Justin Brock.

Tar Heel.

Justin is from Mt. Airy, North Carolina. He rides for Real, Nike, Thunder, and Spitfire. This trick got done in 2006 and appeared in Real's Since Day One in 2011. Modern videos take some time to make. I watched his part last night and the guy is a machine on street and transition. He crushes everything that gets in his way.

Thrasher - January 2007 Volume 27 Number 1

Tommy Sandoval.

Die trying.

Tommy was the new guy on Zero who helped them win Thrasher's King of the Road contest in 2004. He was the MVP for that adventure. Since then he has turned pro and closed out a few videos with his epic stunts. He rides for Fallen, LRG, and Krux. T-Gunz is from Chula Vista, California. I know he owned an old limo at one point. I kind of hope he still has it, even if he is a dad now and really doesn't need such a vehicle.

Speaking of trying to die, Derek Elmendorf, the Powell am formerly known as Deathwish, took down one hell of a rail in the new Thrasher.

Thrasher - February 2007 Volume 27 Number 2

Tony Cervantes.

"Old school pool skating stokes me out. Everybody had such good handplants and style."

After a long time in the Zero army, Tony just turned pro following the Cold War video. He's from Whittier, California. His first board sponsor was Illenium. He rides for Fallen, too. The car in the ad was a 1968 Volkswagen Beetle that was stolen sometime after the photo was taken. The little kid is his younger brother. Tony skates with a solid mix of older moves like wallrides and footplants to go with the big rails and more tech tricks. He also throws in a few airwalks and judos for good measure.

For the quote: Slap - October 2007 Volume 16 Number 10

Skateboarder - May 2007 Volume 16 Number 9

Peter Hewitt #9.

The shallow end.

Peter rode for Team Hosoi, was on Santa Cruz twice, Goodtimes, and 151 before finding a spot in the back of van at Anti-Hero. He's a notable backyard pool and concrete shredder with his name on the short list of people who have done the loop.

Thrasher - January 2007 Volume 27 Number 1

Dan Drehobl #16.

Interstate 8.

I think Dan's video part for the Skateboard Mag that came out in July of 2013 was one of those clips that slipped under the radar. Too much internet.

Thrasher - August 2007 Volume 27 Number 8

Clark Hassler.

Canned Heat.

Straight cut and pasted from the enjoi website:

clark grizwald hasslerhoff, 4th dimension, telepathy, lost, mumbler, space time continuum, nike sb and apparel, zerp, new york, max fish, stretching, demo laps, portals, wailers, jahrasta park, teenage runaway urethane, spaceballs, sign language, jedi mind tricks, no call no show, bumblaclot wasteland, words are just words, chameleon, 360 vision, namaste, invisibility cloak, wizard factory, rocco, ninja smoke bombs, good vibes, demons, whispers, big head, toothpicks, bananas, peace pipe, donnie clarko, clark after dark, independent, point of no return, crouching filmer hidden poacher, random bag check, 7 year party, conspiracy theories, mystery achievement, zen garden, quantum physics, snow angels, zorched, self journey, kralc, the man, the mystery and the voices in my head.

I think that about covers it.

Slap - October 2007 Volume 16 Number 10

Austin Stephens #2.

From one Austyn to the next.

Austin retired from the pro ranks at the end of 2013. He only rode for Toy Machine, starting as an am in 1998 and turning pro in 2002. Emerica sponsored his feet for a while and he had a part in their This Is Skateboarding video set to Bell & Sebastian. Austin is now the team manager at RVCA.

The photo is by John Bradford.

Thrasher - February 2007 Volume 27 Number 2

Austyn Gillette.

Suffering Season.

Austyn turned pro for Habitat in 2011. He was also on Habitat Footwear. He switched to Brian Anderson's new 3D venture last summer. Austyn recently decided he wanted to put his feet in shoes made by Huf. He is also sponsored by Official Hats, Liberty Board Shop, Bones Bearings, and Small Wheels. The Huf website lists his interests as starting a band, wall scaling, and sober karaoke.

