Dane Brady #4.

Pizza oven.

I had this board.

Vert Is Dead will be back on Monday, May 2nd. I'm taking a spring break from blog life.

The photos are by Matt Price. I like how Jacob Ovgren's Angry Stoner tag appears in this ad. It was also in the Aaron Herrington ad from earlier this week.

Stair ride: Thrasher - December 2018 Volume 39 Number 12

Wallie: Thrasher - May 2018 Volume 39 Number 5

Shin Sanbongi #3.

Ruins.

Shin's odd griptape job is really only the type of thing you can get away with as a sponsored skater who can change boards more often than us paying customers.

The photograph is by Shinsaku Arakawa.

Thrasher - February 2018 Volume 39 Number 2

Emile Laurent.

Emile is from Portland, Oregon. He started skateboarding when he found a board in the neighbor's trash on the curb. Dane Brady helped get him sponsored by Polar. He likes skating Burnside in addition to lots of other spots. His brother raises and breeds finches for house pets. He's into drawing and Pontus Alv used some of sketches for board graphics, including Dane's first pro model. Emile believes in both aliens and Bigfoot.

The photo is by Marimo Ohyama.

For the info: Thrasher - October 2021 Volume 42 Number 10

Thrasher - August 2018 Volume 39 Number 8

Andrew Wilson #2.

It's rather unique how Polar has evolved from one of the upstart small board brands to a major mens clothier with the popularity of their Big Boy jeans. The jeans are based on the baggy trousers of the early 1990s. Since I participated in that trend the first time around, I'm fine with skipping it on the second go-round. It also goes to show that if you wait long enough, any style will probably pop up again.

I'm not even fully sure what I think of baggy jeans any more. To an extent baggy pants are perfectly fine, but carried to the extremes, they can look sloppy. It makes me appreciate Spike Jonze saying he wouldn't take pictures of skaters wearing Blind or Fuct jeans in 1992 or 1993. I thought that statement seemed odd back then, but now makes more sense given that Spike and the skaters he shot regularly were a little older and not as likely to follow every fashion whim of skateboarding. It's important to be aware of the current trends and then exercise discretion when it comes to jumping on any bandwagons.

Andrew was on Polar for a bit and then bounced for FA/Hockey. I don't know too much about him in all honesty.

Jared Sherbert snapped the photograph.

Thrasher - January 2019 Volume 40 Number 1

Aaron Herrington #4.

Down on the corner.

It's a week of random Polar stuff. I had the boards featured in a couple of the ads so I decided to roll with that. I always take a picture of my new board and then another when it is done.

I rode this board in the summer of 2019. I thought the Rick Howard sticker paired well with the hi-jinx of the graphic.

The art is by Jacob Ovgren.

Thrasher - September 2018 Volume 39 Number 9

Mark Gonzales #27.

Lovelymess.

The Gonz chilling with a pigeon. I dig the ollie photo.

Paint drip: Thrasher - February 2006 Volume 26 Number 2

Ollie: Thrasher - March 2006 Volume 26 Number 3

Mark Gonzales #26.

Bad boys get rad!

Krooked only did four fax style ads before moving on to using the copy machine. They all pair together well from a design perspective. The company started promoting the upcoming Krooked Khronicles, which premiered in May of 2006.

The wallride photo is by Tomonori "Rip" Tanaka.

Wallride: Thrasher - October 2005 Volume 25 Number 10

Sketchbook: Thrasher - January 2006 Volume 26 Number 1

Dan Drehobl #28.

Bela Lugosi lives.

I thought this trick was in one of Dan's video parts from the time, but I couldn't find it.

Thrasher - November 2005 Volume 25 Number 11

Bobby Worrest #7.

The Gonz loves the facsimile machine so there was a quick series of Krooked ads in late 2005 put together from faxes. I thought this idea looked cool, even if it is a tad on the plain side. They didn't run with the theme for very long and shifted over to promoting their upcoming Krooked Khronicles video in future ads. Faxes always pop up in Krooked adverts so it is not like they completely abandoned the concept.

Backside noseblunt: Thrasher - September 2005 Volume 25 Number 9

Front slider: Thrasher - December 2005 Volume 25 Number 12

Van Wastell #4.

Van takes a backside heelflip down a krooked street gap. He rode for Consolidated and City Stars before turning pro for Krooked. He preferred basic Vans for footwear at time when nearly everybody else was wearing bulky shoes. Fortunately, he would get sponsored by Vans. Sadly, Mr. Wastell passed away in 2008.

