Devine Calloway #2.

Aim high.

Force was a new truck company started in the summer of 2006 by Greg Carroll. Greg is Mike's brother and has a long resume in the industry, having worked at Think, Girl, and Venture. The pro team was Zered Bassett, Devine Calloway, Javier Nunez, Darrell Stanton, and Mikey Taylor. Torey Pudwill and Eli Reed were the ams. It was a little strange seeing Torey and Eli listed as amateurs in an ad, but this was seventeen years ago after all. I don't believe Force was around for too long and I don't think I ever saw a pair in the wild. I mainly remember the big and bright adverts that ran in the Skateboard Mag. I thought the company might have been a precursor to Ace Trucks, although that doesn't appear to be the case.

The Skateboard Mag - September 2006 Issue 30

Ishod Wair #5.

I like his little backside kickflips and heelflips on flat between other tricks that are similar to something from the low 1990s, except done way more stylishly.

Thrasher - March 2018 Volume 39 Number 3

Ben Schroeder #5.

Slumberland.

The burly lip trick master gets caught up in the air for a silly advertisement. This concludes the week of celebrating the 35th anniversary of the Black Label. In doing a little more digging through the archives, I found enough other ads I hadn't posted so there might be another Label batch in the near future.

I've been using a new scanner lately. It's faster, but I'm not sure if I like how it handles the ancient Thrashers. My old scanner, which is still in use as a backup, does a great job with the occasionally sketchy source material.

RIP Thomas Taylor.

Thrasher - September 1990 Volume 10 Number 9

Riky Barnes #7.

Riky drew up some beercans for the 35th anniversary of the Black Label.

I thought I'd scanned this one before, but nope. There was a similar ad with Skip Pronier. I like how John Lucero has kept using variations on the same character for all of Riky's graphics over the decades.

The photo is by Sean Sullivan.

Thrasher - May 1990 Volume 10 Number 5

John Lucero #7.

Thumbs up.

In 1990, John moved Lucero over to Vision for distribution. I don't think I even noticed the switch per se back then, although it was fairly obvious as a small tag of "Distributed by Vision Sports Inc." was added to the advertisements. You tend not to think about industry minutia when you are younger.

When Lucero was backed by Santa Cruz, John and Riky Barnes were the two pros with models. Based on ads, the other riders were Tony Chiala and Mike Lohrman. After the move, the team expanded into the cast of characters that we would know and love at the Black Label. This included Jeff Grosso, Skip Pronier, Shawn Martin, Ben Schroeder, and many more.

I didn't know this until recently, but John also worked in the art department at Vision and created graphics for some of their other companies. He did a board graphic for Kevin Staab at Sims, for example. This totally makes sense that he would also work there and was probably a good way to learn about running a business in skateboarding. Side hustles for 1980s pros were a little more interesting than our modern day gig based economy.

Thrasher - March 1990 Volume 10 Number 3

Shawn Martin #3.

Shawn was a Bay Area ripper who was pro for Black Label. He scored 3rd in the 1992 Back To The City contest in SF behind Tommy Guerrero and Mike Carroll. I think he got burned out on the industry and bounced.

I'm mildly surprised I found enough old scans for this feature. I figured I had posted nearly all the Black Label and Lucero stuff already, but it turned out fine.

I don't mind and even enjoy skateboarding in the cold to an extent. However, it hit 56˚ F on Sunday afternoon and that was really nice.

Thrasher - February 1990 Volume 10 Number 2

John Lucero #6.

Cheers to 35 years.

The Black Label turns 35 this year. John started Lucero with the backing of NHS (Santa Cruz) in 1988 after leaving Schmitt Stix. He took Lucero over to Vision in 1990. John renamed the company Black Label in either late 1990 or early 1991 and it became the independent entity it is today. The rest is history.

RIP O.
The O photo is by Rick Kosick and was in issue 25 of Big Brother, circa 1996 or 97.

Thrasher - May 1989 Volume 9 Number 5

Walker Ryan.

Published Author.

Walker is from the Napa Valley region of California. He moved to San Diego for college at UCSD and has a degree in Sociology. His sponsors included Organika and Circa. Currently he has no board sponsor, but that didn't stop him from filming a great new video part that included a switch 360 backside kickflip down a big set of stairs. He also switch 360 flipped into the famous courthouse bank in New York City in front of the Anti-Hero team. In addition to writing books and kickfliping off of things, Walker has a project called Old Friends Fitness that provides resources for avoiding and recovering from injuries.

It appears somebody is building a new indoor skatepark in a mall in Buffalo.

The photos are by Matt Daughters.

Transworld - July 2008 Volume 26 Number 7

Jason Dill #20.

With 2023 marking the twenty year anniversary of Habitat's Mosaic video, I might as well repeat the oft said endorsement of Dill for putting together tricks in lines and showing the skater pushing in his part. You usually get a better sense of a person the more you see them rolling. Plus, the rolling around between the tricks is sometimes the best part of going skateboarding.

