Braydon Szafranski #2.

Braydon takes a tailslide to 270 out down a low handrail. I think this rail was in Australia and was a popular destination of touring teams. It showed up in ads for Toy Machine and Chocolate.

The new City of Jamestown skatepark has a formal opening on Saturday, October 1st from noon to 2:00 PM. I have no clue where they built this thing, but it looks pretty good. Check it out if you happen to be in the area and know where the park is.

Skateboarder - January 2008 Volume 17 Number 5

Marquis Preston.

Big White Cloud.

Marquis is from Palmdale, California. His sponsors included Foundation and Emerica. He was super into playing Call of Duty back in the day and was ranked in the top 200 for that video game. Marquis had a full part in Stay Gold.

Skateboarder - November 2007 Volume 17 Number 3

Leo Romero #10.

Leo started taking tricks up obstacles in the later half of the 00s. This ultimately led to a cover of Skateboarder where he was 50-50 grinding up a handrail. He's still hitting obstacles at high speed and the wrong way. Some people are just wired different.

I think Leo would have been on Baker in 2007. He turned pro for Foundation, switched to Baker for a couple years, and then joined up with the squad at Toy Machine. He's still on Toy Machine. It's neat how he's ridden for Emerica for over twenty years, too.

Skateboarder - October 2007 Volume 17 Number 2

Kevin "Spanky" Long #9.

Kevin spins one of his signature tricks off the edge of the brick banks at L.A. High. It's always fascinating how skaters develop an attachment to spots that maybe aren't the greatest or easiest things to skate and then put in the effort to land some amazing tricks at them.

Skateboarder - October 2006 Volume 16 Number 2

Bryan Herman #6.

I think the story behind this spot is that the owner of Pharmacy Skateboard Shop built a hubba at his house so he could have the chaos happen in his own backyard. I believe it was even featured in an article in the Skateboard Mag. If by some coincidence this isn't that hubba, it's a good fill in for the actual spot and captures the spirit of the story.

Skateboarder - April 2006 Volume 15 Number 8

Unexpected Break.

Vert Is Dead will be back on Monday, September 26th. A couple unexpected health things came up over this last weekend which resulted in me having to take a break. I'm sure you can probably ballpark the cause of the problems. Everybody is OK and doing well. Keep wearing those masks and stay up to date on the ol' booster shots because this crap is a long way from over.

Kyle Leeper #3.

His dad used to take him to Laker games at The Forum during the heyday of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, A.C. Green, James Worthy, Magic Johnson, and Pat Riley.

The photograph is by Matt Mecaro.

For the info: Transworld - May 2005 Volume 23 Number 5

Skateboarder - June 2007 Volume 16 Number 10

Brian "Slash" Hansen #4.

Gone Green.

Slash rode for the Label after Pig Wood had ended and before Deathwish started. I had forgotten John Lucero sponsored him. Even though he was on Fallen, he popped up in Emerica's 2007 Wild Ride tour video. I watched the DVD of that the the other day. I'm not sure if he was getting shoes from them or if he came along for the ride since it was basically a homie video. As an aside, Jerry Hsu does a great switch hardflip in the flick.

The picture is by Seu Trinh.

Skateboarder - September 2007 Volume 17 Number

Jason Adams #20.

Jason returned to the Black Label in 2007 after a few years of riding for enjoi. During that time away, he filmed an all time classic of a part in an all time classic of a video.

The picture is by Dan Zaslavsky.

Skateboarder - October 2007 Volume 17 Number 2

Peter Raffin.

Fully Professional.

After about fifteen years as a sponsored amateur, Peter was elevated up to the pro ranks by Creature this summer. He's from San Jose. His previous sponsors included Black Label and Powell. He works in the construction business waterproofing bathrooms.

Jai Tanju took the picture.

Skateboarder - November 2007 Volume 17 Number 3

Chaz Pineda.

BLK LBL.

I put together a big feature on the Black Label from 2006-7. I'm going to split it up over a few weeks. I did the same for Emerica with the same plan to space it out, too. John Lucero had quite a big team of all terrain rippers at this time. I had slightly forgotten about some of these guys. I've always been a fan so this was a fun batch to scan.

Chaz is from Houston, Texas and was one of those younger kids who demolished all manner of ramps and curved surfaces. I'm not really sure on his background or what he is up to these days.

