Ben Schroeder #6.

Blasting into the void.

My best guess is Ben is skating a street course setup and doing a lipslide from the ramp to what is probably another a ramp. The caption said it was a lipslide, but I can't exactly figure out the approach and landing. Nobody was doing flyouts to a straight ledge in 1989 so I don't think it would be that. It could be some type of mini ramp that was being taken apart or put together, too.

It was a dry and calm 34˚ F yesterday so I got to skateboard at the park for a little bit before the sun set. I retired my Ventures with the orange hangers and have been skating a new set of trucks. This set has silver hangers with orange baseplates. They are much of an improvement for grinds and ollies are more stable. The only catch is that they don't catch on coping so axle stalls and feebles are kind of dicey until I get them broken in. The upcoming forecast looks damp, but maybe the weather will skew to the mild side.

Note: I photoshopped out a page number, a caption, and the bottom of edge of a Jason Lee picture for the sake of a better photo to use.

The photo is by Dan Sturt.

Poweredge - April 1989 Volume 2 Number 3

Allen Losi #4.

Ollie to fakie.

This is Al's Poweredge interview from 1989. He talks about his roots, skating for Variflex, the parks in California, being pro, the contest scene, pools, and trick innovation.

I've skated twice in December thus far, which is the fewest days I've skated in a month in probably over a decade. The weather has been appropriately seasonal so there have been a couple snow days the last two weeks. I had a head cold in there somewhere, too. It's thrown me off schedule for doing Vert Is Dead, too. We usually catch intermittent breaks from the precipitation, but not this go round. The snow we've gotten has been more than manageable, minus the inept plow guy who is supposed to get the driveway at my apartment. I'm really hoping for a mild finish to the year.

Congrats to Jamie Foy on winning his second SOTY.

The interview is by Alec Schroeder. The photos are by Alec, Mike Ballard, Sin Egelja, and Rick Kosick.

Poweredge - October 1989 Volume 2 Number 9

Dan Drehobl & Peter Hewitt.

Vocal Testing.

Everybody knows that Dan and Pete are rippers. The wall jam rock to fakie is sick.

I voted for Deedz in the SOTY finals because he skated to Xiu Xiu. It's a bummer Antonio Durao didn't make the second round because his skating was more exciting than a whole lot of the other choices.

The photographs are by Ed Dominick.

Dan: Thrasher - April 2009 Volume 29 Number 4

Pete: Thrasher - March 2009 Volume 29 Number 3

Emmanuel Guzman #5.

Above the black hole.

Emmanuel takes a backside tailside across a giant ditch gap. I like the sense of depth and the sky in the photo caused by the distortion from the fisheye. If I still did more photography, I should invest in a fisheye lens. It would be an interesting new tool to have.

I did manage to get all the snow cleared out of the driveway on Saturday. It warmed up for Sunday and I got skateboard for a while in the afternoon. I didn't think that would happen at the start of the weekend so it was nice surprise. It's been rainy and foggy the last two days and we are due to acquire more snow later today. What are ya gonna do?

Ed Dominick was the photographer.

Thrasher - January 2009 Volume 29 Number 1

J.T. Aultz #3.

Drastic Actions.

J.T. had a short and sweet part in Real's Real To Reel video from 2001. He was still am at the time and put together a solid mix of street tech with some handrails. J.T. turned pro in 2004. He was riding for Circa and switched over to 88 Footwear, which changed into Vox. They granted him a pro shoe. He would later ride for Osiris.

The photo is by Gabe Morford. You don't always realize how many pics this guy has taken over the years.

Thrasher - December 2008 Volume 28 Number 12

Tyler Surrey.

Tyler grew up in San Diego and moved out to Barcelona, Spain on a SK8MAFIA trip in the mid 2010s. He's been living there ever since. New Balance now sponsors his feet. He keeps putting together unique parts of smartly crafted technical street skateboarding year after year.

The photo sequence is by Ed Dominick.

Thrasher - October 2008 Volume 28 Number 10

Brad Cromer #4.

"I wanted to be a different pro every week. I remember doing that with Andrew Reynolds, Geoff Rowley, Scott Kane, P.J. Ladd, Ronnie Creager, Brian Wenning, Kerry Getz — the list goes on and on. I’d watch a part and just go out and set up fake handrails and shitty PVC-pipe boxes in my driveway and pretend I was them. I had the spiked Pig belt at one point. I did the red spray-painted shoes. Whoever I liked at the time, I’d just try to look like them and do the tricks they did. Nothing I regret at all. I was just being a kid, idolizing pro skateboarders."