This wallride to feeble was in 2009's Mindfield. That's roughly a three year gap between filming and release.

The photographs are by Anthony Acosta and Greg Hunt.

Thrasher - December 2006 Volume 26 Number 12

Ryan Gallant #2.

Ryan ventures way out into the airspace over a crusty looking hip with a hardflip. I forgot that he rode for the reboot of Plan B. He had been riding for Expedition previously and returned to them after a few years away. It appears he is still doing Visit Skateboards currently with Kelly Hart. It also appears Visit makes skinny 7.8" boards for all the tech heads out there.

It sounds like the reaper's gong has been struck for enjoi.

Thrasher - March 2009 Volume 29 Number 3

Marc Johnson #15.

Convenient Parking.

It's a little Chocolate for Valentine's Day. Check Marc's shaka hand on this 270 to frontside board to fakie. It's pretty sweet. I believe the trick was in his part in Fully Flared, but it was in one of the sections I don't watch often. It's also neat how his son is all grown up and getting some coverage, too.

Thrasher - January 2008 Volume 28 Number 1

Mike "Lizard King" Plumb #3.

"Hanging out at Black, Heath Kirchart was telling me he recently played Lizard King at BATB. 'I won and he was pissed - so pissed he left the building.' Eventually Heath went outside to check on him. 'What's up? Are you seriously that bummed?' Lizard responded something like, I don't know. I didn't think you could beat me! I guess they hugged it out or whatever. We're cracking up and Heath adds, 'I don't know why he thought he could beat me. I studied his video parts - he can only do like four or five flip tricks!'" - Jon Miner

Of course Heath would study video parts for a game of SKATE. Sorry to bust on you, Lizard, but I thought we could use a little bit of levity for the day.

Yoon Sul took the photo.

For the quote: Thrasher - December 2022 Volume 43 Number 12

Thrasher - November 2008 Volume 28 Number 11

Rodney Mullen #8.

Ledge Freestyle.

What's going to happen to Rodney with all the restructuring at Dwindle? How crappy of a CEO would you be if you fired Rodney Mullen from a skateboard company? I'm assuming he's basically set for life with money by virtue of being in on the ground floor at World Industries so that's not a problem. I'm talking more about the team management and product development side of things. From the stories you hear about Rodney over the years is that he looks after the skaters on the team and is genuinely concerned about their well being. For example, he kept in contact with guys like Daewon Song and Kareem Campbell when they momentarily drifted away skating and brought them back into the fold. I know there are plenty of more stories like that. At this point it looks like we have to sit back and see what happens next with the developing saga at Dwindle.

Shout out to Sean Villars for doing Skateboardle. I am not a gamer at all, but I got into doing the daily video challenge. He's wrapping up the site on February 16th due to time constraints. My all time best was guessing Timecode without even playing the first clip, although that one was pretty dang easy.

The photo sequence is by Seu Trinh.

Transworld - November 2005 Volume 23 Number 11

Jack Fardell, Toby Ryan & Alex Perelson.

Madness was the vert inspired company started by Bill Weiss in 2018. Bill was fired by the new owners of Dwindle to start 2023. In response, the team all quit after his firing. Bill was also the long time brand manager for Blind. I've seen Madness boards in the wild so they must have been doing something right.

I imagine most of the brands that Dwindle distributes will be kept around without pros or they'll find a new team that they don't have to pay as much. The riders will be paid in that dreaded empty concept called exposure. They will probably take the logo board approach since it means less paychecks to write in the end.

Does the average skater even care about stuff like this? You simply want a quality board to ride at a reasonable price and aren't overly concerned with who the name on it is. This approach has valid points, but it also ignores a large part of the history of skateboarding. With the current high value society places on nostalgia of all manor, it seems like history should be more important than it is.

The picture is by Ben Karpinski.

Thrasher - January 2019 Volume 40 Number 1

Yuto Horigome #2.

The second subtle sign that something was amiss was the advertising in Thrasher. Dwindle has had the inside back cover for decades. The last ad they ran was for the Monarch Project in the January 2023 issue. That seemed odd to me because Monarch always ran two pagers and never on the inside back cover. The ad layout was condensed down and didn't look great either. I also never knew until this point that Monarch was handled through Dwindle. The inside back cover has gone to Bronson and Powell Swiss for the last two issues of Thrasher. This is one of the ripple impacts of a major change to a big brand in that magazines and websites will lose advertising revenue and they might have to make cuts, too.

Thrasher - September 2017 Volume 38 Number 9

Louie Barletta #11.

The first sign that something was amiss at Dwindle was the announcement in November of 2022 that Thaynan Costa, Didrik "Deedz" Galasso, and Zack Wallin had all parted ways with enjoi. This was rather strange and surprising at the time. Clearly all three had an inkling that the future wasn't looking very promising.

