Jeremy Leabres #2.

Today's active lifestyles.

Jeremy had my favorite part of 2019 simply for the fact he skated to "Lazy Comet" by Polvo in Toy Machine's Programming Injection video. You don't hear much vintage early 1990s indie rock in skateboard videos very often these days.

Thrasher - May 2019 Volume 40 Number 5

Kevin Bækkel.

Kevin is Creature's Norwegian handrail slayer. He thinks he might have done over a mile of grinds on handrails for his most recent video part.

Sebastian Bjerkvik was the photographer.

Thrasher - October 2019 Volume 40 Number 10

Jimmy Wilkins #2.

The best vert ollies in the biz.

I guess he got taken out recently on a loop attempt so here's wishing Jimmy a speedy recovery.

RIP Kurt Hayaski and Rodney Johnson.

Thrasher - December 2019 Volume 40 Number 12

Kevin Braun.

Foam rollin'.

Kevin is from the Chicago area and lives in San Francisco now. He recently turned pro for Santa Cruz. His other sponsors include OJ Wheels, Krux, Bronson Bearings, and Converse. He did a frontside noseslide the whole length of the three up three down stairs in SF that looked really cool. Kevin has a nice method of doing tricks on his skateboard. Everything is very smooth and it looks like he is just mellowly cruising around.

Thrasher - January 2019 Volume 40 Number 1

Ronnie Sandoval #3.

Ronnie had a strong 2019. He put out two video parts, recovered from a serious knee injury, and won a contest at Lower Bobs. He even went top shelf, but the crossbar made the save.

Thrasher - July 2019 Volume 40 Number 7

Paul Grund #2.

I rode two of his boards this year.

His Sleep Paralysis deck was awesome. It's the one on the right. The one on the left is an Aaron Herrington, which was also awesome.

This is from Quartersnacks and I identify with it 110%:

"Of all the peculiar trends to afflict modern skate videos, not putting skaters’ names is one of the most annoying - especially for anyone who came of age in the latter days of the “video magazine.” (We’ll forget the name of the person who introduced themselves to us five seconds ago, but will remember the name of the dude who did a nollie tailside bigspin in a Logic video 16 years ago. . .)"

Marimo Ohyama took the photos.

Thrasher - March 2019 Volume 40 Number 3

Sammy Montano.

The noseslide of 2019.

Sammy is from California. He lived in Costa Rica as a teenager and got into skateboarding while there. Eventually he moved back to Lomita and picked up a few sponsors. Alien Workshop recently granted him professional status. Sammy likes the song "Xtal" by Aphex Twin and that's cool enough for me.

Thrasher - May 2019 Volume 40 Number 5

Tiago Lemos #2.

The people's champ.

This is such a great photo. The guy with the cellphone makes it, for as much as I hate cellphones. The trick is a switch backside 180, which is a unique move that has come a long way from when Danny Sargent hucked one down the Big 7 at EMB.

Tiago left his long time board sponsor of Boulevard at the end of 2018 to ride for Primitive. He split with DC Shoes in 2019 to put his talented feet in New Balance sneakers.

Are bitter old dudes complaining about corporate shoe companies invading skateboarding a thing of the past? I suppose they sort of might be, but I'm not willing to let an ancient grudge die.

I'm fine with anybody who is attempting to eke out a living by riding a skateboard being sponsored by a big time shoe brand. The rent doesn't pay itself.

It's wholly disappointing that skateboarding isn't supporting the companies that have been making our shoes for the last three decades. Everybody fawns over how awesome the late 1990s were, but when it comes down to it, everybody just ends up buying athletic footwear.

I know some of what is left of skater owned footwear has sustained influxes of cash from the dreaded venture capitalists over the years. That being said, I still feel much better about wearing shoes from Lakai, Sole Tech, Fallen, and the like instead of the other choices on the market.

The photo is by Mike Blabac.

Thrasher - January 2019 Volume 40 Number 1

Mark Suciu #2.

Runner up.

Mark exploded everybody's brains with an 11 minute part of intricately crafted street skateboarding called "Verso". It also featured some handrails and gaps, in case you thought he wasn't capable of trying out for the Zero video. He added another five minute part to close out Habitat's "Connector Line" video, an online feature on skateboarding between Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York. Mark is pretty darn good.

The photos are by Zander Taketomo and Shater. I'm not sure on Shater's first name so any help would be appreciated.

Thrasher - September 2019 Volume 40 Number 9

Milton Martinez #2.

SOTY.

I knew this guy was redefining what it meant to go big from the assorted Creature clips I had seen in the last two or three years. I randomly included him to fill out a week at the end of 2018. Two days later he was on the overall list of Thrasher Skater of the Year candidates. Milton didn't win it then, but it was a tad surprising to see. He put the hammer down on 2019 and earned the trophy.

Milton is from Mar del Plata, Argentina. His whole family skateboards and his dad even has a pro board on a local company. He essentially grew up on skateboarding. After spending some time on the international contest tour circuit thanks to Red Bull, Converse, and Indy, Milton moved to San Francisco. He soon was hooked up with Creature for boards and the rest is history.

I'm going to do an extended look back at 2019 to start 2020. I didn't intended to do as much with recent stuff, but it sort of snowballed into something larger rather naturally so I rolled with it.

The weather around here has been unseasonably mild and mostly snow free up until this weekend. I've gotten in a decent amount of skateboarding to start the new year.

The photo is by Olman Torres.

Thrasher - January 2019 Volume 40 Number 1