J.B. Gillet.

International man of mystery.

I don't know too much about JB. I assume he's had some interviews over the decades, but nothing turned up in a lazy search of the archives. JB has always had a fair amount of coverage in the US mags and ridden for some quality sponsors so he must be doing something right. His French connection part with Lucas Puig and JJ Rousseau in Lakai's Fully Flared video is a great showcase of Euro tech skateboarding.

Out of curiosity, what size boards are people riding these days? How long does a pair of trucks last on average?

The sequence is by Seu Trinh. JT got the product pic.

Big Brother - September 2000 Number 64

Mike Maldonado #6.

Poison venom speed.

I like how the Axion team expanded to included skaters that weren't only doing fresh ledge tech. I think the story is Brian Anderson was wearing the shoes since they happened to be making a shoe big enough to fit his feet. Obviously him being a total ripper and winning SOTY when SOTY still mattered made it an easy move to add BA to the crew. I would imagine the Toy Machine connection partially assisted in Mike getting on as well. I know Erik Ellington was running Axions a lot before he was on Emerica. It would've been cool to see him on the team, too.

The photo is by Atiba Jefferson with the shoe picture by Dia.

Big Brother - August 2000 Number 63

Caine Gayle #5.

The winner's circle.

Caine takes a noseslide to the top shelf over a handrail. He was riding for DC before switching to Axion. Caine would have had a connection to Kareem Campbell since they both rode for assorted World Industries/Dwindle companies in the 1990s. That's how he would also be sponsored by All City/City Stars when Plan B folded. I believe the rumor was a few guys split from DC because a few of the newer riders were going to be given pro model shoes before the veterans got their own custom kicks. I have no idea how much truth there was to that rumor. Caine would go on to ride for Genetic, Airwalk's spinoff brand with the gross out medical themed ads, after the Axion ended.

The photo is by Atiba Jefferson.

Big Brother - April 2000 Number 59

Kareem Campbell #8.

Action.

Axion was Kareem's shoe company in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The brand made a couple of brief returns in the years since, but unfortunately it has not stuck around. They were definitely on the fresh side of spectrum, back when we classified skateboarding as either fresh or hesh. It's all a strange jumble these days. Kareem had been pro for Duffs and went on to start Axion with Steve Rocco's backing. He would later take the company with him when he split to do All City and City Stars. I think everything came to an end around about 2002 or 2003. Axion had some slick looking shoes paired with a somewhat unusual and well rounded team.

Atiba Jefferson took the photo of Kareem and JT got the product photo. Meanwhile, Nike can't be bothered to put rider names in their videos.

Big Brother - January 2000 Number 56

Omar Salazar #7.

Unsafe playground techniques.

Omar's wild slide hippie jump was in Mind Field, the Alien Workshop video from 2009. It's hard to tell in the sequence, but he's landing on the bottom of small bank or maybe even a quarterpipe. Omar rode for Foundation and Rasa Libre before Alien. Once the Workshop closed up, he expanded his Doomsayers project to include boards. Nike dug him enough to give him a pro model shoe. I like the freewheeling and reckless excitement of how Omar skates.

There has been rain over the week so I haven't been able to skateboard much. I set up a new board the other night. The old one was beat. I'm hoping the weather is better and I have a little more time to roll for the long weekend.

Vert Is Dead is taking a summer break.

I'm unsure when I'll fire this thing up again. It will probably be on Monday, September 8th. I don't have any ideas for scanning at the moment either. I was thinking maybe some Axion stuff. That's only speculation at this point. Have a good holiday weekend.

Slap - August 2008 Volume 17 Number 8

Guy Mariano #8.

Stoop trick.

I thought this trick was in Fully Flared, but it wasn't. It sure looks like something that would be in that video. I always forget Guy also skates a bunch of handrails in his part. As the years pass, Fully Flared starts to seem a tad less polarizing and more a document of a particular era of skateboarding, for better or worse. I don't see Nike's Nothing But The Truth aging in the same manner.

I used to be a fan of the Spitfire thins, maybe only because they looked cool. They reminded me of the small wheels of the low 1990s, but were larger so they were more functional than those silly bearing covers.

