Tod Swank.

Foundation Super Company.

This is Tod back in his pro days for Skull and Gullwing before he really got Foundation up and running as a company. I like how varied the photos are. I think he's spinning a McTwist and that's paired with a one footed slappy.

The photographs are by Ransack, also known as Daniel H. Sturt.

Poweredge - October 1989 Volume 2 Number 9

Mike Smith #3.

Gimme Liberty.

Liberty sometimes actually featured photos of skateboarding in their ads and not silly business like selling skateboards at schools, powerboats or disco dancing. Mike started the company up after leaving Madrid and partnered with Steve Rocco for better distribution. Liberty is one of those small companies that has developed a devoted following over the years.

Christian Kline was the photographer.

Poweredge - April 1989 Volume 2 Number 3

Eric Jueden.

The shifting of light and shadows.

Eric was one of the original riders on Planet Earth when Chris Miller started the company in 1990. He's a vert and pool ripper. Miller would have known Eric from Upland. They also both rode for G & S. I was stoked to find this one, as G & S had some cool ads back in the day.

The photos are by Chris Ortiz.

Poweredge - October 1989 Volume 2 Number 9

Bryce Kanights #4.

Studio Forty Three.

Bryce was pro for Schmitt Stix and Dogtown. He is a master lensman who has worked as the photo editor at Thrasher. Many years ago he used to run the much missed Skate Daily website.

Schmitt Stix had a couple of these ads where they did profiles on their riders. Companies with larger teams would often create different advertisements for Poweredge than what they would use for Thrasher and Transworld. It makes for some interesting discoveries of things you haven't seen before.

The photographs are by Luke Ogden.

Poweredge - March 1990 Volume 3 Number 3

Davis Torgerson.

Boondoggle.

Davis is from Wayzata, Minnesota. He was pro for Real before moving onto the industry side of skateboarding. His footwear sponsorship history included Etnies, DC, and New Balance. Davis currently works for Asics as a team manager. He lives in Los Angeles now, but still roots for the Vikings.

I figured I'd wrap up this brief look at Minnesota skateboarding with one of the newer guys, even though at this point newer was well over a decade ago. Davis did cite the crew on Iota as an influence on his skating. If you'd like some more current Land of a Thousand Lakes four wheel action, Dan Rusin is always making videos that are very much worth checking out.

Vert Is Dead will be back on Tuesday, June 25th.

I'm off on Monday off to take my mom to a doctor's appointment. She's been doing well since her operation in April.

I've been plugging away at scanning the three issues of Poweredge I borrowed from the Look Back Library. My plan was to scan everything before posting stuff. I'm still going to scan everything, but I decided to post some hammers for next week. Or rather what I think are hammers.

Thrasher - August 2012 Volume 32 Number 8

Steve Olson #6.

Guilty verdict.

The kinked rail boardslide was Steve's last trick in Guilty, the Shorty's video from 2001. His feet didn't move at all when he did the trick. It's kind of strange that his ender wound up in a clothing company from Minnesota's ad, but it is Steve Olson after all. The boardslide happened in Chicago on Supernatural's only tour. The nollie backside lipslide was also in Guilty.

Shout out to Mike from Mostly Skateboarding for providing some details for this week.

The photos are by Grant Brittain and Ryan Damian.

Nollie backside lipslide: Thrasher - November 2001 Volume 21 Number 11

Boardslide: Thrasher - February 2002 Volume 22 Number 2

Steve Nesser #9.

Somethin' to Dü.

I hadn't realized this until I scanned this ad, but Steve was never pro for Consolidated. He was elevated to professional status when he switched from the Cube to Iota. Birdhouse would be his next board sponsor after Iota ended.

The photos are by Andrew Hutchison with art by Todd Bratrud.

Thrasher - April 2002 Volume 22 Number 4

Emeric Pratt & Tony Montgomery.

Supernatural Forces.

Supernatural was a clothing company done by Rob Sissi. Like Iota, they were based in Minneapolis and there was rider overlap between the two. In addition to Minnesota locals, they also had Steve Olson, Ricky Oyola, and Kenny Reed on the team. Sissi would go on to work at Nike and now is working at Asics.

Emeric's photos are by Brayden Knell and Tony's photos are by Ryan Gee.

Emeric: Thrasher - January 2002 Volume 22 Number 1

Tony: Thrasher - March 2002 Volume 22 Number 3

Iota.

An extremely small amount.

Iota was a turn of the century board company from Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was run by Joe and Dan Gieseking, the owners of Fobia skate shop. The team was mostly local rippers, which included a few more well known names in Steve Nesser, Emeric Pratt, and Brian Heck. Todd Bratrud did some of the artwork, too. I like the word iota. I noticed their ads based on the graphic design and the Minnesota location way back when.

The photos are by Ryan Damian and Andrew Hutchison.

Neal: Thrasher - September 2001 Volume 21 Number 9

Chad: Thrasher - November 2001 Volume 21 Number 11

Elijah: Thrasher - December 2001 Volume 21 Number 12

Brian: Thrasher - February 2002 Volume 22 Number 2

Bill Weiss #4.

"Morale is down. People are freezing in their homes. They are lonely, so I feel it's my duty as a citizen of Toronto to drive all the way home and save my friends before they start turning into serious civilians."

The famous cross country driver balances a nosegrind across the channel. Bill is most likely wearing some Recs in the photo. Back in the 1990s, he was known for jumping in the car and traveling long distances for the sake of skateboarding, often without much money.

Dave Swift was behind the lens.

For the quote: Transworld - September 1994 Volume 12 Number 9

(In that same interview, Bill was hyped on skating some vert in 1994.)