I like how this guy skates. He puts together lots of lines with tricks that might not be the most complicated things ever, but it all looks so good. You'll get a lot of 180 tricks done the hard way into a 50-50 or a frontside flip carving on a bank. You will see him push in a video part and get a better sense of how he skates instead of the standard ollie, land on the rail, survive the rail, and roll onto the lawn before the filmer palms the camera.

Thrasher - June 2007 Volume 27 Number 6

Justin Figueroa.

Harsh Toke.

I guess I'm finally posting stuff skaters under 30 will appreciate.

Figgy was an am for Birdhouse. As is often the case with Birdhouse ams, as they grow up a little and discover things like rock music and tattoos, they end up switching to Baker. Or at least they used to when Baker and Birdhouse were distributed by the same company. Anyway, I'm rambling. Justin doesn't mess around and totally destroys all handrails, regular or switch. His part in Bake & Destroy probably should have won him Thrasher's SOTY for 2012. The split part he had with Don Nguyen in the Shake Junt video was maybe the highlight of that flick. He rides for Emerica and the mysterious Asphalt Yacht Club.

Harsh Toke is the band Figgy plays guitar in with Austin Ayub, Richie Belton, and Gabe Messer. They have an album out on Tee Pee Records.

John Bradford took the picture.

Thrasher - August 2007 Volume 27 Number 8

Ben Raybourn.

Glasses.

If you are obsessed with 1980s vert skating, then Ben is the new pro for you. He is from Rosenberg, Texas and was sponsored early on by 1031. He rode for Slave up until the end of 2012 when he switched to Birdhouse. Ben was on iPath and is now on Nike. The first video he ever saw was the Vision Skate Escape. He crushes all manor of transitions with a vintage selection of tricks. It's not a retro or a throwback or old school thing, it's timeless good skateboarding.

The photo is by Brahm Goodis.

Thrasher - November 2007 Volume 27 Number 11

Brandon Westgate.

Earthless.

Brandon is from Wareham, Massachusetts. He rode for 5Boro and Birdhouse prior to Zoo York. He's been on Emerica for awhile and had the opening part in their Stay Gold video from 2010. He had the closing part in their recent Made video, which landed him on the shortlist of candidates for Thrasher's 2013 SOTY award. Brandon also rides for Venture. The guy just goes around blasting ollies over everything. He's got the classic street style approach of doing fewer tricks better that all us jaded grumps adore. Julien Stranger and Donny Barley come to mind. Plus Brandon seems like a level headed and responsible person, which is always good to see in today's crazy world.

I know we live in the internet age and nobody reads anything any more, but why are the Checkouts in Transworld exactly one sentence long now?

Skateboarder - May 2007 Volume 16 Number 9

Mark "Fos" Foster.

Nasty.

Fos is the man who created Heroin Skateboards. He's from London. Heroin has been around since 1998 and a couple of years ago partnered with Bakerboys Distribution. The team features Chet Childress, Daniel Shimizu, Gou Miyagi, Chopper, and Deerman of the Dark Woods, along with a few others. One thing that makes Heroin stand out are the twisted Madball-esque graphics that Fos designs. I've had a couple of their boards and been very happy with them. I maybe need to work on the list of things I like because between some of the weird noise bands and saying I like Heroin, it doesn't sound too good out of context.

Altamont is Andrew Reynold's clothing company that is backed by Sole Technology, the makers of Emerica and Etnies. They go for a more well thought out arty approach to their clothes and have done a variety of collaborations with photographers, bands, and artists. Richard Kern, the estate of Jimi Hendrix, Patrick O'Dell, No Age, Abby Portner, Andres Serrano, Pushead, and GWAR are some of the many artists and musicians they have worked with. The team is currently Reynolds, Neen Williams, Bryan Herman, Brian "Slash" Hansen, Kenny Hoyle, and Jon Dickson.

