Pat Burke.

Pat is from Virginia Beach, Virginia. He was getting boards from Zero and it was decided he was a better fit at $lave. He was also getting shoes from DC. His part in Radio-Television had a youthful exuberance to it that earned him a lot of fans in the younger generation. Some of his favorites circa 2006 included Geoff Rowley, Jon Allie, Jamie Thomas, and Black Sabbath. Pat had a few struggles out in California before moving back to Virginia and getting his life in order. He's still skating and riding for $lave, which is still going as a company as far as I can tell. Pat popped up in the recent Red Bull video about the Richmond scene.

There's a new interview with Dave Carnie over at Jenkem that's worth a read.

The photos are by Jehonathan "J-Hon" Poellnitz.

Ollie: Thrasher - May 2008 Volume 28 Number 5

Tailslide: Thrasher - November 2008 Volume 28 Number 11

Matt Mumford #5.

"Wow, there's Rodney doing his math and here's me hungover listening to Metallica."

Matt details what it is like touring with the great Rodney Mullen. He said Rodney is easy to get along with and can relate to anyone.

I bought an issue of Closer, the somewhat newish skate mag, by Jaime Owens. Can't wait to scan that bad boy for the net. Just kidding. I am going to write a review of it in the very near future since I'm sure people are wondering what it is like.

Dave Chami was the photographer.

For the quote: Transworld - May 2009 Volume 27 Number 5

Thrasher - December 2008 Volume 28 Number 12

Anthony Schultz.

Pavement Artist.

Anthony has Minnesota roots and grew up in Carlsbad, California. He used to ride for the Black Label, Innes, and Adio. As a little kid, he did some stunt double skateboarding in a Coco Puffs commercial filmed at 3rd Lair and wound up getting ten grand out of the experience since the ad kept on running. He's also into bowling and tennis.

Ian Patrick O'Connor was the photographer.

For the info: Transworld - February 2009 Volume 27 Number 2

Thrasher - October 2008 Volume 28 Number 10

Jon Allie #2.

"I liked Ben Horton's art a lot. And when your board's got a sick graphic, you're stoked to skate. Like when you're a little kid and you've got a sick graphic, it feels good to get a trick on it. It was fun to start something new, too, with a really tight team."

Jon explains the reasons he made the ever popular in-house sponsor swap of switching from Zero to $lave. This crooked grind was in his part in Radio-Television. Jon expanded his trick palette for the video and included actual lines to go with the handrail hammers. He also busted out a few different and unique rail tricks to go with some breakneck automobile driving.

I got the new Thrasher. I have no clue who Martino Cattaneo is, but he shouts out to Oli Buergin twice in his Five Greats article so that's cool.

Congrats to Una Farrar on going pro.

The photograph is by Joey Shigeo.

For the quote: Thrasher - July 2010 Volume 30 Number 7

Thrasher - March 2008 Volume 28 Number 3

Conhuir Lynn.

Soulfull pipe skating.

$lave was started in 2007 by artist Ben Horton with backing from Jamie Thomas, who had quite the skateboard empire going at the time. A couple of the team riders shuffled over from Zero and Mystery. They also found a few fresh new faces. Their big video was Radio-Television from 2009, which I've never seen. I believe it had a big impact on the younger generation of skaters that year, but I missed it in the shuffle. It happens. As I've said before, I'm a fan of Ben's art and dig the $lave ads. I don't think the company is still going today, but I might be wrong about that.

Conhuir is from Belfast, Ireland. He rode for Blueprint and $lave. His footwear sponsors included Etnies, DC, and Vox. He's into cooking, guitar playing, and cycling. Conhuir had a pretty solid frontside flip and some all around street skills.

The photo is probably by Stuart Robinson.

Thrasher - January 2008 Volume 28 Number 1

Jackson Taylor #3.

Plywood.

Jackson floats a frontside ollie on a sketchy bank. He's from Newport, North Carolina and rode for Consolidated.

Slap - December 1999 Volume 9 Number 12

Frank Gerwer #8.

"Tommy Guerrero called me one day and asked if I wanted to ride for Forties. Hell yeah. He then told me I’d even get a paycheck, but that I could only spend it on beer. And I sure did! Thanks, Tommy."

