The Blockheads #3.

The ultimate classic 80s power trio.

Long time readers will know that Blockhead is one of my favorite companies and probably my favorite out of all the 1980s stuff. I liked them back in the day and have come to appreciate them even more now that I'm older. Watch Splendid Eye Torture if you haven't seen it before. Jim, Sam, and Mark were the pros on Blockhead at the end of the 1980s and Dave Bergthold was not afraid to feature all three in a lot of the ads. Wild Things was their wheel line. It's very much worth noting that Sam was skating big handrails in 1989.

Here's a mediocre photo of me doing a backside 50-50 from November. Yes, there is snow in the background and it really was comfortably warm enough to skate in a t-shirt that day. There was weather this year so I didn't get to the 300 mark for skateboarding, which was a tad disappointing, although not a big deal. The occasional extra day off isn't necessarily a bad thing at this age. I decided to take a break from beer that is now up to three months. I might very well have a cold one here or there in the future, but it kind of feels like I'm done with drinking for good. I got to skate twice with my friend Paul for the first time in forever this summer so that was cool. I skated the new park in Jamestown a bunch of times and I'm looking forward to going back once spring hits. It's maybe not everything I would want in a park, but it's something new and unique to try tricks on. There's so much easy access to quality skateboarding these days that it is hard to keep track of everything. It's great to see all the variety and find different things to be stoked on. At the same time, I often get overwhelmed by the content and zone out. The thing I like most about skateboarding is just going skateboarding. You have to keep it basic sometimes and enjoy simply rolling around.

Happy New Year and have a great weekend.

Transworld - December 1989 Volume 7 Number 8

Dan Drehobl #29.

Those were the days.

Dan takes a hurricane up a tight DIY vert wall when he rode for the relaunched Elwood clothing brand. He's wearing Vox shoes and a Lowcard hat in the photo.

The sunsets are getting later so that has meant more time after work for skateboarding when it is dry. I got to roll on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Yesterday was kind of cheap since it started to rain so I wish I skipped it and rode the buzz from Wednesday. That's how it goes sometimes. Tuesday and Wednesday were good and firmly counted. For December, I'll take it.

Happy holidays and stay safe out there in the zany winter weather that is hitting a lot of North America.

Thrasher - October 2009 Volume 29 Number 10

Matt Field #9.

Rolling thru the streets.

PONY partnered with Rasa Libra for some custom kicks in 2009 and 2010. I never knew this, but PONY stands for Product of NY.

There's a little bit of a controversy around Matt's wallie photo. Brian Anderson did the same trick at the same spot before him, but Matt's photo ran first. Brian did a daytime wallie in a picture by Jon Humphries that was used for the cover of the May 2009 issue of The Skateboard Mag. This hit the newsstands a month after the Rasa Libre ad ran. I doubt this generated much, if any beef.

The kickflip photo is by Matt Price and the wallie photo is by Ken Goto.

Kickflip: Thrasher - February 2009 Volume 29 Number 2

Wallie: Thrasher - April 2009 Volume 29 Number 4

Joel Meinholz #4.

Miami Heat.

Joel does the old frontside 180 to switch crooks, which apparently has become known as the Sanchez grind, after Henry Sanchez. I tend associate that trick with Ethan Fowler after he had a photo or two doing the grind on a handrail. Joel is riding a shop deck for MIA Skateshop.

Allen Ying snapped the photograph.

Thrasher - May 2009 Volume 29 Number 5

Ryan Lay #6.

Nosegrind on a mesa.

In addition to being a pro skateboarder for Jerry Hsu's Sci-Fi Fantasy, Ryan works at Skate After School. Skate After School is a nonprofit group in Phoenix, Arizona that helps teach skateboarding to kids who might not have access to it otherwise. They partnered with the Arizona Lottery to transform an old tennis court into a skatepark. The park they built consists of low impact curbs, ledges, launch ramps, and flat bars. It's not the perfect design for everybody, but it provides an important set of obstacles for beginners, those who are getting back into skateboarding, and skaters who are older.

