Karma Tsocheff #11.

AM Nollie Magic.

I thought this was a fakie ollie, but upon closer inspection Karma takes a nollie to fakie across a skatepark ramp. He's regular footed. I miss the glory days of Consolidated.

We got through another 12 months of skateboarding. If it wasn't all good, at the least it was entertaining. And that's all you can ask for. There's so much media to take in that it becomes impossible to keep track of everything in the same way you could back in the 1990s. Recognizing that mindset shift is important and the change is OK. You don't have to follow everything. Everybody is good and they all have better spots than you so the content churn becomes numbing to view.

As for my skateboarding, I remain undecided on what I think of the Jamestown free park. I went there a bunch more this summer. The one ledge is really good. I will say it is very nice being there early on a warm summer morning next to a river with some ducks or maybe a green heron on it. Atmosphere can make a big difference.

I finally made it back to Jamestown Skateboard Products. I hadn't been there in way too long. I have to remember to not be a stranger since it's the closest indoor park and they have a solid shop. They were featured in the most recent issue of Lowcard, too.

The Food Court Skatepark opened in the McKinkley Mall over the summer. It's fun and a trip to skateboard in a mall. The 80s kid in me appreciates that. I went there a couple weeks ago to meet up with some friends. I didn't film or even ask to film anything, but I wound up with foreground props in one of the clips so I grabbed a crappy still.

Otherwise, I stuck to the local park and the assortment of ledges I have in the driveway. The weather was decent for much of the year. The last month has seen a small amount of snow and some spring rain so that has cut into skateboard time. I've got nothing to complain about. I managed to crack 300 days rolling, which would have happened sooner if it wasn't for the rain in October and two days of snow in November.

I try to do some type of year end wrap up, but I'm spacing out on things right now. I did hit 15 months without having a beer so I think that's cool. I'm going to keep the streak rolling for the foreseeable future. I still spend way too much money on weird noise records and tapes. I maintain that the best part about skateboarding is just going skateboarding every day.

Vert Is Dead will be back on Monday, January 15th, 2024.

I need a break from this silly thing. I'll probably throw together some sort of quick look back on 2023. I also want to do another week of unique trucks. I've got a batch of Iota and Supernatural scans ready to go, too.

Happy New Year and have a great weekend.

The photo sequence is by Nik Freitas.

Thrasher - July 2001 Volume 21 Number 7

Jessie Van Roechoudt #6.

Kelowna's Finest.

Jessie was a ripper in the late 1990s and early 2000s. She was pro for Rookie, Vans, Venture, and FTC. These days she works as a marketing manager at Adidas.

Skateboard clothing always perplexes me, especially when bigger brand names try to enter the field. You know they aren't going to stick around, simply based on the track record of previous clothing endeavors. Once a brand makes a skate line, there is a running countdown clock until they either go out of business or cut the team to move in a different direction. For example, Louie Lopez left his longtime clothing sponsor of Volcom to ride for Noah within the last year. I'm completely fine with him making a change, but why pick Noah? They had a skateboard team once and released a shoegaze soundtracked video that garnered them some support. They then cut the team, did a bit of a rebrand, and are back for round two. That doesn't sound like the best choice of company to get involved with. Louie is a bigger name with a definite fanbase so maybe he can make it work for them, but the odds aren't really in his favor. How long until they either close up shop and/or decide skateboarding isn't cool?

Congrats to Miles Silvas on winning SOTY. I'm a little late with that, but whatever. The part Miles had was really good and featured that intangible quality to make it stand out from the others. I thought Tony Hawk really should have won to close out his pro career in a sense.

The photo is by Richard Hart.

Transworld - November 2001 Volume 19 Number 11

Enjoy It.

Does anybody remember laughter?

In retrospect, running a skateboard company that didn't use any skateboarding in their ads at a time when everybody else was all about seriously showing off their skills was a solid marketing gambit.

This is nearly everything from 2001 in Transworld that hasn't been on here before or didn't look so hot/age well. I simply wanted to laugh a little and I kept seeing these when I was searching for other stuff.

