Ronnie Creager #3.

Nadia.

This week Vert Is Dead takes a look back at Nadia Footwear. Ronnie Creager started the company in late 2001 after leaving éS. The team included Henry Sanchez, Corey Sheppard, Gailea Momolu, and Ali Boulala. The ad with the flowers was the first ad for the brand. The second ad shows some of the footwear models they made. It appears Sanchez beat Huf in using the letter H on the side of a shoe. I don't think I ever saw a pair in real life. Nadia lasted about a year or two. Ronnie lost a good deal of money in the project so I feel a little bad about running a week's worth of their ads. On the positive side, I did find a couple of interesting items to scan that maybe haven't been on the internet as often as other things.

Flowers: Transworld - November 2001 Volume 19 Number 11

Tailslide: Transworld - September 2002 Volume 20 Number 9

Dan Drehobl #19.

Corpsey.

Dan is originally from Brunswick, Maine. He was first sponsored by Who Skates out of the Pine Tree state. There was a brief stint on Foundation before getting the boot via print advertising. He would soon turn pro for Think and stayed with them until Mark Gonzales offered him a spot on Krooked in the early 2000s. Cancer is still pro for Krooked after all these years. Dan had a spot on Emerica, but left for Vans. He had a pro shoe on Vox. I think he is currently on Converse.

Transworld - September 2001 Volume 19 Number 9

Chet Childress #5.

Ludacrooks grinds the wall for Mike Vallely's old wheel company.

Jai Tanju took the backside Smith grind photo and Gish Thaxton took the lifestyle photo.

Transworld - January 2002 Volume 20 Number 1

Kenny Reed #2.

All over the world.

Transworld - February 2002 Volume 20 Number 2

Chad Bartie.

Australian for gnarly handrails.

Chad is from Gold Coast, Australia. He has ridden for Foundation, Powell, and Kewday in addition to the New Deal. He might be riding for Ramshakle Skateboards from Australia currently, but the website wasn't working. I think Chad was on Physics Wheels and he is presently on Bones Wheels along with Theeve Trucks. His part in Seven Year Glitch had a nice variety of spots with skateparks, pools, ledges, and handrails. There's even a switch heelflip for good measure.

Transworld - February 2001 Volume 19 Number 2

Ricky Oyola #7.

Damage Incorporated.

Transworld - July 2001 Volume 19 Number 7

Fabrizio Santos.

The Breeze.

Fabrizio hails from Arataju, Brazil. He was added to the New Deal team in 2000. At the time he was also riding for Etnies, Crail Trucks, and Split Clothing. His part in Seven Year Glitch had a lot of high tech handrail attacks, sometimes with a flip in. He busted out the one footed crooked grind, too. Fabrizio is into hip hop and he might have been a picky eater when he first came over to the United States. He scored a spot on Shorty's after the New Deal closed up shop. He currently rides for Positiv, Andy MacDonald's branch of Powell.

For info: Thrasher - December 2000 Volume 20 Number 12

Tranworld - April 2001 Volume 19 Number 4

Ryan Johnson #2.

Steel Pulse.

Ryan is from Sanger, California. He was on Consolidated prior to riding for the New Deal. He later rode for 151 until that company ended. It looks like he is still skateboarding and working on building skateparks these days. His part in Seven Year Glitch showcased a bunch of pool shredding and big handrail 50-50s. Ryan is doing a backside kickflip that he lands on the ledge in the photo.

Transworld - October 2002 Volume 20 Number 10

Lincoln Ueda.

Maximum airtime.

Lincoln is from São Paulo, Brazil. He rode for Formula One before joining the New Deal. I'm not exactly sure who he is riding for right now. The internet turned up a few links for companies that are looking expired. It does appear he is running a wheel company called Alta Wheels. They sponsor vert young guns Pedro Barros and Tom Schaar. His part in Seven Year Glitch featured a lot of big airs at Bob Burnquist's giant backyard ramp plus a little one footed lip trickery thrown in for good measure.

The photos are by Dan Bourqui.

Transworld - November 2001 Volume 19 Number 11

Rob Gonzalez #2.

Chill Rob Gee.

Rob is from Long Beach, California. He rode for Entity and Shaft before the New Deal. The Deal turned him pro in 1998. He later rode for Cairo Foster's Popwar before starting Listen with Danny Montoya. Listen evolved into Boulevard (BLVD) in 2010 and is still going today. Rob's part in Seven Year Glitch was a good mix of solid street skateboarding. He did some handrails, some tech tricks, and a whole lot of nollie heelflips. His part features guest appearances from Montoya and Steffan Attardo. Rob helps give the video a friendly vibe as he appears in a lot of the before part introductions.

