Chris Gentry & George Nagai.

Global's got you covered in the streets and on the ramps.

It's a little hard to see, but there are a bunch of Select banners on the barrier by the vert ramp. There's one for Vision, Shuvit, and Natural. There's also the old time Vision Street Wear logo on the ramp.

Chris Ortiz took the photos.

Transworld - November 1995 Volume 13 Number 11

Wayne Patrick.

Worldwide.

It's going to be a quick look back at Global for the shortened holiday week. This was Chris Gentry's company before he started the almighty Kingdom Skateboards with his wife Ricca in 1996. I believe Chris had been riding for Other Level, a Select (Vision) backed brand, prior to Global. I'm making an educated guess that the new company used Select for the boards. The addresses are different, but both are in Costa Mesa. The team included Chris, George Nagai, and Wayne Patrick. Global was not around for very long, probably only six or seven months tops.

Wayne is from Houston, Texas. I honestly don't know all that much about the guy so that's why I started this off with him.

The photographs are by Chris Ortiz.

Transworld - December 1995 Volume 13 Number 12

Ethan Fowler #21.

I set up a new board the other night. I decided it would look good with a Spitfire flame head sticker on it. I wasted the evening going through my box of stickers to see if I had a flame head in a color other than red. I didn't. It took so long to get everything back in the shoebox. I wound up going with a red one that was right on the top of the pile, too. Sigh.

Thrasher - May 1996 Volume 16 Number 5

Mike Crabtree #3.

The Sonic Man takes a backside 50-50 down a hubba. It's looking like Simple has been relaunched and are making shoes once again.

The photo is by Jai Tanju.

Transworld - November 1996 Volume 14 Number 11

Chris Pastras #5.

43 up.

Thrasher - November 1996 Volume 16 Number 11

Salman Agah #7.

Horizontal stripes.

I guess when you are a SOTY, padless blunts to fakie on vert aren't a big deal.

The photo is by Grant Brittain.

Transworld - June 1996 Volume 14 Number 6

"Crazy" Eddie Nemeth #4.

RIP.

Eddie passed away in April at the age of 46. Salman Agah gave him the "Crazy" nickname in reference to how he skated. He rode for Creature and Scarecrow in the 1990s.

Transworld - April 1996 Volume 14 Number 4

Mike Frazier #9.

180 Gram Vinyl.

Mike does a 180 ollie to fakie nose grind on the curb at Max's house.

Thrasher - May 1996 Volume 16 Number 5

Mike Crum #4.

Mike's no handed air skills are truly amazing. He's got some of the best frontside ollies and nollies on vert.

The photo is by Dave Swift.

Transworld - July 1996 Volume 14 Number 7

Paul Zitzer #3.

Paul is doing some type of fakie pivot grind. I always think that trick looks sick. I imagine it has some sort of cool name that I'm not sure I recall.

The photo is by Grant Brittain.

Thrasher - November 1996 Volume 16 Number 11

Brian Howard #3.

The early days of fun with Photoshop.

Transworld - April 1996 Volume 14 Number 4

Sergie Ventura #2.

He's usually way up in the air, but Sergie locks in a nice backside Smith grind in DC Clockers from the Acme days.

Transworld - April 1997 Volume 15 Number 4

Tom Boyle & Darren Menditto.

Rocky & Bullwinkle.

My bad pun aside, this is a cool photo of two East Coast vert legends. Gouge was a California clothing company that sponsored a bunch of vertical skateboarders. Darren was riding for Screw Skateboards out of New Jersey at the time and Tom would have been on Arsenal.

The photos are by Adam Wallacavage.

Transworld - April 1996 Volume 14 Number 4

Rune Glifberg #5.

Phunk 45.

The new Miles Lawrence part for New Balance that is up at Thrasher is pretty neat. It looks like he rides for Deathwish and Spitfire, too. Was his melon grab to Smith grind down a ten-stair handrail a nod to Emeric Pratt's melon grab to lipslide on a handrail?

The photo is by Dave Swift.

Thrasher - Marach 1996 Volume 16 Number 3

Andy MacDonald.

Arty Andy.

