Nick Boserio #3.

Unusual wheel enthusiast.

I think Nick uses a version of the OJ Super Juice cruiser wheels. Or else he found some ancient wheels from the 1970s in an Australian warehouse that he's been riding. I'm kind of hoping it's the ancient wheels.

Gilbert's switch ollie from last week was in the first couple minutes of Alright, OK, the Vans video from 2020.

The photos again are by Joel Peck.

Thrasher - December 2019 Volume 40 Number 12

Hjalte Halberg #2.

Dancer.

Based on an all too brief Transworld article from 2015, it was implied that Hjalte at one point worked as a teacher and had spent some time sailing around the world. I wish they had elaborated on both of those points instead of simply running a bunch of photos with captions. It probably would have made for a more interesting article than the standard fair. In addition to being pro for Polar and Nike, Hjalte has started up a clothing company called Dancer.

The photos are by Joel Peck.

Thrasher - October 2019 Volume 40 Number 10

Ryan Townley #3.

Spooky mystical wizardry.

Ryan is into making collages and once boardslid a 20 stair handrail in Australia to make sure he still had the skills after moving on from the giant railing game.

The photo is by Cameron Strand.

Thrasher - December 2019 Volume 40 Number 12

Scott Johnston #7.

Street signage.

The tail end of Scott's pro career saw him hitting up the handrails and flatbars. Nothing that would make the cut for Zero, but he was up on them banisters. It's a good note to end on before becoming a full time shoe designer.

Anybody else remember a sequence of Brian Howard doing a noseslide down the escalator curb to the side of the nine stair rail at the Brooklyn Banks? It would have run before the summer of 1999. I don't think I'm making this up because it stuck with my memory since it was a vert guy hitting the streets. I thought it was a Planet Earth ad from 1994 or 1995, but I found nothing in a quick search last night.

Thrasher - October 2006 Volume 26 Number 10

Anthony Pappalardo #12.

Floating through the abyss.

I might as well wrap up the meandering twenty year anniversary look at Habitat's Mosaic. Although it was a Habitat video, there was an Alien Workshop section, with the two standout parts belonging to Jason Dill and Pappalardo. Pops has a good mix of tech and gnar in assorted Eastern and Midwestern spots. The vintage Dinosaur Jr. song fits the skating rather well. It's Mark Suciu's favorite part, too.

Thrasher - November 2006 Volume 26 Number 11

Gilbert Crockett #8.

Cloud nothings.

Thrasher - January 2020 Volume 41 Number 1

Tanner Van Vark #2.

Minnesota trip out.

Tanner spins the most awkward way possible into a backside Smith grind with a frontside half cab. For as cool as it is to look back on the old stuff, it's also important to keep up with the new for a sense of perspective on how skateboarding grows and occasionally regresses.

Speaking of new stuff and Minnesota, Dan Rusin has a new video out called Great Northern. I guess some of it is online already, but I'm waiting until the DVD gets to my mailbox before I watch. It should be here in a day or two.

What was most interesting about the latest issue of Thrasher was what wasn't in it. There were no ads from NHS. Santa Cruz, Creature, Mob, Ricta, OJ, and Krux were all absent from the pages. There was an Indy ad in its usual spot. I'm curious if this was a one time production error type of thing or something more serious.

Another surprise was a two page ad for that newish shoe company that everybody makes fun of. Will Thrasher have to stop ripping on them now? I can't imagine they are selling many shoes and the parent investors are writing off the skate program with fingers crossed that it will eventually turn a profit or at the least break even. Do their shoes even sell in the real world?

Thrasher - September 2019 Volume 40 Number 9

The Blockheads #4.

I started this project in 2008 to spotlight some of the more obscure skateboarders and skateboarding ephemera from over the years. Of course, I cover a lot of the more well known folks, too, but the primary focus is/was the arty fringes of skateboarding. In the time since, I've posted nearly everything that inspired me to start Vert Is Dead so it has kept on going as an archive of what catches my fancy at a given moment or is relevant in a historical context. New stuff always pops up and older things that were lost in the ever present content deluge deserve a second look as well. There is nearly always something to be stoked upon with skateboarding, even if maybe the current trends one day or the other aren't to your liking. Just keep on rolling.