Transworld - May 2001 Volume 19 Number 5

Chad Tim Tim.

Seven Year Glitch.

The New Deal started back in 1990 when Paul Schmitt, Andy Howell, and Steve Douglas decided to embark on a different venture. They ended Schmitt Stix and left Vision to start a new company. The New Deal took off fairly quickly and the brand quickly grew in popularity and size. After a couple of years, Andy Howell started Underworld Element, which morphed into Element and became the primary concern at Giant Distribution. The Deal kept going with a few team changes over the years. At one point it was just a generic board brand, but then an am team was added. In the late 1990s, the New Deal built up a pro team and returned to having models for the riders.

Around about 2000, the New Deal started working on a new video. Ricki Bedenbaugh was the man in charge of putting everything together. He was the primary filmer and edited the video. Seven Year Glitch was released in early 2002. The last video they put out was 1994's Children of the Sun and the gap between videos was the inspiration for the project's title. I think I got my copy at Shebang Skateshop in Erie, Pennsylvania. They had an indoor park with a good mini ramp that I would hit up to skateboard during the winter months.

Seven Year Glitch featured full parts from the pro team of Chad Tim Tim, Rob Gonzalez, Lincoln Ueda, Ryan Johnson, Fabrizio Santos, Ricky Oyola, Chad Bartie, and Kenny Reed. It also had a split part with the am team. The amateurs at the time were Brandon Jacobson, Mike Manidis, and Tim Achille. I watched it again yesterday. It's primarily a street vid with Lincoln handling vert duties and some pool skating from RJ.

Chad Tim Tim is from Long Beach, California. He was an am for New Deal and turned pro for them. After the Deal died, he rode for Cairo Foster's Popwar. When that ended, he made the in-house switch over to Element. He is still on Element today. He had the opener in Seven Year Glitch and put down a lot of smooth tech lines, both switch and regular.

Transworld - September 2001 Volume 19 Number 9

Random Stickers.

This is a somewhat haphazard sampling of stickers that I liked the design of that I found while going through my collection. This is the last time I post any old stickers because it was a hassle to sort through the shoebox I keep them in. They are now all organized and properly layered so as to not get bent. I ain't touching 'em again.

Skateboard 'Zines.

I will often write for 'zines that get reviewed in Thrasher. I've been slipping on that as of late and the fact a lot of people don't include an address doesn't help overcome my occasional laziness. Here's a few stickers that I was stoked on having:

Cold Ones was made by Andy from San Jose. The couple of issues I have were from about 2004. It featured lots of skateboarding, beer, and some punk rock CD reviews. Basically, that's everything a good skateboard 'zine should have.

Skate & Annoy started off as a print 'zine and then took to the internet as a great website. It's run by Kilwag up in Portland, Oregon. This sticker is from a paper issue I have that very much resembles the current website in terms of content. It included an interview with the Godoy brothers, an installment of Neil's eBay Watch, obscure skateboard related stuff, and lots of photos. There were also music and video reviews.

Pool Dust is the long running project of Wez Lundry. Wez is a writer for Thrasher and does the 'Zine Thing column as well as music articles. He's got a Ph.D in Political Science from Arizona State. He used to be sponsored by Alva back in the day.

The crappy E.T. and Your Dumb are by Michael Sieben. Your Dumb is brilliant. I think I got these when I ordered the full set of his Programed From India 'zine.

A couple of notes: I did find a Real catalog and the J.T. Aultz cat sticker is his first pro graphic. It's from 2004. I'm planning on using next week to look back at New Deal's Seven Year Glitch video, clips of which have been popping on Thrasher's website recently. Spooky.

Expired Companies.

Here for a good time, not a long time.

After leaving Powell for a second time, Mike Vallely ran Transit Skateboards in 1998. I have a bunch of their stickers and all follow a public transportation style graphic theme. They all look pretty good.

Vita was a footwear company that Natas Kaupas did in the late in 1990s and early 2000s. The team included Jason Dill, Max Schaaf, Kenny Hughes, Reese Forbes, and Gideon Choi.

Speed Metal Bearings were created out of the Element camp in the late 1990s. I think at some point the brand was handled by Destructo Trucks, but eventually faded away within the last three years or so. These are the only bearings I've ridden since the company started. My last Speed Metals finally died this past summer so I upgraded to a set of Bronson Speed Co. bearings.

The Crailtap Family.

Here's a smattering of stickers from Girl:

Crailtap is the Girl and Chocolate website that was started in the very late 1990s. It was intended as an online magazine, but as the web evolved, it turned into a blog with daily updates. Tha Tap is still going today with updates from your favorite Girl employees.