I think accessibility is being lost in park design. Skateboarding is hard. Period. Parks should be built to include a couple basic obstacles for people to get the hang of tricks and have some success so as to not get discouraged by the difficulty of riding a skateboard. Building a small, wide 2'-3' smooth quarterpipe and working a low 6" tall ledge into a park's layout should be standard. Or depending on the design, other similar mellow obstacles. Perhaps create something as mundane as a curb for slappys somewhere. You get my general idea. Having some simple elements to learn tricks on or warm up on will help a great deal with improving any park and keeping folks interested in skateboarding.

The picture is by Matt Price.

Thrasher - March 2009 Volume 29 Number 3

Matt Field #8.

Freedom summer.

Rasa Libre was started in the early 2000s by Matt Field and artist Michael Leon. The boards were distributed by Deluxe. Previously, Matt had been on Real, which made the switch a simple in-house move. Michael was working at Girl. The team included Nate Jones and Reese Forbes as pros. The company was set free as Krooked became a bigger entity at Deluxe. Matt kept it going here and there over the years. He even partnered with Pony, the sneaker makers, in 2009.

The weekend weather wound up being radically different than what was forecast so I got a bonus day of skateboarding in on Saturday. It was supposed to start snowing on Friday and not stop until Monday, but there was only rain on Friday with a smidge of snow overnight. Saturday was a mild and sunny day for very late fall so I got to skateboard for two hours in the driveway for the afternoon. It was a really nice surprise. The snow showed up for Sunday, but it hasn't been too bad. The week ahead could get very messy as winter arrives.

Mark Whiteley took the photo of the no-comply.

No-comply: Thrasher - January 2009 Volume 29 Number 1

Pony: Thrasher - June 2009 Volume 29 Number 6

Justin Brock #2.

Disaster in the dish.

This spot popped up a lot back in the late 00s. It looks like it would be a neat thing to skate, but I imagine something about it was overly difficult or made it not as cool as it looks in the photos.

Ouch.

Chris Mulhern's 006, Geoff Campbell's Internet Birthday, and Nyle Lovett's Pyramid Park video parts are all very good. It's nice to get some fun skateboarding after the brutal slog that was the SOTY gauntlet.

Dish: Thrasher - May 2009 Volume 29 Number 5

Blood: Slap - January 2008 Volume 17 Number 1

J.T. Aultz #2.

We all fall down.

JT is from San Diego, California. He started skateboarding when he was 12. Some of his San Diego favorites include Peter Hewitt, Danny Way, Matt Hensley, Willy Santos, Peter Smolik, and Tony Hawk. JT rides for Real and turned pro for them in 2004. Vox and Osiris sponsored his feet. As of a 2010 Thrasher interview, he liked punk rock and football, mainly because his dad also likes football. I don't see either of those interests as having changed in the time since. He was one of the first to do noseblunts on the wrong side of a bannister.

For the info: Thrasher - November 2010 Volume 30 Number 11

Slap - September 2008 Volume 17 Number 9

Nick Dompierre #2.

Nick is from New Bedford, Massachusetts. He was sponsored by 5Boro before getting on Real, Thunder, and Spitfire. Adio and DC were his footwear providers over the years. Nick's into building and racing cars. He's also a Taylor Swift fan.

Slap - February 2008 Volume 17 Number 2

Peter Ramondetta #7.

Only death decides.

You don't tend to think of Pete as a ledge tech skater, but he had a slew of Photosynthesis style long nosegrinds and 5-0s for his part in Since Day One. This switch kickflip was in there, too.

Slap - December 2007 Volume 16 Number 12

Real Team 2008.

Up & Over.

Real started filming for their Since Day One video in 2007-8. The project was released in 2011. It was the first full length from them since 2005's Roll Forever. They had quite a large squad and it's cool to see that a lot of the guys are still on the team or involved with the company in some way.

All the ads this week ran as two page spreads in Thrasher as well as single page ads on the back cover of Slap. Generally the layouts could remain the same between the two different sizes, but the graphic design department at Deluxe did have to adjust things in a couple places. You can probably guess which versions I scanned in for most of them.

Slap - July 2008 Volume 17 Number 7

Erik Ellington #5.

