Ethan Fowler #17.

Ethan crosses the street.

I've written it before, but it is interesting to watch the transformation of Ethan in Live, the first Toy Machine video from 1994. He goes from a skate rat who does all the tricks to refining his moves down to the tricks he can do with style and pop.

Outdoor skateboarding has been happening at the park the last couple days, but the wind has been nasty. It hasn't been too cold, it's been tough pushing against the breeze.

Thrasher - September 1994 Volume 14 Number 9

Mike Carroll #20.

Mike tweaks an air on a mini ramp. I always liked this photo.

The new issue of Thrasher is looking pretty good. Jamie Foy's backside smith grind for the cover is sick. It appears Venture is again making trucks that don't have any graphics printed on them. This would be great if that is the case. There's a tour article by Nora Vasconcellos about a road trip to Arizona. There's also another tour article about how Jake Phelps and company revisit Ecuador after twenty years. They didn't bring Mike Carroll this time around, but they did have Peter Hewitt recreate his cover photo from 1998.

Thrasher - December 1994 Volume 14 Number 12

Mike Crum #3.

Vert Texas Style.

I never had a pair of Simples. I don't know if I ever liked their designs and I'm not sure how I feel about them today. I'm not into toecaps in general because I think they look a bit odd. The shoes did look neat on the feet of Mark Gonzales and Julien Stranger so they had that going for them. They also made some cool looking ads.

The photo is by Chris Ortiz.

Thrasher - September 1994 Volume 14 Number 9

Justin Regan #2.

Huntington Beach Locals.

Before he became the director of global brand and product marketing for Vans, Justin was riding for Jinx's company and doing nollies over walls. Deanna Templeton is in the background with a video camera.

The photo is by Rick Kosick.

Transworld - June 1994 Volume 12 Number 6

Jamie Thomas #9.

Technical Invisibility.

This is something you don't see very often. Jamie getting tech with a pop shove-it to nose manual to nollie heelflip out. He was pro for Invisible, the updated for the 90s form of Blockhead, at the time.

Transworld - February 1994 Volume 12 Number 2

Ricky Oyola #9.

The early days of Zoo York.

Ricky does a nosegrind on a ledge at Love Park in Philadelphia.

The photo is by Jeremy Traub. The design is by Eli Morgan Gesner.

Thrasher - September 1994 Volume 14 Number 9

Omar Hassan #5.

Magic Carpet Ride.

Street Omar gaps out to something, probably a lipslide, on the same leftover piece of metal that Bo Ikeda was skating in a post from earlier this month. Omar would have been riding for Acme. Formula One was shifted over to include boards later on in the 1990s and only made round plastic things at this time. I was going to say this is the last Acme ad for a while, but I've got two Channel One ads lined up in the weeks ahead. Things are starting to get a little lean for content.

It's like summer outside today. There was rain to start the day and then it dried up so I got in some lunch break skateboarding at the park. It was mostly dry. I'm glad I went because the rain started up again for the afternoon. I went back to Jamestown to skate on Saturday and I cruised the park here on Sunday, too. It feels good to get a few days in a row of skateboarding in again.

The photo is by Chris Ortiz.

Transworld - May 1993 Volume 11 Number 5

Mirko Mangum.

Kite Flier.

Venture ran a lot of ads with tightly cropped photos of bluntslides on curbs and ledges over the years. Mirko rode for Planet Earth.

How cold is too cold to skateboard? I used to have set temperatures where I wouldn't bother, but I think the cutoff has gotten lower over the last few years. I'm talking optimal conditions with bright sunshine and no wind. Even if it is a little colder, wearing dark clothing when the sun is out warms you up, kind of like a reverse of Alex Olson's all white outfits to beat the NYC heat. Obviously, it has to be dry, too. As of late, I go by what it feels like outside more than any specific number. I've got a theory that humidity and barometric pressure might be as much of an influence on things as the temperature, but I've never bothered to investigate that in depth.

Thrasher - September 1993 Volume 13 Number 9

Paul Zuanich #2.

Think pro and internet designer zips through a switch backside tail at Wallenberg.

Work has been jamming a little more than I expected today. The weekend ain't getting here soon enough.

Thrasher - September 1993 Volume 13 Number 9

Edward Devera #2.

I enjoy a lot of the design for the Real ads circa 1992 and 93 when the company was starting to establish themselves in the industry.

