Sean Sheffey #7.

Sean takes on a big set of stairs with a switch kickflip.

The new 003 HUF video is pretty slick. Tyler Bledsoe does some neat tricks. I like how he puts together combo moves and how he jumps down stuff at different angles.

Thrasher - May 1999 Volume 19 Number 5

Clyde Singleton #5.

Aesthetically pleasing yellow jacket.

Clyde probably doesn't get enough credit for all the ripping he did on his skateboard. He always picked out quality tricks and did them well. He even skated a little vert.

There was an interview with Mike Clevinger in the USA Today the other day. Clevinger is a starting pitcher for the Cleveland Indians. In the interview, he said he used to skateboard and that his favorite pros were Zered Bassett and Bucky Lasek. He also said he keeps up with what Aaron "Jaws" Homoki is doing on Instagram. I assume there is a clause in his contract that prohibits skateboard riding. He is definitely into skateboarding if he is dropping Dr. Z's name as a favorite.

Chris Ortiz took the photograph.

Transworld - March 1999 Volume 17 Number 3

Rudy Johnson #7.

“Hey, I just watched A Visual Sound again and I really love it. I don’t think that I understood it when it came out but I really love it. I now understand what you guys were trying to do back then.” - Rudy Johnson to Jason Lee

It's always interesting how your perspective on a given creation can change over the years.

I got skateboarding for the first real time in a few days last night. The difference between having and not having a head cold is real.

The quote is from the Chrome Ball Incident's interview with Jason Lee

Thrasher - January 1999 Volume 19 Number 1

Dustin Dollin #2.

Tell me what's up with punk rock - do you like punk rock?

Not too much. I like different types of music - weird music that no one else likes.

Like what?

Like Frank Zappa and Ween.

Do you ever play that in the house just to piss everyone off?

Yeah, of course. Everyone hates it, and I laugh at people because they're mad.

****

Dustin being a terror back in the early days of Baker.

Stereo's graphics got horrible at the end. What exactly were they thinking? I know silly cartoons were popular at the time, but the braintrust at Deluxe doesn't usually swing and miss this badly.

For the quote: Transworld - December 1999 Volume 17 Number 12 (What was Transworld thinking by having the pages run upside down for a tribute to the fine country of Australia? This must have been a nightmare for the printer.)

Slap - May 1999 Volume 8 Number 5

Kris Markovich #21.

Del Taco blast off.

The photo is by Ted Newsome.

Transworld - April 1999 Volume 17 Number 4

Andrew Reynolds #11.

Hey now, hey now, don't dream it's over.

The big news of the past week was that Andrew Reynolds left his shoe sponsor of twenty plus years. There's a vague rumor he might be going to Vans. Vans is an odd company to me. I'm a long standing supporter of the cupsole over anything vulcanized so I've never felt motivated to buy any of their kicks. Sole material aside, I don't particularly care for the bulk of their designs. On the other hand, Vans is selling a ton of shoes these days to people who skateboard and people who want to look like they skateboard. They are using the profits to invest back into skateboarding by building parks, hosting contests, and sponsoring skaters, which are all great things. I ultimately decided I'm OK with Vans, as the positives outweigh the negatives.

Big Brother - September 1999 Issue 52

Mike Vallely #7.

Tailplant.

I watched a couple of Mike's video parts a few weeks ago. Some of the tricks caught my eye so I decided to rewatch them again and do a post about it. The first was his part in 1281, the New Deal video from 1991. The second was his part in Suburban Diners, the Powell video from 1994. His skating from that time still holds up and each part has aged fairly gracefully, except maybe for some of the late shove-its in 1281. In general, you get Mike blasting a lot of big ollies on the streets and transitions so that remains timeless skateboarding. Grabs are thrown in rather liberally, but not always. Although given how high up in the air he gets, you maybe would want to hang onto something mid flight. These were the highlights that I picked out, mainly because they are tricks you tend not to think of Mike doing.

1281:

• Backside 180 to fakie manual on sidewalk, pivot around to regular manual. He also does one without the pivot.

• Nollie backside lipslide on a slider bar.

• Frontside 360 ollie off a launch ramp.

• Fakie ollie to backside tailslide on a bench.

