Josh Harmony.

Taking it to the brink of disaster.

Thrasher - November 2005 Volume 25 Number 11

Ethan Fowler #13.

Not too shabby for a guy with a bad back.

Ethan tweaks the crap out of Mark and Tony's stalefish.

Thrasher - November 2006 Volume 26 Number 11

Leo Romero #3.

Travesura.

RVCA published a large format magazine called ANP Quarterly for a few years. ANP was short for Artist Network Program. The mag featured interviews, stories, and portfolios for a variety of artists, musicians, and other creative folks. It was a pretty neat read that must have cost a fortune to print. The editors were Aaron Rose, Ed Templeton, and Brendon Fowler. They did eventually offer a subscription. I managed to get issues six to ten from the first volume and everything from volume two. It was published on a quarterly basis, but got off schedule after a few years so a new copy would show up somewhat randomly. I don't think I renewed my subscription and the magazine still kept coming. I thought it was done when Ed left to ride for Eswic, but there was an issue from 2013 that was probably the end.

Thrasher - March 2006 Volume 26 Number 3

Austin Stephens #3.

Orange gradient.

Austin liked RVCA so much he became the team manager after he retired from the professional ranks of skateboarding for Toy Machine.

Thrasher - April 2006 Volume 26 Number 4

Cairo Foster #6.

Back to back.

It's a week of RVCA. The clothing company was started in 2002 by PN Tenore. They sponsor a variety of skateboarders, surfers, artists, and bands. The three pros on the team to begin with were Ed Templeton, Ethan Fowler, and Cairo Foster. I figure if the Tempster supports it, then that's good enough for me. A few of the ams from back in the early days were Kevin "Spanky" Long, Jose Rojo, Bryan Herman, and Josh Harmony.

Part one of the John Lucero and Jeff Grosso Weekend Buzz was pretty darn entertaining.

Rest in purple, Prince.

Thrasher - June 2006 Volume 26 Number 6

Cairo Foster #5.

Nollie hardflip.

Transworld - December 2005 Volume 23 Number 12

Chad Tim Tim #2.

The Poison Tree.

Chad is the switch backside ledge trick style king.

It took a little effort, but I landed a half cab heelflip last night. It's a trick I can do, just not all of the time. I don't think I had done one in a year or two. I opted to not give up because most tries felt pretty close. I'm not into the board I'm riding right now. The whole 14" wheelbase isn't working. I think I've gotten used to 14.25". It's probably all in my head.

Transworld - March 2005 Volume 23 Number 3

Jon Newport.

Melody Calls.

Jon is from Atlanta, Georgia. He rode for Popwar, Planet Earth Clothing, and IPath Footwear. From a quick browsing of his video parts, Jon put together some smooth tech lines on street with a few handrails and big ollies.

We're not going to talk about how many tries it took for me to land a rock & roll on the smallest quarter pipe at the skate park last night. My minimal transition skills have gone to crap over the last couple of years. I need to work on this. Or I can blame my shoes for not gripping right. On the plus side, nobody puked in the parking lot like some random girl did on Monday night. Ya gotta watch out for the lurkers.

Transworld - December 2004 Volume 22 Number 12

Dennis Durrant.

Australian for Eric Koston's ender in Yeah Right!

Dennis is from Brisbane, Australia. He has been sponsored by Mystery, Skate Mental, and Circa. He is currently on the international teams for Adidas and Element as well as Thunder Trucks.

I mainly picked out the Popwar ads because of their design so there's probably not going to be much insightful writing on the skaters this week.

Transworld - October 2004 Volume 22 Number 10

Raymond Molinar #2.

WKND.

It's a week of Popwar. Popwar was around for a few years in the middle 2000s. The brand was supported by Giant Distribution and was created after New Deal ended. Yogi Proctor handled the fine art. Cairo Foster, Kenny Reed, Chad Tim Tim, and Rob Gonzalez were initial pro riders. The company was originally going to be called Populis, but they opted for the more engaging name of Popwar.

Raymond started WKND with Grant Yansura in 2014. He had been riding for Stereo prior to launching a small board brand. Raymond also rode for Habitat after Popwar ended. The team for WKND includes Johan Stuckey, Christian Maalouf, Alex Schmidt, Taylor Caruso, Andrew Considine, and Trevor Thompson. Former Toy Machine am Jordan Taylor and possibly Ausytn Gillette are on the team as well.

Seu Trinh shot the sequence.

Transworld - May 2005 Volume 23 Number 5

Andy Jenkins Girl OG.

This is a wooden Girl action figure painted by Andy "Mel Bend" Jenkins. It's about a foot tall with movable arms and legs. I'm a big fan of Andy's art and his painting style. There are a couple layers of paper and found materials that have been collaged together. The blue swirl was painted on top of the layers. I like how he blends a few different things together in his paintings and it works out perfectly.

RIP Fallen. You guys lost me when the Patriot II was discontinued.

It's back to scans with Popwar on tap for next week.

After a mild winter, we had a snowy setback to begin April, but spring is here with a vengeance now.

Do I bother with Record Store Day?

Hazardous Skater & Mark Heintzman.

"Your buddy likes weird stuff. Everybody else just buys Powell Peralta reissues."

I've ordered a few reissue boards over the last couple years. I was a little skeptical of owning skateboards that weren't going to be ridden, but then I saw some Schmitt Stix remakes right after Christmas at a reasonable price so I took the plunge into the world of decks as wall art. Of course everybody remembers the Powell, Santa Cruz, and Vision stuff vividly because those were the big three and many of their graphics border on legend status. From doing this website, I've rediscovered the slightly more obscure stuff I missed out on back in the late 1980s. That's what interests me for collecting. For whatever reason I never had a Schmitt Stix board so it was an opportunity to pick up something I always thought was cool. The Mark Heintzman is by Assault and is relatively faithful to his original pro model on G & S. I always was a fan of Mark and thought the ketchup graphic was neat. However, I think my collecting is about at its conclusion as I don't have much wall space left in my apartment.