As I've typed many a time before, Blockhead is my favorite from the 1980s/low 1990s so it only seems fitting to have their classic pro team for the 15th anniversary post. The skaters, the art, and the video creativity helped define what a skateboard company can and should be.

Thanks for all the support.

The photographs are by Grant Brittain and Hunter Kimball.

Transworld - February 1989 Volume 7 Number 1

Jessie Van Roechoudt #5.

Rookie was started by Catharine Lyons and Elska von Hatzfeldt as a clothing company in New York City. They launched the project in 1996 and were contemporaries of Supreme, Zoo York, 5Boro, and Brooklyn Boards. Rookie became a board company that sponsored both men and women, which was very much ahead of the curve for the late 1990s and early 2000s. As I've said before, their graphics and designs were the right mix of skateboarding, art, and NYC to create something unique and memorable.

Jessie rips and probably doesn't get enough historical props for what she accomplished.

The photo is by Joe Brook.

Slap - April 2000 Volume 9 Number 4

Una Farrar.

Unstoppable.

Una is from Victoria, British Columbia in Canada. She's gone from delivering pizzas on a bike for Domino's and working in a flower shop to being pro for Krooked. Una also rides for Dime and Vans.

The photo is by Matt MacLeod.

Thrasher - August 2018 Volume 39 Number 8

Marisa Dal Santo #2.

It's awesome how much of an influence Marisa has turned out to be on the younger generations of skateboarders. Upon further recent review, she got more coverage than I remembered. However, Marisa should've had a Zero ad. The world would have been fine if they took a month off from running pictures of boys jumping down handrails.

As an added bonus, here's Marisa's Who's Hot from Skateboarder:

Notes: I had to piece the Who's Hot together from multiple scans of the same page due to a wrinkled copy of the magazine. That's why it looks slightly funky in spots. As is often the case with skateboarding journalism, Marisa's name repeatedly fell victim to spelling errors.

The photos are by Jonathan Mehring, Joey Shigeo, and Jehonathan "J-Hon" Poellnitz.

Backside kickflip: Skateboarder - May 2010 Volume 19 Number 9

Who's Hot: Skateboarder - September 2009 Volume 19 Number 1

Dan Drehobl #30.

This silly trick inspired a lot of people. It was even cited as an influence in Think and Thank, the Threads video from 2021. I've gradually been rewatching Think and Thank, as it is one of those flicks that requires some slow effort to fully understand. They give a tip of the hat to a lot of lesser known skaters or tricks in a historical context and that's pretty cool.

For more internet skateboard nostalgia, check out Skate Media Nerd. It's a Minnesota based project that is scanning some different stuff from the 2000s. There's a focus on Skateboarder and the Skateboard Mag, which is good because both of those are starting to get lost to the sands of time.

Slap - December 1996 Volume 5 Number 12

Jordan Powell.

I like this guy's style. I think he was on Krooked and is now on Alien Workshop based on a recent video.

Thrasher - December 2022 Volume 43 Number 12

Collin Provost #9.

Jumping Spider.

I watched Emerica's Green yesterday. Collin's got quite the command of ollies and tricks in ditches and other crusty spots.

I recently picked up an issue of Closer, the new magazine by Jaime Owens. Jaime formerly worked at Transworld and Skateboarder before starting this project. Closer draws inspiration from both departed magazines. He recognized what worked well and used that as the starting point for something new. The graphic design is a contemporary adaptation of late 80s/very early 90s Transworlds with a bit of a nod to what they did in the 2000s.

Closer is 100 pages and perfect bound. The size is 8.25" by 10.875". It's printed on heavier stock that looks and feels great. There are ads, but it isn't dominated by advertising. Real, Converse, Black Label, Strangelove, New Balance, Adidas, Toy Machine, Anti-Hero, and a few more paid to get in on the action. Some companies used their regular ads and others came up with something different than what they run in Thrasher.