Ed is from San Jose, California. He was an am for Santa Cruz before switching to Real. He would later ride for Mad Circle and ATM Click. Ed's part in the first Real video featured a variety of smoothly done flip tricks and manuals set to the sounds of Santana.

It seems like spring might be getting here soon, but winter still has plenty of time left. I checked the skatepark and it is buried under more snow than what our brief warm up will probably be able to melt. I forgot there was a good dose of the white stuff last week. I got in a flatground session in my parents' driveway yesterday after work since that was the only spot that was dry. I wanted to skate my portable flat bar, but my dad moved it to the storage shed in the backyard and I didn't feel like getting it out. I settled for some pop shove-its and bailing heelflips. I usually got those, but it wasn't happening. I also realized my flat game is pretty lean. I think I'd rather do boardslides and 50-50s because it feels like you are doing something more productive. I've put in the time over the years to learn tricks on flat and I know what battles I can win versus which tricks are a lost cause.

Thrasher - July 1993 Volume 13 Number 7

Willy Santos.

Helmet.

Willy is doing a switch crooked grind for Formula One Wheels by Acme during the Birdhouse Projects days. You don't really think of Willy as doing a lot of opposite footed tricks, but he was throwing out some good ones in the Untitled video from 1993. I had at least one set of wheels by Acme and a bunch of their shirts. Their whole no pro model theme has been discussed to death, but I always dug their graphics and ad designs. I've probably mentioned that way too often as well.

Transworld - September 1993 Volume 11 Number 9

Jim Duhamel & Pete Mihalenko.

Mailorder YouTube.

This was the ad for a promo video from New School. Since it was only five bucks, I ordered a copy. It was dubbed onto a full length VHS tape, even though the video was only ten minutes long. This was probably cheaper than getting a bunch of copies professionally made. All of the footage was from the spring and summer of 1992 so there were a lot of big pants and pressure flips. The skaters featured were Mike Chu, Alan Lo, Tom Boyle, George Karr, Justin Bokma, Mike Cox, Donnie Cameron, Danny Susek, Jason Corbett, Jim Duhamel, and Pete Mihalenko. Jim and Pete had the last two parts and I think they might have been turned pro after the vid came out. The soundtrack has some era appropriate post-punk/hardcore, the Beastie Boys, NOFX, and a couple of oldies.

Select highlights:

Mike Chu opens his part with an ollie down Wallenberg from the Back to the City contest of either late August or early September 1992. This was probably the last trick filmed for the video. Mike skates around a couple of those wooden parks that they had in California at the time.

Alan Lo is a little kid who does a lot of pressure flips and other assorted slow moving grind/slide combos.

Tom Boyle has a part with mini ramp and vert action. He's good for a couple of noseslides on the street, too. The Rock's part was mostly filmed at one indoor park, I think it was Cheapeskates. He rips.

There's a shared am part with George Karr, Justin Bokma, and the rest of the guys I mentioned. Curbs, stairs, gaps, and flip tricks coupled with big shorts and Airwalk NTS shoes that reflect the style of the era.

Jason Corbett's footage is mostly at an indoor skatepark in Canada and looks like it was filmed in one day. Jason shreds. He might even do one of the first Barley Grinds ever on a ledge.

Jim Duhamel tackles some handrails and skates fast. He puts together a few lines out in the streets.

Pete Mihalenko has a solid part. He does a he really nice backside 360 ollie down a decent sized gap. He does a lot of flip tricks and lands everything on the bolts, including a couple of backfoot flips.

And that wraps up a review for a video you've probably never seen and wasn't on the internet since last I checked.

Thrasher - November 1992 Volume 12 Number 11

Mike Vallely #6.

The elephant never forgets.

Mike blasts a big ollie off one of those Los Angeles school yard hips. I think the photo would have taken from when he was still riding for TV with Ed Templeton, although they might have switched the brand over to Television by the time this ad came out. Mike's riding some Ventures and the tiny wheels of the day. Those are probably Zero Twos, the vegan skate shoe, on his feet.

Powell Peralta has reissued Mike's classic elephant debut model since he turned pro thirty years ago. I liked the graphic, but I thought the board was an odd shape that was slightly hard to ride at the time. It also feels like the graphic never went away with Mike's couple of stints on Powell and the assorted variations over the years. Are we maybe reaching the end of nostalgia? That's a concept I might be fine with. It kind of feels like we've done all we can with rehashing the past.