My scanner was not stoked on the ads and some of the pages were slightly warped so this is not my best scan job ever. I couldn't figure out an easy way to level the yellow so I just made it bright.

Panda: Transworld - February 2001 Volume 19 Number 2

Postcards: Transworld - April 2001 Volume 19 Number 4

Hats: Transworld - May 2001 Volume 19 Number 5

Pigeon: Transworld - July 2001 Volume 19 Number 7

Skateboards: Transworld - September 2001 Volume 19 Number 9

Remember: Transworld - October 2001 Volume 19 Number 10

Natas Kaupas & Jason Dill.

Two 101 Men.

I like how Natas had a late 1990s resurgence of skate coverage. It was good to have him back on board and all the air time at foreign skateparks was surprising to see. He was also helping guys on Element who didn't have a shoe sponsor get some kicks.

I dig that backside kickflip by Dill. You don't see him skate stairs all that often. He was also on Quicksilver, which feels like even more of an eternity ago. Remember when Dill said he was skating in $200 Diesel jeans and that seemed excessive, but very much in character for him?

I hope everybody has a great holiday and weekend.

The photo of Dill in NYC is by Ryan Gee.

Kickflip: Transworld - October 1999 Volume 17 Number 10

Hip ollie: Transworld - April 2000 Volume 18 Number 4

Front crooks: Transworld - March 2000 Volume 18 Number 3

Backside flip: Transworld - October 2000 Volume 18 Number 10

Reese Forbes #10.

Running up a hill.

Reese was wrecking the tailslides in 2000. He took one to the John Cardiel/Jaya Bonderov ledge in SF for the cover of the March 2000 Transworld, too. It is amusing how much Vita was pushing the models for Natas Kaupas and Jason Dill. Reese would end up with a pro model as well.

Clipper: Transworld - January 2000 Volume 18 Number 1

Wallride: Transworld - September 2000 Volume 18 Number 9

Danny Garcia #7.

"He's also good at bowling, and I don't know if that's something to be too proud of. He can bowl right and left handed equally as well for Christ's sake. He's in a bowling league and he isn't kidding when he says he wants to go pro someday." - Tim O'Connor

DGnar hits up a couple of ledges from the odd side. He was riding for City Stars before switching to Habitat in 2000. His feet would end up in Lakais after Vita came to an end. Danny is probably one of the more underrated pros of the 2000s.

For the quote: The Skateboard Mag - July 2006 Issue 28

Backside nosegrind: Transworld - February 2000 Volume 18 Number 2

Noseblunt: Transworld - August 2000 Volume 18 Number 8

Tim O'Connor #6.

"When I first turned pro you didn't have to do crap, but that's probably when I skated more than ever. I skated nonstop like a maniac, but I just wasn't filming. I didn't film ever. At all. It wasn't necessary. It wasn't until I met Brian Wenning and Anthony Pappalardo when they were filming for the Alien Workshop video, and I was still on Element at that time, and every day they went out filming. I was like, 'Holy crap! You guys are crazy!' That was all new to me. That was a new generation coming in at that point where filming just happened all the time. You filmed basically everything you did. I would be trying a trick down LOVE and not even filming it. I was like, 'Okay I guess I gotta film stuff now.' I don't think I ever even fully tried to film a full video, but I think this year that stuff's going to happen. Got to put out the magnum opus before I die in the skateboard world."

Tim speaks about the changing attitudes on filming skateboarding in the late 1990s and early 2000s. I think it is handy to be able to document skateboarding with technology very easily in the modern world. I also think it adds to the unfinishable queue of content we are living with. And that maybe isn't the greatest thing ever.

It's also kind of interesting that Tim never had much in the way of interviews during his pro career. He would write articles and whatnot, but he never sat down for a more formal Q & A session.

For the quote: The Skateboard Mag - September 2006 Issue 66

Hydrant hop: Transworld - December 1999 Volume 17 Number 12

Crooks: Transworld - July 2000 Volume 18 Number 7

Rob Pluhowski #6.