Slap - July 2008 Volume 17 Number 7

Massimo Cavedoni #2.

Inside track.

The former Real and Vans am takes a backside lipslide the distance on the inner side of a bench. He's venturing into some Torey Pudwill territory on this one, perhaps even before Torey was doing similar stunts. I'm not sure what happened to Massimo. He was really good at well crafted technical street skateboarding.

Slap - May 2008 Volume 17 Number 5

John Cardiel #20.

Cards slashes a frontside grind in a bowl. We are right about at the 30 year anniversary of Anti-Hero. The public debut of the company came in an ad in the September 1995 issue of Thrasher. The original team was John, Bob Burnquist, Julien Stranger, Sean Young, and Eric Jalovaara. A photo of Mick-e Reyes was also included in the advertisement. All hail.

Slap - April 2008 Volume 17 Number 4

Grant Taylor & James Hardy.

Classy Southern gentlemen.

A young Grant Taylor and the late James Hardy wreck some stair spots for Spitfire. They made a good call by sponsoring both of these guys. Since everybody is stoked on Johnny Wilson's new Spitfire video featuring his brother Andrew, Cyrus Bennett, Karim Callender, Antonio Durao, and Max Palmer, I thought a week of their older ads with none of those dudes in the video made sense.

Slap - February 2008 Volume 17 Number 2

Clint Peterson.

Mad ill switch crooks in the nite-nite.

Clint is part of the Minneapolis skate scene that produced Steve Nesser, Emeric Pratt, Seth McCalum, Todd Bratud, and a bunch of others. At a tradeshow in 2001, a possibly drunk Jake Phelps suggested to Consolidated that Clint should be pro. They honored Jake's request. Clint departed for Stereo in 2003 when Jason Lee and Chris Pastras restarted the company. He and Benny Fairfax were the first two new riders on the team. Clint had the connection to Chris from riding for Osiris. He is into woodworking and making art.

There has been occasional rain all week so skateboarding has been spotty. I did roll at the park for a little bit last night. One of teens who has been skating there often rigged up an old SONY video camera so it outputs to digital instead of a tape. I'm curious to see how it works. I'm not sure what I'll be posting next week. Have a good weekend.

For the info: Skateboarder - May 2006 Volume 15 Number 9

Transworld - August 2011 Volume 29 Number 8

Alex Schmidt.

Alex is from Leucadia, Califronia. He was on Toy Machine flow before landing on Stereo. As of 2007, his favorite food was sushi and the first video he saw was either Transworld's Uno or Etnies' High Five. He is presently pro for WKND. His other sponsors include Butter Goods and Pepper Griptape. Alex has appeared in videos for Josh Stewart and the Threads Collective.

That new Spitfire video with Karim Callender, Antonio Durio, Max Palmer, Cyrus Bennett, and more was really fun.

The photo is by Ryan Lusteg.

For the info: Skateboarder - April 2007 Volume 16 Number 8

Transworld - October 2011 Volume 29 Number 10

Josiah Gatlyn.

Josiah is from Pikeville, North Carolina. He relocated to Los Angeles and eventually moved back east to Miami. His introduction to the skateboard world came from being on The Berrics, Steve Berra and Eric Koston's indoor skatepark with a website. This led to him being sponsored by Stereo and later Zero. Josiah figured his skateboarding career wasn't going to last very long and he prepared for it as such by focusing on developing skills as an animator and designer.

Shout out to Black Phaze.

Scott Quintavalle was the photographer.

Transworld - April 2011 Volume 29 Number 4

Joe Pease.

Joe is from Brisbane, Australia. He was getting boards from Mystery before being added to the Stereo team. His other sponsors included Modus Bearings and Theeve Trucks. He might have been receiving shoes from Lakai to some extent because that's all he is wearing in his welcome to Stereo video from 2011. This crooked grind was in the part. It looks like Joe is an artist working with animations and video art.

Ryan Allan took the photo.

Transworld - July 2011 Volume 29 Number 7

Benny Fairfax.