Brad talks about his influences growing up. I like the line about spray painting his shoes red. I think happened on a Foundation or Emerica tour article in Big Brother back in the early 2000s.

There will probably be stuff next week. It depends how snow shoveling goes and if I come up with any ideas. Clearing out the snow has taken up most of my free time for the last week. It's not really fun, but I tell myself things could always be worse as I shovel out the driveway and marvel at the utterly terrible job the plow driver did. I'm hoping to get to an indoor park on Sunday. That's probably way too much to ask at this point.

For the quote: Thrasher - March 2016 Volume 36 Number 3

Thrasher - December 2014 Volume 35 Number 12

Bobby Worrest #8.

"In my Long Beach days living with Rodent, he started making 'music' via modular synth, which is a bunch of weird robot noises. One time he spent an entire afternoon making a 'song' comprised of static and a gut-rumbling bass tone. It started giving me anxiety and I asked him, 'Dude, how can you tolerate that type of sound?' He replied, 'Honestly, this is the only thing that relaxes me!' Rodent is a trip."

Bobby describes the music making exploits of skateboard photographer Eric "Rodent" Cheslak. Rodent has released tapes, but they appear to be sold out. Some of his songs have been used in Toy Machine videos.

For the quote: Thrasher - February 2022 Volume 43 Number 2

Thrasher - July 2014 Volume 35 Number 7

Mike Anderson #3.

Goat farmer.

Mike scored the opening part in Honeymoon, the full length Dickies video from this fall. He shreds around all over the place while a couple Bad Brains songs play. There's some unique ledge tricks, bank/ditch skating, and a few big ollies. The segment reminded me in a way of Anthony Pappalardo's part in Fully Flared. Mike's got his own home compound with a goat farm and concrete mini ramp. He's been on Krooked for over 15 years. I think I had his first pro model back in 2012. It was a somewhat unusual size board at 8.062" x 32" that was a really good shape. I think Chris Pfanner turned pro for Anti-Hero at about the same time and I had his board, too.

Thrasher - May 2014 Volume 35 Number 5

Sebo Walker #2.

Equinox symmetry.

I guess Sebo's part in The Flare was originally set to De La Soul's "Me Myself and I", but due to music licensing issues, Lakai's DVD used "Shadrach" by the Beastie Boys instead. After watching the De La Soul version, I think the Beastie Boys work better. It's a more hyperactive song to match the odd ledge tech tricks Sebo is doing. He also jumps down some bigger stairs and gaps in the video from 2017.

Thrasher - March 2014 Volume 35 Number 3

Ronnie Sandoval #5.

Yesterday, when I was young.

A young Ronnie kreeps in the danger zone at Washington Street in San Diego. It's a little surprising to see him with a shaved head since he's been running longer hair for years now. Ronnie has been on Krooked and Dickies for forever.

Our luck ran out and winter finally caught up with us. We've gotten a little shy of 3' feet of snow over the last four days. It hasn't been that bad, but it hasn't been fun either. I guess as far as weather problems go, a lot of snow is the most manageable of the choices.

Thrasher - January 2014 Volume 35 Number 1

Jimmy Wilkins #4.

One of the best videos of the year was Jimmy's "Under, Over" part. He teamed up with fellow Real rider Shea Donavan for a doubles filled vert video filmed at Tony Hawk's ramp. Both excel at proper street tech vertical skating. Jimmy is doing some of the best ollies in all of skateboarding right now. Nobody else looks as smooth and stylish as he does.

Have a good weekend everybody.

Thrasher - February 2022 Volume 43 Number 2

Elijah Berle & Austyn Gillette.

Rodeo Technology.

I guess whatever beef Elijah and Austyn had has been squashed since Austyn had a trick in Elijah's most recent video part. Or maybe they're making it worse? I don't know. It's a strange world these days. The Pretty Sweet ad could almost be an FA ad if it was BW with some film grain and collage elements added. I think Austyn was riding for WKND in 2018. Elijah would leave Chocolate in 2017 to ride for Jason Dill and Anthony Van Engelen's board company. He recently released a new video part full of gnarly handrail stunts set to sad country music.

Elijah: Thrasher - September 2012 Volume 32 Number 9

Austyn: Thrasher - July 2018 Volume 39 Number 7

Evan Smith #5.

Spinning out in the grasslands.

Evan, Roman Pabich, and Trey Wade did a demo at the Food Court Skatepark in the McKinley Mall and hit up Jamestown Skateboard Products two weekends ago. I didn't go because of adult life, but I saw the clips Food Court and JSP posted on the internet. Evan and Roman destroyed Food Court. I know the park fairly well so the tricks they did were amazing. Roman wasn't messing around in the giant bowl in Jamestown either. I'm glad Western New York is starting to have visiting pros swing by for demos and events.