I decided to buy Issue 3 from the Winter of 2022. It has Louie Lopez switch backside kickflipping a trash can in a unique photo by Matt Price for the cover. There's an interview with Nelly Morville that led me to pick this one as the test copy. For content, Closer features a healthy mix of current skateboarding and historical anecdotes. The photos look amazing and many of the compositions mirror 80s/90s photos that are cropped tightly with the skater filling the frame. It's flat out nice to see some different takes on skate pictures. The photos are also a mix of new and old, with some unseen gems from the past. Eric Swisher of Chrome Ball Incident fame is doing interviews and if you think his interviews are awesome online, you should read them in print. He has another great conversation with Josh Kalis in this issue. The mag also features the standard photo section and a couple lists/one page interviews that were common in Transworld and Skateboarder.

I know people are kind of skeptical about Closer because the price of an issue is $20.00 plus shipping. The shipping cost added a bit more, too. For comparison purposes, an issue of ArtForum is $16.99 and a subscription to Art in America is $99.95 for a year, which might be down to under eight issues. Thrasher is holding at $5.99 per copy. I think an issue is worth the cost, but I'm also maybe not going to grab every copy if I've got other things to pay for in a given month. And for me personally, I have piles and piles of magazines, 'zines, and books that sit around not being read so adding to the stacks is becoming less appealing each day. At the same time, if I see something that looks cool, I'll grab it.

Thrasher - February 2020 Volume 41 Number 2

Jon Dickson #5.

Green kickflip.

After a photo of him smoking and another riding a BMX bike, I might as well have a post where Jon is skateboarding. He's really good it at.

Anybody got a copy of this they'd be willing to part with?

Thrasher - September 2019 Volume 40 Number 9

Erick Winkowski #3.

Good mood.

I guess the rumor is Erick only uses about two boards a year and utterly rides them into the ground. I feel like Neil Blender would like this photo, mainly for the older Volvo.

RIP Tim Brauch 4/26/1974 - 5/9/1999.

Thrasher - April 2019 Volume 40 Number 4

Andrew Reynolds #17.

The simpler days.

This was the farewell ad Emerica ran when Andrew left the team at the end of 2018. He would go on to ride for Vans before joining New Balance in 2022.

It's a little hard to tell, but that's a Birdhouse deck with a Baker sticker over the graphic.

Thrasher - December 2018 Volume 39 Number 12

Taylor Kirby.

Taylor floats a massive kickflip on the way to get some tacos. I think he flies a little under the radar because his part in the Deathwish's Uncrossed video from the end of 2020 is really good. There are unique spot selections, no weird tricks, and a lot of massive pop. He seems like a humble guy from the couple interviews I've read, too.

Thrasher - September 2020 Volume 41 Number 9

Jon Dickson & Pedro Delfino.

Superheroes of BMX.

Thrasher - April 2020 Volume 41 Number 4

Jon Dickson #4.

I know it's better than TV and there's a whole lot to see when you're hangin' downtown.

Thrasher - November 2019 Volume 40 Number 11

Pedro Delfino.

When I was at grad school in Arkansas, there was this dude, or maybe even multiple dudes, who would play bagpipes outside at random locations around Fayetteville. In theory, this is awesome. Now I don't know if you've ever heard bagpipes live before, but they are loud. Really loud. Maybe not Lightning Bolt loud, but right up there in volume. The sound carries a very long distance, too. Anyway, one evening the guy was out happily tooting away at a school near a plaza we were skateboarding at. For whatever reason, the sound got in my head and made it hard to focus on skating. I wound up sitting in the car until everybody was ready to go elsewhere because it just wasn't working for me.

Thrasher - December 2020 Volume 41 Number 12

Brian O'Dwyer.

Shovel the sidewalks.

I'm not a fan of the snow, but I enjoy skateboard photos or clips with the white stuff on the ground. It shows who is down for the cause and who is a fair weather fan. There's some peculiar quality to skateboarding in the cold and snow that gives it a special feeling.

Deathwish has subtly turned into the champs of running arty slice of life photos.

Thrasher - December 2022 Volume 43 Number 12