"It was a lot of Jamie Thomas having to do with . . . I'm kind of lazy by nature, and it kind of takes a lot of - well, nowadays I'm not so bad anymore, but at the time I was kind of carefree as far as work ethic. It started like I was a mule who had to be drug up a hill and the tricks were at the top of the hill. I think that's how he kind of phrased it. I think he and Jim Greco were definitely behind that one."

The Mule drags a switch kickflip out to tailslide down a handrail.

I landed a couple backside 50-50s on a ledge at the skatepark yesterday. I've had the worst mental block on that trick at the park the last two years so it was rad to finally do them again. I used to have them on any of the ledges there without much hassle, but not lately. I can get backside 50-50s no problem on the boxes I have at home. That's how it goes, I guess.

Congrats to Tyshawn Jones for winning a second SOTY from Thrasher. He put on a display of elevated skateboarding at the end of the year that really decimated everybody’s minds. How is it possible to pop tricks that high? Shine on, King.

For the quote: Thrasher - October 2005 Volume 25 Number 10

Skateboarder - February 2003 Volume 12 Number 6

Heath Kirchart #13.

"Though Heath prefers to skate alone while filming or getting photos, there was a time when he didn't mind inviting himself to other people's sessions. Often, he would do so dressed in all black, never revealing that he was even there. 'I was shooting Greco once,' Patrick O'Dell says, 'And Jim was mumbling something like, 'People spying on me' or whatever. I'm, like, 'Is he paranoid? He thinks people are actually watching him try this trick?' Then I saw him. Heath was behind the dumpster, fully spying on Jim trying to switch flip this gap.'"

The Night Prowler.

Christian Senrud put together the 15 Things You Don't Know About Heath Kirchart article.

For the quote: Skateboarder - August 2009 Volume 18 Number 12

Skateboarder - April 2003 Volume 12 Number 8

Andrew Reynolds #16.

The Stair Boss.

Andrew rode for Emerica for twenty years before departing for Vans. He recently left Vans for parts unknown, although it might be New Balance. That's got to be a shock for your feet in going from awful waffles to well padded cupsoles. It probably feels very comfortable.

Skateboarder - May 2003 Volume 12 Number 9

Ed Templeton #33.

It's the rage.

Ed takes one of his classic feeble grinds around the bend from the This Is Skateboarding days.

There's a cool new part of Michal Juraś for a Grey Area collaboration with The National Skateboard Co.

RIP Hamish Kilgour of The Clean.

Skateboarder - June 2003 Volume 12 Number 10

Leo Romero #12.

"I’ve always had the thing in me where I’m happy where I am. I’m allowed to do whatever I want . . . and I’m not getting any offers . . . No, I’ve been fortunate enough that the companies trust me and let me do what I want ‘cause I’ve been doing it for a long time and I’ve kind of been self-sufficient. That’s a luxury that you can’t really get anywhere other than when you have been doing what you do the way you do it and producing for such a long time."

The long haul.

The quote is from a Free Skate Mag interview with Alex Irvine.

Skateboarder - July 2003 Volume 12 Number 11

Mike Rusczyk #8.

Rus-Sick.

As I've written many a time before, the neat thing about doing this is highlighting some of the other skaters that weren't the big names of a particular era, but still were straight up rippers as good as, if not better than some of the flavors of the day. Mike's another example of why style and thoughtful trick selection matter. Check out his assorted parts for Foundation to see what I mean.

The bluntslide sequence by Brian Gaberman.

Some Girls: Thrasher - December 2005 Volume 25 Number 12

Blunt: Transworld - June 2005 Volume 23 Number 6

Corey Duffel #4.

Dead Moon in the boombox.

Does Corey get a high five from Chet Childress after landing a trick in Cataclysmic Abyss?

Thrasher - October 2005 Volume 25 Number 10

Leo Romero #11.

Leo does an unusual switch backside 50-50 down a hubba. You don't usually see many opposite foot moves from him. He's got the strong nollie game and will throw out switch flip tricks often, but pure switch tricks are a rarity. He'll nollie out of a frontside 50-50 down a handrail for fun, which is a subtle classic of a trick.

Transworld - November 2005 Volume 23 Number 11

Tommy Gurrola.

Sultan of Swing.