Big Brother - April 1998 Issue 35

Troy O'Mahony & Aaron Pearcey.

Balance beam 50-50s.

Troy and Aaron were a couple of the ams on Balance. I don't really know too much about either guy. Troy is from Australia and also rode for Shorty's. Aaron had something to do with running Balance since the company started out in Arizona. It's mildly amusing how team rider names would either drop out or be added from advert to advert.

It's been about a month of riding 56mm wheels and I'm still not fully sure what I think of them. The extra speed for the few ramp tricks I can do is really cool. I don't care too much for the minimal amount of extra weight from the bigger wheels. It's noticeable, but not bad. I keep reminding myself I did all the best skateboarding of my life on 56mm wheels so I should stick with the larger tires.

The photos are by Ed Dominick and Herbig. I've never heard of that name before.

Troy: Big Brother - February 1998 Issue 33

Aaron: Big Brother - August 1998 Issue 39

Corey Sheppard #3.

Newfoundland painter.

Corey's part in What If, the Blind video from 2005, was chock full of really good technical skateboarding. He's got an impressive switch game. It probably doesn't get any more era appropriate than skating to a Bloc Party song either.

Static man Josh Stewart took the photo.

Big Brother - June 1998 Issue 37

Matt Milligan.

Matt is from Ft. Myers, Florida and has ridden for New Deal, Mad Circle, DNA, and probably a couple other companies over the years. He worked in sales at Girl and Lakai. Matt presently works for Adidas as a marketing manager. I liked his part in the New Deal's Children of the Sun video from 1994.

The photo is by Chris Ortiz.

Big Brother - January 1998 Issue 32

Balance.

Stability.

I had already posted a bunch of the Sonic ads I was planning on using for the week and was thinking about digging up some 101 stuff, but then stumbled upon these Balance ads. They pair well with last week's Recs feature. Balance started out in Arizona with a team of Aaron Pearcey, Erik Ellington, and Scott Copalman. Erik and Scott left for Zero and I'm making a guess Aaron kept Balance going in Huntington Beach with the addition of Bill Weiss as a pro/management type. The roster included Bo Turner, Troy O'Mahony, Jason Searcy, Corey Sheppard, Jason Shelton, and Mike Bell.

Aaron's last name is alternately spelled Pearcey and Pearcy. I'm going with Pearcey since that's what he appears to use for his Instagram.

I took a trip over to Jamestown Skateboard Products on Saturday. They are going to be building a neat little indoor concrete street course soon. They also have a Look Back Library collection. I borrowed three issues of Poweredge that I had never seen before. I'm scanning them and will post some content eventually.

Logo: Big Brother - December 1997 Issue 31

Tourtanic: Big Brother - July 1998 Issue 38

Justin Bokma & Corey Sheppard.

The Spirit of the Edge.

Justin and Corey are both from Canada and were ams on Recs. Corey is wearing a Balance t-shirt in the ad and would ride for Blind later on. He's very much into painting. Justin rode for New School, Platinum, and a bunch of other companies. Sadly, he passed away in 2016.

Other riders on Recs included Richard Angelides and Rob Gangemi. I don't think I ever saw a pair of the shoes in the wild. I believe the company was done by 1999.

Chris Ortiz was the photographer of record.

Justin: Thrasher - August 1998 Volume 18 Number 8

Corey: Thrasher - September 1998 Volume 18 Number 9

Adam McNatt #5.

Tommyknocker.

Adam uses his ninja skills to spin a switch frontside 360 ollie. I think he was on Evol for boards at the time of the ad. He had previously ridden for Evol's shoe program, which evolved into Osiris. He would soon go on to ride for ATM. His first Transworld Pro Spotlight from 1993 had some sick photos in it.

The kickflip photo is by Shea. I am not sure on a full name.

Switch 360: Thrasher - January 1998 Volume 18 Number 1

Backside kickflip: Thrasher - May 1998 Volume 18 Number 5

Pat Duffy #6.

Back & Front.

The Duff man channels some Jon Spencer Blues Explosion Dang vibes with an aluminum foil UFO and an orange background. He was on Duffs prior to riding for Recs. Those might even be Duffs on his feet in the photo. I think his next shoe sponsor was Pyro. It's always a little strange how Duffy was kind of out there in the wilderness for shoes when he probably could've gotten hooked up with DC thanks to Danny Way and the Plan B connection.

Luke Ogden took the frontside lipslide photo.

Back lip: Thrasher - December 1997 Volume 17 Number 12

Front lip: Thrasher - March 1998 Volume 18 Number 3

Mike Crum #6.

Texas never whispers.

Mike mixes it up with some new school tech and old school big air. You tend to forget how World Industries reimagined itself as a vert company in the later half of the 1990s. I don't think Mike had a shoe sponsor prior to Recs and he would have switched to DVS by early 1999.

Chris Ortiz took the big air photo.

Nollie heel: Thrasher - November 1997 Volume 17 Number 11

Japan air: Thrasher - February 1998 Volume 18 Number 2

Recs.

Recreational Footwear.

Much like Poochie, who knew Recs came from outer space? The company was an entry into the skateboard footwear market in the late 1990s. They were based in Costa Mesa. Recs did a three month print rollout before showing some skating in an ad. They launched in the fall of 1997 and lasted until some point in 1999. The team featured Mike Crum, Pat Duffy, Bill Weiss, Fred Gall, Adam McNatt, and a few assorted amateurs. My educated guess is that Bill Weiss was acting in some sort of team manager capacity.

Await: Thrasher - August 1997 Volume 17 Number 8

Arrival: Thrasher - September 1997 Volume 17 Number 9

Contact: Thrasher - October 1997 Volume 17 Number 10