• Frontside 5-0 grind to backside 180 out on a bench.

Suburban Diners:

• Properly popped and caught 360 flips.

• Big kickflips.

• Fakie kickflips.

• Half cab kickflip to fakie on a large and steep bank.

• Long frontside bluntslide on a curb.

• Kickflip backside 50-50.

Thrasher - May 1999 Volume 19 Number 1

Erik Ellington #4.

Anchorage, Alaska.

The photo sequence is by Michael Burnett.

Transworld - October 1999 Volume 17 Number 10

Anthony Van Engelen #7.

"He's just so fast. Even way back in 411s I was seeing him nollie this picnic table in San Pedro in the schoolyard and he was just going so fast at it. Everyone else was skating kinda slow back then. I just liked his whole approach and just the stuff he does, it's hard. The spots are hard and then the tricks he tries are hard and even him just pushing down the street, he rips." - Eric Dressen

I like the "Remembering Xenia" line.

The photo is by Mike Ballard.

For the quote: Thrasher - April 2016 Volume 37 Number 4

Transworld - July 1999 Volume 17 Number 7

Eric Koston #9.

Chick Hearn.

If I figured this out correctly, Frosty is doing a switch frontside bluntslide. Not too shabby.

What sort of terrain does everybody out there like to skateboard on?

I've been thinking about this the last couple of years. I'm not even sure what I actually like anymore, as in what would be my favorite type of spot if I got to pick/make something perfect for my tastes. I know what I like best is spots where you can string together a line of tricks and not keep hitting the same thing repeatedly.

In general, I prefer smaller street style stuff at parks, which is what I've always gravitated towards. Some of that is probably based on simply not being very good. In getting older, I'd rather just go to a park to skate. No hassles of getting kicked out or trying to figure out a place to go to. A good skatepark will most likely have something for everybody, even if it isn't ideal.

I definitely like carving around on transitions and curvy cement these days, even though my ramp skills are getting crappy. I miss when I could competently skate a mini ramp because I really dig those things. I'm still a big fan of wood and masonite obstacles from when I started skating.

I sort of don't mess around with flatground since I prefer going fast and doing ollies or nollies over trying to land a flip trick that takes a while. I've got my five shove-it variations and that's about it so don't ask me to play S.K.A.T.E. Although I can't ever imagine not skating flat, no matter how old I get.

I like curbs. I think I like low manual pad combinations with ledges and more curbs. I'm not a huge fan of flatbars. There's no more jumping down stuff, which I hated doing even when I could do that. I have the mindset that skateboarding has to include at least one grind a session or it doesn't really count as skateboarding. You have to be scraping the paint off of something or else you're doing it wrong.

Any thoughts?

Thrasher - April 1999 Volume 19 Number 4

Natas Kaupas #8.

The brave captain returns.

It was cool to see Natas resurface at the end of the 90s. His burgeoning graphic design career and injuries had kept him somewhat out of the spotlight, but more on board photos started popping up again. It was neat how Element kept a board with his name on it to preserve his legacy.

I went with a bunch of scans from 1999 of mostly the bigger names in skateboarding for the next batch of content.

Transworld - October 1999 Volume 17 Number 10

Mark Gonzales #24.

Rock Box.

Gonz's part in Krooked Kronichles features him skateboarding out in the streets. He's cruising around Los Angeles and New York at a high rate of speed and rattling off whatever tricks occur to him at a given moment. There are boneless ones, wallies, wallrides, switch 360 flips, kickflips, and switch kickflips. Mark skates a few cement outdoor parks and indoor wooden bowls. He rolls around a large bowl in Brazil on a wide board, too. He lands a feeble grind down a handrail and does a boneless to lipslide on another rail. A couple tricks that I think are neat include a salad grind on a ledge as part of a line in a schoolyard and a plain old frontside 50-50 on a red LA curb. Spike Jonze even makes an appearance with an ollie down a set of stairs. What I like the best about Mark's Krooked Kronichles part is that it is straight up skateboarding on a regular board with minimal hi-jinx. That might seem like a slight, but it isn't. Sometimes you have to take everything back to the basics and let the skateboarding speak for itself.

