Brian Seber #2.

The Ghost Pilot.

Prior to launching Landspeed, Rob Erickson had a wheel company called the Wheelie Co. He even used basically the same car logo. Brian rode for Wheelie Co. so switching from one to the other made sense.

The Pixies sounded nice with Andrew Allen's skateboarding. Polvo also sounded nice with Corey Glick's skateboarding. Glick for SOTY.

The photo is by Adam Wallacavage.

Transworld - July 1998 Volume 16 Number 7

Landspeed Wheels.

Landspeed Record.

This is the first ad for Landspeed Wheels. The creative person behind the company was artist Rob Erickson and the wheels were distributed by Tum Yeto. The team was mostly East Coast heads, many of whom also rode for Toy Machine.

Skateboarding was weird for me in November. It dawned on me why things had been out of sync on Thanksgiving. Here's the run down:

Week 1: I set up a new board with new wheels.

Week 2: Tossed old shoes that were done and skated in new shoes that were not very good at all.

Week 3: Went back to an old pair of shoes that had a little life left, but really weren't great.

Week 4: I finally decided to break in a new pair of kicks. Things started to click after about five days. The clock change and less daylight didn't help much either.

Hooray for skateboarding. At least my new wheels are nice.

Transworld - June 1998 Volume 16 Number 6

Jerry Hsu #11.

“We all knew how good Jerry was. Jerry was one of us but he was way cooler. That’s part of his personality. His skating is cool; his photography is cool; Jerry is next-level in terms of coolness. That’s why his part shined so bright in Bag of Suck.” - Matt Eversole

The Sci-Fi Fantasy man closed out Bag of Suck with a truly epic two song part. I watched the section again the other night as a refresher on what all Jerry did. There are so many classic and amazing tricks in his part. I really like his switch heelflips. They are so solid. Supposedly he pushed into nearly everything instead of relying on the now standard tow in. That's just way cooler. The tunes properly score the part, too. The Cass McCombs' song is more lively and follows nicely after the Rod Stewart from Louie's part. For as much as I think Sonic Youth is great, I was never into their Carpenters cover when it came out, but the song has the right atmosphere for all the hammers Jerry was dropping.

Here's the original review of the premiere from Thrasher by Greg "Schmitty" Smith:

Hope everybody has a good weekend.

The photo is by Jonathan Mehring. Jerry did a backside Smith on this same rail in Argentina that was used for the cover of the May 2005 issue of Skateboarder. Both tricks are in Bag of Suck.

The review: Thrasher - June 2006 Volume 26 Number 6

Thrasher - June 2005 Volume 25 Number 6

Louie Barletta #7.

“Louie has a reputation with Tiltmode videos of goofing around, but he did take Bag of Suck very seriously, but not in a corny way. It shows in a dedicated kind of way. He treated the part seriously. With how good he is at skating, to see him smash it like that and that he mixed in fun stuff with top-level skating, I was super proud of his video part.” - Jerry Hsu

Louie delivered a charming man's part in Bag of Suck. I don't really care for Rod Stewart, but that song totally works so perfectly. I'll hear it at the grocery store and be completely reminded of Louie's skating. I never realized he lived in Finland for some of the filming. I knew there were plenty of European spots as everybody was crossing the Atlantic for videos. It never occurred to me he skipped out on San Jose for a year.

This enjoi feature came together haphazardly. I had found this ad and the photo of Jason Adams, but didn't know what to do with them. I already had the Jose Rojo ad scanned, too. Once the anniversary article was printed in Thrasher, I decided to roll with it and find the rest of the characters to fill out the story.

For the quote: Thrasher - December 2021 Volume 42 Number 12

Skateboarder - September 2005 Volume 15 Number 1

Jose Rojo & Clark Hassler.

Jose and Clark were the two ams in Bag of Suck. Jose survived a nasty car accident during the filming of the video. They would both go on to turn pro for enjoi. Jose retired a couple years ago and Clark is out there doing whatever he does. Louie says he is still pro and on the team.

I think we are in the time of the year when the weather gets dicey. Yesterday morning was nice before it turned cold and rainy for the afternoon. I decided to break in a new pair of kicks this weekend and it wasn't overly awkward. How often does that happen?

Congrats to Yukito Aoki on winning the Tampa Am.

Jose got two photos in the same outfit, as he is wearing the same clothes in an ad selling hot dogs from August of 2001. That must have been regarded as a productive day at the enjoi offices. Clark's photo is by Jonathan Mehring.

Big Red: Big Brother - June 2001 Issue 73

Mr. Hassler: Skateboarder - May 2007 Volume 16 Number 9

Jason Adams #19.

