Mason Silva.

Jeremy Wray 2020.

Mason is from Manhattan Beach, California. His brother got him into skateboarding and his dad built a mini ramp in the backyard. Mason's dad is a teacher and one of his students was Louie Lopez. The two became friends since they were about the same age and obviously both into skateboarding. He's inspired by the skating of Ray Barbee, Jeremy Wray, Jon Miner, Heath Kirchart, and Andrew Reynolds. Mason is into surfing, photography, and record collecting. Some of his favorite bands include Modest Mouse, Elliot Smith, Wilco, Built To Spill, and The Cure.

Are speed bumps seriously called speed humps in California?

It's been cold and seasonably wintery of late. I got to skateboard in the driveway on Monday when it was warmer. Otherwise, I've pushed around in the street for a couple of minutes the last two days. A lot of the pavement is covered with snow and ice. It's going to be a bit before the temperatures warm. I'm looking forward to testing out my new launch ramp. I want to see how it turned out before I go about building anything else.

Sound Zone: Since it is only January, there has not been much in the way of new music thus far for 2021, although a couple of things have popped up. Good Willsmith resurface with a live cassette of a show recorded in April of 2019 at the Sleeping Village in Chicago. It's a fine document of the band's sprawled out synth and guitar improvs. Marcia Bassett teams up with Thomas Dimuzio for an LP called Losing Circles. The duo churn out a remarkable batch of rising and falling drones and sound textures. It's a great abstract noise album created with Buchla synthesizers. The cover of Losing Circles features some vibrant op-art by Pete Greening as an added bonus.

Thrasher - January 2021 Volume 42 Number 1

Alexis Sablone #4.

Iris.

Alexis is one of the best. It's nice to see she was in the running for SOTY. She's got a proper flick on flip tricks and busts some big ollies. For her part in Converse's Seize The Seconds, Alexis skated to a vintage song by The Breeders while putting down some solid street lines. She also took a couple of nasty slams, but got back up to make the trick. Alltimers recently welcomed her to the team.

RIP Eric J.

The photograph is by Zered Bassett.

Thrasher - August 2020 Volume 41 Number 8

Dakota Servold #3.

"I quit Toy Machine flow to ride for Foundation. I'm just not tight enough to ride for Toy Machine."

Ed and Dakota must've worked it all out because Ed did the graphic for his first pro model on Foundation. Emerica released a video called Green in February 2020 that showcased Dakota and Jon Dickson, along with the rest of the team. Green followed in the tradition of Made - a quick video full of quality ripping that gets you motivated to skate. Dakota blasts some gaps and grinds some handrails to the punk sounds of Fuzz for his part. He throws down some serious backside lipslides, too. I'm a big fan of his skating.

It looks like Emerica did make a DVD of Green. I wish I'd known about that. Anybody got a spare copy they'd want to part with?

RIP Henry Gartland.

For the quote: The Skateboard Mag - December 2013 Issue 117

Thrasher - December 2020 Volume 41 Number 12

Breana Geering.

All the sun that shines.

Breana is from Kelowna, British Columbia. She started skating as a little kid when she found an old board in the garage. Some of her favorite skaters include Marisa Dal Santo, Elissa Steamer, and Jack O'Grady. Breana has got a strong no comply and nollie flip game.

I built a little launch ramp over the weekend. It's a flat kicker type of ramp that is 8" high. I figured with skateboarding being snowed out of late that I should have something new ready to roll on for when the ice melts. It turned out pretty solid, although maybe a bit on the rough side. I was rusty at building ramps and it showed.

Mike Blabac snapped the picture.

Thrasher - February 2020 Volume 41 Number 2

Miles Silvas.

Lines for miles.

Miles is from Sacramento, California. He is pro for Primitive. His other sponsors include Adidas, Thunder, and Spitfire. I believe he used to ride for Organika and Numbers Edition. Miles is famous for his five minute part that was one long line through downtown Los Angeles. He's got an obscene command of flip tricks and technical skateboarding. Biebel would be proud.

Is Numbers Edition still around? It seemed like a much hyped company because it was Eric Koston and Guy Mariano's venture, but I haven't heard much about them since they started.

The photo is by Kyle Camarillo.

