Doug Shoemaker #2.

Happy Halloween!

The photo is by Lance Dalgart.

Thrasher - October 1997 Volume 17 Number 10

Chad Fernandez.

Ross Goodman's Gravedigger lives.

Chad rode for Think, Creature, Planet Earth, and World Industries over the years. He had footwear sponsors of Etnies, Osiris, and Globe. The guy did some big handrails and gaps, plus lots of ledge work with some transition tricks added for good measure.

The weather has been dicey for skateboarding. Last week featured a lot of rain, as did the weekend. Friday was probably the last of the truly warm days. I only managed a few quick minutes of pushing around in the street before I was off to take playoff high school football photos. At least I didn't get rained on and I had Mighty Taco for dinner.

Lance Dalgart took the photo.

Thrasher - July 1997 Volume 17 Number 7

Bryan London.

Bryan is from Bakersfield, California and lived in San Diego and Los Angeles. Arcade was his first sponsor and he would later turn pro for them. His favorite skaters are Ronnie Creager, Tom Penny, and Eric Koston. Trilogy and Mouse are his favorite videos. He's into rap and likes Scarface, Fight Club, and Goonies for movies. Bryan is also into basketball. He was sponsored by Venture and Autobahn, too.

Vert Is Dead is taking a fall break and will be back on Monday, October 30th with a week of Creature for Halloween.

For the information: Thrasher - January 2003 Volume 23 Number 1

Thrasher - August 2002 Volume 22 Number 8

Casey Rigney.

Casey is from Anacortes, Washington. He was pro for Arcade and joined up with them again when Jason Rogers relaunched the company in 2010. Casey was doing skateboard stunts with Cirque De Soleil circa 2011. He rips and can throw down some serious switch tech tricks.

Autobahn was the wheel branch of Arcade. They sponsored a huge list of people in the early to mid 2000s. I'm not sure if Autobahn is still going. I could have picked an Arcade ad with Casey, but I always prefer one large photo to a sequence. It makes for a better scan.

It looks the Skateboard Mag is done. I renewed my subscription over the summer, but I don't think they completely kept sending me issues from a quick check of the covers on the website. I did get the Na-Kel Smith and Collin Provost editions, but not the Andrew Allen or the last two for that matter. I'll factor one of those to lost in the mail, otherwise that's crappy customer service. Do unfilled prior subscriptions get transferred over to the new Berrics magazine? Or do you have to subscribe to that separately? I imagine it's the later. You guys can keep my twenty bucks since you probably need it more than I do. The Mag went completely downhill once it changed hands. Bummer.

For the info: Thrasher - May 2011 Volume 31 Number 5

Thrasher - February 2003 Volume 23 Number 2

J.P. Jadeed.

Skate or Die on the original Nintendo.

Arcade was run by former H-Street pro Jason Rogers. The company was backed by shoe behemoth Osiris in the late 1990s and early 2000s. They later expanded to include the wheel brand Autobahn. Jason would revive Arcade in 2010 as an independent entity. They released two videos over the years, Gumbo in 1999 and Who? in 2002. The team included Malcolm Watson, Tyrone Olson, Jay "SAD" Stephens, Daniel Haney, Pontus Alv, and a few others.

Sometimes it is expecting too much to get meaningful information from a Big Brother am interview. Sorry, J.P.

Thrasher - April 2002 Volume 22 Number 4

Steve Hernandez.

"It seemed like a really good idea at the time."

Steve grew up in San Bernardino, California. His early skate crew included Eric Koston, Frankie Mata, and Jeff Peterson. He was sponsored by Arcade and Hot Rod Skateshop. Steve's favorite music includes Tortoise, the Minutemen, King Tubby, and Augustus Pablo. He even landed a McTwist at skate camp in 1992. For his amateur interview with Big Brother, he did a shot of tequila for every question Pat Canale and Chris Casey asked.

For the quote and information: Big Brother - January 2000 Issue 56

Thrasher - July 2002 Volume 22 Number 7

Daniel Haney #2.

Space Invaders.

Born: Little Rock, Arkansas
Height: 5'9"
Weight: 165
Shoe size: 9.5
First axe: Claus Grabke
Favorite spots: LA Courthouse and Camelot Benches, Arkansas
Movies: Pulp Fiction and Empire Strikes Back
Book: The Alchemist
Car: '89 Mazda 626
Who's rad: Gonz
Who's sad: Simple As Death
Rail or curb: Rail
Ice cream flavor: Cookies and cream
Salt or pepper: Pepper
Who's rad: Gonz
Who's sad: Simple As Death
Tunes: Marley and Dylan
Chow: Anything organic, sushi
Hall of fame: Bob Dylan
Gator or Hosoi: Hosoi
Words of wisdom: "Many tragic things have been said by tongue and pen, but none so tragic as what might have been."

For the Firing Line: Thrasher - April 2003 Volume 23 Number 4

Thrasher - December 2002 Volume 22 Number 12

Alan Petersen & Karma Tsocheff #2.

Raise the roof.

I think it tends to be forgotten how much of a vert dog Alan was.

I like the two trick line Auby Taylor did from the Rumble in Ramona where he does a fakie ollie to an ollie to fakie. Straight up and down and blasted as high as possible on a Jeff Phillips style old school shape.

Thrasher - September 2005 Volume 5 Number 9

Ethan Fowler #16.

Sean Cronan: Do you still spend a lot of time making basement music?

Ethan Fowler: No, now I make dining room music. It's too hard to find a basement in San Diego. I don't think I could afford it, so the dining room works very well. It even has a covered ceiling, so it adds a little architectural ambiance.

Ethan had been living in Portland, Oregon when he was riding for Stereo and kicking out the jams in his basement. Once he got on Foundation, he moved to San Diego and put his guitars in the parlor.