Everybody's favorite East Coast Habitat am tosses up a couple of kickflips for the departed Vita. Vita was a shoe company run by Natas Kaupas at the turn of the century. They had some slick ads and a ripping team.

Switch flip: Transworld - June 2000 Volume 18 Number 6

Regular flip: Transworld - December 2000 Volume 18 Number 12

Jéréme Daclin #2.

Private psychedelic reel.

Jéréme closed out Europa with a straight up banger of a part. It might be clichéd for the owner to give himself the last part in his company's video, but Mr. Daclin put in the effort to earn the closer spot.

I really like the Cliché logo that melds Europe with the letter e.

I went back to the Food Court Skatepark on Wednesday. My friend was able to adjust his work schedule to make it over from Rochester. We had the run of the place since only a couple other people were there so it was really fun.

The photographic sequence is by Olivier Chassignole.

Thrasher - May 2002 Volume 22 Number 5

Vincent Bressol.

Lo-Fi Nu Jazz.

Vincent Bressol opens Cliché's Europa video with a speedy part full of Euro tech lines. He hits up some handrails and bigger stair jumps while wearing an assortment of bulky éS shoes. Vincent is from France and has spent a lot of time in Spain. It's worth noting that Giant was distributing Cliché's video, too.

Eric Antoine snapped the photo sequence.

Thrasher - March 2002 Volume 22 Number 3

Ricardo Fonseca.

Neptune City.

Ricardo opted for the do a trick over the whole spot approach for his section in Europa. There were a lot of big gaps and well executed board flips. He is from Lisbon, Portugal.

In the fine print, there were a couple of rider changes. Wieger Van Wageningen is added to the team and Javier Mendizabal's name disappears. I thought Javier always rode for Cliché so I'm not sure what was going on with that.

The photo is by Benjamin Deberdt.

Thrasher - September 2002 Volume 22 Number 9

Geoffrey Van Hove.

Geoffrey is from Belgium and works as a videographer these days. His part in Europa featured plenty of gap and rail skating, plus a few tricks into steep or crusty banks. It was more Zero style than the famed Euro tech steez.

Léonard Vernhet and Olivier Chassignole took the pictures.

Thrasher - November 2001 Volume 21 Number 11

Pontus Alv #7.

The Old World.

I rewatched the part Pontus had in The Strongest of the Strange recently. His 360 flips are so good. He pops the board super hard and it makes a loud smack when it returns to his feet. It's worth checking out again if you haven't seen it in a while.

When I posted a week of Cliché back in March, I used newer ads from when they were distributed by Dwindle. This round of scans is from their early days when they were gaining traction in the states. I watched their Europa video from 2001 yesterday so the skaters for the week will reflect that.

Pontus would have joined up with Cliché after riding for Arcade at the turn of the century. He still looks young in Europa.

I forgot on Friday that DGK has a new video out called Amen that concludes with a going pro part for Brian Reid. Congrats, Brian.

The photographs are by Jesper Nilsson and Olivier Chassignole.

Thrasher - June 2001 Volume 21 Number 6

Stevie Williams #5.

Nightclub Jitters.

I think Stevie is doing a frontside heelflip. Maybe. I like the Girl Beetle series board he is riding.

Paparazzi Pete Thompson caught Stevie outside the club for the picture.

Transworld - July 2000 Volume 18 Number 8

Kevin Taylor #6.

"Hokus Pokus - the H-Street era was pretty sick. It's all a cycle, man. It all comes around. Hell, Rob Welsh was just rockin' a chain wallet the other day."

Kevin mentions his favorite time in skateboarding and what Welsh was wearing in 2006. KT has been in the game for forever and has a new part in Josh Stewart's Static 6 video that I have yet to watch. The DVD is sitting right by my TV, but I'm lazy.

The photograph is by Ryan Gee.

For the quote: Transworld - February 2006 Volume 24 Number 2

Transworld - June 2000 Volume 18 Number 6

Rob Dyrdek #8.

Pushing into the red.

With his celebrity status outside of skateboarding, you kind of forget how good Rob was on the board. He skated fast with a command of technical tricks paired with a few handrails and gaps. Rob used a song by Mood and Main Flow for his part in Photosynthesis.

