Sean Mullendore #9.

Chops: So that first Static trip you went on cross-county was with everybody. . .

Jake Rupp: Yeah, the DC to Cali trip was with the whole crew. Joel Meinholz, Ed Selego, Steve Brandi . . . Sean Mullendore was on it for a second but then he got weird and bailed, which was awesome. Classic, dealing with a bunch of psychos.

What do you mean?

We were just being crazy. Skating and getting wild. That was just how we were living and Sean wanted no part of it.

But Sean was such a good skateboarder, man. He could ollie anything.

Whatever happened to Mullendore? He was incredible.

He lives around here, in Maryland. I’ve heard that he works on high-end race cars. Like, the super crazy ones in sterile garages.

The DC guy with the massive pop takes a kickflip over a barrier. It looks like he is wearing a New Deal shirt and some fly DVS kicks.

For the quote: Chrome Ball Interview #130: Jake Rupp

Thrasher - May 1999 Volume 19 Number 5

Colt Cannon #2.

Oops! . . . I did it again.

A young Colt does a backside Smith grind on a handrail when he was riding for Think. He's wearing a Freedumb t-shirt that has a bunny holding a gun drawn on it. Freedumb was Dan Drehobl's clothing company that was distributed by Think. I'm not sure what shoes he is wearing. They might be Vitas, but I am not positive. Colt would later ride for Element and Circa.

Thrasher - June 1999 Volume 19 Number 6

Elias Bingham.

Elias is from Austin, Texas. His sponsors were Element, Venture, FTC, and Vita. He is one of the founders/owners of No-Comply Skateshop in Austin. Elias joined other shop owners including Steve Nesser and Kerry Getz as having been on the cover of Thrasher with an ollie for the May 2001 issue.

Thrasher - July 1999 Volume 19 Number 7

Ron Whaley #4.

Powerbolts.

Mr. Whaley would have been riding for Santa Cruz and Krux in 1999. I'm not sure if Ron was on Etnies, but he did the trick a lot of skaters without shoe sponsors did in the late 1990s: wear a company's gear for the photos. It's weird how that never turned into a sponsorship opportunity for anybody because it happened often enough.

Thrasher - August 1999 Volume 19 Number 8

Jake Nunn.

Texas sized hydrant ollie.

Jake is from Austin, Texas. He was pro for Think. His other sponsors included Circuit and Indy. He might be involved with Austin's No Comply Skate Shop, but I'm not positive if he currently is.

Circuit was a late 1990s wheel company done by Think. They had a stacked team and their ads are an easy go to when I need something to fill up a week.

I cruised up to the Food Court Skatepark again on Sunday. It was busier than on a weekday afternoon when everybody else is at school or work. Go figure. The mood was good and everybody was positive. I wanted to check it out again and had the free time. Going there twice in under two weeks gave me a better feel for the place. The setup isn't the widest variety of terrain, yet it works out fairly well. The drive is also a fairly quick trip. I think I'm going to try to get up there more often because it is a fun place and something different to roll around on.

Thrasher - October 1999 Volume 19 Number 10

Alan Petersen #19.

The man in black floats a backside ollie down in Australia. Alan was on Puma's skateboard program before switching to Vans. He might have ridden for Vans previously, too. I like how they used a close up of the graffiti to fill up the ad.

I enjoy Thrasher's This Old Ledge series with Ted Barrow. It's nice to get some architectural history to go with the famous skate spots. I also decided I'm not reading Thrasher until the calendar month matches up with the month on the spine. I'm tired of the rush. You get all this hype about the new cover and then a week later the next issue is already being teased on the internet.

The picture is by Dimitri Elyashkevich.

Thrasher - March 1999 Volume 19 Number 3

Willy Santos #6.

Enjoy skateboarding.

Willy was on Duffs prior to Vans. He would stay on Vans until the company gave up on the puffy shoes and shifted back to the original waffle soles in the low 2000s. This noseblunt slide was in his part in Birdhouse's The End.

The sequence is by new Vans employee Atiba Jefferson.

Thrasher - December 1998 Volume 18 Number 12

Scott Bourne #11.

Old Black Arm follows in the footsteps of Phil Shao and goes to the top shelf at Fort Miley. I don't get fly out tricks at all. They don't seem physically possible to me, but then again I'm not very athletic and getting on in years.

This Thirteen model looks slightly similar to Eric Koston's first shoe on éS.

The photograph is by Tobin Yelland.

Thrasher - May 1998 Volume 18 Number 5

Steve Caballero #3.

Double Dragon.

Vans kept kicking out new pro models for Cab that reflected the styles of the day as the years rolled along. The Half Cab II is looking very beefy, but they protected Steve's feet for kinked rail boardslides. In retrospect, it's neat that guys like Cab and Lance Mountain took their vertical skills to handrails in the later 1990s.

The photos are by John Old.

Cab 5: Thrasher - January 1999 Volume 19 Number 1

Half Cab II: Thrasher - September 1999 Volume 19 Number 9

Omar Hassan #11.

Promar.

Out of curiosity stemming from last week's Salman Agah post, this week will be a look at what pro shoes Vans was selling from 1997 to 1999. Omar was holding it down on Formula One and generally ripping up everything in 1998. He had been on Vans for a while so a pro shoe was warranted. The designs were more in line with what other shoe companies were doing at the time and featured cupsoles with well padded uppers. It's interesting to note the classic Vans wave has been toned down and moved to the tongue. There has also been the borrowing of elements from DC and DVS with the heel tab and lace loops. Van was still making their classics, but they were also pushing a more technical line of skate shoes.

