Will Harmon #2.

The shoes of Walt "Clyde" Frazier.

Will does a nollie backside tailslide while wearing one of Puma's more classic shoe designs. He is the editor of the very fine Free Skate Mag these days.

Vert Is Dead will be back on Monday, August 7. I need a break from this thing.

Famous director and photographer Cheryl Dunn documented the skateboard riding.

Slap - September 1996 Volume 5 Number 9

Richard Paez #3.

Jesse's younger brother throws down some ledge tech. Richard had some switch skills, as he did an opposite footed pole jam for a Spitfire ad in June of 1998, too.

Lance Dalgart took the picture.

Slap - June 1996 Volume 5 Number 6

Jimmy Chung.

Jimmy is Chinese and was born in Vietnam. His family moved to the states a long ago from now. He lived in Philadelphia and was sponsored by American Dream Inc., Fairman's skateboard shop, Wheelie Co., and Venture. Jimmy liked skating all the East Coast cities.

The photo is by Ryan Gee.

For the info: Slap - January 1996 Volume 5 Number 1

Slap - May 1996 Volume 5 Number 5

Robbie Gangemi #3.

Robbie uses his catlike reflexes to pounce into a backside tailslide on a handrail. Puma had a small team, but they mixed it up with guys from California, the Northeast, and the South. That's probably a good strategy to spread the riders around to different parts of the country.

I've been in a weird slump for skateboarding the last month. I'm not skating bad, it's simply not clicking on every cylinder. I think I'm still getting used to riding 55 mm wheels again, which is taking more time than I expected. Taller wheels are also wider wheels and that will mildly alter things. My trucks are getting worn out as well and that probably has something to do with it, but I want to ride this pair down until I hit axle. It's nice to have the extra speed for the few times I go to the skatepark, but ollies are still popping strangely at times and grinds don't lock in correctly.

Dimitri Elyashkevich was the photographer.

Slap - March 1996 Volume 5 Number 3

Kien Lieu #7.

With ASICS recently launching a skateboard footwear line, I thought I'd look at a slice of Puma's effort from the 1990s. Even with how popular their shoes were for skateboarders in the low 1990s, the official skate program never really connected. The ads didn't have the best design so that probably didn't help the cause any. The shoes looked very much like the 1990s, by being well padded cupsoles.

We often make a simplified generalization that all a company has to do is make basic skate versions of a couple of their iconic shoes and it will work out fine, but it never does. Maybe that's a harder task than it sounds. I also imagine there are too many cooks in the kitchen at the large shoe companies so the undertakings are doomed from the get-go.

I watched some of the X-Games this weekend and it was fine.

The photo is by Ed Dominick.

Slap - February 1996 Volume 5 Number 2

Gershon Mosley & Dave Mayhew.

Game over.

This is the wrap up of the A-Team trick contest. Both Gershon and Dave's tricks went unmatched and nobody got the money.

GMOS was inspired by Yoshi Obayashi, a unique ripper who rode for Milk and Z.

Even though Marc Johnson's trick was labeled a frontside nosegrind to nollie 180 flip, the trick he is doing is actually a switch nosegrind to half cab kickflip out. Marc is regular foot. I had never noticed that before, although I did think the second and third frames looked odd for some reason. I wonder if the minor deception was intentional to make the contest seem more possible?

Dave's photos are by Steve Celentani. Wez Lundry took the picture of Yoshi.

Gershon: Transworld - December 1998 Volume 16 Number 12

Dave: Transworld - February 1999 Volume 17 Number 2

2K: Transworld - January 2000 Volume 18 Number 1

Yoshi: Thrasher - September 1997 Volume 17 Number 10

Marc Johnson & Jonathan Lindengerg.

Marc's trick for the contest was a frontside nosegrind to nollie 180 flip out. Jonathan Lindengerg was able to do the trick and win $1000. I get that Marc is trying to be funny, but notice the difference between this ad and how excited Rodney Mullen was about the tricks being duplicated.