Here is the new ride. The board is more about my preferred size and shape this time around. I am not a fan of the red ply, which is on both the top and bottom. The graphic is OK. Jacob Ovgren does reference pervious Aaron Herrington graphics so that is a nice touch. I didn't know what I wanted to do for a sticker and had this John Cardiel sticker so that's more than good enough. I did not realize how worn out my old board was. My ollies are popping again and I've got better control.

The photo is by Pat Myers.

Skateboarder - December 2007 Volume 17 Number 4

RVCA Mini-Ramp Contest.

Ramp Lords.

RVCA hosted a private mini-ramp contest in October of 2006. Big Ben Schroeder won, Mark Appleyard took second, and Scotland's Stu Graham landed in third. Each was given a painting done by a RVCA artist, which in this case was art from Ben Horton, Ed Templeton, and Neck Face. The contest was organized by Jimmy Arrighi, formerly of Hellbow mini ramp fame and future owner of Eswic Clothing.

Contests aren't necessarily the be all and end all of skateboarding, but a well planned fun one can be a good thing. It's produced some entertaining and creative moments in skateboard journalism over the years, as well as more than a few stupid incidents. It's probably also for the better that extensive contest coverage has been phased out over the years. You have to remember that these used to be big time social events for skateboarders before the internet made communication much easier. A recent episode of the Mostly Skateboarding podcast and a couple things on Skate Twitter had me thinking about old contest articles. I just happened to dumb luck on two to scan for the week.

Speaking of contests, the Bills started the season off on the right note.

Michael Burnett wrote the words and took the pictures.

Thrasher - January 2007 Volume 27 Number 1

Louie Barletta #9.

Have box, will travel.

The Black Label and fragile stickers make it priceless.

I set up a new board last night. I probably should have done new trucks as well, but I didn't have the energy. The old ones are off, but they more or less work OK.

The photo is by Bryce Kanights.

Skateboarder - July 2003 Volume 12 Number 11

Vans Downtown Showdown 2006.

The Gauntlet.

This contest happened on Labor Day weekend in 2006. It was held at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles. Element, enjoi, Girl, and Real each submitted an obstacle for the event. Vans paid out a fair amount in prize money. It's funny how much smack everybody talks on Element in the article.

The report and photos are by Michael Burnett.

Thrasher - January 2007 Volume 27 Number 1

Eswic.

Eswic was a clothing company started by Jimmy Arrighi around about 2011. Jimmy had been at RVCA and wanted to do something different. The team included Leo Romero, Dakota Servold, Cairo Foster, James Hardy, Corey Glick, David Reyes, Stevie Perez, and Jimmy Wilkins. Ed Templeton was initially involved, designed a few shirts, and then went back to RVCA. Dakota recently mentioned Eswic as a company that needs to come back so that sparked my interest in doing this post. I liked the team and t-shirts. I still have a few in the rotation, although I don't wear them very often since they are getting older. I used to put one of their logo stickers on my board for the longest time. The charting of unconventional courses came to an end in late 2017 or early 2018.

It was going to be Eswic week, but I couldn't find enough ads. They mostly ran lifestyle shots. I think they had more ads, but they probably didn't have the money and I was seeing their stuff on Twitter. Or my mind is playing tricks on me.

Leo: The Skateboard Mag - April 2013 Issue 109

Dakota: Transworld - September 2014 Volume 32 Number 9

Leo II: Transworld - January 2015 Volume 33 Number 1

Rick McCrank #8.

Trucker hat | éS shirt | Front feeble.

The style of the day.

Skateboarding was cut short by a massive swarm of bugs at the park last night. I also managed to crack my board on missed heelflip that I barely touched on. It was very strange. This was maybe the third board I've ever broken while skating in 35 years.

Scott Pommier snapped the photo.

Skateboarder - March 2005 Volume 14 Number 7

Chris Haslam #3.

"I’ve traveled nearly the entire world with Has and I’ve only seen him eat apples, cheese pizza, and ham sandwiches." - Louie Barletta

I think I somewhat overlooked Chris's skating when he was in his prime. It's probably because he rode for Almost and that company is just not very interesting to me. I watched his part in their 5 Incher video last night. Chris has the right blend of unique tech and gnar that balances out well in action, even if some of his tricks don't sound great when the names are written down.

The photograph is by Brian Caissie.

For the quote: Thrasher - April 2021 Volume 42 Number 4

Skateboarder - July 2005 Volume 14 Number 11