In addition to free clothes, Frank got beer money from Forties.

For the quote: Thrasher - August 2020 Volume 41 Number 8

Slap - November 1999 Volume 8 Number 11

Mark Gonzales #28.

"I called it Blind. Steve Rocco wanted to call it Square One, The Beginning. I liked Blind not because it was the opposite of Vision, but because of the Talking Heads song. It goes 'Blind, blind, blind, blind, blind, blind.' I really liked that song, it stuck in my head. I wrote it out a few times and I liked the letters with the B and D at the end."

A blurry blind man does a boneless.

Forties only ran four ads in this style so I needed something else to fill out the week.

I checked out the new park in Springville, New York this past Sunday. It was finished in the summer of 2022. I'm not really sure what I think of it. The park is on the small side, as in it isn't very wide. There's also a couple quarters, banks, and a tiny pump track that didn't make the photo. Everything was also oddly sloped downhill, which I assume might have to do with drainage. I don't mean it was downhill as in you'd pick up speed without pushing, it was tilted. The approach to the small curb/ledge in the picture was taking you away from it as you got closer. The run up to the ledge in the back on the right was also angled so it was very slightly sloping down. It's like the idea of building a regular ledge on a flat surface is now an engineering impossibility. Anyway, enough of my snarky review. In general it was nice. Once you skated it a few times to get the hang of the particularities, it would be fun as long as it wasn't overly crowded.

For the quote: Transworld - January 2012 Volume 30 Number 1

Slap - October 1999 Volume 8 Number 10

John Cardiel #18.

"In my eyes, my friend Jake Phelps. The dude has been non-stop skating for quite some time. I, myself, have done a lot of miles with the guy, and just when you've seen it all, I'm sitting in a sandwich shop in Cambridge, MA, with some friends and the old man who owned the shop saw our skateboards. He started talking about old times and told us of an old skater back in the day that really impressed him over at the pool across the street from the shop, and how the guy had glasses and his name was Jake. Little did he know Jake was sitting right there, some 20-odd years later."

Cards runs on about Jake.

For the quote: Thrasher - April 2006 Volume 26 Number 4

Slap - October 1999 Volume 8 Number 10

Karma Tsocheff #10.

"Yeah, a lot of times Alan Petersen and I would kinda take the reins. We'd make sure we got there. I did the guys' laundry - I did everybody's laundry a few times. You guys go; just give me all the laundry. I'm willing to do that because I love these dudes and if I gotta play dad I'll play dad. Alan and I had contracts with Vans and we had a little bit of money coming in, so a lot of those Consolidated tours, we would foot the bill. We'd use our own money just to keep it going."

Tule Fog.

Karma reminisces about touring with Consolidated in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

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

Slap - September 1999 Volume 8 Number 9

Corey Duffel #6.

"I actually have a dollar from Drake Jones from when I was twelve. Drake bet me a dollar that I couldn't kickflip the stairs at Hubba Hideout first try. It was on my twelfth birthday and I still have the dollar bill to this day."

Corey talks about the perks of growing up skateboarding in California. Once he was supposed to give his sponsor me tape to Karl Watson, but missed Karl at the time they were going to meet and wound up running into Greg Carroll instead. Greg would go on to give him Think boards and Venture trucks. Also Corey shares my opinion on Jake Johnson's part in Mindfield, that it is great skating paired with a lackluster song. He would have been on Ruckus Trucks before switching back to Venture for this ad. I believe he is still on Venture to this day.

I put new wheels on my board. They are nice and noseslides slide way better now. I'm still not sold on my new board. It being a hair too short in the tail makes ollies awkward and throws things off. Nollies and pop shove-its are fine. It's amazing how one minor difference can basically sour a good time.

For the quote and info: Transworld - September 2009 Volume 27 Number 9

Slap - November 2007 Volume 16 Number 11

Stevie Williams #4.

Flatground on a chess board.

Are skateboards getting smaller again? I've been noticing a lot of shorter lengths lately and I'm not sure I like it.

Slap - December 2007 Volume 16 Number 12

Kelly Hart.