Chops has an awesome new interview with Duane Pitre up at the Chrome Ball Incident.

The photograph is by Brian Gaberman.

Thrasher - November 2014 Volume 35 Number 11

Jamie Foy #2.

Diamond Days.

Mr. Foy has basically dominated skateboarding the last 12 months and is probably on his way to winning a well deserved second SOTY. Diamond started off as a bolt company that grew into a streetwear entity with their own line of sneakers. The shoe team included Foy, Torey Pudwill, Boo Johnson, and Brandon Biebel.

Icon: Thrasher - January 2018 Volume 39 Number 1

SOTY: Thrasher - April 2018 Volume 39 Number 4

Tiago Lemos #3.

Sure Shot.

Tiago has been on quite the roll lately by churning out three full parts of his high tech street skateboarding and scoring the cover of Thrasher. I like that he skated some handrails to add variety to the expected tall ledges. I wanted to find an ad of him on either Listen or BLVD, but that might have been a lot of time spent searching for something that didn't exist so I went with Primitive instead. I think Tiago was still sponsored by DC Shoes in 2019. In a perfect world, he should probably win SOTY this year, but I don't really see that happening. Thrasher needs to impose a one and done rule for the trophy going forward.

The photo is by Oliver Barton.

Thrasher - July 2019 Volume 40 Number 7

Brandon Westgate #6.

No tow-ins.

Brandon has maintained his mastery of giant street ollies and kickflips after all these years as was shown in Intervals, the latest New Balance video. It's too bad he's stuck in board sponsor purgatory by riding for Element, but it somehow seems to be working for him. What's more impressive is that Brandon relied on his legs to get the speed for nearly every trick he did in the part. Modern skateboarding, with its reliance on tow-ins to jump a gap or rail and then crash into a wall upon landing, is uninspiring to watch. I'd rather watch Westgate push.

Thrasher - December 2015 Volume 36 Number 12

Peter Hewitt #20.

Joe Pino's old ledge spot.

Pete gets inverted at the famous Washington Street skateboard park. The place has been around for 25 years now. Thrasher had a story on its history in the November issue. Joe started building concrete benches back in 1999 due to a lack of spots in San Diego. A bench and a flatbar eventually grew into a massive concrete park underneath a bridge.

I know Dickies has had a skateboard team for a while and I was curious who else rode for them. In 2015, they were giving free clothes to Vincent Alvarez, Stevie Perez, Ronnie Sandoval, and Jon Sciano to name a few. I believe Jim Greco was a rider at some point, too. Vincent and Ronnie are still formally on the team in 2024. I imagine Dickies flows a number of other skaters gear, too.

The photograph is by Sam Muller.

Thrasher - December 2015 Volume 36 Number 12

Ed Templeton #35.

Yellowish green.

Ed goes for a long boardslide ride in the heyday of Emerica. Jamie Thomas has a new shoe company called WARSAW. Ed is possibly involved and has at the least drawn the logo.

I probably should've gone to the UMA Landsleds demo at Food Court this weekend, but it wasn't really going to fit into my schedule. I did check back in at Jamestown Skateboard Products. I hadn't been there in a couple of months. They added a 10" high, extra long, wide straight ledge to their garage street course. The ledge doubles as a stage for when they have bands. It really makes the street setup a lot more fun. The crew from Lowcard visited for the annual King of the Ramp contest and will have an article on the event in their next issue. That's about all the local skate gossip I've got.

Transworld - February 2002 Volume 20 Number 2

Rob Welsh #9.

All things pass into the night.

Lakai as we've known it for the last quarter century is done. Crailtap posted a thank you video that fully implied the people who made the company are no longer involved. I imagine the brand will live on as some phantom entity until the venture capitalists put it out to pasture, but it won't be the same and nobody is going to buy the shoes. I'm a tad bummed out over all this. It's going to be weird not wearing Lakai after 25 years.

Transworld - November 2003 Volume 21 Number 11

Kerry Getz #8.

Our showroom is next door.

I'm always stoked on any Kerry Getz coverage. He was such a powerhouse of a skater in the late 1990s and early 2000s. His gap out to frontside slider was in Mosaic, the Habitat video from 2003.

This contest was wild. Did anybody win it?

The photo is by Ryan Gee.

Transworld - November 2002 Volume 20 Number 11

Adrian Lopez #2.

