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