Sammy Baca.

Sin City.

Sammy rode for Pig when the company expanded from just wheels to wood as well. After deck production was ceased, he joined up with the Baker crew. At one point when he was still an am for Baker, he bailed on one of their tours to go on a tour of South America with Creature. I think Sammy's logic was that if Darren Navarrette asked you to go along for the ride, that you went. Andrew Reynolds handled this with a relaxed attitude and said that Sammy's first pro model with Baker would be his name in the Creature font. A little while later, Sammy got his board with his name on it. And it was in the Creature font.

Thrasher - May 2004 Volume 24 Number 5

Darrell Stanton #2.

It's tough to find a photo of Darrell where he isn't doing a switch backside 180 down a huge set of stairs or a switch heelflip. Actually, it's probably not, but whenever I'm flipping through the mags and see an ad with him, he's doing one of those tricks. And for as awesome as those tricks are, I do like to try for a little variety.

This was the first trick in Darrell's part in Real's Roll Forever video.

Thrasher - May 2004 Volume 24 Number 5

Peter Hewitt #7.

Self defeating prophecy.

Thrasher - June 2004 Volume 24 Number 6

Mike Rusczyk #2.

Just chilling.

Thrasher - February 2004 Volume 24 Number 2

Anthony Van Engelen #3.

Search and destroy.

A.V.E. goes over the rainbow.

The action photo is by Lance Dawes. The portrait is by Mike O'Meally.

Transworld - June 2004 Volume 22 Number 6

Alex Horn.

Cranston gets stale.

Alex rides for Creature these days and is a champ at doing tailblocks.

Not to be confused with the Red Cross or the band Redd Kross, Red Kross was a branch of the Black Label. It's now known as Emergency thanks to a couple of cease and desist letters from the life saving organization. It's basically John Lucero's nobel effort to give his old skate buddies pro models. The team has included legends like Neil Blender, Duane Peters, Jeff Grosso, Steve Olson and a few others. Currently the team consists of Eric Nash, Mike Smith, Riky Barnes, Jimmy The Greek and Lucero. There have occasionally been a few younger guys on the team as well.

Thrasher - July 2004 Volume 24 Number 7

Andrew Allen.

There is a light that never goes out.

Andrew got his start with Legacy before switching to Anti-Hero and turning pro for them in 2009. He brings a large batch of more technical and switch tricks to the team. He's also a Smiths fan.

Legacy had a short run out of Dwindle Distribution. Matt Mumford was in charge of things. He had been riding for Mystery. The pro team included Pat Duffy and Justin Strubing. The ams included Allen and the late Shane Cross. After Legacy ended, Mumford went to the Black Label and joined back up with Jamie Thomas for Slave.

The picture is by Nick Scurich.

Thrasher - July 2004 Volume 24 Number 7

Mikey Taylor.

Doves.

Mikey was an am for Kareem Campbell's City Stars. He was added to the Alien Workshop offshoot Seek when City Stars ended. He moved over to the Alien team after the Seek experiment concluded. Mikey had the opening part in Skate More, the DVS video from 2005. You can see that he is riding Seek boards in some of the footage. In the time since, he has ridden for Etnies and now DC for footwear. You will see him on the TV screen at those Street League contests from time to time. Based on Skate More, Mikey seems like a fun guy to be around. He also grinds large handrails with ease.

Note: This Mike Taylor is not the same person as the Mike Taylor who was pro for G & S in the early 1990s.

John Landi took the picture.

Thrasher - April 2004 Volume 24 Number 4

Danny Renaud.

Classic Florida.

Danny had a banging opening part in Habitat's Mosaic video and turned pro for them. He went through a rough spell a few years back and parted ways with Habitat. He was riding for Stereo until recently. Danny had a guest pro board on Magenta at the end of 2011.

The photo is by Ian O'Connor.

Transworld - February 2004 Volume 22 Number 2

Emmanuel Guzman.

Your go to guy for backside noseblunts on gnarly giant walls in skateparks (With or without a kickflip in).

Emmanuel has pretty much always ridden for Santa Cruz, starting as am and then turning pro. He skates in a fast, no bullshit style that reminds me of Tim Brauch and John Cardiel. It seems like he would fit in perfectly with the late 80s/early 90s Santa Cruz team alongside Eric Dressen and Tom Knox.

Thrasher - February 2004 Volume 24 Number 2

Johnny Layton.

Johnny was an amateur at Tum Yeto and went on the first King Of The Road tour in 2003. Actually, he might only have been flow at the time. He ripped and was officially added to the Toy Machine team after that. He's been with them ever since. Johnny currently rides for Vans, Theeve, Pig Wheels and Leo Romero's new griptape company, Bro Style.

The camera duties were handled by John Bradford.

Transworld - February 2004 Volume 22 Number 2

Chris Haslam.

Dragon Force.

The picture is by Matt Cadieux.

Transworld - January 2004 Volume 22 Number 1

Mike Carroll #11.

Kooks sincerely trying to do this.

Is it the weekend yet? I was swamped with work all day so y'all get an evening update.

I've found a new place to order boards from online. It's Josh Stewart's Theories Of Atlantis. He distributes companies guaranteed to make grumpy old dudes happy, such as Hopps, Magenta, and Polar. Plus, he is based in Brooklyn so anything gets to my side of the state in a couple of days. I'm setting up my new Magenta tomorrow. I don't mess around with Friday the 13th.

Transworld - March 2004 Volume 22 Number 3

Cairo Foster #2.

Never ending math equation.

Transworld - January 2004 Volume 22 Number 1

Jake Brown.

Vertical terror from Oz.

Jake's been around for a while. He rode for long gone companies like Nation and Platinum before joining with Blind. He did the loop at the Tampa Pro contest in 2001 and cheated death at least twice by surviving a 45' fall in the Mega Ramp contest at the X-Games in 2007.

Mike Blabac was the photographer.

Thrasher - April 2004 Volume 24 Number 4

Kris Markovich #12.

Kris rode for Blind after the curtains closed on Hollywood. He didn't stay long and left to do Crimson before starting Given. I'm not sure if that company is still going. We haven't heard from Kris in a while. How about checking in with the skateboarding media?

Blind ads are way more appealing to scan when there isn't some dumb cartoon in them.

The photo is by Ed Dominick.

Thrasher - March 2004 Volume 24 Number 3.

Dan Drehobl #13.

Welcome to 2004.

Dan catches a stalefish at FDR in Philadelphia on the first King of the Road contest in 2003.

KOTR was invented by Michael Burnett as a Smokey & The Bandit/Cannon Ball Run inspired cross country contest where teams race across the land earning points by doing assorted challenges. This includes stunts both on and off the board. The goal was to make it fun, not a trick completion percentage thing. The first one was the most exciting to read about because I had no idea that it was going on until the January 2004 issue of Thrasher showed up in my mailbox. Granted the internet makes a contest like that much easier, but it also ruins the element of surprise.

Deluxe won the initial KOTR, with Foundation in second, Volcom in third and éS in fourth.

Gabe Morford took the photo.

Thrasher - January 2004 Volume 24 Number 1