You skate your board backwards?

Yeah, dude. I've been doing that my entire life. I don't know what it is; my neighbor told me that that was the way you were supposed to do it. Then, when I was a kid, I would see old school boards with the big tail, and not really any nose, so I just thought of that. It made sense. It feels really comfortable for me like that, the other way just feels freakin' weird. I usually just pop my board off of what you would call the nose. I usually pop every trick off that side, so the other side gets pretty much no action at all. Kids are stoked when I give them my old boards; they pretty much get a brand new board.

Mike Munzenrider gets Kelly to talk about his unique board preference for an interview with the Skateboard Mag. Supposedly Kelly had to drop in on vert as the final step before turning pro. Chany Jeanguenin set some serious house rules at Expedition.

For the quote and info: The Skateboard Mag - February 2009 Issue 59

Slap - March 2008 Volume 17 Number 3

Forrest Kirby.

Test Press.

Forrest is from San Antonio, Texas and lives in Miami, Florida. He was pro for Planet Earth and Zoo York. Planet Earth released the ultimate homie video with F.O.R.E and Friends in 2001. Forrest had a great part of technical street skating to open Josh Stewart's Static from 2000. He formally came out as gay in 2018. His other sponsors included Alphanumeric, Gold Wheels, and Adio. Fly by night footwear brand Fuze crafted a pro model shoe for him in 2002.

Slap - February 2008 Volume 17 Number 2

Joe Tookmanian.

The color unity in this ad is amazing with the gold and green truck paired with a yellow and green photo.

Joe is from Paterson, New Jersey. He was pro for 5Boro. He might still even ride for them or he could be doing construction. Maybe even both. I dunno.

I set up a new board. The shape might be a hair shorter than the advertised 32" length, but I think it is safely in the range where I can get used to the difference. It seemed good enough yesterday.

Slap - January 2008 Volume 17 Number 1

Palace.

Making it a great Friday with the Palace crew.

None of these were really online so here ya go.

I'm almost positive I'm not hip enough for Palace, but I do enjoy all the trash talk they do in their ads. Sometimes it gets a tad too juvenile, but the British humor and obscure skateboard references often shine through. I also generally dig their graphics, especially the older boards. Sadly, I messed up this batch of scans by leaving out Jamal Smith - Ithaca, New York's finest. Next time. Cheers.

Alex Pires took the photos of Shawn and Lucas. He might have taken more of the pics, too.

Heitor, Blondey, Kyle: Thrasher - January 2019 Volume 40 Number 1

Danny and Lucien: Thrasher - April 2019 Volume 40 Number 4

Lucien, Rory, Heitor: Thrasher - July 2019 Volume 40 Number 7

Lucas and Shawn: Thrasher - October 2019 Volume 40 Number 10

Austyn Gillette & Dylan Rieder.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

They even swapped the names like in the Blind ad. Dylan was on Gravis and Austyn was on Habitat Footwear before they joined Keith Hufnagel's shoe squad. Both would have left their board sponsors around this time, too. Dylan split from the Alien Workshop for FA and Austyn departed Habitat for 3D in the middle of 2013.

Thrasher - October 2013 Volume 34 Number 10

Mark Gonzales & Jason Lee.

Dedicated.

Mark had been on Vision before partnering with Steve Rocco to launch Blind in 1990. Jason was an amateur on World Industries and was bumped up to pro status for the new company. Everybody knows all of this already and this ad has been all over the internet a million times over. I was mildly surprised I had not posted it on here ever because it is a true classic.

Thrasher - January 1990 Volume 10 Number 1

Geth Noble.

Who knew a Zombu ad would have some early switch stance skateboarding in it?

Transworld - December 1990 Volume 8 Number 12

Robbie McKinley #3.

Bob McCrooks.

Sadly, Robbie passed away recently. He rode for Society, Blind, Girl, and DC Shoes during his time as a sponsored skateboarder. His parts in Girl's Yeah Right! and Tim Dowling's Listen are classics of technical street skating.

Mike Blabac took the photo for the DC ad.

DC: Transworld - February 2000 Volume 18 Number 2

Venture: Thrasher - June 2000 Volume 20 Number 6