Chris Ortiz snapped the photograph.

Thrasher - January 1998 Volume 18 Number 1

Aesthetics Team 1999.

Model Race Cars.

This was the Aesthetics team in 1999. Sal, Kevin, and Clyde were the pros and Rob was the amateur. Rob actually might have been pro or would be turning pro shortly. I'm not really positive on the timeline for him. Anyway, the graphic design is top shelf work and as the years zip by, Aesthetics keeps on looking better and better.

Check the sizes on the boards:
KT - 8" x 32"
Clyde - 7.75" x 31.75"
Sal - 7.5" x 31.75"
Team - 7.5" x 31.5"

The photo is by Eric Coleman.

Transworld - June 1999 Volume 17 Number 6

Ronnie Sandoval #4.

The Anchor.

Ron was ripping around San Pedro in Lakais a decade ago. He's on Vans these days.

I took a half day yesterday to take another trip to the Food Court Skatepark in the McKinley Mall. My friend from Rochester was able to meet up with me. It was a really fun time. You can't beat playing skateboard in a mall to the sounds of 1990s alt rock hits. Food Court is worth checking out if you're ever in the greater Buffalo metropolitan area.

The photo is by Ben Colen.

Thrasher - October 2014 Volume 35 Number 10

Nevada #6.

Made of air.

Apparently my friend Alan and I are about the only two people wondering whatever happened to Gustavo Vargas. I'm a little amazed that I'm the lone soul who has scanned a bunch of Nevada episodes for the internet, too. These things had to have registered with other folks over the years.

Slap - December 1997 Volume 6 Number 12

Salman Agah #8.

Large pizza with all the toppings.

Vans hosted a demo recently with a huge orange vert wall and gigantic pyramid. They had some bands playing a stage built like a window into the vert wall, too. The setup looked strangely unimpressive and minimal. It didn't really look fun to skate at all, even if you were really good at riding a skateboard. I imagine the end result of edited photos and video will look cool. It's marketing, I guess.

Check out how bulky and padded those Vans were back in 1998.

Lance Mountain was the photographer.

Slap - December 1998 Volume 7 Number 12

Matt Bennett #5.

Supreme Machine.

Ed keeps posting funny stories about the early days of Toy Machine on the company Facebook page. I'd do another celebration week for their 30th anniversary, but I've scanned most of their ads in already over the last 15 years. I did pick up all three reissue t-shirts for Brian Anderson, Mike Maldonado, and Elissa Steamer. They've also got Lincoln Ueda's son riding for them now. He flies around the vert ramps just like his dad.

I ran out of time over the weekend to scan new stuff, but I did get my taxes done. I browsed around the hard drive and there were enough unused scans to fill up two weeks. Think of it as spring cleaning. It's going to be very random. I'm stoked I don't have to take a break while I figure out what to post next.

Eric "Rodent" Cheslak was the photographer.

Thrasher - September 2009 Volume 29 Number 9

Mario Rubalcaba #3.

Mirror Imagery.

Mario got in on the big wheel craze of the late 1990s with a 59 mm shape. He was pro for Alva, New School, and ATM Click. Mario also plays drums in a lot of bands, including Earthless, OFF!, and Clikatat Ikatowi to name a few.

Thomas Campbell was the photographer.

Transworld - January 1998 Volume 16 Number 1

Matt Reason #9.

57.

Matt's pro wheel actually shrank from 63 mm in 1997 down to 57 mm in 1998.

I think Matt is taking a pop shove-it from the stairs to the sidewalk. What's funny is that I liked the Physics team and video, but I never had any interest in riding their wheels. But of course back then, you could support a company simply by buying their video and not having to worry about it.

Tony Cox took the picture.

Transworld - August 1998 Volume 16 Number 8

Sean Mullendore #8.

Sean popped up with a couple tricks in Josh Stewart's new Static 6 video. I've only watched the video once so I didn't check to see if it was older footage or new clips. It was probably vintage stuff, but it's good to see his name being kept in circulation. Sean seriously ripped up the DC area in the 1990s.

The photo is by Ben Wagner.

Transworld - August 1998 Volume 16 Number 8

Jim Menscer #2.

Gone in sixty millimeters.

Jim was another of the Philadelphia folks who endorsed the use of bigger wheels. He rode for Screw, Capital, and Kastel.

The photograph is by Julius Reeves.

Transworld - September 1998 Volume 16 Number 10

Dave Caddo #2.

Skait Brane.

It totally makes sense that a Cincinnati kid would ride for the local skateboard company. This was probably Dave's first piece of major coverage. He still skates and writes a blog that addresses concerns over skatepark design with a critical eye while offering solutions to make parks better. To oversimplify his writings, parks should have smaller street oriented obstacles with plenty of space around them to make them more accessible to everyone.

Transworld - September 1998 Volume 16 Number 9

Mike Crum #5.

The Nollie Lama.

Mike was added to the DVS team in 1999. I think he might have been on Recs previously. Mike is a Texas vert legend with perfect nollies above the coping, hence Darren Navarrette's nickname for him. He was also doing plenty of technical street style tricks on the big ramps so he fit right in with the rest of the DVS team.

It went from 64˚ F on Wednesday down to the mid 20s for Thursday. There was a minimal amount of snow and ice overnight. I did get in some skateboarding yesterday in the driveway, but it was cold and windy. I did not roll for long. The weather appears to rebound to warmer temps starting today and going forward.

Congrats to Karim Callender on turning pro for Limosine.

Transworld - April 1999 Volume 17 Number 4