Taylor Nawrocki.

The quest for spirit.

Taylor has ridden for Politic and is currently on Picture Show. He had part in Colin Read's 2016 video Spirit Quest.

The photo is by Allen Ying.

Thrasher - September 2016 Volume 37 Number 9

Mario Rubalcaba #2.

The Feeding of the Birds.

The moods of Mario. ATM got a little more arty than usual and channeled a Stereo type of atmosphere for this one.

The photos are by Marc Hostetter.

Thrasher - April 1994 Volume 14 Number 4

Zane Timpson #2.

"No ma'am, just a vagrant."

The dearly departed Zane Timpson takes the plunge on a big drop back when he was on Vagrant. Zane would turn pro for Heroin Skateboards in 2021. I always think it is cool to flip through the mags to discover somebody who would turn pro later on that maybe you didn't notice the first time around.

The photo is by Dave Gutierrez.

Thrasher - October 2017 Volume 38 Number 10

Julien Stranger #28.

Stranger takes flight over a small bench at the China Banks. T-Funk would go yard and blast a frontside ollie over a longer bench 27 years later.

This photo always pops up and gets cropped to omit the ad, which maybe isn't the worst thing ever, but it is a solid piece of graphic design. Long time readers will know that one of my pet peeves is when ads or photos get cropped. I do it as well from time to time, but at least make note of the editing.

A recent collaboration between Supreme and Anti-Hero has brought a little joy to people by seeing legends like Julien, John Cardiel, Brian Anderson, and Mark Gonzales skate around NYC with Tyshawn Jones and Kader Sylla. Here's an old ad from the early days of Supreme:

It's a week of filler. I just wasn't ready to post the week of Grind King Trucks I scanned in on Saturday night. I also landed a switch frontside flip yesterday. I started messing around with switch flips on flat and the one I landed happened to go 180. It was the silliest thing I've done on a skateboard in a while. It was caught clean and turned smoothly, but completely unexpected. I guess all those switch 180s I do helped out or something.

Julien: Thrasher - April 1994 Volume 14 Number 4

Supreme: Thrasher - September 1994 Volume 14 Number 9

Dane Barker.

Hardcore alley ollie.

Dane is from Tacoma, Washington, lived in LA, and relocated to Richmond, Virginia. He briefly rode for Pass~Port and Doom Sayers before getting sucked into the Quasi void. Dane is into hardcore music and plays guitar in a couple of bands.

These Sam Cunningham reissues from Blockhead are radical.

The photo might be by Ty Beall.

Thrasher - August 2019 Volume 40 Number 8

Silas Baxter-Neal #2.

Lord Huron.

I kind of slept on Silas over the years, but now I'm a fan. I think what did it for me was the Jessup commercial where he does a noseblunt slide and a nollie kickflip for a line. It was just seeing something simple like that repeatedly that made me change my opinion. Silas was ahead of the curve with transfer tricks from one handrail to another.

The photograph is Mac Shafer.

Thrasher - April 2018 Volume 39 Number 4

Frankie Spears.

Going to see the Knicks at Madison Square Garden.

Frankie is from the New York City area and is the resident handrail chomper in the Big Apple. He turned pro for Alien Workshop a couple of years ago and also rides for Adidas.

I dig that disturbing Mike Hill sculpture in the ad. It's a nice throwback to the olden days of the Workshop.

Thrasher - August 2018 Volume 39 Number 8

Sammy Montano #2.

Crooks, locks, and fences.

The photo is by Seu Trinh.

Thrasher - June 2017 Volume 38 Number 6

Brian Delatorre #3.

Street grabbing in the stance of the switch.

Delatorre has been in the game a long time now. How many other active pros can say they rode for Think? I guess it's probably a fair number of people, but you get the gist of what I'm saying.

Jon Coulthard snapped the photograph.

Thrasher - June 2018 Volume 39 Number 6

Yaje Popson & Joey Guevara.

Avocados & Owls.

I found this cool reissue of Thomas Morgan's debut pro model:

Yaje's photo is by Zander Taketomo and Joey's photo is by Justin Ching.

Transworld - March/April 2017 Issue 385

Tyler Bledsoe #6.

Clearly okay.

More than anything, I'm a big fan of the art direction at Quasi. I like how they do somewhat unorthodox graphics with use of image placement and negative space on the boards. I'll browse their website every so often just to see what new ideas they have.

Thrasher - January 2017 Volume 38 Number 1

Bobby de Keyzer.

Sunfish Holy Breakfast.

Bobby is from Toronto, Canada. Habitat was his board sponsor and then he switched to Quasi. He turned pro in 2020. Bobby is into photography. Some of his favorite photographers include Lynne Cohen, Thomas Struth, Ron Jude, and Viviane Sassen.

The photo of a fakie flip is by Jon Coulthard.

Thrasher - December 2017 Volume 38 Number 12

Joey Guevara.

Open space flight.

Joey is from San Jose, California and into birdwatching. His favorite bird is the golden eagle. He works doing house remodeling in addition to being pro for the new version of the Alien Workshop.

The photo is by Wes Tonascia.

For the info: Thrasher - May 2022 Volume 43 Number 5

Thrasher - January 2018 Volume 39 Number 1

Jason Dill #19.

Exotic aquarium life.