I watched Jeff Grosso's Loveletters to Skateboarding with Anthony Van Engelen yesterday since it was slow at work. I think Vans used a couple of my scans of Channel One stuff.

RIP Daniel Johnston.

Thrasher - April 2004 Volume 24 Number 4

Bobby Worrest #5.

Street Hoodlum.

A young and tattoo free Bobby lands the second to last part in Krooked Kronichles. His skating is firmly rooted in the land of street tech circa the Mouse and Trilogy era, with adaptations for modern times obviously. Tricks are done regular and switch, there are many lines, and flip in or flip out happens often. He does hit up a few rails and stairs for the sake of variety. Bobby also gets a nollie to frontside noseslide and a kickflip backside tailslide on this handrail.

Thrasher - February 2004 Volume 24 Number 2

Dan Drehobl #24.

Forever in Blue Jeans.

Dan's part in Krooked Kronichles begins with a discussion about the correct way to do pivots with Mark Gonzales. Each is convinced the other is doing them wrong. Dan then does a bunch of pivot and blunt variations on small transitions at a skatepark before the Neil Diamond kicks in. Truthfully I wasn't into the song when I first saw the video, but it has grown on me and now I think it works perfectly. Basically, Drehobl kills everything. This is probably when he was in his prime. The terrain covers a range of parks, mini ramps, backyard bowls, pools, and DIY spots. There are lots of tailslides, frontside airs, noseblunt slides, 360 airs, lip tricks, boardslides, and even a couple of kickflips. Dan hits up some awkward tight transitions at parks and DIY spots, too. This is what timeless great skateboarding looks like.

Thrasher - November 2004 Volume 24 Number 11

Van Wastell #3.

The Chronicles of Crooked.

This week I'm taking a quick look back at Krooked's first video, Krooked Kronichles. Released on DVD in 2006, the movie featured parts from the team, a slew of guest skateboarders, tour footage, skits, and artist profiles. The team at the time consisted of established pros Mark Gonzales and Dan Drehobl along with rising stars Van Wastell and Bobby Worrest. The guests included Donny Barley, Ron Chatman, John Cardiel, Rudy Johnson, Lance Mountain, Malcom Watson, and about twenty others. There were a few skits between the parts to fill out the video. The skits ranged from amusing to mildly annoying. The video also featured short profiles of artists, including Rich Jacobs, Neckface, and Mat O'Brien. The DVD came with a Mark Gonzales art 'zine and some postcards, too.

The late Van Wastell scores the opening part. Skating to the crunchy sounds of Cheech & Chong's "Earache My Eye", Van's quick feet are fully showcased. He does a variety of big gaps, handrails, and manual tricks. He seems equally adept at doing the old carcass toss regular or switch and fakie or nollie. Varial kickflips and heelflips are done, sometimes out of other tricks. The best little thing is that Van is wearing Vans for all of it. It's a shame he left us far too soon.

Thrasher - August 2004 Volume 24 Number 8

Matt Field #6.

Flower Power.

Thrasher - January 2004 Volume 24 Number 1

J.T. Aultz.

The San Diego Charger.

Here's the sticker of his first pro graphic:

I basically took the week off from skateboarding so it felt good to roll around last night. I did a quick half hour at the park and left feeling happy. Sometimes it's better to ride for a little bit without overdoing it. I then fell asleep watching that Packers and Bears fail at scoring points in football.

More Deluxe stuff next week, just because.

Thrasher - June 2004 Volume 24 Number 6

Ernie Torres.

OKC Thunder.

Ernie is from Tulsa, Oklahoma. He's been rolling forever on Real. Big Ern is fan of Curb Your Enthusiasm and Boston Terriers.

Thrasher - May 2004 Volume 24 Number 5

Danny Fuenzalida #3.

Neverwhere.

It was cool to see Danny have a whole lot of footage in Kuba Kaczmarczyk and Pawel Piotr Przybyl’s Neverwhere video from 2018. He had tricks in Florida and tricks in Europe. That's become one of my picks as a go to watch video when I feel like turning off ESPN to view skateboarding.

Thrasher - May 2004 Volume 24 Number 4

Jamie Thomas #13.

Hallowed be thy name.

The photo is by Joey Shigeo.

Thrasher - August 2004 Volume 24 Number 8