Thrasher - December 2007 Volume 27 Number 12

Dennis Busenitz & Mark Gonzales.

Gonz and Boozenittz attak the wal at the Autum bowl.

Adidas has always been a popular brand with skateboarders, particularly in the early 1990s with the EMB crew. The shoe with three stripes made a few efforts to get into the skateboard footwear business, but it wasn't until 2006 or so when everything finally clicked. Interestingly Mark Gonzales has been sponsored by Adidas the whole time. Their late 1990s team included Lance Mountain, Quim Cardona, Paulo Diaz, and Jahmal Williams. Josh Kalis was even on the team at one point. The revamped team featured Tim O'Connor and Dennis Busenitz. Later Lucas Puig, Pete Eldridge, and Silas Baxter-Neal, Mark Suciu and a few more were added. As far as big time shoe companies go, Adidas doesn't bother me the way that Nike does. They seem a little more down to earth in their approach to skateboarding.

It looks like Anti-Hero is making an updated version of Julien Stranger's syringe airplane board.

Thrasher - March 2007 Volume 27 Number 3

Gilbert Crockett.

Old Dominion.

Gilbert is from Richmond, Virginia. He was initially sponsored by Mystery and Fallen. He switched over to the Alien Workshop in 2010 and turned pro for them. Vans just released a shoe with his name on it. He also rides for Venue, a shop in Richmond. Gilbert's got a raw straightforward style with classic tricks done on higher obstacles or over longer streets. He's got a mean switch kickflip.

The photo is by Joey Shigeo.

Thrasher - August 2007 Volume 27 Number 8

Alex Olson.

New blood for a new year.

I was figuring out what I wanted to do next with this website because I was getting a little bored of the older stuff. I came up with a list of newer pro and ams skaters and somewhat arbitrarily picked 2007 as the starting point. I found a good portion of what I was looking for along with some other interesting things. I'm one of those people who likes skateboarding today and I'm not going to claim that one previous era was the best. Every time has its pluses and minuses. That doesn't make it necessarily better or worse, just different.

I do keep up with the new ams and pros, not as much as I used to because there is seriously too much to take in. I tend to give new ams a little time before I start to pay attention to them, just to make sure they aren't some random who will disappear after a year. Skateboarding has had too many of those. The weeks ahead are going to be a mix of the new breed along with familiar faces that have kept at it all these years.

Alex Olson is the son of OG Steve Olson, making them the first father/son combo to have pro model boards. Alex was getting flowed by Toy Machine before riding for Girl. He turned pro for Girl and recently left them to start his own company. He has had parts in Lakai's Fully Flared and Girl's Pretty Sweet. Alex's feet have been in Lakai, Vans, and Nike. He's into photography as well as disco and techno. He has a Tumblr where he answers questions from the kids. I think that's cool he takes the time to do that. I do wish he would work on his spelling a little bit in his answers.

Note: For the guy who requested him, Aaron Murray was on the list. You're just going to have wait a little while before I track down an ad. Sorry.

Thrasher - September 2007 Volume 27 Number 9

Lester Kasai #4.

Dill rode for the House.

Since the name keeps coming up every so often, here's an ad for Lester's House of Kasai. The company was backed by Tracker. Adrian Demain was the other pro. The ams included Jon Bryant, Scott Clemenes, and Matt Goldsby.

Grant Taylor on Anti-Hero? That makes sense. It seems like things are falling apart at the Alien Workshop.

Vert Is Dead will be back on Monday, January 13.

Transworld - November 1989 Volume 7 Number 7

Steve Rocco.

Rocco appropriated Winnie the Poo for his board back in the day.

Brian Anderson appropriated the image from him for 3D in 2013.

Thrasher - March 1989 Volume 9 Number 3

Phil Rouchard.

Happy New Year.

Splendid eye vert torture.

Thrasher - February 1990 Volume 10 Number 2