Stereo Sound Agency.

Stereo returned from the instrument storage cabinet in 2003. Initially, Jason Lee and Chris Pastras partnered with Giant for distribution. Matt Irving was brought in to be the art director. At the time, Jason had gotten back into skateboarding and Chris was working as the team manager at Osiris. Clint Peterson and Benny Fairfax were the first two new riders. Stereo separated from Giant and went the independent route in 2006. I'm making an educated guess here because it wasn't something I was following, but I think the Berrics were helping promote the relaunched Stereo. I know a bunch of the younger guys at the skatepark were into the company around 2010 and I imagine being featured on the Berrics helped introduce Stereo to a new audience that wasn't around for the glory days of the 1990s.

Benny is from New Milton in England and also grew up on the Caribbean island of Anguilla. He rode for Stereo up until 2013 when he switched to Palace. Benny is sponsored by Adidas and possibly does Wayward Wheels with Andrew Brophy. I really like the design of this ad. They totally nailed the vintage Stereo look.

The photo is by Daniel Wagner.

For the info: Slap - February 2008 Volume 17 Number 2

Transworld - March 2011 Volume 29 Number 3

Stevie Williams #6.

Run, skate, chill.

Nike recently kicked up a little dust with their 30th anniversary rerelease of the Air Max 95 sneaker. They borrowed a quote from Stevie's part in The Reason, Transworld's video from 1999, and didn't exactly attribute it to him. Stevie was included in the promotional video for the shoe, but not mentioned otherwise. He was not overly thrilled. This led to some valid discussion on the internet about the appropriation of skateboarding's culture and whatnot. After giving it some time, I decided Nike is always going to do dumb stuff, but people are going to keep buying the shoes regardless of how bad a job the Swoosh does at anything. Failing to cite a source isn't going to cost them any business. Shrugs shoulders.

I've been skateboarding slightly better this week. Nothing fancy, but I'll take it. I am not sure if I'll post anything next week. Have a good weekend.

Transworld - January 2013 Volume 31 Number 1

Dane Vaughn.

"He lives the skate life, has a scum stash, and mega pop: the three things that'll make you a star!" - Josh Kalis

Dane is from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. In his Transworld Check Out from April 2012, he was only listed as being flow for DGK. That's about nine months after this ad ran. Anyway, some of his favorites from those days included Cajun food, Fred Gall, the late CJ Tamborino, and the iPhone 4. I think he is still pro for DGK. Dane was listed as being on flow for DC Shoes and switched over to Supra. He was also on KR3W and Venture.

For the quote: Transworld - April 2012 Volume 30 Number 4

Transworld - July 2011 Volume 29 Number 11

Rodrigo Teixeira #4.

Circling back around.

Rodrigo rode for DGK from 2011 until 2016 when he left to ride for Numbers. This was the short lived company run by Eric Koston and Guy Mariano. He went back to DGK in the summer of 2024. Prior to DGK, Rodrigo was on Flip. He was on éS for shoes before joining up with Adidas.

Transworld - May 2011 Volume 29 Number 5

Wade DesArmo.

Top of the World.

Wade is from Ottawa, Ontario. He turned pro for DGK and was on the team for a long time until he got an invite from Paul Rodriguez to ride for Primitive. His current sponsors are Primitive, éS, Thunder, and Bones Bearings.

Transworld - January 2011 Volume 29 Number 1

Josh Kalis #15.

SILAK.

Josh beamed off the Alien Workshop in 2009 after the Mind Field video. It made a lot of sense for him to ride for DGK since his friend Stevie Williams runs the company. He's been on DGK for 15 years now. Even as he approaches 50, Josh is still holding it down for proper technical ledge skating in addition to building an indoor skatepark and driving remote controlled cars. It's a little odd seeing Josh in a Yankees hat. He recently launched his own sweatpants company called Silak.

Transworld - October 2010 Volume 28 Number 10

Kevin Terpening #3.

Swimming on land.

