Tuesday, June 30, 2015
Tony Hawk #6.
The Birdman flips his board.
With the recent release of the film All This Mayhem, my Ben and Tas Pappas post has been getting a lot of traffic. I have not seen the video, but I've been reading about the aftermath from the 900. Tas has made the claim that Tony pulled some strings to keep him out of the best trick contest on ESPN in 1999. Skateboarding journalism stepped up and interviewed many of the people involved in the event to get all the facts straight about this particular contest. It does not appear that there was any sort of conspiracy by Tony to keep Tas off ESPN. But then again, the conspiracy theorists would like you to believe that.
Given my track record of not watching movies, I doubt I will ever watch All This Mayhem. Plus it's made by Vice and after the shenanigans they pulled to kick Death By Audio out so they could have a fancy new office, I'm over all things Vice.
Sorry, Australia. Don't hate me.
Steve Sherman snapped the photo sequence.
Thrasher - October 1993 Volume 13 Number 10
Monday, June 29, 2015
Friday, June 26, 2015
Jason Carney #2.
June Cate's friend takes a backside tailslide down a handrail.
I sort of feel Jason was under appreciated for what he was doing back in the day. He was one of the first to take tricks like backside lipslides to handrails. I watched a couple of June's video parts last week and Jason had a few tricks. Everything he did was so solid and done with more pop than most. His approach to skateboarding foreshadowed what is going on today with guys like Brandon Westgate.
Transworld - November 1992 Volume 10 Number 11
Thursday, June 25, 2015
Jahmal Williams #3.
Static.
Jahmal had the last part in Josh Stewart's recent Static V video. He is running Hopps Skateboards currently after riding for several different companies over the years.
Skateboarding's fascination with running photos small perplexes me at times. There's a few ads I won't scan in because the pictures are just so tiny. I understand that sometimes there isn't room to run a photo larger or if a picture has a few flaws then a smaller size makes sense. This ad is dynamic, but it's hard to tell what's going on.
Transworld - December 1992 Volume 10 Number 12
Vert Is Dead Interview At Skately.
Kevin at Skately asked me a few questions about the website and I typed out some rambling answers. Enjoy.
The Interview
Wednesday, June 24, 2015
Kelly Bird #2.
Pressure flipping.
The current day brand manager at Lakai takes a pressure flip down some stairs. Kelly turned pro for New School and then switched to Real. He moved behind the scenes to team manage at DC Shoes before joining up with Rick Howard and Mike Carroll.
I swear he's got a cigarette in his mouth for the trick, but it is hard to tell from the photos.
The sequence is by Joe "Xeno" Lloyd.
Thrasher - March 1992 Volume 12 Number 3
Tuesday, June 23, 2015
Skaterman.
The top ten reasons to skateboard from the home office in Santa Barbara, California.
Powell tries the comic thing again. It's funny, but not as good as Sean Cliver's Everything Sucks. I'm not even positive who the artist was on this one. It was possibly John Keester.
Enjoy your retirement, Dave. I'm a month late on that.
Transworld - September 1992 Volume 10 Number 9
Monday, June 22, 2015
J.J. Rogers #7.
You know how all the young guns are grinding those handrails that are really close to the wall?
J.J. did it first.
I checked out the Go Skateboarding Day event at Jamestown Skateboard Products yesterday. It was the first time I had been to their new location, which speaks to how lame I am because they moved a long time ago. Anyway, they've got a super gnarly bowl that I did not mess with. I opted for the assortment of grind boxes and flatbars that were stuck in the empty space in the back. That was totally a good time and I even remembered how to ollie off a launch ramp.
Thrasher - January 1992 Volume 12 Number 1
Friday, June 19, 2015
Julien Stranger #18.
The master Anti-Hero with a top shelf nosegrind.
This spot always looked like a lot of fun in the videos.
I gotta figure out what I'm doing with this thing for Monday.
Thrasher - August 1993 Volume 13 Number 8
Thursday, June 18, 2015
Jason Corbett #2.
California Dreaming.
Jason is from Toronto, Canada. He scored a classic cover for Transworld back in December of 1990 while riding a Blind Jason Lee Grinch board. Jason was pro for New School.
Mark Hostetter snapped the photo.
Transworld - December 1993 Volume 11 Number 12
Wednesday, June 17, 2015
June Cate.
Jason Carney's friend does a stylish frontside noseslide.
June was pro for Entity Skateboards. He was on Gullwing and as well as a couple of Vision related companies.
I'm pretty sure he's wearing Fuct trousers in the photo.
Transworld - August 1993 Volume 11 Number 8
Tuesday, June 16, 2015
Dan Rogers #2.
OG Birdhouse stuntman, a precursor to what Clive Dixon is doing today.
The photo is by Steve Sherman.
Thrasher - June 1993 Volume 13 Number 6
Monday, June 15, 2015
Rob Dyrdek, Bo Ikeda, & J.J. Rogers.
Off the wall trio.
You've got Dogtown pro J.J. Rogers crushing a rail with Acme's Bo Ikeda and Alien Workshop's Rob Dyrdek taking care of noseslide duties on another.
The photos are by Chris Ortiz.
Transworld - May 1993 Volume 11 Number 5
Friday, June 12, 2015
Thursday, June 11, 2015
Pat Brennen.
Street Fighter.
Pat was from Pasadena, California. He was an amateur on Alva before switching to Powell Peralta. Pat turned pro for Powell and later joined up with Lance Mountain at the Firm. Sadly, he was killed in a car accident in 1997.
Thrasher - May 1993 Volume 13 Number 5
Wednesday, June 10, 2015
Wade Speyer #11.
Flyin' the flannel.
I couldn't find this one when I was doing Powell week a little bit ago and really wanted to post it.