“I really liked Jason Adams’ part. It’s so sick. It’s so unique and so himself. I was really proud of him. The song, the skating, everything was so right.” - Jerry Hsu

Jason's part in Bag of Suck more than holds up as a classic. You don't tend to think of The Kid as a handrail skater, but he has defeated a bunch of them over the years, especially in the 1990s. This was Jason's second to last trick in Label Kills, the Black Label video from 2001.

The photo is credited to Son Of Sinan. Any guesses on a real name?

For the quote: Thrasher - December 2021 Volume 42 Number 12

Strength - November 2001

Caswell Berry #9.

"We’re out skating one day and I asked Cas where he wanted to eat. 'Wienerschnitzel,' he replied without hesitation. So we drove over to Wienerschnitzel and as we walked up to the counter the server was like, 'The usual?' to which Caswell responded, 'You know it, buddy.' I’ve seen Caswell do a lot of gnarly things over the years, but for some reason that seemed like the gnarliest." - Louie Barletta

Cas is the best. I don't think he gets the full appreciation for how talented he is overall. I like fast food so any amusing anecdotes on the topic are always entertaining to me. I sort of wish we had a Wienerschnitzel in New York, but maybe we are better off without one.

Dave Chami photographed the sequence. This trick was in Feed The Need, the Osiris video from 2008.

For Louie's quote: Thrasher - April 2021 Volume 42 Number 4

Thrasher - June 2007 Volume 27 Number 6

Tony Manfre.

"We were in Arizona filming for Bag of Suck and I think we had been giving Tony a hard time for a couple days, just zinging him a lot, but maybe we were being worse than I remember? Anyway, it reached a point where at a random stoplight he just opened the door to the van, got out and said, 'I quit.' I didn’t see him for years after that day. It was so badass. I respect him forever for that." - Jerry Hsu

Straight up legend.

I've been meaning to do a post on Tony for a while, but could never really find anything until I remembered he did the switch ollie at Wallenberg. He had a few tricks in the montage section of Bag of Suck. Tony is a producer/DJ these days and recently made the tunes for a part by Jereme Knibbs in a Santa Cruz video.

The photo sequence is by Luke Ogden.

For Jerry's quote: Thrasher - December 2019 Volume 40 Number 12

Thrasher - May 2002 Volume 22 Number 5

Bobby Puleo #12.

City explorer in a burned out limo with a chicken walking by.

Bobby took up Marc Johnson's request to ride for enjoi. A couple of years later when Marc quit, Bobby moved on as well since Marc was his primary connection with the company. He would go on to ride for Ricky Oyola's Traffic. Bobby had a couple of tricks in the montage section of Bag of Suck.

RIP Zane Timpson. I really liked his Sufferlove part from over the summer where he skated to vintage Modest Mouse.

The photos are by Allen Ying.

Thrasher - December 2006 Volume 26 Number 12

Marc Johnson #13.

Love will tear us apart.

With Bag of Suck celebrating its 15th anniversary this year, I thought I'd jump in on the fun with a slapdash feature on the video. The original lineup was intended to include Marc Johnson, Bobby Puleo, and Tony Manfre. All three departed before Bag of Suck was released in March of 2006.

Marc started enjoi in 2000 after the A-Team had run its course. His goal was to inject some much needed humor back into skateboarding. After creating a solid template for the brand's image, Marc left for Chocolate in 2003. That could have been the end of things, but fortunately for skateboarding, enjoi kept on going. There is supposedly a rough edit of a part for Marc that exists on a couple of computers out in California and has never seen the light of day.

Thrasher - May 2005 Volume 25 Number 5

Justin Strubing #5.

Good Enough.

I always think of Justin Strubing when I hear "Good Enough" by Mudhoney. It was the opening song in Foundation's 2001 tour documentary, The Good Times Are Killing Me. Capt. Strubing lays waste to a whole bunch of spots in that video.

Skateboarder - October 2001 Volume 11 Number 2

Donny Barley #6.

Gnarly Barley levitates a pop shove-it in Germany. This is a great photo of a fundamental trick done very well.

It dawned on me that This Is Skateboarding could have had parts from Donny and Justin Strubing. They were both on Emerica at the start of the filming process and split before the video was released.

Who does the Skate Video Site? It's a handy resource to have for looking up videos and the corresponding soundtracks. However, there are so many little errors and omissions. Nobody ever has the Don't Mean Maybe song listed for Memory Screen, even though "Bliss" is cited in the credits. Another band that never gets recognized is Fluf, O's band. They were in a ton of videos in the early to mid 90s. I understand full well that skateboard videos can drift into super obscure territory for music and that's why we love 'em, but a little more research can go a long way to making a project better in the end.