After riding for the Alien Workshop and FA, Kevin moved back to Ohio from Los Angeles a few years ago. He started Swim Skateboards. Former HUF teammate Dan Plunkett soon joined the new board brand. They somewhat recently added Ethan Loy to the team. "Scuba" Steve Chalme hooked Kevin up with éS back when Kevin was an am for Alien in the post Mindfield days. He would go on to ride for HUF and Nike.

I had a couple of what passes as decent for me right now skateboarding days this week. Last night was a clunker because I didn't feel like skating, but did anyway. I wasted a bunch of the evening trying to figure out if one of my car's tires had an air leak. It did. I got it fixed up this morning at the tire place around the corner from my office. Have a good weekend.

Transworld - December 2010 Volume 28 Number 12

John Rattray #7.

The Migrating Bird.

John was on Osiris prior to éS. After éS ended, he popped in for a year at New Balance before taking a job with Nike. This trick was in his part in Cold War, the Zero video from 2013. He's wearing an assortment of éS, Adidas, and New Balance in the section.

I got the new Grains video on DVD the other day. I watched about 15 minutes of Tollway last night before I was too tired and had to go to bed. I hate to throw around the phrase "Instant Classic", but Kevin DelGrosso has done it again with his well titled and meticulously crafted approach to documenting skateboarding in the Midwest.

Transworld - August 2010 Volume 28 Number 8

Justin Eldridge.

Dislocated finger.

Justin is from the Los Angeles area of California. For somebody who has been pro and in the spotlight for a long time, it was actually kind of tough finding info on him. His part in Yeah Right! was compact and hard hitting with a bunch of handrail tricks. Justin's favorite skaters include Guy Mariano, Eric Koston, Rick Howard, Mike Carroll, and Marc Johnson. As of 2009, he liked Lil Wayne and A Tribe Called Quest for tunes. He also liked Cadillacs, sushi, and living near the beach.

For the info: Transworld - March 2009 Volume 27 Number 3

Transworld - July 2010 Volume 28 Number 7

Mike Anderson #4.

Human Cannonball.

Mike was granted pro status for Krooked in the summer of 2010. He also had a shoe on éS before they closed up shop. Mark Gonzales sneakily turned Mike pro while on a Krooked tour of New York City. He had some boards printed up and shipped to an art gallery in the Big Apple. While the team was skating around, Mark suggested they stop in to check out the art. The gallery curator was in on Mark's plan and had the boards hanging on the wall to surprise Mike. I don't think that idea would have worked with anybody other than Mark. Ed Templeton could probably pull it off with Toy Machine and that's about it.

Transworld - June 2010 Volume 28 Number 6

Rick McCrank #10.

Multiples.

Crankers spins out of a gnarly 50-50 at Le Dome in Paris, France. I put together a week of éS from 2010. This was the last full year for the company as Sole Tech placed the brand on hiatus in the summer of 2011, based on an article on ESPN by Adam Salo. They still had a solid team and added some new riders, like Bobby Worrest and Kevin Terpening. Rick would go on to ride for Lakai and eventually Vans in the years after this ad.

I got a batch of DGK scanned and ready, but didn't feel like posting them this week so I'm saving them for later. The Stevie Williams vs. Nike dustup made me want to wait for a little bit.

I took the weekend off from skateboarding. I figure I needed a break since I've haven't been skating well for me lately. I'll see if it helps. On the plus side, I did get caught up with everything around the house.

The sequence is by Eric Antoine.

Transworld - January 2010 Volume 28 Number 1

Jordan Trahan.

Static Ender.

Jordan is from Lafayette, Louisiana. He was pro for 5Boro and has been on Chocolate for a while now. Some of his favorite skaters include Tim O'Connor, Keith Hufnagel, Jack Sabback, Nate Broussard, and Jimmy Lannon. New Balance has been his shoe sponsor for over a decade. I like how Chocolate incorporates parts of New Orleans culture into his graphics.

It has been toasty this week. I actually had fun for a change last night skateboarding in the driveway.

Work was extra busy the last five days so there might not be anything for next week. I'm not exactly sure yet and don't really have any ideas. I'll see how it goes over the weekend.

