Taylor Kirby #3.

Krew for Kristmas.

I'm not afraid of making cheesy jokes at this point. Taylor has been on Deathwish for a long time. He would've been an am at the time of the above ad and is still holding down professional status for them. He's wearing Circas in the photo and would later ride for Vans. There appear to be Nikes on his feet these days. I'm a fan of Taylor's skateboarding. He seems like a good dude, too.

Nice to see a Jon Sciano clip make an appearance in the latest episode of This Old Ledge. Ted Barrow breaks down the history of the famed Los Angeles Mall brick quarterpipes.

Skateboarding was again snowed out over the weekend. The snow was dicey enough and the temperatures cold enough that doing the drive to an indoor park wasn't appealing. I was also kind of worn out from the last couple of weeks and attempted to get caught up with things. I'm not sure I did a great job at it. I did start planning out the look back on 2024 for next year. I organized the magazine stacks, too. The weather looks a tad better going forward for the week.

Have a good holiday, everybody.

Thrasher - May 2015 Volume 36 Number 5

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