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