Thrasher - December 2015 Volume 36 Number 12

Arto Saari & PJ Ladd.

Flippin' legends.

Arto was riding for Gravis prior to New Balance. I believe he has contributed photography work for them over the years. Since PJ and New Balance are both from Boston, it made sense to add a local legend to the team. I think he was on DC, but he also might have been floating in shoe sponsor limbo in 2012. I like how Arto got into both pool skating and photography as he grew older.

Arto: Thrasher - September 2015 Volume 36 Number 9

PJ: Thrasher - October 2015 Volume 36 Number 10

Levi Brown #2.

"Levi Brown is a rad stylish underrated skater." - John Rattray

Now this is more like it. New Balance found their artistic direction and everything clicked from there on out. Levi was pro for Element and moved over to office life at New Balance.

RIP Ozzy. Go watch Fred Gall's part in Timecode for some heavy duty grimy shredding that might as well be on the streets of Birmingham.

Thrasher - July 2015 Volume 36 Number 7

New Balance Team 2015.

Numerical.

After disappearing for a bit, New Balance came back in 2015. I'm saying disappeared because I couldn't find any ads after early 2014 and before this one. I checked mags other than Thrasher and nothing turned up. The team in the ad is all the riders who were in the Second Narrows video. Based on John Rattray's LinkedIn page, he was only team manager for a year and was working for Nike by the end of 2013. This supports my theory that things didn't click with Black Box. Of note is that Jack Curtin and the UK's Tom Knox have been added to the crew. Tom Karangelov is riding a 3D board. It's cool to see how long some of these guys have been riding for New Balance.

Thrasher - June 2015 Volume 36 Number 6

New Balance Team 2013.

I thought I'd take a look at how New Balance got into skateboarding. They had an unremarkable beginning in 2013. In an article on ESPN by Robin Fleming from December of 2012, it was announced that New Balance would be fielding a skateboard team. They partnered with Jamie Thomas and used his Black Box operation as their distributor. New Balance worked with Westlife Distribution for their creative and design needs. Westlife was a distributor for Dickies, Paul Frank, and a snowboard clothing brand called 686.

The team was formally announced in May of 2013. John Rattray was the team manager. The squad consisted of Arto Saari, PJ Ladd, Levi Brown, and Tom Karangelov.

New Balance released a video called Second Narrows to go with the print rollout in November of 2013. It featured John, Arto, Levi, PJ, and Tom plus Tyler Surrey, Marquise Henry, Jordan Trahan, and Jordan Taylor. Joe Pease and Russell Houghten were the filmers. It's an interesting little video with creative editing that harkens back to the days of Sheep Shoes and Physics Wheels.

After the opening serve, New Balance ran three more ads like this:

They had similarly bland ads with Arto Saari and PJ Ladd before disappearing until the summer of 2015. My guess is that the partnership with Black Box didn't work out. Other than having some top level skate talent, there's wasn't much that looked overly exciting about New Balance's debut. Everybody's got to start somewhere.

Team: Thrasher - November 2013 Volume 34 Number 11

Jordan: Thrasher - January 2014 Volume 35 Number 1

Jake Duncombe.

Gremlin attack.

Jake is from Byron Bay, Australia. He won SLAM's Skater of the Year award and turned pro for Blind in 2006. His other sponsors included Globe, Bones Wheels, Volcom, and Theeve Trucks. Jake joined up with Life Extention in 2013 and had a full part in their Theatrix video. His skating is a mix of gnarly park tricks and precise street tech with some hairball moves thrown in for good measure.

I'm still not really skateboarding so well for myself. It's made for a long week. I keep plugging away at it and hope something clicks again soon.

It's going to be a look at the early days of New Balance's skateboard program for next week.

The camera work is by Chris Ortiz.

Thrasher - November 2008 Volume 28 Number 11

Nick Trapasso #3.

"I wish I had took it more seriously now after having a real job, like how easy it was. But yeah, you're kind of on your own schedule just thinking you can do things however you want, but you really should be focused on skating all the time. I was like 50-50 with wanting to party and skate, or just make fun of it. But yeah, it shoulda just been a little more serious, for sure."