I like the crisp and somewhat plan layout of the ad.

I think this backside Smith grind was at an early version of Steve Berra's indoor park, which means he's been dabbling in the realm of skatepark ownership for two decades now. That's got to be a lot of unsightly janitorial work you'd feel better off not having to deal with as the price to pay for always having a place to skate.

The backside Smith photo is by Michael Blabac. Joe Castrucci took the picture of the eels and Dill.

Skateboarder - May 2001 Volume 10 Number 6

Frank Gerwer #7.

ASR Booth #2435.

Amid all the new strains of pressure flips, hippie jumps, and weird darkslides, Frank graced us with a bunch of quality skateboarding in Go Fly A Kite, the latest video from Grimple Stix. I think it's great Frank is still out there getting tricks.

It's probably hard to tell from the scan, but Frank is wearing Fallens in the Gerwer Baby ad. I've been skating their Patriot cupsole model more often than not the last two years. The Patriots are a reasonably well padded and durable sneaker. They reach a point after wearing them for a while where they do start to go downhill fast. I'd say the relaunch of Fallen is worth checking out if you're tired of the same old big time shoe companies.

In a sadly related note, the woman who was the model for the original Gerber baby recently passed away.

Wake Bladez: Thrasher - March 2005 Volume 25 Number 3

Gerwer Baby: Thrasher - November 2005 Volume 25 Number 11

Tony Trujillo #7.

"Everyone else in the Cleveland Triple Crown contest was riding brand new set-ups, bright white wheels, except Tony Trujillo who was riding this piece of shit, widdler's project of a board. No graphics, worn down to the seventh layer, almost rectangular, with old, yellow wheels. Probably looked like your board. He finished second on it. And he had that mohawk. All punk and shit. Hell, I would've given him first. On the top of his board he had spray painted "Charles Bronson." Julien Stranger said it was some band he was friends with. I was curious. When I got home, Steve the Intern handed me this Possessed to Skate compilation from Pessimiser Records. Charles Bronson is the first band on it. I can see why he spray painted them on his board. They're awesome. Just the dumbest punk, fuck-up shit you can find. There's six other bands on this CD that are almost as good. It's a great sampler of skate rock. We've come a long way from the Faction's "Skate and Destroy." - Dave Carnie

It's these odd little bits and pieces of skateboard minutia that I think I like the best from Big Brother.

The contest Dave was writing about was the Cleveland stop of the Vans Triple Crown tour. It was held from June 2-4 in the year 2000. Tony placed second. Tyrone Olson was the winner and Kerry Getz took third.

Is that Andrew Allen in the top ad?

For the quote: Big Brother - November 2000 Number 66

Never heard of it: Thrasher - January 2005 Volume 25 Number 1

Zombie: Thrasher - September 2005 Volume 25 Number 9

Peter Hewitt #17.

The trippiest thing about the Grimple Stix video was a street clip of Peter Hewitt.

Thrasher - August 2005 Volume 25 Number 8

Julien Stranger #27.

Sick Stranger Smith.

Here's Dave Carnie's review of the infamous can cover sticker:

Can Cover: Big Brother - March 2000 Number 58

Thrasher - April 2005 Volume 25 Number 4

John Cardiel #17.

Tower Records.

Thrasher - February 2005 Volume 25 Number 2

Dennis Busenitz #8.

You were a serious SOTY contender for a long time. Was that something you ever thought about going for?

No, they wanted me to be that way, but I could never do that. It was orchestrated after Away Days that I should try going for it or whatever. It totally backfired. It just makes me not want to do it. It's also just a hard thing to do. Something's really unappealing to me about gunning for Skater of the Year. I know that's what it takes now. It doesn't happen casually anymore. It seems like from an outsider's perspective, it used to be just people shredding, and then it was just a random award. At the end of the year it was like, You shredded the best. And now it's people trying to shred the best, which is kind of what people should be doing anyway. Would people rip so hard if there was no SOTY award?

Real talk.

For the quote: Thrasher - May 2022 Volume 43 Number 5

Thrasher - December 2005 Volume 25 Number 12

Chima Ferguson #3.

Chima takes a switch backside heelflip out to the curb.

The fine print on these ads mentions Control Freak Construction for boards that are wider than 7.5". This seems like an odd thing to come up with. Smaller boards already have a quick response on a lot of tricks. The larger than 7.5" implies that Real was making several boards that were at that size or smaller. I know the tech people dig their skinny boards, but I thought decks were getting a little wider around this time. Real is also known to try out new types of concave and board constructions so in that regard it makes sense from a marketing standpoint.

I thought this run of Real ads looked neat so that's why I scanned them. They went with the same design for a few months and then switched to a variation of the layout.

Thrasher - January 2006 Volume 26 Number 1

Ernie Torres & Peter Ramondetta.

A couple of Oklahoma Sooners on a land rush in California.

Ernie and Peter are both from Tulsa. It's weird to think that I might have gotten to skate with them at some point. I'm positive I didn't, but they did make the trek to the Skate Station in Fayettville, Arkansas at least once or twice. It was probably after I finished up grad school when they would have been begun venturing to other spots outside of Oklahoma.

Ernie: Thrasher - October 2005 Volume 25 Number 10

Peter: Thrasher - November 2005 Volume 25 Number 11