Ruby Republic was a clothing line for women. I don't think they are still making anything. I want to say Brad Staba might have had a board for them somehow.

I miss when companies made stickers for pro riders. It's probably not practical these days with such a fast turn around on graphics. It is a nice touch when it happens, such as Brandon Biebel's name expressed in pictures.

I just think this Chocolate logo looks neat.

Finally, there is a sticker for Chomp On This, the Pac-Man themed photographer video from 2002. It featured parts from master lensmen Ryan Gee, Giovanni Reda, Ako Jefferson, Atiba Jefferson, Lee Dupont, Ty Evans, and Gabe Morford. There were also montages of top pros and amateurs, along with full parts from Eric Koston, Brandon Biebel, and Jamie Thomas.

Real Professional Stickers.

Rolling forever.

I had a snow day from work back in January and decided to sort through my shoe box full of stickers. I picked out a bunch of goodies to do a week's worth of adhesives.

Real made stickers for pro graphics in the early to mid 2000s. The robot was the graphic for Dennis Busenitz's first pro model. The Keith Hufnagel pop art explosion and Busenitz's robot are both from the fall of 2002. I couldn't find a catalog that had the J.T. Aultz cat, but I'm guessing it was from a couple years later. It was probably also J.T.'s first graphic. I believe the kickflip over the construction barrier logo is from the late 1990s.

Here's an old school bonus of Jim Thiebaud's Cop Kisser top graphic from 1992:

Julien Stranger #19.

Head Vagrant.

I was watching old video parts from Julien today and he had a mean backside 360 ollie in the SMA years. He was also doing some great combo tricks on curbs and blasting big airs at Burnside.

Thrasher - November 2011 Volume 31 Number 11

Nestor Judkins #2.

The Midnight Special.

Nestor was born in Palo Alto and grew up in Los Gatos, California. His mom is from Spain so they visited there often when he was younger. He was an am for Santa Cruz before joining up with enjoi. He turned pro for the Panda in 2011. His sponsors include RVCA, Krux, Adidas, and Pig Wheels. He's into photography for a hobby. The rumor is he keeps his bolts so loose on his trucks that he super glues the kingpin nut in place so it doesn't fall off. Nestor has the first part in Tilt Mode Army's Bonus Round video from 2009 and delivers a smooth batch of skateboard tricks. He's got a good style and does more switch stuff than I realized. I watched most of Bonus Round again last night. That's a fun video.

Transworld - June 2011 Volume 29 Number 6

Steve Nesser #2.

Capsized.

Steve is from Minneapolis, Minnesota. He got into skateboarding during the days of H-Street and Hokus Pokus. His first trip to California was to visit his sister. She was friends with the guitar player from Samiam. He took Steve and Seth McCallum to a mini ramp session in Oakland. The ramp belonged to Jim Thiebaud. Mark Gonzales and Tommy Guerrero were there and skating. That had to have been a memorable experience for two kids from the North Star State. Steve turned pro for Consolidated and has also ridden for Iota and Birdhouse. He started the High Five with Todd Bratrud, which later changed to Send Help. I'm not positive if Send Help is still going. I liked their graphics. Steve currently runs Familia Skateshop in Minneapolis.

The photo is by Sam McGuire.

The Skateboard Mag - October 2011 Issue 91

Raven Tershy #2.

Clean your plate.

Vincent Alvarez had a kickflip to pivot at this same spot for the cover of the January 2013 Thrasher. He didn't go top shelf like Couch and kept it on the lip. You have to appreciate the empty beer bottles serving as reference points for the smooth ground.

John Scott won the NHL All Star Game MVP Award. Justice was served and thus concludes Vert Is Dead's ice hockey coverage for 2016.

The Skateboard Mag - November 2011 Issue 92

Brad Cromer.

Getting it straight by riding for Krooked.

Brad is from Jupiter, Florida. He once beat Jonas Wray in a game of SKATE during one of the Tampa Pro contest weekends. His prize was an autographed Media deck from Jonas. Magenta pro Ben Gore was an early influence on Brad. He's not a huge fan of social media, but is a fan of what Fucking Awesome and Quasi are doing for skateboarding right now. Keith Hufnagel just awarded him a pro model shoe. Brad also rides for Thunder, Spitfire, Brixton, and Shred Shed Skateshop.

Super was a short lived clothing company. Tony Larson, formerly of Girl, did a lot of the artwork. John Motta, Marquis Preston, Ryan Spencer, Chris Roberts, and Kurt Winter all rode for the team. Super was only around for maybe a year tops.

For the background: Thrasher - March 2016 Volume 36 Number 3

The Skateboard Mag - May 2011 Issue 86