Darrell Stanton #3.

Deluxe levitational abilities.

Darrell was the champ of odd bluntslides on big ledges.

Vert Is Dead will be back on Tuesday, September 3rd. Sorry about inadvertently taking yesterday off. I got swamped with stuff at work and I wasn't feeling so hot. Enjoy the weekend.

Thrasher - September 2004 Volume 24 Number 9

Zered Bassett #4.

Dr. Z.

Zered is from Cape Cod and moved out to New York City as a teenager. He turned pro for Zoo York a while ago, went on to ride for Expedition, and currently is sponsored by Alltimers. Etnies, DVS, and Converse have all given him shoes over the years. He is an all around ripper.

The rumor is that an attempted comeback by Zoo York is in the works.

The photos are by Giovanni Reda.

Transworld - July 2004 Volume 22 Number 7

Danny Garcia #5.

A Scott Johnston endorsed classic.

I had many pairs of the Soca when it was in production in the early to mid 2000s. At first I was picky about the colors, but as the model came to an end, I'd buy whatever I could find. I figured they were only going to get destroyed from skateboarding so it didn't matter a whole lot what they looked like. I appreciated the design with its good toe area and heel padding. The shoes were very comfortable and the plain cupsole offered solid foot support. I know reissues and remakes are generally a horrid idea, but I'd buy a couple pairs if these came back true to the original.

Thrasher - January 2004 Volume 24 Number 1

Jon Allie.

No lines, just straight dropping hammers.

Jon is from West Bend, Wisconsin. He moved out to San Diego and turned pro for Zero at the start of the 2000s. He likes working on cars and riding motorcycles. Jon carved his name on Jake Phelp's desk with a knife in 2004. Jake was not happy about this at all.

The photo is by Daniel Harold Sturt.

For the info: Thrasher - October 2004 Volume 24 Number 10

Transworld - February 2004 Volume 22 Number 2

Bryan Herman #4.

Victorville's finest hardflipper.

The word floating around out there is that Baker and Deathwish have new videos in the works. Those companies remind me of classic rock radio in a way. You might not dig everything about it, but there's always going to be a few jams you're really into.

The crew of dudes who were skateboarding a bunch at the park earlier in the summer haven't been around lately. They were keeping the ledges and flatbars pretty waxed up, maybe a little too waxed up. Everything has been getting sticky and I keep forgetting to bring wax. I managed to scrape what I believe to be a melted lump of wax off the sidewalk and put a little on the flatbar last night. It helped. I was getting worried I was losing boardslides. And as a reminder, you don't need a lot of wax, just a small amount will get the job done.

Transworld - May 2004 Volume 22 Number 5

Ed Templeton #29.

Programming Injection.

It's neat how the next Toy Machine video is going to be named after the column Ed used to create for Transworld. I hope they actually press up some DVDs because watching stuff online completely sucks. Remember how it used to be when you'd get a new video you enjoyed and would watch it a ton of times to fully understand it? Those days are gone. I've been watching Dan Rusin's Outpost video a lot lately. It's filmed in the small towns of Minnesota and is totally worth checking out.

Transworld - April 2004 Volume 22 Number 4

John Cardiel #14.

Kickin' it old school.

Thrasher - April 2004 Volume 24 Number 4

Julien Stranger #25.

Laidback Larry.

I saw a vintage pair of Circa shoes on a porch during my lunch break walk. It's an older gentleman who lives at the house so I'm not sure how he wound up with them. They looked like they were from 2004 or 5.

Thrasher - February 2004 Volume 24 Number 2

Matt Hensley #12.

Leave it to Matt to pull off a crailtap on a small transition at a skatepark while wearing a helmet and make it look totally awesome. Props to the photographer, too.

Transworld - March 2004 Volume 22 Number 3

P.J. Ladd #3.

It's funny because I never had a pair of Accels during the initial run of éS. I'm now up to my sixth pair in the company's second go round. I don't particularly love the model and think they might be messing up my feet a little, but I haven't seen many other shoes that have appealed to me. The Accel is mostly good once broken in and is fairly durable. The soles wear out a little on the fast side and grip odd at various points during the life of the shoe. The upper is solid and the laces hold up well. They come in a good selection of colors, too.

The photos are by Atiba Jefferson.

Transworld - January 2004 Volume 22 Number 1

Gabriel Rodriguez #4.

It's all gone somewhere beyond.

Transworld - April 1996 Volume 14 Number 4

Eric Koston #8.