For the quote: Transworld - October 2002 Volume 20 Number 10

Slap - September 1996 Volume 5 Number 9

Alan Petersen #13.

"I skate as much as possible, as much as my body can take. That's every day. Sometimes I just look through all the pain. Most of the time I go to Sugar Hill Skatepark and skate there from 3:30 p.m. all the way to ten. Also after ten there are no kids. It's a little bit more fun because you use the whole park to skate in - you can go as fast as you want. You're not afraid to body check a kid around. But I skate every day. It doesn't matter what it is, I'll skate it."

Alan brings the thunder to a handrail.

I got skateboarding for the first time in a few days last night. There has been a bunch of rain. My legs needed the days off, but my sense of timing was not there. Summer has been sticking around so the weather has been great. Usually no matter how crappy I skate, I always land at least one or two tricks that I'm happy with.

For the quote: Transworld - November 1998 Volume 16 Number 11

Slap - September 1996 Volume 5 Number 9

Ethan Fowler #15.

He vanished into the cataclysmic abyss.

Slap - January 1996 Volume 5 Number 1

Alan Petersen #12.

AP ventures across a massive void. Those wheels are tiny.

The silhouette of the weird flip trick is from a photo of Jason Clark that ran in the Photo Graffiti article in the December 1992 issue of Thrasher.

Thrasher - May 1993 Volume 13 Number 5

Danny Montoya #3.

"Yeah, music is a really big part of my life. If it's too quiet, I feel a little awkward, I always like to have music playing. Over the years I've always been into music and collecting records. If there's something I'm into, I like to find the original pressing because they're not making that anymore, and it's worth something to me because it's OG. There's a lot to it - with the artwork, the photos, all the ill album work on records. it seems like a lot goes into the whole production of it. I get inspired from finding records, like with the photos or weird colorways; it sparks my ideas for design stuff."

It makes sense that a guy who is into music would name his company Listen. A spot like this looks pretty neat, too.

I hit the 200 mark for times skateboarding this year on Tuesday. I also had a streak where I skated 25 days in a row. My ollies were not looking so hot on Tuesday night. I really should have taken this past Sunday off, but the weather was too nice. We had a really mild February and it didn't rain as much this August so I got to 200 a month ahead of last year.

Ethan and Alan next week. I've also put together a week of Arcade for the future.

For the quote: Thrasher - October 2008 Volume 28 Number 10

Skateboarder - May 2006 Volume 15 Number 9

Rob Gonzalez #3.

It's a combination move from Rob with a tailslide to front board.

Skateboarder - June 2006 Volume 15 Number 10

Rodrigo Petersen.

"Just be you and skate. Don't worry about anything else. Be patient, be educated, be a good person, and people will see the way you are and try to help you out. Don't try too hard. When you try too hard, things don't come to you."

Rodrigo is from Curitiba, Brazil. He got into skateboarding after seeing one of the kids in his neighborhood do a boardslide on a curb. Some of his favorite skaters include Kennan Milton, Gino Iannucci, Guy Mariano, Mike Carroll, Chico Brenes, Mark Gonzales, and Julien Stranger. He started visiting the United States to skateboard in the early 2000s after riding for a couple Brazilian companies. Rodrigo was sponsored by Listen, then switched to Organika, and is now on BLVD. He is sponsored by Nike and had a part in their Nothing But The Truth video from 2007. He also did some shoe design work for the Swoosh. LRG gave him free clothes when they were still around and he had the opening section in their Give Me My Money, Chico flick. Rodrigo does the high tech street skating thing very well and has a fair amount of pop to get up on the tall ledges.

For the quote and information: Thrasher - June 2010 Volume 30 Number 6

Skateboarder - October 2006 Volume 16 Number 2

Brian Brown.

"B. Brown brings the steeeezzzz! That's one thing that's missing in skating today. Everyone can do everything, but can they make it look good? He also brings that East Coast flava that I never get to see out on the West Coast." - Vern Laird, Listen team manager

Jubilation.

Brian is from Westchester, New York. He had the opener in Listen's Viajeros Locos video from 2007. This trick is in the part. His section featured a lot of flip tricks into banks and smooth lines full of manuals. He's not afraid to throw some wallrides or no-complies into mix for the sake of variety. Brian also had the first part in Transworld's Let's Do This, which was released in 2007 as well. Both those parts are heavy on New York City spots. He rode for Zoo York prior to Listen. Adio sponsored his feet. This is one of those guys I feel I missed in the mid 2000s. Brian has got a casual and relaxed style where everything he does looks good. If you need something to do at work today, look up his parts on the old internet thing. It's worth the effort.

For the quote: Transworld - August 2005 Volume 23 Number 8

Skateboarder - August 2006 Volume 15 Number 12

Listen.

Listen up.

Danny Montoya and Rob Gonzalez started Listen in 2006 after both their former board sponsors went under. The original team was Danny and Rob plus Brian Brown and Rodrigo Petersen. Listen existed as such until 2010 when they moved the company to Syndrome Distribution and changed the name to BLVD. The Boulevard is still in operation today and enjoying the popularity of Brazilian pop star Tiago Lemos. Lemos is operating on a whole other level of technical street skating.

It did dry up after work on Friday so I got to keep the days skateboarding streak going. The weekend was nice and I got to skate both days, although I didn't try very hard on Sunday morning. The weather looks like it will be good nearly all week.

I'm also slowly getting some pictures together for another week of stories about old skate spots. What's weird is I always remember night skating as having a yellow glow, but with the new LED lights and whatnot, everything is white. It's something I was aware of, although I really noticed it last night when I was getting a couple photos.

Skateboarder - April 2006 Volume 15 Number 8