company. He is also a senior teacher at the Dharma Ocean Foundation. The Dharma Ocean Foundation is a nonprofit Buddhist educational center in Colorado.

For the info: Thrasher January 1997 Volume 15 Number 1

Transworld - February 1998 Volume 16 Number 2

Julio De La Cruz.

Knocking off random requests I've seen on the internet from time to time.

Julio rode for the New Deal and then Neighborhood. He had a thing for underflips. There's a rumor that he liked to talk a lot, but I can't vouch for the correctness of that.

Zipp later.

Transworld - February 1998 Volume 16 Number 2

Fabian Alomar.

Menace Tech.

Fabian rode for Z Products and then hooked up with Kareem Campbell for Menace. He fell on some hard times, but has hopefully gotten everything back on track in life as we learned in his appearance on the Crailtap Couch last week.

Transworld - March 1998 Volume 16 Number 3

Brad Staba.

Glam boys on wheels.

Remember when Skate Mental just made beer koozies and table tennis balls?

Transworld - July 1998 Volume 16 Number 7

Ben Liversedge #2.

Ben rode for Real, ATM and Infamous. Infamous was a company done with Jahmal Williams and Mike Hernandez. An interesting fact about Ben is that he was born in England and his family moved to Long Island when he was five.

For more lost East Coast action, check out the Hard Times video that just went up on the Thrasher website. Tim Upson and Brian Seber are involved with the project. Coincidentally, the next board I'm going to set up will be a Hard Times board. The deck looks good - nice shape and thick paint. I've been riding the same Toy Machine Johnny Layton board for the last couple of months and it's just about done, but it still feels fine.

Thanks to Chops for having scanned the Transworld Interview with Ben that I couldn't find last night. I now see that it ran in the April 1999 issue of the magazine.

The photo is by Sam Glucksman.

Slap - December 1998 Volume 7 Number 12

Peter Bici.

The King Of Queens.

Before becoming a firefighter, Peter rode for Think and turned pro for Zoo York. He's even done some professional fashion modeling. He has a good part in Zoo York's Mixtape video. Peter does UXA with Jefferson Pang and Peter Huynh.

Thanks to Skate Daily for making Vert Is Dead the website of the week for the third time.

The action shot is by Mike O'Meally and the chilling shots are Giovanni Reda.

Slap - October 1998 Volume 7 Number 10

Mike Daher.

The much loved former Stereo rider from Florida.

Mike rode for Powell Peralta before he got on Stereo.

He's wearing the first DC Rick Howard model for all you footwear enthusiasts out there.

I didn't realize that Far East was a board company. I thought they only did clothing, but I think I simply got them confused with Half Life. Was Far East done by the Skate Park of Tampa? It's the same address.

The photo is by Josh Stewart.

Slap - September 1998 Volume 7 Number 9

Rob Gonzalez.

When I saw Ricky Oyola on Chrome Ball, I figured to go with a little more New Deal. After having a well established pro team in the first half of the 1990s, changes were made at the New Deal in the later part of the decade. The pro team was cut and a new group of amateurs were sponsored. Of course when you have a team of all ams, eventually some of them are going to get to the skill level of being professional and they are turned pro. Rob was part of the second wave of the New Deal, which also included Oyola, Chad Bartie, Lincoln Ueda, Ryan Johnson and Kenny Reed.

After the Deal was really dead, Rob rode for Popwar and Listen. Listen recently turned into BLVD Skateboards. He's also on LRG and has a part in the Give Me Money Chico video from last year.

Transworld - February 1998 Volume 16 Number 2

Guy Mariano.

Guy Mariano finally makes an appearance on Vert Is Dead.

Is it blasphemy to say that I don't like the song he skated to in Mouse?

Apparently I'm part of the skateboard media world now since Sarah at Turner PR sends me press releases on upcoming events that I won't ever make it to because they are happening in LA and I live in NY. She seems like a nice person and I said I would mention the stuff she sends.

Girl Skateboards is having a premiere of "Unbeleafable" next Sunday, June 12th at the Downtown Independent Theater in Los Angeles. The project is a 3D skate film made in conjunction with Levi's Film Workshop. Ty Evans directed the video and it features a lot of the Girl team. There will also be a question and answer session with Ty and the skaters, plus an after party. The film will be available at some point down the road in case you didn't make it to the premiere.

Atiba Jefferson took the photo.

Slap - December 1998 Volume 7 Number 12

Julien Stanger #12.

Unlike 97% of the comments left on the internet, this was one I saw and thought was worth saving. It was posted somewhere on the Thrasher website on February 22, 2008 by a user named Milk Toast Redux:

I have never ridden an Anti-Hero board, and never will. Those planks intimidate me just hanging on the wall of a skateshop.

I am not worthy. Just can't justify using one of their boards to do slappys on curbs and little speed ollies off of cracks in the sidewalk.

Those bitches demand large doses of gnar and a pint of blood. I would feel like such a pussy and a phony rocking their shit.

I've seen hardcore mofo's like Stranger and Cardiel in person, and it is like they are from another planet. PRESENCE. People with that kind of commitment have an aura of authenticity that makes me sadly aware of my timid middling existence.

This presence thing doesn't come through when watching these dudes in a video. When you are in their general vicinity, all that you are aware of is them. Can't really articulate it in words, but some of y'all might know what I'm talking about.

These guys scare the fuck out of me, the same way wild predatory animals do, and that is what I cherish about them.

Thrasher - January 1998 Volume 18 Number 1

Ben Krahn.

Another Vert Is Dead favorite.

Ben currently rides for Blood Wizard, Emerica, Satori and Indy.

Thrasher - January 1998 Volume 18 Number 1

Royce Nelson.

Salba says this about Royce:

Quote: "Go big and fast and hope you all survive."

Royce is the quiet, good natured school boy on the outside, but a little ol' devil on the inside. Mr. Nelson has been known on occasion to internally combust into a demon possessed when assaulting coping. Riding padless (at least every time I've seen him), he scrapes the metal off his trucks for long periods of time (five to six block stand up grinds), blasts big (three to four feet) backside airs and Jack-Be-Nimble ollies to tailslides on command. Tall, mean and lean, Royce always boasts of walking and talking softly buy carrying a big stick. Like John Swope, Royce is fearless.

Earthquakes have been very, very good to Royce as well as big fires. Loads of road trips have provided Royce with valuable concrete commando tactics and tips, which have led me to believe that Mr. Nelson is part leopard. He has this spring and prowess that is not seen in most of his contemporaries, plus he always lands on his feet. He also has this pump that only about twelve people I know of have. And Royce knows - it's all in the pump. For those who know, you too can attest that Mr. Nelson is one crazy son-uv-a-beech...

Tools of the trade: Think Big Boy Board, Indys, Spitfires.

Weaponry and Tactics: Fat airs, ollies to front truck grinds, fast speed lines with tricks thrown here and there make Royce a pick for the pool all-star team.

For the quote: Thrasher - June 1996 Volume 16 Number 6

Thrasher - February 1998 Volume 18 Number 2