Nick reflects on how he maybe should've made better use of time during his pro skateboarding days. He also hampered by a couple of knee injuries. All things considered, he did have a pretty good run as professional skateboarder.

For the quote: Thrasher - April 2023 Volume 44 Number 4

Thrasher - December 2012 Volume 32 Number 12

Pat "Sinner" Pasquale.

The drop.

Pat is from Chicago, Illinois and moved out to Huntington Beach in the early 2000s. He was sponsored by Baker thanks to connecting with Beagle. Erik Ellington gave him the Sinner nickname. In addition to being pro, he handled a lot of the behind the scenes jobs at Life Extention. Sinner closed out their 2014 Theatrix video. He had a three song part that was scored to dubstep. His skating is a mix of technical manuals with some well planned big drops and a couple handrails.

Thrasher - September 2012 Volume 32 Number 9

Life Extention.

Life Extention was started in the fall of 2011 with the products hitting the streets in early 2012. Nick Trapasso and Pat "Sinner" Pasquale were the ones in charge of most things. The misspelling of the name was intentional. The boards were distributed by Blitz, the home of Birdhouse and Flip. They managed to get Jay Strickland to handle the creative duties. Jay knew Nick from the Bootleg days. The team included Jake Duncombe, Beau Reid, Jamie Tancowny, and Tony Tave. As near as I can tell, they ran all of three ads. I was surprised they went with Blitz and thought they partnered with somebody else.

Thrasher - March 2012 Volume 32 Number 3

Nick Trapasso #2.

HO-TEL!

Nick was the talented am from Phoenix with the very relaxed style. He relocated to California during the days of Bootleg in the early 2000s. Nick turned pro for Toy Machine and got in on the ground floor at Converse's rebooted skate program. He had previously ridden for Vans. Converse was quick to give him a pro shoe, too. He had a great part of big stair tech in Thrasher's Prevent This Tragedy video from 2010. He would leave Toy Machine to start Life Extention in 2012. As of 2023, he was working at a motorcycle dealership.

The photographic gnarlitude is by Seu Trinh.

Thrasher - November 2008 Volume 28 Number 11

Blake Carpenter.

Vinyl me, please.

Blake is from Daytona Beach, Florida. He rode for Toy Machine up until 2022 and then floated around without a board sponsor for a couple years. There were rumors of a spot on Nyjah Huston's Disorder, but that never happened. He also moved back to Florida from California. His other sponsors are Nike and Spitfire. He recently started his own company called Vinyl. The team includes Art Cordova and Thomas Dritsas. Blake had a really smooth part for Spitfire in 2024. He has a solid grasp on quality technical skateboarding with a few big handrails thrown in the mix.

Skateboarding has been a chore lately and not fun. I’m trying to work through it with minimal progress. I'll get a couple tricks fine and then struggle with others that I normally can do easily. I hadn't done any switch pop shove-its in a while and then rattled off a bunch of decent ones no problem the last two nights. I'll follow that up with not being able do a boardslide or a 50-50 on a ledge. I guess that's how it goes. This happens to me every few years. I think it might be more of a mental thing, although it has been weird gear issues in the past. I don't exactly know. I'm going to keep on trying and hope things get better.

Jonathan Mehring took the photos.

Thrasher - July 2013 Volume 34 Number 7

Diego Bucchieri #8.

Chopping up the lumber yard.

Diego is from Buenos Aires, Argentina. He had a very successful run for Think and Toy Machine before starting up Cleaver Skateboards. There's kind of a Geoff Rowley air to this photo.

The picture is by Ignacio Morresi.

Thrasher - October 2011 Volume 31 Number 10

Leo Romero #16.

"Man, I don't want to get into that, dude. I mean, I'll say it, but there's so many. My push is jacked, too! But Leo Romero's got a pretty hectic one. I know he was your guy's SOTY, but especially his switch push is very hectic. Antwuan Dixon told me this back in the day, it's like, 'Dude you can take ten little pushes or three or four big, good ones.' I'm more on that side of the fence. I'd rather just take like, three. Sorry, Leo, but to each his own, you know? I'm probably gonna get hated on for that one, but whatever. I get hated on for skating slow, too." - Pat "Sinner" Pasquale

I don't know why I remembered this quote from Sinner. I'm a fan of Leo, but I thought this was funny, too.