I put together a week of Krooked ads from when they started working on their 2006 video Krooked Khronicles.

Thrasher - July 2005 Volume 25 Number 7

Alan Petersen #18.

Permanently gone fishin'.

I rode a ton of Consolidated boards when I was in college back in the 1990s so I've always got fond memories of the company. They fought the good fight for three decades and that's about all you can ask. Happy trails, Cube crew.

AP is doing a super high ollie to boardslide in the collage. It's such a sick photo.

Thrasher - November 2005 Volume 25 Number 11

Jason "Jub" Taylor #3.

Midwest Expansion.

Consolidated was about as California as you can get in terms of the team so it was neat to see them expand to include folks from the Midwest in the late 1990s and early 2000s. They brought in a slew of talent from Minnesota, including Steve Nesser, Clint Peterson, Seth McCallum, Emeric Pratt, and artist Todd Bratrud. Todd would create a bunch of classic graphics that came to define Consolidated with a mix of humor and gore.

Jub is from Michigan and was riding for the Black Label prior to Consolidated.

The photo is by Adam Conway.

Thrasher - September 2005 Volume 25 Number 9

Roberto Alemañ #3.

The power of the Cube.

Roberto floats an ollie at Tony's.

One cool thing about Consolidated is that Leticia Ruano is their Chief Operating Officer. In a dude heavy industry, it's great that a woman was helping run a long standing company. It would be nice to have a good full length interview with her at some point.

Megan Baltimore's People I've Known in the new Thrasher has far better stories about World Industries than any of the other overdone nostalgia centered around that brand.

Props to Deluxe for adding There and Unity to their distribution network.

Thrasher - August 2005 Volume 25 Number 8

Brian Heck.

Consolidated had a heavy team over the years that was a mix of known pros, underground rippers, and future stars. They tended to keep their crew small, which helped define their image as a close knit, skater owned operation.

Roberto Alemañ
Jeremiah Babb
Steve Bailey
Kyle Berard
Lee Berman
Scott Bourne
Corey Chrysler
Gary Collins
Howard Cooke
Jonah Dolese
Julian Dykmans
Tim Garner
Sean Gutierrez
Brian Heck
Casey Helseth
Frankie Hill
Demarcus James
Jason Jessee
Ryan Johnson
Billy Kahn
Shota Kikuch
Colin Lambert
Casey Lindstrom
Maru
Seth McCallum
Steve Nesser
Jose Noro
Abe Olague
Jesse Paez
Richard Paez
Alan Petersen
Clint Peterson
Mike Peterson
Emeric Pratt
Ben Raemers
Andy Roy
Doug Saenz
David Sanchez
Roger Seliner
Paul Sharpe
Jackson Taylor
Jason "Jub" Taylor
Karma Tsocheff
Olly Tyreman
Jay Ulrich
Van Wastell
Ryan Wilburn
Tanner Zelinsky
Dustin Zimmerman

I don't know if I got everybody or spelled everyone's name right, but I tried. I pieced the list together from memory and then assorted skateboard soundtrack sites for the rest.

Brian is from Bellfield, North Dakota. He has also ridden for Iota and Send Help.

Thrasher - January 2006 Volume 26 Number 1

Emeric Pratt #2.

The end of the line.

It was recently announced that Consolidated Skateboards is closing up shop after 30 years in the business. The company was started in March of 1992 by Steve Keenan and Steve "Birdo" Guisinger. The initial team included former SMA riders Karma Tsocheff, Alan Petersen, and Corey Chrysler, as well as Santa Cruz's Jason Jessee. Moish Brenman was the original artist who created the famous cube logo and did many of the board graphics. Sadly, Moish and Corey have both passed away in the years since. Consolidated stood out right from the start by doing things a little bit differently, like donating money from board sales to charities and writing a plan on how to get a skatepark built in your town.

Emeric is a Minnesota ripper who rode for Consolidated and Iota.

The photo is by Matt Price.

Thrasher - February 2006 Volume 26 Number 2

Ishod Wair #4.

One minute of video for each year pro.

Ishod recently dropped a new ten minute long video part for Real. Since he turned pro in 2012, that works out to a minute of footage for each year in the professional ranks. The part was filmed by Tim Fulton. Ishod has the supreme skills to do all the tricks and make them look effortless. He focused primarily on pure street skating for the video, but he can wreck shop on any terrain.

Pro: Thrasher - March 2012 Volume 32 Number 3

K-Grind: Thrasher - November 2015 Volume 36 Number 11