Thrasher - February 2020 Volume 41 Number 2

Shin Sanbongi #2.

Land surf the city.

The photos are by Marimo Ohyama.

Thrasher - December 2020 Volume 41 Number 12

Franky Villani.

One Big Mess.

Franky is from Santa Ana, California. He rode for Zero before switching to Primitive and turning pro. It's pretty neat how he got Fos from Heroin to do a graphic for him. His other sponsors include Spitfire, Thunder, and New Balance. Franky is into horror movies and 1980s music. He's a fan of Jerry Hsu and 917.

The photo is by Oliver Barton.

Transworld - March/April 2019 Issue 397

Raney Beres #3.

Identity Crisis.

I dig how Raney is keeping the spirit of 1980s Texas punk rock skateboarding alive and well in the present day. His brother Rye is a videographer who started filming for Girl after graduating from high school and now works for Thrasher.

Thrasher - June 2016 Volume 37 Number 6

Leo Baker.

"All the kids want to sniff some glue, all the kids want somethin' to do."

Leo started Glue Skateboards with Cher Strauberry and Stephen Ostrowski in 2020. Glue is probably one of the first companies to openly represent queer, trans, and non-binary folks in skateboarding. We've come a long way since some of the idiotic crap in the 1990s, but there is still plenty of room for improvement.

Thrasher - August 2020 Volume 41 Number 8

Carl Aikens.

Fresh Chocolate.

Carl is one of the new ams on Chocolate. He's originally from Santa Clarita, California and now lives in New York City. His other sponsors include Nike, HUF, Val Surf, and Wayward Wheels. He's noted for busting some big ollies.

Since skateboarding is all about suffering, let's spend the next two weeks looking back on 2020.

The weather here has been very mild and snow free up until yesterday. Winter mode appears to be back on for the week ahead. I've gotten skateboarding twelve times this year. I set up a new board in early December and have yet to get any serious mud on the grip tape. This feels like an impressive accomplishment.

Thrasher - August 2020 Volume 41 Number 8

Omar Hassan #9.

Dirty Thirty.

Omar hit the three decade mark as a pro in 2020. I'm glad to see he keeps on going and wrecking all manner of transitions. Blockhead granted him his first pro board in 1990 and he rolls for the Black Label these days.

Well, that was an interesting 12 months. Let's never do a whole bunch of that ever again. On the plus side, I did get to skateboard a lot. I had a goal to skate at least 300 times and I accomplished that. The final tally was 315. There were probably a couple cheap ones in the winter months, but whatever. I had enough quality on board time to solidly reach my goal. Our weather has been smooth sailing all fall so that really helped. I only skated an indoor park once back in February so I'm talking proud about skating over 300 times outdoors in Western New York. I had a few observations about skateboarding over the year. Most of those are rather trite so I'm not going to bother. I will say that I skate best when I am relaxed and comfortable. Also skateboarding is hard and you definitely benefit from repetition as well as not thinking about how to physically do it when you aren't skating.

Sound Zone: Here's the Vert Is Dead unofficial top ten releases for the year. I got a little nostalgic for written music criticism and reviews so that's why I started doing these write-ups every month. I always like what Wez Lundry and Sam Hitz bring to the music writing at Thrasher. I wanted to skew the curve of skate rock more towards the experimental side for the sake of variety. It goes band/album/label for those with any questions.

1. C. Lavender - Myth of Equilibrium - Editions Mego

2. Container - Scramblers - Alter

3. Control Point - Dreamer's Disease - Hot Releases

4. Drainolith - Electric Hearse - Freedom From

5. Long Distance Poison - Technical Mentality - Hausu Mountain

6. Mi'ens - Future Child - Kill Rock Stars

7. MJ Guider - Sour Cherry Bell - Kranky

8. Bill Nace - Both - Drag City

9. Noveller - Arrow - Ba Da Bing

10. Pod Blotz - Transdimensional System - Dais

In the photo are Drainolith, C. Lavender, and Bill Nace.

Vert Is Dead will be back on Monday, January 18th, 2021. It's winter break time.

Have a safe and happy new year! There will be a quick look back at 2020 when I fire this thing up again in two weeks. I've got a batch of other stuff planned, too. Thanks for all the support.

Transworld - August 1990 Volume 8 Number 8