Technical Zero.

Adrian was probably the most technically inclined of the skaters on Zero until Wilton Souza came along in 2024. He was throwing down switch 360 flips in his video parts to go along with the expected rail stunts.

Paul "Skin" Phillips was the photographer.

Transworld - October 2002 Volume 20 Number 10

Karl Watson #5.

Best griptape out there.

I always rode Black Magic for grip until it started getting kind of crappy so I switched over to Jessup. I've never had any problems with it in the years since. The design staff did a respectable job piecing this ad together with the griptape in the background.

Thrasher - October 2002 Volume 22 Number 10

Ricardo Carvalho.

Former Chocolate am Ricardo Carvalho holds the honor of being an interesting bit of skateboard trivia. He was on the cover of the last issue of Big Brother twenty years ago. His other sponsors included Lakai and Stealth Wheels. Ricardo is from Capão da Canoa, Brazil.

After reading ‪Cole Nowicki‬'s latest Simple Magic column, the future doesn't sound very bright for Lakai. Lucas Wisenthal astutely observed that Royal Trucks has outlasted the once premiere footwear brand. I vaguely forgot Royal was still around until I noticed their new ad with Zach Allen in the November issue of Thrasher.

Ricardo's Big Brother cover photo is by Giovanni Reda.

Cover: Big Brother - March 2004 Number 106

Royal: Transworld - February 2002 Volume 20 Number 2

Marc Johnson #17.

The Plan.

I was never great at keeping up with all the Transworld videos so I skipped over Marc Johnson's part in Modus Operandi. I've watched the section a couple of times recently. It's a good time capsule of the year 2000 with the Built To Spill and Marc's top notch technical skateboarding. There is corresponding footage to a whole slew of his Emerica and A-Team ads in the part. Those were the days, man.

There's been some open discussion on the future of Lakai taking place this past week. Allegedly the company has been losing a lot of money each year and was on the verge of shutting down. Supposedly the team was cut to save money, but that is potentially up in the air to some extent. There exists a possibility that Rick Howard and Mike Carroll will still end up being involved in an attempt to save the company. It will be interesting or depressing to see where this ends up. I imagine there are a lot of skateboard brands that are struggling to an extent these days.

I'll see people wearing Lakais so they do have a following. I've fluctuated on their skate shoes, but I'm nearly always wearing a pair of Manchesters for general day to day living. It would be good if some credible version of the company survives after the financial business is sorted out.

The photo is by Paul "Skin" Phillips.

Transworld - June 2003 Volume 21 Number 6

Heath Kirchart & Alex "Trainwreck" Gall.

Monster trucks for monster tricks.

Monster was a project of Jamie Thomas in the early 2000s. The trucks were distributed by Giant Distribution. They went with a scary theme for the trucks and ads.

Sam Korman's interview with Heath Kirchart in Plank was an interesting read, but he dropped the ball by not asking about Monster Trucks. I'm going to assume that part was edited out due to a lack of space.

The photo for Heath is credited to Oden. Might it be a typo for Luke Ogden?

Heath: Transworld - March 2002 Volume 20 Number 3

Trainwreck: Transworld - April 2002 Volume 20 Number 4

John Rattray #6.

Happy Halloween!

The scariest thing about this ad is how small those boards are. The stitches deck measures 7.625" x 31.25" and the pentagram is 7.75" x 31.25". These are rather unremarkable debut graphics for John, even by Zero standards. He did have models with better art for Panic/Blueprint prior to switching to a US company. I'm unsure if he had to temporarily go back to amateur status when he got on Zero even though he had been pro for a few years in the United Kingdom.

The photograph is by Joe Brook.

Transworld - September 2002 Volume 20 Number 9

Gailea Momolu #2.

Ottawa Senator.

Gailea does a nollie heelflip to noseslide to mark being knighted into the professional ranks.

I think Todd Francis said something to the effect that there are two ways to sell skateboards. You either create a graphic that makes the skater feel tough or makes them laugh. Darkstar opted for the first choice and ran with a mysterious dark knight theme for all their graphics.

Transworld - November 2002 Volume 20 Number 11

Mike Vallely #9.

“It’s 1990, boys. Let’s get rid of the skeletons.”

I guess you can't go too far wrong with a skull on skateboard, regardless of what Neil Blender thinks. Or maybe you can. Truthfully, this has to be decided on a case by case basis.

For general accounting purposes, Mike recently plowed Street Plant under and is back on the nostalgia machine that is Powell Peralta. Again. I never knew or maybe simply forgot that Powell's Bug graphic was also a model for Mike. Vallely Skateboards was distributed by Giant after he rode for the Black Label and before he would ride for Element. The team included Steffan Attardo, Jesse Fritsch, Alysson Castro, and Bobby Stewart.