Tommy rode for Foundation, Pig Wheels, and Vans. His hometown is Bermuda Dunes, California. He had a Dire Straits scored part in Cataclysmic Abyss. His skating was very much of 2007 with lots of stairs and handrails. The section had a nice progression from ledges, ditches, and flat to more hammer style skateboarding. Tommy's favorite video part is Javier Sarmiento in The Firm's Can't Stop video. He likes Apple Computers and Dinosaur Jr.

I didn't have the issue of Skateboarder with his Who's Hot interview so this was a tough one to put together. I had forgotten he had a part in Cataclysmic Abyss.

Thrasher - May 2005 Volume 25 Number 5

Don "The Nuge" Nguyen #7.

Big ollies & fictional heavy metal bands.

I put together a random week of Foundation stuff that has been sitting on the computer for a long time. Tum Yeto rotated ads for their companies so there wasn't always a F-Troop ad every month. This made it confusing because I'd find a cool ad and then struggle to find another. I gave up on the search although I know there are a few Corey Duffel ones I wanted to scan that I keep seeing while searching for other stuff.

I am not really sure what the Fiberlam board construction was.

The holiday weekend was nice. The snow all melted and we had warm weather most days. I decided to break in a new pair of shoes on Saturday and that went really well. My ollies were popping and my noseslides were nosesliding again. It's kind of strange how a fresh pair of shoes can improve a few minor things.

Thrasher - December 2006 Volume 26 Number 12

Gilbert Crockett #7.

Denim Car.

Gilbert put together a part for Quasi that features him driving around in a denim covered automobile. I'm sure it was a project to get all the fabric to stick to the car. I like the aesthetic Quasi has going with their art and videos. They've captured this odd 1990s Midwestern cable access Guided By Voices mood that is really wonderful. Denim Car is one of my favorite parts of the year and I think Gilbert is one of my current favorite skaters. The video feels genuine.

As an added bonus, here's Gilbert's Who's Hot from 2007:

Joey Shigeo took the mysterious photo and Seu Trinh took the falling photo. Joey also took the picture for the Who's Hot.

Both: Transworld - May 2008 Volume 26 Number 5

Who's Hot: Skateboarder - February 2007 Volume 16 Number 6

Jim Greco #3.

The White Wall.

Jim recently released another short film of his skateboarding called The White Wall. It's an LA centric part with a ridiculous backside 360 ollie on a very tight white wall. Jim also cracks a few big ollies and battles the wind trying to get tricks in a parking lot. I can relate to the problems with wind, as it is often breezy around here and it is not fun to deal with.

Two things I've never liked about Vans is how their shoes are constructed and how mid the graphic design looks in the ads. It's great how much they give back to skateboarding on so many levels, but nothing much they do appeals to me beyond the humanitarian efforts. Also everybody wears them. That's not a slight or anything, simply an observation. I saw my friend's band play at a bar two weeks ago. The crowd was mostly college students and nearly everyone was wearing Vans of one type or another. There were maybe a couple pairs of New Balance and I'm sure somebody had Nikes on, but it was Vans all the way. Except for me. I was wearing some Lakais.

Giovanni Reda hammered down the photo.

Thrasher - October 2005 Volume 25 Number 10

Tyler Bledsoe #8.

Heroic.

Tyler lofts a backside kickflip from the Fourstar and Alien Workshop days. I think he was on Etnies for shoes in 2009. He's still pro with models out on Quasi as well as working as a tattoo artist in Portland.

My town got a manageable foot of snow over the last few days so we escaped the several feet that forced them to move the Bills game to Detroit. The sun was out and it dried up enough so that I even got in some skateboarding in the driveway on Saturday afternoon.

Thrasher - October 2009 Volume 29 Number 10

Dave Abair.

This one's for you.

Dave was from St. Albans, Vermont. He was pro for Scumco & Sons. His other sponsors included Satori, Indy, and FTC. He also had ridden for Creation Skateboards. Charlie Wilkins was the first pro he met and his go to trick was the nollie frontside flip. He worked at a doggie daycare place in San Francisco, too. Sadly, Dave passed away in 2021.

The photograph is by Brian Shamanski.

For the info: Skateboarder - April 2008 Volume 17 Number 8

Slap - December 2007 Volume 16 Number 12

Danny Montoya #6.