Wade had been riding for Dogtown until they went under. He looked around at a couple of companies before deciding on Powell Peralta. He had a Transworld Pro Spotlight where he was riding World Industries and blank boards at the time prior to picking Powell. If that had happened today there would be so much internet speculation on who he was riding for. The kids and their mobile devices. I'm sure we talked about it a bunch back then, but you know, it was a different era.
Thrasher - March 1992 Volume 12 Number 3
Tuesday, June 9, 2015
Chet Thomas #4.
"Did a certain manu's hard-working employee take exception to a recent Chet Thomas advert? Did he not send a letter to Public land? Does Ed Reategui now gleefully carry around the letter and laugh derisively? Is this the beginning of a war between the blue-collar types and the glamour boys?"
It was a big deal when Chet left Powell Peralta to turn pro for the brand new Public Skateboards. It probably shouldn't have been as big a deal since he would soon be riding for Santa Cruz and Public would be gone. This might have been their only ad.
For the gossip: Thrasher - April 1992 Volume 12 Number 4
Transworld - January 1992 Volume 10 Number 1
Monday, June 8, 2015
Rudy Johnson #5.
Lead guitar.
Those pale blue Spitfires are rad.
The photograph is by Spike Jonze.
Transworld - January 1992 Volume 10 Number 1
Friday, June 5, 2015
Aaron Herrington.
Happy National Donut Day.
Aaron is from Corvallis, Oregon. He was living in SF and wound up moving to NYC. Pontus Alv hooked him up with Polar and he has subsequently turned pro for them. He's got the opening part in Josh Stewart's Static IV video. Aaron does a lot of quick tricks on a variety of spots in the Big Apple for his video segment. He pops some big ollies, too.
I know I've said before that Polar is my favorite company going right now. I like everything about what they are doing - the graphics, the board quality, the team, the videos. It's nice to have that same feeling of excitement about a skateboard company that you used have when you were younger.
Eric Palozzolo took the photo.
Transworld - December 2014 Volume 32 Number 12
Thursday, June 4, 2015
Zach Lyons.
"Like I said, for a while I was losing interest in skateboarding. Not in the act of skating, but in the world of skateboarding. I felt that the way I saw skateboarding was slowly dying to become just another sport. I was skating with Vivien everyday, who was living with me on boulevard Magenta in Paris, and we shared the same ideas as to what we personally felt skateboarding was missing." - Soy Panday
Magenta was started in Paris and Strasbourg, France by Vivien Feil and Soy Panday in 2009. Vivien handles the management aspects and Soy is in charge of the graphics. The team includes Jimmy Lannon, Ben Gore, Glen Fox, Leo Valls, Koichiro Uehara, and Zach Lyons. There's a definite parallel to what they are doing and what Stereo was doing in the early 1990s. Again this is more a case of being inspired by something and updating a few solid ideas to the current world of sidewalk surfing rather than simply rehashing the past. They've got some great graphics and the videos are enjoyable to watch. It's cool to see that a company like Magenta is doing well.
And they make graphics like this:
The picture of Zach is by Alex Reyes.
Transworld - November 2014 Volume 32 Number 11
Wednesday, June 3, 2015
Austyn Gillette #3.
Weed socks.
After running a retail shop called Huf and riding for DVS, Keith Hufnagel decided to launch his own shoe company a few years back. The team includes Josh Matthews, Kevin Terpening, Brad Cromer, Dan Plunkett, Joey Pepper, Peter Ramondetta, Dylan Rieder, Sammy Winter, Craig Anderson, and Haroshi. Huf hit the streetwear jackpot by making socks with marijuana leafs all over them. It seems like a cheesy product to make, but I guess if it allows him to sponsor guys like Pepper and Ramondetta then so be it.
I've been skating a pair of Nobles and they are decent. They took forever to break in and now I'm used to them.
Since everybody is doing a Vans issue to correspond with the release of Propeller, I'm saying the new Thrasher tops the Skateboard Mag's edition by a mile.
Transworld - November 2014 Volume 32 Number 11
Tuesday, June 2, 2015
Welcome.
Welcome to two for Tuesday.
Jason Celaya started Welcome in 2010 with the goal of making functional decks that weren't the same as the standard popsicle shape. He wanted something that you could do tricks on that wasn't a cruiser or an old school board. The graphics are the other big difference about Welcome. They look nothing like the name in a big font paired with a logo that seems to be plaguing the never ending batches of seasonal drops. There's a heavy influence of Chris Miller and Neil Blender with what goes on these boards, but it feels inspired by what they did for G & S and Schmitt Stix back in the in day and not flat out copying their artistic efforts.
Nora Vasconcellos is from Pembroke, Massachusetts and shreds all sorts of transitions. She also rides for Bones Wheels and Converse.
The photo of Nora is by Matt Price.
Boards: Thrasher - June 2014 Volume 34 Number 6
Nora: Thrasher - March 2015 Volume 35 Number 3
Monday, June 1, 2015
Mother Collective.
The newest in new.
I thought I would switch it up by featuring some of the newer companies that I have been into lately. I'll go back to the old stuff next week.
Mother Collective is the most recent startup from the wreckage of the saucer crash. Former Alien Workshop team manager Chad Bowers is the man behind the company. The team consists of Tyler Bledsoe, Gilbert Crockett, and Jake Johnson. They are based in Ohio and going for the arty vibe. I like what I've seen so far with the graphics. There are odd compositions with bizarre photos and drawings. The team ain't half bad either.
For some reason the name Mother reminds me of Family, the company that was supposed to happen out of Deluxe in 1993 with Jordan Richter and Greg Hunt.
My next board is a Gilbert Crockett. I set it up on Saturday afternoon. It promptly started raining and hasn't stopped since.
Thrasher - May 2015 Volume 35 Number 5