"Streetstyle doesn't really exist. It's just something someone made up." - Dan Wilkes
There is a lot going on in this ad. You get Powell Peralta's Ray Underhill, Tracker's Dan Wilkes, Blockhead's Jim Gray, and Vision's Tom Groholski. I think each of these photos could stand up on its own as a full page. Jim's might be a little plain, but the rest are great. It's all slightly different views of somewhat less common tricks.
The new issue of Thrasher came with the Hell Of A Year for 2014 DVD. I watched nearly all of it last night. It was a good mix of clips from different skaters. Lem Villemin had a swank part that I missed. Jordan Hoffart does the forever boardslide for his Firing Line. Watching skateboarding on the TV is way better than watching skateboarding on a computer or your mobile device.
Vert Is Dead will be back on Monday, January 15. I need a break.
It will be two weeks of stuff from 1991 when I fire this thing up again. Some other things you have to look forward to in 2015 will include a couple or three weeks of 2010, a look at the cast of Flip's Sorry video, and Skate More by DVS.
The quote is from the Best of Skate Fate by Gary Scott Davis.
Transworld - December 1989 Volume 7 Number 8
22 comments:
GSD
groholski is one of the best dudes ever. ripped hard, no egomania, drug abuse etc. and kept skating after the demise of the 80's vert craze. just doing what he liked.
getz and dill in skate more are go to vid parts when I need some inspiration. Dill's ollie over the chain to nose manual always trips me out as does Getz's manual combos.
the less I say the better....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nv67dwNG5z0
that was awesome Ben. "side slips it" and "uses his hand as suspension"are now lodged in my brain.
Thanks for that one, Ben.
Groholski is one of those guys that I appreciate so much more now.
Getz's part in Skate More is one of my favorites.
I'm just bored and figure I will let you guys know Mike V. has once again started a new company. He left or quit Elephant to start street plant. I will try to list every company in order that he has ridden for.
Powell-Peralta
SMA /World Industries
New Deal
Television/ T.V.
(tried to start a company in N.J. forget name. saw one board though)
Powell
Transit
Black Label
Vallely Skateboards
Element
By the sword
Powell Peralta
Elephant Brand
Streetplant?
That's an epic list. So is Elephant done? I liked what they were doing. I understand when somebody is younger how they can enter into a business deal with a shady individual, but once they get older, shouldn't you have a better sense of how things work?
Mike V's Facebook page had a comment asking for him to reissue the Barnyard (again) and he responded somewhat-cryptically to say that it'd be coming out again, one presumes via Streetplant. So, he's got that going for him.
Any bets on how long Streetplant will last and what the next company will be called? I'll say one year and "Barnyard" (seems like an obvious enough choice, right?).
Sorry for using your comment section like Slap but everyone who post here seems level headed and mature. As long as I have something positive or interesting without dragging their name through the mud, I will keep commenting.
Street Plant is already over a year old and Elephant is still around.
If you go www.elephantbrandskateboards.com it now takes you to www.streetplantbrand.com
Elephant Brand is now done through Select (Vision/Brad Dorfman). I think Vallely bolted. He partnered with him once already in the early nineties with T.V. and things went sour. He said on his facebook he and his daughter are doing Streetplant together.
I just went to that street plant brand website (awful name btw, haha) and the site is rad. Lots of cool posts: barnyard board history, New Brunswick NJ handrail tour (awesome nostalgia trip for anyone like myself who grew up skating in NJ during the late 80's... That hyatt rail was my first non caveman boardslide! Ha), and some old pics that brought back lots of memories. You can even read the parrot girl poem there. Hahaha. Seriously though, I hope he keeps updating it with similar stuff.
Girl was almost called Wallride so Streetplant isn't that bad. It's relevant to Mike.
I checked the Elephant website yesterday and noticed it just took you to Streetplant. I do wonder what is going to happen to Jason Adams and Neal Hendrix? Mike even had a girl on the Elephant team. I cannot think of her name right now.
Dorfman seems to have found a new market place. He's got a decent collection of new and reissue companies going. I ordered a couple of Schmitt Stix boards as a Christmas present for myself since I never had them back in the day.
This is the most comments on anything here in ages.
The Schmitt Stix boards have nothing to do with Paul Schmitt. Mr. Dorfman owns the brand name. I remember when New Deal started there were still Schmitt Stix ads going for six months or so.
Hopefully Jason Adams will turn his Slappy Hour project into a company!
Jade Ryan was the girl on the Elephant team.
I did a whois lookup on the Elephant site domain for the hell of it and found that it was originally registered by someone at Resource Distribution, home of Riviera longboards and Paris trucks. The ownership is now private but is probably in Mike V's hands considering the redirect to his new project.
Looking at the Streetplant site, I'm struck by the difference in degree of nostalgia between that project and Elephant. Elephant was (as I saw it) a veteran pro doing his version of Black Label or other brand where old school and new school meet and it's all cool and fun. Streetplant seems-- and this is just looking at the website and having not seen product or brand direction yet-- to be a Vallely museum exhibit (1986-1990) and entirely rooted in a static vision of that era rather than drawing from it for a modern era. Or something.
Anyway, I hope Streetplant retains the sense of fun Elephant had. (And I do hope Mike reissues the Barnyard because I missed the chance to grab one the first time around as well as all subsequent reissues.)
1031 is done. Kristian Svitak is on Street Plant. Didn't Mike V. burn bridges with him with By the Sword? I swear he bolted to go back to Powell.
Mike Vallely will be back on Powell in one year. He will write a poem or two about how it was meant to be. I will just try to remember him by his amazing part in Speedfreaks. Don't eat my animal friends or I will kick your ass!
Yeah. I guess street plant isn't too bad of a name. Rereading my post makes me seem like I'm not a fan but I've always dug mike v. Even during some of his more questionable antics. One things for sure though: the guy is a legend. Circa 1989 nobody could touch him. I remember seeing him around New Jersey lots of times in the mid 80's like 85-89ish before my family moved out of state. He was always ripping. My dad's a carpenter and he always built my little crew good quality jump ramps every so often and I had this awesome wave ramp (like a jump ramp that went from low to high like 2-4 feet.) We always sessioned it at this school in east Brunswick across the street from my house, chittick, like every weekend. Lots of dudes came. Anyway, one weekend in like 1986 or 87 mike v and his crew showed up in some ratty van and it was him and some other rippers, all like 4-5yrs older than us (I was born in 75') and he was destroying it. I'm remember one of his friends was skating in combat boots like doing wall rides and shit. I wanna say vallely was launching fake off it somehow. I dunno, my whole crew was stoked... Couldn't believe they came by and I still don't know how they heard of it. I wanna say he may have heard about our little scene there through his cousin Jason carhart who I went to elementary school with. This was right around the time he first got on Powell. Whatever sorry for being long winded as I'm sure nobody gives a fuck about my memories haha but yeah... Stoked on his new site's nostalgia element. That dude always ripped and seemed cool whenever I spoke to him.
Should read "launching fakie" in case anybody was scratching their head...
Dear Stephen,
The reason I come to this site is to hear stories like yours. I love the old ads and the history behind them. Mike Vallely might not be someone you want to do business with, but he definitely loves skateboarding. I wish him and his family well.
P.S.
I always had a crush on his wife Ann. Super beautiful!
When I first heard of Hockey I thought maybe they would give Mike V a guest board.
Street Plant website is great
Could it be possible to do a Mike Vallely month? Or better yet, one long as hell post with all his sponsors. I think you would be the first to chronicle his different sponsors through the years. I bet there is even a grant you could apply for to help with funding.
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