Mike Blabac took the photo.

Transworld - May 2000 Volume 18 Number 5

Josh Kalis #13.

Granite Floor.

There was also a hip hop element to Dub, with the inclusion of prominent MCs and DJs in their ads. I think they were trying to create a company which was founded in skateboarding that had the nebulous crossover appeal to people outside of skateboarding. I'm never sure how well that works, but at least the graphic design looked neat. I'm curious where else Dub advertised and if they had slightly different ads in other magazines.

The photo is by Ryan Gee.

Transworld - April 2000 Volume 18 Number 4

Dub Brand Weather Gear.

Ride the fader.

Dub Brand Weather Gear was a clothing company in the late 1990s and early 2000s. It was started at the end of the 90s by Droors Clothing as a streetwear brand with a focus on designs for seasonal weather. Droors and DC parted ways in 1998, hence the Merge Distribution title to cover both Droors and Dub. I don't recall exactly when Dub started. It might have been launched when Droors was still at DC or just after the split. The company was a concrete/powder crossover entity and I think they also sponsored snowboarders. Dub appears to be currently in business making snowboards and the corresponding clothing.

I swear there were some different ads for Dub, but I couldn't find 'em. I also didn't look very hard and went with one pagers out of convenience. John Shananan's gear in his recent video reminded me of the clothing line and I was mildly surprised none of their ads had been added to the internet.

The photo is by Mike Blabac.

Transworld - October 2000 Volume 18 Number 10

Brad Staba #6.

"I would not want to be a full-time skate photographer. I can't imagine driving people around like me around everyday trying to get them to jump down stuff. Having to listen to kids talk about nothing but skating would make me want to slit my wrists. The only time I shoot skate pictures is when a friend asks me or nobody is around but me. I like to at least shoot a few a year."

Brad surprised a few people last year with his photo of Giorgi Balkhamishvili for the cover of the June 2022 issue of Thrasher. If you've been around skateboarding long enough you already knew that Brad is a capable photographer.

For the quote: The Skateboard Mag - February 2006 Issue 23

Transworld - October 1999 Volume 17 Number 10

Jon West #5.

"I like all types of movies, but I love horror movies. I have a huge collection of hard-to-find horror movies, and my girlfriend got me a huge talking Freddy Kruger doll. And I have a Freddie Kruger head; you put your hand in his neck and squeeze this ball, and water shoots out of his mouth."

Jon was a staple of the Foundation team in the late 1990s and early 2000s. He was really into horror movies and often had fake blood spattered ads that earned ire of the overly sensitive folks at Transworld. Of course this ad is rendered in the classic F-Troop fun style with a silly Tod Swank drawing.

For the quote: Thrasher - March 1999 Volume 19 Number 3

Transworld - June 1999 Volume 17 Number 6

Daniel Shimizu #5.

"The guy in high school PE class who, no matter what sport he was playing, got hit in the head because he wasn't paying attention. I guess that's why I skate."

Daniel describes himself in a Thrasher interview back in the year 2000. At the time, he was riding for Foundation, Pig Wheels, Innes, Emerica, Venture, and Furnace Skate Shop. His car was an early 1990s piece of crap Honda Civic. He liked Mallrats and Modest Mouse. Daniel's favorite skaters of the day were Josh Beagle, Jamie Thomas, Heath Kirchart, Brian Anderson, Cairo Foster, and Kenny Reed. He also was into playing guitar.

For the quote and info: Thrasher - June 2000 Volume 20 Number 6

Transworld - May 2000 Volume 18 Number 5

Gary Robinson.

Gary is from Vancouver, British Columbia. He had a part in Nervous Breakdown, the Foundation video from 1999. His section is full of high speed handrail and gap tricks. It's not a F-Troop week without an unknown am.

Transworld - January 2000 Volume 18 Number 1

Justin Strubing #8.

Buckets.

Capt. Strubing skids a frontside bluntslide on one of those plastic jersey barriers. I think he's wearing a pair of the second Marc Johnson model for Emerica. This was probably Justin's second ad on Foundation, after joining the team in May of 2000.