Andy Mac spins a kickflip 540 for Gullwing. He is from Melrose, Massachusetts and turned pro in 1994. Andy would have been riding for Human at the time of this ad. He rode for a company called Who? Skateboards out of Maine in the early 1990s. Dan Drehobl was on the team, too. Eventually Andy found his spot on the Powell team and still rides for them to this day. His other sponsors include Vans, Theeve Trucks, 187 Pads, and Patagonia. (I wonder if he gets free winter jackets? Not that you need one in San Diego, but still that would be a nice perk.) Andy has been a perennial vert contest winner over the years with a consistent mix of technical tricks.

The video grab sequence is credited to a Wolfe so I assume that would be Dan?

Transworld - September 1996 Volume 14 Number 9

Tony Hawk #12.

Get in the van.

One bit of shoe news from the last few months is that Tony parted ways with Lakai for a spot on Vans. He can do more to promote skateboarding on a global scale riding for Vans than he could on Lakai so the move makes a lot of sense. At the same time, it's a little disappointing. I'd rather see skateboarding support the smaller skater operated shoe brands, but that's just my personal gripe. On the positive side, Lakai is bringing back an updated version of the first Mike Carroll model.

The photos are by Grant Brittain.

Transworld - April 1996 Volume 14 Number 3

Bucky Lasek #5.

High flying Baltimore oriole.

Bucky was on Natural prior to riding for the revamped version of the New Deal. The Deal had ditched its pros in the mid 1990s and slowly started to put together a new team. Bucky moved over to the Birdhouse in a year or two.

I went skateboarding at the park on Sunday morning for the first time since March. It's been either the driveway or the street for skateboarding the last three months. I think the park is open. Basketball courts and playgrounds are still closed, but tennis and golf are happening. My guess is that skateboarding fits somewhere closer to golf than basketball. Although the city might not really give a crap either. Who knows? I put in a quick solo session and got out of there. I was a little rusty, but it was a nice way to start the day. I saw a bald eagle fly by, too.

Transworld - July 1996 Volume 14 Number 7

Alphonzo Rawls #5.

1980s Toyota knockoff.

Natural fizzled out in the second half of 1995. Around this time, Select was starting to push a company called Shuvit and relaunching Vision Street Wear. I think they even brought back Vision, too. Alf and Jimmy Chadwick split for Tree Fort. Jason Rogers would soon go on to start Arcade. Bucky Lasek put in a pitstop at the New Deal before heading over to Birdhouse. Natural did make a video called Sore Losers in 1995 that does appear to be on the YouTube.

Up next is a batch of mid-1990s vert skaters.

Transworld - July 1995 Volume 13 Number 7

Danny Mayer.

Toxic Cornhusker.

Danny is from Omaha, Nebraska. He rode for Toxic and H-Street. He was the guy who organized the team for Natural. Danny had a really good run at assorted vert contests in the 2000s with a couple of wins to go with lots of top five and top ten finishes. His specialty is the kickflip McTwist. He's also into DJing and has been doing that as a career in addition to skateboarding.

As you can see, the logo was updated for 1995.

Transworld - January 1995 Volume 13 Number 1

Jason Rogers #4.

H-Vert out in the streets. Jason had a lot of photos skating banks over the years.

In looking at the ad, I think they put a Natural sticker on a green background and took a picture of it. You can make out the edges of the decal from the diecutting.

They used a different Marc Hostetter group photo for the ad.

Transworld - December 1994 Volume 12 Number 12

Alphonzo Rawls #4.

Energizer Bunny.

Alphonzo takes some of his vert tech skills to the streets. I guess you could still get away with video grabs in 1994, although I feel they were on the way out of style. It was fascinating how they tried to do what was basically a vert company in the middle of the 1990s.

I do like the logo design for Natural. They actually updated it to include 95 for the next year. They also ran a series of ads using baby photos of the team. That probably wasn't the best idea ever.

The guys in the group photo are Alf, Danny Mayer, and Jason Rogers.

The group photo is by Marc Hostetter.

Transworld - November 1994 Volume 12 Number 11

Natural.

Natural Ones.

Natural was a short lived company that was active from the fall of 1994 to late 1995. It was backed by Select Distribution, which is the home of Vision. The pro team was Alphonzo Rawls, Jason Rogers, and Danny Mayer. Jimmy Chadwick and Jeff Chase were the ams. Bucky Lasek was added to the team in April of 1995.

Sade: Transworld - October 1994 Volume 12 Number 10

Team: Transworld - November 1994 Volume 12 Number 11