It's also worth noticing that the A-Team changed their logo in the ten months between the ads.

Marc's ad was photographed by John Old.

Marc: Transworld - January 1999 Volume 17 Number 1

Jonathan: Transworld - November 1999 Volume 17 Number 11

Chet Thomas & Rodney Mullen.

Double or nothing.

Chet was the undisputed hardflip champion of the late 1990s. His actually flipped, too. They were probably as simple as an ollie to him in those years.

Rodney was really into this contest as he created two ads and doubled the prize for his second trick.

Based on a lack of follow up ads, I don't think either of these tricks were duplicated. Herbert Brown does a fakie hardflip on a bank, but reverts the other way in the new Threads video, if I caught that right.

The videos are by Socrates Leal. I imagine the still photos might be by Chris Ortiz, but there is no credit.

Chet: Transworld - March 1999 Volume 17 Number 3

Rodney: Transworld - April 1999 Volume 17 Number 4

Rodney Mullen & Andy Westhusing.

Mission Impossible.

Rodney created a contest where amateur skaters could win some money from the A-Team. Each of the pros had an ad with a difficult trick sequence and contestants had a year to submit their attempts on video. The contest started in the fall of 1998 and ran for all of 1999.

Andy was the first announced winner. He duplicated Rodney's nose manual to nollie 360 flip to win $1,000. It's cool how Rodney mentioned some of the other skaters who entered the contest, including a kid named Chris Cole.

The fine print disclaimer was amazing:

Only non-sponsored, non-professional riders are eligible. All videos are subject to review to verify authenticity and trick reproduction requirements (i.e. table height/length, number of stairs, etc.) LANDINGS MUST BE CLEAN. Offer not valid in communist countries.

Rodney was filmed by Socrates Leal and photographed by Chris Ortiz.

Impossible: Transworld - October 1998 Volume 16 Number 10

Andy: Transworld - October 1999 Volume 17 Number 10

Dave Mayhew #3.

Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Dave was picked up from Maple to be the fifth pro for the A-Team in the fall of 1998. You could tell they were already over the company after a year because Dave got a similar ad, but it didn't have his specs or a pull quote about how stoked he was to be on the team. At least they gave him a cool icon patch.

I think Dave is wearing an Ecko Unlimited shirt.

Transworld - November 1998 Volume 16 Number 11

Reese Forbes #9.

Flat to the top.

Reese was on Venture before switching to the in-house truck brand at Giant. I threw in a color photo of the truck for an added bonus. Other than the yellow-green bushings, it doesn't make much difference. Destructo ran a lot of black and white ads that had solid skate photos. I like BW stuff so that always catches my eye.

There's a new DVD from the Threads Collective called Magnetic Tape and Soul. It's really good and worth checking out. In an age where people can't be bothered to put names in videos, they are putting names as well as footnotes in their projects. The crew is also drawing inspiration from lesser known facets of skateboarding with tricks and sections dedicated to forgotten videos and departed companies. Be like Threads.

A stand alone part that caught my eye for the week was from Reece Knobloch for the Arrow & Beast shop based in Germany and France. I dig the graphic design of Arrow & Beast ads so it was cool to see something from them. Reece rips.

Transworld - December 1997 Volume 15 Number 12

Truck: Transworld - March 1998 Volume 16 Number 3

Rodney Mullen #11.

Rodney was all about the frontside crooked grind in the middle to late 1990s.

Independent had been Rodney's truck sponsor for the bulk of his career before he started riding for Destructo. He left after a couple of years to create Tensor Trucks. Rodney's problem with Destructo was that the baseplates were too thin to keep the mounting hardware in place. This led to the bolts moving around and widening the holes, which meant the trucks were off center. He felt this led to an inconsistent pop on ollies and especially switch ollies. That's why Tensors had a thicker baseplate and small little teeth to sink into the board to keep the truck in place.

The photo is most likely by Chris Ortiz and is an alternate shot from Rodney's first ad for the A-Team.