The quote is from my friend Paul. I've been ordering from his friend's shop when I do order stuff for the wall and he was relaying what the owner said.

SPoT M & M's.

"It was a good-sized box, bigger than bread, fashioned of basic brown cardboard. Its heavy weight puzzled me, filling the air with anticipation as I tore open the top flaps. The mystery was finally usurped by my surprise: a full-on regulation-size McDonald's straw dispenser (filled with those huge 3/8" diameter straws) gleaming out at me. I pulled it up and out, sat it on the counter where I worked and that was that. That was around 1984. I don't remember who or where it was from or why, just that it was sent by a skateboarder. A gift, a favor, joke, prank, piece of conceptual art or whatever you want to call it - it was pretty off the cuff and creative." - Gary Scott Davis

It's not exactly a straw dispenser from the Golden Arches, but it is close. I often order stuff from the Skate Park of Tampa. I ordered a deck last fall and the box it came in was larger than what they normally use for just one board. It was also heavier and felt unbalanced. I open the package up to discover this guy had been included with my order. Thanks, dudes.

The quote is from GSD's essay "This Could Be The Fuse" in Dysfunctional, (London: Booth-Clibborn Editions, 1999), 22.

King Rail.

Splendid Eye Prize.

Sometime in the early 2000s, 2001 I think, Transworld had a contest for the 15th anniversary of Blockhead Skateplanks. You had to send in a letter naming as many of the people who rode for Blockhead that you could remember. The big prize for the most names was a portable flat bar from King Rails. King Rails was an obstacle company run by former Blockhead rider Jeff King. I busted out my copy of Splendid Eye Torture and wrote down all the names listed in the credits. For good measure, I added a few other names to the list, like Dan Rogers, Jeremy Wray, and Laban Pheidias. I mailed my answers in and didn't think any more of it until this big, beat up cardboard box showed up one day a couple of months later. Transworld said I had listed way more names than anybody else. I still use this thing every so often. I keep it in the garage at my parents. It's handy to have if there isn't anything else to skate.

Independent Bearing Press.

This week Vert Is Dead takes a look at a bunch of crap I've bought, won, or was given.

Over the last summer I was having problems with my bearings because they were old and kept breaking. This meant I was taking bearings out of my wheels rather often and I was having a hard time doing so. Bearings go into new wheels easily. Not so much the case with older wheels. I started wondering if anybody still made a press for bearings. A regular commenter pointed out that NHS had a couple of different models. I checked their website and decided I was getting myself one for Christmas. It's a handy piece of gear to have, although it took me a little bit to figure out how to use it for removing bearings. There is a little nub on the front that you hook onto the bearing in the wheel and then the lever will pull the bearing out by pressing the wheel against the front. I mounted the press on a cheap bookcase I use for storing CDs in my bedroom. I think I'm slowly working towards my goal of living in skateboard shop.

Note: I had the darndest time taking a photo of this thing. It's kind of in a weird corner that doesn't have great lighting. I probably should have used a different lens or something, but I figure I got the picture OK enough for the internet.

Real Rolling Hearts.

Fine Art Friday.

I mainly picked this one for the tribute to Blind Racing Team graphic. I always liked those boards for just how clean and simple they were.

It will be something a little bit different for next week.

Thrasher - April 2004 Volume 24 Number 4

Ed Templeton #22.

Skateboarding's faux leopard print phase.

Transworld - January 2004 Volume 22 Number 1

Rick McCrank #4.

Abandon Ship!

What exactly has been happening at Girl and their related companies as of late? It seems like somebody you would never expect to quit leaves the team every couple of weeks now. The internet peanut gallery sure gets a kick out of hating on Crailtap, too. I can see being critical of some of the stuff they have done over the last few years because it hasn't exactly fit in with the image of Girl, but any company that has been around for over twenty years is going to have the occasional misstep in the fickle skateboard world. At the same time, it's Mike Carroll and Rick Howard, two of the best ever. I suppose this is just an example of how tastes change over the years and things move in cycles.

Shout out to Skate & Annoy.

Transworld - August 2005 Volume 23 Number 8

Ethan Fowler #12.

Bring the Ruckus.

Ruckus is a truck brand that was started by Tod Swank under his Tum Yeto umbrella of companies in the early 2000s. The team included Ethan, Alan Petersen, Kris Markovich, Jason Adams, Corey Duffel, and Gareth Stehr. A couple of the guys wound up on Ruckus because of beef between their board sponsors and truck sponsors. I think Consolidated got into a silly argument about something trivial with Deluxe so AP wasn't on Thunder any longer. Or something like that. Based upon a check of the Tum Yeto website, Ruckus appears to still be going today.

Thrasher - June 2004 Volume 24 Number 6

Jason "Jub" Taylor.

Big Drop.

Jub is from Chicago, Illinois. He rode for the Black Label and Consolidated. His part in Black Label's Black Out video from 2003 featured him rolling off of a lot very tall things. He also chucked his carcass at a bunch of handrails. Jub got kicks from Emerica, too.

Snow? What's up with that? This week isn't looking promising for skateboarding.

The photo is by Adam Conway.

Thrasher - January 2005 Volume 25 Number 1

Steve Olson & Duane Peters.

I was a surfer, I had a skateboard.

Thrasher - February 2004 Volume 24 Number 2