Transworld - March 1993 Volume 11 Number 3

Shawn Mandoli #2.

Free ride.

I'd never heard the song Shawn skated to in the first Real video prior to seeing said video some 25 years ago. It's called "Come and Get Your Love" by Redbone, a soul and rock group from LA with Native American and Mexican roots. The song was a big hit in 1974. Over the summer one of the kids at the skatepark was playing music on his phone and the tune came up. I almost said something about how it was in Real's first video and that Shawn Mandoli skated to it, but then thought the better of talking about something from a couple years before they were born.

Thrasher - December 1993 Volume 13 Number 12

Rick Jaramillo #4.

Video grabs and switch heels onto wooden curbs.

There's a great interview with Barker Barrett up now at the Chrome Ball Incident.

Transworld - December 1993 Volume 11 Number 12

James Kelch #3.

"I don't feel like jumping right now."

It's funny how you pick up on little bits of dialogue from skateboard videos and keep repeating them. Kelch gives up an attempt to ollie a fence in the first Real video and blurts out a classic. This is a line I always say to myself, especially more now that I'm older.

Thrasher - August 1993 Volume 13 Number 8

Paulo Diaz #5.

Snappy nollie magic.

I like the colors and design of this ad.

Thrasher - August 1993 Volume 13 Number 8

Jesse Paez #3.

Go big or go home.

A young Jesse Paez in the big pants, small wheels, and huge gap days. That stair set ollie is ridiculous. He took the big drop game up a few notches in the early 1990s.

Congrats to the Eagles. Y'all in Phillie maybe want to take the party levels down a few notches.

Transworld - July 1993 Volume 11 Number 7

The Cherry Creek Skatepark.

The area around my town is primarily farmlands once you drive a minute or two away from the minor metropolitan sprawl that is Dunkirk and Fredonia. There are a variety of farms scattered about the countryside with small village centers to go with them. The range of crops grown includes grapes, apples, corn, and much more. There are a number of dairy and cattle farms, too. My grandparents used to own a dairy farm. Most of the villages have one stop light, a post office, a pizza place, assorted businesses, and a school district. It's small town America. I'm describing the scene so you have a sense of what it is like and not making fun of it. Somehow there ends up being enough pavement so that the few kids who find skateboarding have a place to roll.

Cherry Creek is about sixteen miles or so away from where I live. You are going out into the country to get there as the drive involves a hilly and winding road to the middle of nowhere. It is not a fun place to get to in the winter. At the end of the 1990s, I think it was either 1998 or 99, the crew of skaters living there took over the village's basketball court since it was a large patch of smooth asphalt that wasn't being used. I don't recall the details, but it might have been a borderline hostile takeover. With the newly acquired field of blacktop, they built a collection of ramps, ledges, and other rickety wooden things to do tricks on. There was a little launch ramp, a big quarterpipe that was on the mushy and mellow side, and a fun box type of creation. They filled up the space and you had a bunch to skate. All in all, they did a good job, especially considering they were probably still in high school and you wouldn't expect a skatepark in a town like this.

We went out there a handful of times since it was a bit of drive to get there. I'm not sure how we found out about the spot, but I imagine either my friend Paul or Mikey met this kid Seth from Cherry Creek at some point skateboarding somewhere and got a phone number. Things always worked out back then in the days before social media. I doubt the skatepark lasted beyond that summer. Seth went to college in Fredonia in the early 2000s. I'd go skateboarding with him sometimes. He moved to Buffalo and I would see him at shows occasionally. I've lost touch with him in the years since. The other thing I remember about the place was that there would be a couple of cats hanging around the ramps. This was a good spot to hit up for a change of pace and some fresh air.

Note: The photo is of a farm by the school in Cherry Creek. I snapped the picture back when I worked for the newspaper and was out that way covering an event of some sort. I know Paul and I filmed a couple of video clips at the park, but I have no idea where that tape would be.

Bo Ikeda #4

Obscure t-shirt fascination.

I always liked that Acme bicycle t-shirt design. I'm not really sure how I never ordered one since I had a few Acme shirts at the time. Bo rips. I was going to use a sequence ad where he is wearing the same shirt, but I decided it wouldn't have been a great scan so I went with a still from his Pro Spotlight.

I'm going to post an old spot story for tomorrow to switch things up a little.

Jon Donhowe snapped the photo.

Transworld - May 1993 Volume 11 Number 5