Skateboarder - August 2001 Volume 10 Number 9

Andrew Reynolds #14.

The Boss flies down two sets of stairs in Lyon, France. The ollie was in his part in This Is Skateboarding. Geoff Rowley did a backside 50-50 at the same spot for the September 2001 cover of Thrasher.

Skateboarder - November/December 2001 Volume 11 Number 3

Tosh Townend #3.

Stop for Emerica.

Tosh floats the ever popular frontside kickflip down a hefty chunk of real estate.

I skated a pair of Emerica Gammas this summer. I hadn't worn Emericas since the 1990s. I really liked the original Gama from 1997 so I jumped on the nostalgia train when I needed a new pair of kicks.

The soles took a long time to break in. They didn't grip great until they were broken in. The break in period was about six or seven weeks before the shoes felt fully comfortable. I skateboard every day so you can see what I mean when I say it took a while.

The uppers were kind of oddly thin. They wore out quickly, too. I didn't like how the toes were on the pointy side, but that eventually squared away. However, the Gamma reached a point where the wear wasn't getting worse and you were left rocking a beat up pair of skate shoes that were mostly fine. They held up from a lot of punishment. I retired the sneakers after this weekend. The soles were too worn out. It's always a bit of a downer when the time comes to toss the shoes you skated all summer.

Notes: The first version of the shoe was spelled Gama and the modern version is Gamma. They added an extra M the second time around. The photos are from September. They look way worse now.

Skateboarder - September 2001 Volume 11 Number 1

Chris Senn #10.

A different shade of green.

Emerica ran a slew of ads in a colder shade of green in 2001. They would have been getting started on filming for This Is Skateboarding at the time. The video would be released in 2003. This gap to feeble is in Senn's part. He's got a mean backside 360 ollie that he does a couple of times in the section, too.

It was time for a new board with some new wheels as we plunge headlong into the season of early sunsets.

That's a Black Label Jason Adams sticker and not a Bad Religion sticker, although it is clearly inspired by the cover art from Suffer.

Skateboarder - June 2001 Volume 10 Number 7

Tino Razo #6.

"Tino Razo blazes a stylish frontside tailslide. It's all in the lead hand"

I like how Tino is doing a tailslide and not a crailslide as was the flavor of the day back then. He's wearing Etnies. Tino is one of those underground rippers who rode for Rookie and was featured often on Patrick O'Dell's Epicly Later'd photo website.

Note: This was for the contents page of Skateboarder. I clone stamped out the info. Sorry, dudes. I generally hate when people crop out or remove stuff from photos or ads. I do it sometimes too, but I really try to avoid it.

The photograph is by Mike O'Meally.

Skateboarder - November/December 2001 Volume 11 Number 3

Sweatpants.

Sweatpants were a band composed of Brad Staba, Brian Anderson, Chris Hasner, and mysterious Foundation am Greg Gardener. I have no idea if they ever made any music, but their name and/or logo popped up on Crailtap back then from time to time.

Greg Gardner is from Walnut Creek, California. He rode for Foundation and Pig Wheels. He had a checkout in the September 1998 issue of Transworld where he was doing a kickflip grab at Benicia or some park out that way. It was a little difficult to tell the exact location in the photo.

I truly miss the days when you would read about a band and be left wondering what they sounded like because there was no way to hear them. Yes, you can track down dang near anything you'd ever want to hear in the modern world, but I always dug that unknown element. A fun fact that nobody cares about is that I still order music for the most part without taking a preview listen, even though that is so easy to do on Bandcamp.

The interview and photo are by Alex Klein.

Skateboarder - September 2001 Volume 11 Number 1

Mike Carroll #22.

Carroll's Landscaping Service.

This backside 50-50 was in his part from Girl's Yeah Right! video that was released in 2003. He did a lot of backside 50-50s in the part, along with plenty of frontside bigspins, feeble grinds, and nollie kickflips. Mike is on record as saying he keeps doing the same tricks he likes repeatedly because he is afraid of losing any of them.

Skateboarder - September 2001 Volume 11 Number 1

Kerry Getz #5.

Night Flight.

Kerry jumps backwards down a big set of stairs. The early days of Habitat were great.

The photo is by Ryan Gee.

Skateboarder - June 2001 Volume 10 Number 7

Rob Welsh #7.

One more for the road.

You can get a decent sense of how steep the China Banks are thanks to the tight camera angle on the sequence.

Ryde Or Die Vol. 1, the lone Aesthetics video, is twenty years old now. It's too bad there was never a followup. Ryde Or Die is such a classic of modern street skating with a quick run time, solid team, respectable soundtrack, and no filler.

Is it me or are the decades flying by way too fast?

Skateboarder - November/December 2001 Volume 11 Number 3