It's yet another week of Foundation just for the adventure of it all. I've got some other stuff scanned and ready, but it would have required more research than I felt like doing this week.

The weather was mostly decent over the holiday weekend. We've been generally mild for November, except for the most ridiculous winds the last week or two. It's rather annoying. The snow appears to have started today.

I decided to put new wheels on my board. I went with some 54s I've been sitting on for too long since I didn't feel like stepping up the set of 56s I have. The 54s felt good the first day, but then were kind of off the second day. My ollies were weird. My board is also creeping up to the end and my shoes might be wearing out, too. Depending on how the snow sticks around, these might be moot points. I think I want to end up using 55s once I clear out my stockpile of wheels.

Transworld - October 2000 Volume 18 Number 10

P.J. Ladd #4.

Pulp Reality.

This was probably P.J.'s first bit of major coverage. Notice that he's riding Tensors in the top ad. I wonder if he sent in any videos for the A-Team's trick contest?

I was a tad surprised not much of P.J.'s Element days were online. It's interesting to note that Element teased the Coliseum video in the third ad, which was also his last ad for them. It makes me think the video was intended to be released using the 411 media empire before he split for Flip. It's also worth noting he had the first two ads of 2002 for Element, which makes me think they had bigger plans for him. I guess we'll never know how that alternate timeline would have turned out.

I think it's probably better P.J. Ladd's Wonderful, Horrible, Life was released as more or less an independent shop video than for his part to be added to a Flip video. The success of the Coliseum video also helped launch the careers of Alexis Sablone, Jereme Rogers, and Ryan Gallant so that's another bonus of it being an indie flick.

With my production minutia musings out of the way, P.J. delivered an amazing debut part. I gave it a fresh viewing the other day. I didn't remember that he jumped down some bigger gaps and handrails. I think of him as more of a technical line skater. I really like his assorted shifty flip tricks.

As an added bonus, here is Pat Canale's review of the video:

Have a good holiday weekend!

Learn: Transworld - November 2000 Volume 18 Number 11

Ollie: Thrasher - January 2002 Volume 22 Number 1

Tailslider: Thrasher - February 2002 Volume 22 Number 2

Review: Big Brother - September 2002 Issue 68

East Coast Car Update.

The stars & their cars.

When you've got 300 pages to fill, you can do fun stuff like this. Transworld gives us the lowdown on what Bam, Kerry, Ryan, and Josh were driving in the year 2000.

The words are by Shad Lambert and the photos are by Ryan Gee.

Transworld - February 2001 Volume 19 Number 2

Jerry Hsu #12.

With Thrasher's recent contest at San Francisco's famed Clipper ledge, I coincidentally stumbled upon this sequence of Mr. Sci-Fi Fantasy stepping to a Louie Barletta style trick. I did not remember the maneuver at all so I did some internet research. It was in Jerry's part in Subject To Change, the Osiris video from 2003.

The photo sequence is by Pete Thompson.

Transworld - June 2002 Volume 20 Number 6

Scott Palmer & Vaughan Baker.

Double Decker Bus.

Scott is from Hull, England, likes rugby, and can do really good 360 flips. That's all I got from a quick interview with Scott in Skateboarder. His part in Waiting for the World features a lot of flip tricks on the streets of London and a bunch of midsize handrail stunts.

Vaughan is from Worcester, England. He previously rode for the bizarrely named Unabomber Skateboards and was getting shoes from Converse. Vaughan is into art and graphic design. This 360 flip was in First Broadcast, the Blueprint video from 2001. He jumped down some stairs, put together some solid tech lines, and even hit up some old skateparks for that video.

The Stone Roses came up on iTunes shuffle while I was editing this batch of scans. It must have been a sign to do a week of Blueprint. I really should have done more research to fill out the posts, but I ran out of motivation.

Scott's photograph is by Sam Ashley. I imagine Sam took a bunch of the photos for the ads this week.