One step beyond.

The nollie heelflip champ does a switch backside kickflip in Mexico.

There's snow in the forecast. I'm glad I got skateboarding at the park for 25 minutes after work on Tuesday. That might be it for a while depending on how all this weather shakes out. I was hoping we would ride out November with a mild combo of rain, snow, winds, and sun with temperatures in the mid 30s to low 40s. Although after the current storm is done, we appear to stabilize to finish the month. Here's hoping there's not too much to dig out from.

Skateboarding has been feeling really good the last couple of months. I've been on an extended hiatus from beer so there's no day or two of feeling uncomfortable recovering from party time. That can't hurt. Also I've been mixing it up with skating the ledges in my driveway, the local park, and trips to the new park in Jamestown. Not that I have a big bag of tricks any more and ramps feel oddly uncomfortable, but this is the best skateboarding has felt in a bit. You're always going to have ups and downs obviously, however, I've been way more consistent and on point the last few months, even before I went on the break from beer. I'll take it for being old.

Ian Patrick O'Connor took the photo.

Slap - February 2008 Volume 17 Number 2

Jimmy "The Greek" Marcus.

Jimmy is from Clearwater, Florida. He's a noted pool ripper. Black Label gave him a pro board on their Emergency branch many years back. I thought this photo was sick and a little bit different than most of the Satori ads.

What size wheels are people riding these days?

I've been using 54 mm Spitfire Classics in their regular urethane formula. I was riding 55 mm Classics before the plague hit, but they don't seem to make those any longer. I'm thinking about going back to 56 mm. The 54s seem slow, even though one or two millimeters should not make a huge difference, especially when new.

Slap - May 2008 Volume 17 Number 5

Dave Caddo.

Pattern Language.

Dave is from Cincinnati, Ohio and moved out to New York City in the early 2000s. He was an eye for unique spots and exploring the lesser known neighborhoods of the Big Apple. His current board sponsor is Politic. Dave has previously ridden for Creation and Ipath.

Slap - January 2008 Volume 17 Number 1

Ben Gore #5.

Ben takes a kickflip over a lion in San Francisco back during the Stereo days.

Satori was started in 1998 by Craig Nejedly. The name is taken from a Japanese Buddhist term that means "pure awareness". They were around for a while, took some time off to find themselves, and returned in 2020. Team riders Karl Watson and Matt Pailes are involved with the company now. Satori has program that recycles old wheels into new wheels.

The photograph is by Dan Zaslavsky.

Slap - December 2007 Volume 16 Number 12

Adam Alfaro & Pat Rakestraw.

Double shot of Black Label.

Black Label is one of those companies that I've always been stoked on. I don't have much else to say beyond that.

New ride. I guess I set this up last Saturday. It seems way longer ago than that. There's a bunch of scratches on it now. I've been thinking about switching it up from Polar, but this one and the last one have both felt really good, as in better than nearly all the Polars I've ridden in the last year and a half. That doesn't make any sense. I'm not sure what I think of the all white board with a rectangular graphic in the middle, but I like how it balances evenly with the Grains sticker. The board makes more sense in person, to me at least. The top ply is light blue so that's a good color.

Adam's photo is by Chris "Rhino" Rooney. I'd like to know who did Pat's ad since it's neat-o looking.

Adam: Skateboarder - December 2006 Volume 16 Number 4

Pat: Skateboarder - April 2006 Volume 15 Number 8

Peter Watkins.

"My dad's a graphic designer and I was never good with computers so manual labor has been the way to go this year. It's the wave of the future."

Boring handyman extraordinaire.

Some dude named Otto took the photo.

For the quote: Thrasher - March 2006 Volume 26 Number 3

Skateboarder - March 2007 Volume 16 Number 7

Chris Troy.

"Varial flips, the Diet Coke flip. That's what me and Kenny Hoyle call them 'cause a 360 flip is like a Coke and diet's like a half, half as good."

Throwing a full can of Coke down a double set.

Chris is from Carlsbad, California. He is pro for Black Label and has ridden for them for an eternity. There's still a board with his name on it from John Lucero's enterprise. He likes working on cars. Chris is a fan of the skating of Jason Adams, Arto Saari, Andrew Reynolds, and Fred Gall.

