Mike Archimedes & Phil Esbenshade.

Night & Day.

I figure the best way to close out the year is with a couple of slightly more obscure rippers. The same old rehashing of the well known gets stale after a while. There's always more variety than what is remembered the most. Phil E. was pro for Skull and became a lawyer. Arco was recently granted a guest pro model by his bros at Anti-Hero on their spinoff Jalopi Skate Co.

I rode a fair amount of Speed Wheels back then. I like the pair of videos they released, Speed Freaks and Risk It. As I've gotten older, I appreciate the absurd number of team riders they managed to fit in both. It helps with generating content for here. The funny thing is that I've never had a board made by Santa Cruz. I have picked up a few of their reissue t-shirts and I think Bronson are awesome bearings.

Vert Is Dead will be back on Monday, January 21st.

I'm taking a little longer winter break than normal due to how the holidays worked out this year. With Christmas starting in November and an early Thanksgiving, it was a tad disorienting dealing with the calendar. At any rate, I'll be back with the daily updates for 2019.

If you have been paying close attention to my comments or emailed me, you might have picked up on my vibe about switching to a weekly format and being slightly over doing this. Realistically, the material worth scanning is starting to get thin.

I have come up with a few ideas for next year that I'm excited about, including Emerica, Circa, Strange Notes, and more. There's a couple skateparks I want to do stories on, too. I'll also have a list of my favorite stuff from 2018. I spaced out on compiling that this month. Thanks for the support.

Mark Waters took Phil's photo and Tobin Yelland took Arco's photo.

Thrasher - September 1990 Volume 10 Number 9