Palmer: Thrasher - October 2001 Volume 21 Number 10

Baker: Thrasher - January 2002 Volume 22 Number 1

Colin Kennedy.

Broadcasting First.

Colin is from Glasgow, Scotland. Panic turned him pro and he later shuffled over to Blueprint. He helped push technical street skateboarding in London by figuring out the potential of the ancient architecture that defines the city. Colin had great switch trick mastery during his time as pro. He had some solid ramp skills, too.

Blueprint had maybe an era appropriate graphic design change from a more classical style to an early 2000s emo flavor. It was a mildly peculiar shift.

I took yesterday afternoon off from work to take another trip to the Food Court Skatepark in the McKinley Mall. Nobody was there, probably because it was a sunny 61˚ F (16˚ C) day in November. It was time well spent and I got a better feel for the place. I cruised around doing my dumb little tricks on the ledges and flat bar. There's something really enjoyable about skateboarding in a mall.

Note: This is not the same Colin Kennedy who filmed Skate More, the DVS video.

Thrasher - September 2002 Volume 22 Number 9

Paul Shier #2.

Icebreaker.

Paul was immortalized on the December 1997 cover of Sidewalk, then Sidewalk Surfer, doing a crooked grind on a block of ice in a photo by Wig Worland.

Thrasher - July 2002 Volume 22 Number 7

Mark Baines #2.

We're not in Pittsburgh.

Mark is from Sheffield, England. He was pro for Blueprint, moved to the US to ride for New Deal, and then returned to the UK to ride for Blueprint again. Mark was also sponsored by éS and Elwood clothing. His favorite skaters include Eric Koston, Daewon Song, Andrew Reynolds, and Guy Mariano. He spent some time living at the infamous Warner House with the Baker crew. That must have been an interesting adventure.

For the info: Thrasher - June 2000 Volume 20 Number 6

Thrasher - August 2001 Volume 21 Number 8

John Rattray #4.

Ride Precision Tech.

Blueprint was started up in 1996 by Dan Magee and Alvin Singfield. It was a second board brand to Panic, which was started in 1995. Panic was initially the more well known name, but Blueprint soon eclipsed them and the companies merged. Blueprint had a solid run up until 2012 when the world ended. They released a number of quality videos over that time span. As a sign that they were doing it right, American companies tried to poach some of their team riders. Fortunately skateboarding had grown to more of a global industry so many of their riders stayed. They even put a couple of blokes from the states on the team, too.

We all know John's story. He was pro for Blueprint, joined the Zero army, and is still out there today fighting the good fight for mental health awareness.

I took a refresher course on British skateboarding last night by skimming through all my issues of Sidewalk. This week might be lean on details. I apologize in advance. Also Sidewalk had a lot of great photos, but they used strange fonts and had the text way too small far too often. Some of that can be chalked up to the new technology for desktop publishing that was being used in the late 1990s.

Odds & Ends

The trucks with the curved hanger were called Navigators. I'll do another feature on obscure trucks from the low 2000s in the future since there were so many of them. I'm burned out on trucks right now.

Toy Machine is celebrating their 30th anniversary as the company debuted in the fall of 1993. Ed Templeton is posting some neat stories about the early days on Facebook. It looks like they are doing some guest boards for former riders, too.

What if SOTY season is chill this year?

Thrasher - May 2001 Volume 21 Number 5

Patrick Melcher #3.

Razor Wire Wallride.

I kept flipping by Patrick's wallride and thought the photo was cool. I only planned to do the monochrome Destroyer ads from Thrasher, but a little more research led to scanning what is probably all the advertising they did. This might have been the last call for Destroyer. Most of the riders were either added to Destructo or found better truck sponsors for 2002.

Thrasher - December 2001 Volume 21 Number 12

Richie Belton & Ben Gilley.

Handrail Destroyers.

Richie was a hot shoe am at the turn of the century. He rode for Hollywood, Pig Wheels, and Adio shoes. Ben was a new pro for Black Label who would later ride for Zero.

Richie: Thrasher - September 2001 Volume 21 Number 9

Ben: Thrasher - November 2001 Volume 21 Number 11