RIP Little Blue Car.

The photo is by Matt Daughters.

For the quote and info: Skateboarder - September 2009 Volume 19 Number 1

Skateboarder - February 2007 Volume 16 Number 6

Shuriken Shannon.

Shuriken is from San Diego, California. Black Label turned him pro. He also rode for Santa Cruz. Osiris sponsored his feet. He currently rides for Arbor. Shuriken is into art and makes collage pieces from old decks. I don't know too much about him, other than he's been in the pro game for a long time.

The picture is by Russell Houghton.

Skateboarder - April 2007 Volume 16 Number 8

Chet Childress #12.

Ludacrooks all up in the air at either a DIY spot or an unfinished park. It might even be an unfinished DIY spot. I dug the random enthusiasm that Chet brought to skateboarding. I wonder what he's doing these days. One would assume he is still skating, making art, riding bikes, and whatever else he's been doing all along.

We had a decent blast of summer for the weekend before we plunge into early sunsets* for a month. I set up a new board and skated a bunch. I was on the tired side so everything was a chore. I more or less understand the reasoning behind the clock change, but it seems like it would be better to put it off for two weeks or only turn the clocks back 30 minutes instead of an hour. November weather is generally good so we're wasting quality outdoor time because the man says so. Time isn't real anyway.

* Sunsets begin to get later again in very small increments starting on December 10th. Sunrises don't get earlier until January 5th. Times may vary upon location.

The photograph is by Joe Brook.

Skateboarder - May 2007 Volume 16 Number 9

Jason Salillas & Zach "Ducky" Kovacs.

Cannonball!

Good thing at least one of you guys is wearing a helmet.

Richie Valdez documented the tomfoolery.

Thrasher - October 2018 Volume 39 Number 10

Ryan Lay #5.

Arizona Coyote.

Ryan is a fan of East Coast skateboarding, which led to him being a Philadelphia Flyers fan. He got into hockey a bit when he was younger after the NHL stuck a franchise in the desert. His interest in hockey has waned in the years since.

Richie Valdez risked getting wet for the photo.

For the hockey info: The Skateboard Mag - July 2011 Issue 88

Thrasher - July 2018 Volume 39 Number 7

Dylan Witkin.

Dylan is from Lake Forest, California. He is pro for Foundation. This photo is from late 2018 or very early 2019 and was Dylan's last trick in Foundation's Star & Moon video from 2021. Thrasher featured him in a Lunatic Fringe article in 2016. He was possibly riding for Expedition at the time. He's also into BMX and skated to buzz band Turnstile in the Star & Moon video.

There was no John Shanahan part in the new DGK video. Maybe he's dropping a solo video soon?

The picture is by Richie Valdez.

Thrasher - February 2019 Volume 40 Number 2

Breana Geering #3.

Boo! It's Breezy!

This was probably the first big ad Breana had in a mag. The dates are a little difficult to pin down, but it is from about the same time she was added to the Girl team. I'm not sure what board she is riding. Of note, there is a Red Dragons sticker.

I guess the DGK video drops today. I'm saying John Shanahan's SOTY push starts as well.

I've been to the new Jamestown city skatepark the last four Sundays. I still don't know what I think of the place, other than I wish I lived closer and could get there more often to get the tricks I'd like to do wired.

Jordan Puetz took the photo.

Thrasher - August 2018 Volume 39 Number 8

Orbs Wheels.

Happy Halloween!

Orbs is the supernatural wheel division of Welcome, the makers of magical shaped skateboards. The team is mostly made up of Welcome riders, although they do sponsor skateboarders from other companies. This has included Corey Duffel, Zach "Ducky" Kovacs, and Breana Gearing. The ads for Orbs tend to be a little more lo-fi than the art for Welcome, but things can get kind of trippy.

The photos are by Alex Papke, JD Palmer, and Richie Valdez.

Zach: Thrasher - November 2018 Volume 39 Number 11

Aaron: Thrasher - March 2018 Volume 39 Number 3

Will: Thrasher - December 2017 Volume 38 Number 12

Pat: Thrasher - October 2017 Volume 38 Number 10