Transworld - November 1997 Volume 15 Number 11

Donny Barley #8.

Donny was previously sponsored by Gullwing before joining the Destructo team. I'm not sure if he had another truck sponsor between 1994 and 1997. He would later go on to ride for Element. I think he would have still been on Toy Machine at the time of this ad.

Transworld - October 1997 Volume 15 Number 10

Kris Markovich #24.

Empty Man.

Kris was one of the first riders on Destructo and was gone from the team by March 1998. He would later rejoin. He had been on Orion previously.

As an update from Friday, I think I finally got used to my new wheels and my new shoes arrived at the comfortable to skateboard in stage. Things were kind of strange for about two weeks.

I scanned in another week of A-Team stuff and figured out how to put it together. It's going to be a complete review of the their best trick contest.

Transworld - September 1997 Volume 15 Number 9

Jeremy Wray #11.

Dead set on destruction.

Destructo was a new truck brand launched in the middle of 1997. The trucks were manufactured by Giant Distribution, the overall ownership group for Element, Mad Circle, and New Deal. They had a months long print rollout before actual ads with trucks or skaters appeared. The initial team was Jeremy Wray, Kris Markovich, Donny Barley, Reese Forbes, and Rodney Mullen. I think getting Rodney involved gave them a bit of clout from the start. Kris and Reese were both on Element with Jeremy and Donny winding up on the team in the near future. I never had a pair, although I thought their ads looked decent enough.

Jeremy: Transworld - August 1997 Volume 15 Number 8

Truck: Transworld - July 1997 Volume 15 Number 7

Tony Hawk #14.

Giant Curb.

Tony dusts off Allen Losi's fakie footplant for 1998. Allen was shown doing this trick on the cover of Thrasher in April 1981. It's probably what sparked the idea for the no-comply.

I've been breaking in new shoes while getting used to new wheels the last two weeks so skateboarding has been mixed. I've mostly been skating fine for me, but not everything feels comfortable. It's my fault for not wearing the shoes more before skating them. I was happy Spitfire started making the 55mm Classics in their regular urethane again, except it has taken some getting used to after two years of 54s. Ollies aren't popping right so I've been making minor truck adjustments here and there. I can't tell if that is helping. Also taller wheels are slightly wider so that's something you have to factor in.

Thomas Campbell was the photographer.

Transworld - May 1998 Volume 16 Number 5

Willy Santos #5.

Willy takes his Gullwings for a long distance boardslide.

One of the schools around here is also the Marauders. That was what caught my eye about this ad. They use a predatory wildcat as their logo, although I suppose you could use a pirate of some sort to represent a marauder. Also Birdhouse is using Block Berthold for the font for Willy's name. I like that font.

The sequence is by Atiba Jefferson.

Transworld - March 1998 Volume 16 Number 3

Heath Kirchart #14.

Favorite Shirt.

I scanned this because I noticed Heath was wearing the same Penn State shirt that he wore in a Foundation ad. I imagine he picked it up while on tour in Pennsylvania.

It's possible Heath was riding Mercury Trucks in the mid 1990s. He rode for Gullwing as an am, then was on Monster, and finally Independent.

Dave Swift snapped the photograph.

Penn State: Thrasher - June 1996 Volume 16 Number 6

Transworld - December 1997 Volume 15 Number 12

Jeremy Klein #5.

Eat candy & fly.

As we creep up on the 25th anniversary of Birdhouse's The End, I started to think about what trucks each of skaters in it were riding. It dawned on me that Willy Santos was riding for Gullwing. Tracker and Orion are represented in the video, along with Indy and Thunder. I'm not even sure if Heath Kirchart had a truck sponsor at the time.

I rewatched Jeremy and Heath's part yesterday. The skateboard riding is great, but the antics and sketch are the epitome of cringe. It probably really was for the best that Heath split for Alien Workshop and developed his own persona.

Wait, did Tracker deliberately spell truck wrong?

Transworld - November 1997 Volume 15 Number 11