Transworld - September 2003 Volume 21 Number 9

Donny Binaco.

Jersey Metal.

Kre-per Trucks were created by the Grind King crew. They came up with a gothic design that looked like something Batman would have on his skateboard. The ads followed along with a vaguely dark and apocalyptic theme. Donny is one of Fred Gall's boys and part of the Metal squad.

Here's a sample of the trucks from Transworld:

I understand why the mags slowly phased out actual product reviews over the years, but skateboarding lost something without the occasional bit of cynical criticism.

I picked out assorted spooky ads from 2002 and 2003 for Halloween this year.

The photo is by Ryan Panis.

Trucks: Transworld - June 2004 Volume 22 Number 6

Donny: Transworld - October 2002 Volume 20 Number 10

Matt Field #11.

Wall Flower.

I've been thinking about what skateboarding was like twenty years ago lately. They built the local park and a lot of kids were rolling. Rasa Libre and the relaunched Stereo were popular among the skaters who were more creative and didn't fully relate to either the hesh or fresh camps. After doing this blog for a while, I'm fascinated by what younger generations pick up as as key influences.

I guess the Ipath reboot has been selling well, even if a few of the original heads aren't involved. I only did minimal research when I posted the Ipath scans back in August, but the company was on the sketchy side in its heyday, as per usual in the shady world of skateboard business. It turned the week into kind of a bummer because I wanted it to be a feel good type of entry about the return of a much loved departed brand. That's how it goes sometimes.

I've got the annual week of Halloween fun planned out. I'm amazed I can think of something vaguely different each year for scary season.

Thrasher - June 2004 Volume 24 Number 6

Max Schaaf #17.

Ultimate North Cal Barney.

It's a rare sighting of street Max. Mr. Schaaf goofs off in front of Mike Carroll and Paul Rodriguez during a photo shoot for Fourstar.

Jamestown Skateboard Products is having their annual King of the Ramp party this Saturday, October 26, 2024. Bad Waitress, Thee Audience, and Television Overdose will be playing some live tunes. There's also a Halloween costume contest. The event is sponsored by 4 Life Skateboards, Lowcard, Rust Belt Skateboards, Tail Devil, Goodsen, Biodome, and Snowbelt Gardens. JSP is located at 207 Pine Street in Jamestown, New York.

Thrasher - June 2004 Volume 24 Number 6

Ed Selego #4.

Hitting the bricks.

Ed's doing a wallie to backside lipslide on a steep brick planter. I picked this one out because I thought it was a different view for an uncommon trick.

Are Habitat and Alien Workshop now under distribution by Quasi?

The photograph is by Ian O'Connor.

Transworld - June 2004 Volume 22 Number 6

Ryan Gallant #3.

The new Orion.

Silver was a truck brand started in 2003 by Rob Dyrdek. Syndrome Distribution handled the production logistics. I figure that Orion Trucks ended in 2002 and Rob wanted to establish a new sponsor. The team had some heavy hitters of the day, including Josh Kalis, Paul Rodriguez, and Stevie Williams. Silver was around for a while and lasted until the early 2020s with the expected roster changes along the way. I never had a pair so I don't know what they were like, but I believe Silvers didn't get the best reviews ever. I do think the kids rode them at the skatepark with their plastic cored wheels.

Transworld - May 2004 Volume 22 Number 5

Anex Trucks.

Built to hardflip.

Rodney Mullen wasn't the only guy from the A-Team who was into truck design. Chet Thomas launched Anex in the spring of 2004. I'm making an educated guess that Chet started or worked with a separate distributor outside of Dwindle since the trucks are listed as available through Aparatus Inc. The team included Canadian rippers Gailea Momolu and Pierre-Luc Gagnon.

I found this in the thrift store on Saturday:

Transworld - June 2004 Volume 22 Number 6

Dan Drehobl #33.

Smoking tailslide.

I've been giving Dan's old video parts a fresh viewing recently. It's weird how you used to watch a bunch of the same videos repeatedly to pick up on every detail and nuance until you had them memorized. I imagine that still happens, but I can't picture doing that in the current information overload world. Dan had quite the run in the 1990s and 2000s. It makes me wonder why "I'd rather watch Drehobl pivot to fakie" never became a thing. Perhaps it is for the best it didn't.

The wheel gimmicks were wild twenty years ago.

Thrasher - June 2004 Volume 24 Number 6