The guitar slinger photo is by Kevin Barnett and the noseblunt slinger photo is by Michael Burnett.

For the quote: Thrasher - July 2014 Volume 35 Number 7

Thrasher - August 2011 Volume 31 Number 8

Dan Lutheran #2.

Sun blasted daydream.

Dan is one of Albuquerque's finest hubba and handrail skaters. He's been on Toy Machine and Vans for a long time now. I dig the noseslide photo and how the whole spot is shown. The trick was in Dan's part in Propeller, the Vans video from 2015. He studied art education for a couple years in college before the pro skateboard career took off.

The photographs are by Joe Hammeke and Jonathan Mehring.

Pop shove-it 50-50: Thrasher - September 2011 Volume 31 Number 9

Nose: Thrasher - March 2013 Volume 33 Number 3

Jordan Taylor #2.

"He was a little bit of a slow starter, and he had some injuries, and he's not as gregarious of a personality like Daniel Lutheran. He's a lot quieter. We saw something we liked, he had a lot of different moves. Some companies make the mistake of putting the same rider on over and over again. He has a different bag of tricks. It would be easy to put a rail chomper on. Kevin Barnett, our filmer, was showing me a lot of stuff he was doing, and I liked what I saw." - Ed Templeton

Jordan got on Toy Machine in 2007 and left for WKND in 2016. He turned pro in 2017. He's still involved at WKND, but injuries have taken their toll on his skateboard tricks so he works behind the scenes. Jordan also does a belt and clothing company called Loosey.

I like how the Toy Machine ads were looking in 2012. This would've been in the time after their Brainwash video from 2010. Ed was using bigger photos and not as much additional art. The graphic designer in me hates the small text and copy in the trim zones.

The photo is by Eric "Rodent" Cheslak.

For the quote: Transworld - July 2012 Volume 30 Number 7

Thrasher - February 2012 Volume 32 Number 2

Tom Karangelov #3.

WKND Warrior.

This was the second to last trick from Tom's part in Cold War. His ender involved two homies moving a fence from in front of a set of stairs so he could ollie over a rail to what I'm calling a nosegrind. It's a seven stair rail that Chris Senn and Cairo Foster have skated where they ollie from a set back step to hit the banister. The part was neat because it started to show how Tom was changing his approach to spots from the typical Zero fare to more interesting and overlooked places. He took down some big handrails with gaps for the section, too. The Fugazi and Joy Division tunes didn't hurt either.

Vert Is Dead will be back on Monday, July 7th.

It will most likely be a week of Toy Machine. I've also figured out how to put together a week of Life Extention.

Skateboarding has been a mixed bag lately. I think I'm just old and tired. Have a good weekend.

JT Rhoades took the photo.

Transworld - May 2012 Volume 30 Number 5

John Fitzgerald.

Slapshot.

Much like Donovon Piscopo, John took the Zero to Alien Workshop pipeline. He might even have been on Alien by the time this ad ran. When Jason Dill and Anthony Van Engelen launched FA and Hockey, John went along with them. He's from Glendora, California and has been pro for a while. He's a noted gnarly spot skater who has endured some heavy slams and injuries. His other sponsors include Nike, Thunder, and Pepper Griptape. I think he even slammed so hard once that he broke the ground.

In contrast, Nick Boserio went from the Alien Workshop to Zero and then onward to Polar. It was an ad of Nick that prompted me to do this week of scans. Nick didn't get included because his ad was in the black/white/red design that was used once Cold War was ready for release in 2013.

The photo is by Andrew Peters.

Transworld - December 2011 Volume 29 Number 12

Tony Cervantes #2.

It's nice to know that Tony is still pro for Zero and Fallen in 2025, just like he was back in 2013. He was slated to turn pro around the time of Strange World in 2009, but some injuries and adult life changed those plans. Jamie Thomas granted him professional status after Cold War in 2013. He's a big Jimi Hendrix fan.