The Lakers weren't doing so hot in 2004, but Frosty was totally on fire. I like this shoe design, although I never had a pair so I don't know what they were like. It reminds me of the 1970s in a good way.

The photographs are by Atiba Jefferson.

Transworld - July 2004 Volume 22 Number 7

Joey Pepper #3.

"No, to tell you the truth with the whole Zoo York thing, I was bummed to not get the check anymore, but when I hung up the phone, when all was said and done, it was a relief because skating for that company was never something I was proud of. There was never any real connection between myself and what I was doing. It was just a paycheck. I was friends with people on the team and have all the respect in the world for my teammates, but the company itself, it was nothing, man. So for it to finally be gone and to not have to wear that shirt anymore was the best feeling ever. Within a week I had a regular job and was working full time and skating and in the next couple years probably skating better than ever. It all just made me realize a paycheck isn't everything. Skateboarding is going to be there for me no matter what."

Joey breaks it down on parting ways with Zoo York and before getting on Expedition. He is currently on Politic Brand, HUF, Levis, Indy, and Spitfire. His trade outside of skateboarding is being a woodworker.

Zoo York is done, isn't it?

For the quote: Skateboarder - February/March 2013 Volume 23 Number 1

Transworld - December 2004 Volume 22 Number 12

Mikey Taylor #4.

Seek was a third branch of the Alien Workshop. It was not around very long and most of the riders were absorbed back into the Alien team. Mikey had been on City Stars previously and he was added to the Workshop. You can see that he is riding Seek boards in his part in Skate More, the DVS video from 2005.

RIP David Berman.

Transworld - December 2004 Volume 22 Number 12

Stefan Janoski.

The Greenhorne.

Stefan is from Vacaville, California. He came up on Expedition and then turned pro for Habitat in the early 2000s. He rode for Nike's Savier footwear brand until it ended, was briefly on Etnies, and then landed on Nike's rebooted skateboard team. Stefan won the lottery with his pro model shoe, which has been on the market for a decade now. I honestly don't see the appeal of the design. It's a simple boat style shoe that will wear out very quickly and offers minimal foot protection. Who knows? I've long given up trying to figure out why people are into certain things. At any rate, his sneaker success has allowed Stefan to live a life of leisure with the freedom to make neat bronze sculptures. His part in Mosaic was great, too.

Stefan has never been on here before, except for a shared ad with Kerry Getz. I was a little surprised by that.

The photo is by Pete Thompson.

Transworld - September 2004 Volume 22 Number 9

Daewon Song #6.

So long and thanks for all the donuts.

At the end of 2018, Daewon left Almost after spending 28 years on World Industries or one of its related companies. He started a new venture with Torey Pudwill called Thank You. Daewon had been with World for so long that it was SMA World Industries when he first got on. He possibly had been riding for the company longer than Torey has been alive. It's a tie at the very least. Daewon would mostly ride for World Industries, but was also on Deca from 1999 to 2002 and Artafact in 2002 before starting up Almost with Rodney Mullen in 2003.

It's neat how Daewon incorporated his Z-Boy roots into his skating as his career moved along and skateboarding became a little more open minded about trick selection. You didn't just have to be a ledge tech guy in a schoolyard any more.

The photo is by Giovanni Reda.

Transworld - August 2004 Volume 22 Number 8

Daniel Shimizu #4.

Happy 30th birthday to the Foundation.

Tod Swank's little company keeps on chugging along after 30 years. I always like what they are doing and try to buy their videos or t-shirts whenever I can. It was cool to see Josh Beagle pop up in the anniversary party photos at Thrasher.

I picked out a bunch of random stuff from 2004 for the month. I'm going to try to come up with a spot story or two. I'll see how it goes. There might even be a couple days off because I'm going to squeeze in some vacation time from work.

Transworld - November 2004 Volume 22 Number 11

Darren Navarrette #13.

Grouch High.

Grouch High was a band Darren was a part of in 2001. He described it as a San Diego surf band, but that none of them surfed. I thought the name was funny. Darren plays bass. He also provides the low end for Shed.

The photos are by Joe Hammeke, Dave Swift, and Craig. I'm not sure on Craig's full name.

For the rock news: Transworld - December 2001 Volume 19 Number 12

Crailslide: Thrasher - March 2001 Volume 21 Number 3

Big air: Thrasher - October 2001 Volume 21 Number 10

Keith Hufnagel #12.

Huf uses some of that magic ollie pop to get up on a handrail. You don't usually see him skating rails.

Thrasher - March 1997 Volume 17 Number 3