I wonder what will happen if Dwindle entirely goes under? Maybe their brands aren't the most popular stuff of the present day, but they are still a big part of the industry. Louie is older and has talked about his work ethic over the years so he'll be fine. I worry about some of guys who are only skaters or have been pro so long without much other experience.

Does Dwindle manufacture boards for other companies? Could there be ripples felt across all of skateboarding if they restructure their operation? For example, where does Palace get their decks made?

The photo and ad concept are by Chris Bywater.

Thrasher - July 2018 Volume 39 Number 7

World Industries - Skateboarding Is Dead.

The current developing story in skateboarding is about all the changes that have been happening at Dwindle Distribution. The investment company that owns Dwindle has been making major cuts to staff and riders have been quitting. Dwindle is the home of Almost, Blind, Darkstar, enjoi, Madness, Monarch Project, and several other brands. I'm presenting what information is generally known.

Everybody probably knows the backstory of Dwindle, but here is a very brief recap. Steve Rocco started World Industries in 1987. Rodney Mullen left Powell Peralta in 1989 to join the fledgling company. They expanded in 1990 when Mark Gonzales quit Vision to start Blind. Natas Kaupas departed SMA to launch 101 in 1991. Plan B was started in 1991 when Mike Ternasky split from H-Street to form a new company with a super team. Mike Smith's Liberty happened in there, too. Anyway, skateboarding was a Rocco dominated industry for much of the 1990s with hot brands like Menace, Duffs, and the A-Team. Rocco packaged all his remaining companies under the name Dwindle Distribution in 1998 after setting World Industries free to be its own entity. As the calendar moved into the 2000s, new companies like Darkstar, enjoi, Almost, and Tensor were added to the fold. Some of the projects fizzled out and others kept chugging along. Such is skateboarding.

Australian footwear maker Globe bought Dwindle in 2002. They sold it to the Highline Industries Corporation in the summer of 2019. Highline is partners with Bravo Sports, who own Sector 9 and Pro-Tec. I assume Bravo is the overall current owner of everything. They are a portfolio company of the Transom Capital Group. Bravo is a sporting goods company based in Santa Fe Springs, California. They started as a wheel manufacturer in 1965 and branched out into producing skateboards, scooters, and roller skates.

I imagine this will end up being a major story as the year goes on and details become known. I doubt this will go well for a lot of skaters and industry workers. I do hope skateboarding journalism does a solid job reporting on the events as they unfold.

Transworld - August 1990 Volume 8 Number 8

Massimo Cavedoni.

Massimo is from Irvine, California. Real, Thunder, Spitfire, and Vans were his sponsors. He shared a part with Robbie Brockel in Real's Since Day One video from 2011. His skating was a lot of smooth Cali ledge tech. Massimo is still listed on the team page for Real.

Liberty switched up their ad style in later half of 2007. The photos and designs were not always coming in as hot.

The winter has been on the mild side around here lately so I've gotten skateboarding in a bunch over the last month. Also I've only skated outside - no indoor parks, although I've been meaning to get over to Jamestown Skateboard Products again. There have been no cheap sessions either. A couple short ones, but nothing cheap. I set up a new board on January 2nd and it's kind of wearing out fast. I think the most impressive trick I've done since November is not getting mud on the grip of either board I've ridden during that time. I dug through my stack of old decks and the board I was riding last winter was covered in mud. It was gross.

I really have to figure out some new scans for here. I have a week of Venture in reserve, but I'm drawing a blank on ideas and haven't found anything inspiring. I wanted to track down some random little articles from Big Brother that I'm not sure even exist so that became a wild goose chase I gave up on.

• Did Dave Carnie write something about heavy metal and hockey that included a reference to Buffalo Sabres winger Miroslav Satan? I thought there was even a picture of Satan in the mag.

• Did Big Brother ever find a list from Transworld about how TWS wanted to present skateboarding - sunny days, green grass, big handrails, etc. - and make their own rebuttal list? Am I imagining that?

I'm going to dig around and see if I can piece together some ideas this weekend. Feel free to leave any suggestions in the comments. Easy, one page scans preferred. Thanks.

Slap - October 2007 Volume 16 Number 10

James Craig #2.

James is from Fullerton, California and was pro for Blind. He runs SML Wheels these days. His skating had some serious elevation on a whole lot of tech tricks. James was getting up on high flat bars for backside Smith grinds and tailslides. His flip tricks got way off the ground, too.

Village Psychic has a great interview with Scott Johnston about shoe design. Thanks for the links.

Skateboarder - May 2007 Volume 16 Number 9

Tim O'Connor #5.

I really like Tim's little powerslide before the wallie over the jersey barrier in his opening line for Mosaic. He starts it off with what I believe is a fakie varial flip on the Brooklyn Banks, does a shove-it, the powerslide, and then the wallie. It's too bad ankle injuries took him out of the game. He had some of the best backside ollies on banks and mini ramps.

Skateboarder - April 2007 Volume 16 Number 8