Transworld - March 2011 Volume 29 Number 3

Donovon Piscopo #2.

Blemished.

Donovon was an am for Zero and had a few tricks in a montage in Strange World. This boardslide was in his part. He was abducted to the Alien Workshop by the end of 2011. His dad runs Pawnshop Skateshop in Covina, California. He stuck with Jason Dill and Anthony Van Engelen to ride for Hockey after the Workshop closed up. Donovon recently parted ways with Hockey to start his own company called Blem.

The photo is by Johnny Martinez.

Transworld - July 2010 Volume 28 Number 7

Dane Burman.

Municipal rail grinder.

Dane is from Sydney, Australia. In the classic Zero style, he jumps down a lot of handrails. He turned pro off his part in Strange World. Dane rode for Fallen and is still pro for Zero. He once showed up as an uninvited guest to watch Bob Burnquist skate his backyard ramps.

The Zero harsh production schedule is a real thing. Strange World premiered at the end of 2009 and was being promoted in ads up until April 2010. After a few months of Mystery adverts, they announced Cold War in the summer of 2010. It made sense to jump right into a new project because Strange World was mostly montages and shared parts. Zero did deliver Cold War in the fall of 2013.

I like how these ads look. It's a nice break from Zero's usual black, white, and red color schemes.

It's been hot this weekend, but the biggest issue were the high winds. I only fit in a minimal amount of skateboarding due to the breeze. Strange how things like that happen.

Transworld - July 2010 Volume 28 Number 7

Clint Walker #2.

Monolith.

I think it is interesting that for much of its existence Birdhouse has been a street focused company. It's only within the last couple years that Tony Hawk has shifted to primarily sponsoring vert skaters, which reflects what he likes the most about skateboarding. Granted there have always been ramp riders like Elliot Sloan, Lizzie Armanto, Ben Raybourn, and Kevin Staab on the team, but with new faces like Tom Schaar, Greyson Fletcher, and Tate Carew, the move to keep vert alive is in action.

Clint had a gnarly part in Ambiguous Clothing's Modern Art video from 2013. I think that was a nice goth tinged free DVD that came with Thrasher. I have not watched it in a decade so I'm going by hazy memories on that one. They had a solid team with JT Aultz, Matt Bennett, Sean Conover, Clive Dixon, and Luis De Los Reyes, before sputtering out like all skateboard clothing companies do.

I guess it is Go Skateboarding Day this weekend so go skate. Or not. I'm not your boss. Do whatever you feel like doing, but at the least maybe try to buy something from your local shop if that's possible.

With the upcoming heat wave, we're going to have a cold war next week.

It's another lipslide photo by Trevor Vaughn. This is almost like when Girl ran consecutive frontside noseslide advertisements back in the year 2000.

Transworld - December 2011 Volume 29 Number 12

Clive Dixon #2.

Falling apart.

After a decade at Birdhouse, Clive parted ways with the company in the fall of 2021. Nyjah Huston invited him to ride for Disorder soon after. Clive is friends with a couple of the guys on the team and was looking for some new motivation for his skateboarding. He figured skating with Nyjah would do just that. Clive does a lot of big and gnarly handrails. He also is a writer and has dabbled with art for board graphics.

It's been raining the last couple days so I'm finally getting some days off from skateboarding. I hope the break does me some good. I figured out that I'm just old and my knees hurt.

The photo is by Trevor Vaughn.

Transworld - November 2011 Volume 29 Number 11

Elliot Sloan #2.

Spin cycle.

Mr. Sloan adds a heelflip to Mike McGill's Wicked Twister. Elliot has been on Birdhouse for a very long time now. He has a new shoe out in collaboration with Fallen and Birdhouse.

I appreciate the consistency of Birdhouse ads. They've had a few variations, but generally stick with a photo sequence on a solid colored background over the years. It's maybe not the most exciting design, yet it serves its purpose well.

The sequence is by Brian Fick.

Transworld - August 2011 Volume 29 Number 8