Otis Christian, Danny Webster & Mike Chu.

Got the time.

TIMZ Skateboards was a company out of Las Vegas, Nevada. It makes sense that they sponsored locals Otis Christian and Mike Chu. Former G & S pro Danny Webster also wound up on the squad. I don't really know much about TIMZ beyond these couple of ads from the back of Poweredge. I think Otis later rode for G & S. He had a part in A1 Meat's Dancing in the Dirt video. Mike would turn pro for New School in the 1990s.

Vert Is Dead will be back on Monday, April 21st.

I'm taking a spring break before the countdown to the 4,000th post. I know roughly what skaters I'm going to use. I want to take some extra time to get everything in order.

The weather has been cold and rainy for the week. I've gotten in a little skateboarding, but it wasn't great. I figured out my shoes are done so I have to start breaking in a new pair. I didn't really land much of anything on Wednesday so that's hanging over me. The weekend is maybe shaping up to be milder and dry.

Jeff Shapiro took the photo of Mike. The photo of Danny is credited to Bradley. I'm not sure on a full name.

Otis: Poweredge - October 1989 Volume 2 Number 9

Webster & Chu: Poweredge - March 1990 Volume 3 Number 3

Circle A.

Couch Guy.

Circle A was Bob Schmelzer's company. They were famous for not putting rider names in the ads so I have no idea who this is. For example, they left Ed Templeton's name off an advertisement where he was doing one of the first documented frontside 50-50s down a handrail. The team has included Joe Lopes, Ricky Winsor, Justin Girard, and many others. I always dug their graphics and ad layouts.

Poweredge - October 1989 Volume 2 Number 9

Rob Mertz #2.

Straightedge Shark.

Rob is from Nazareth, Pennsylvania. He's lived in Florida, Texas, and California, too. Rob was pro for Zorlac. He also rode for Indy, Brand X, Skate Rags, Santa Cruz Speed Wheels, and Airwalk over the years. In addition to doing big airs, Rob also innovated some unique tricks on vert.

The interview is by Ken Sigafoos. The photos are by Geoff Graham.

Poweredge - April 1989 Volume 2 Number 3

Steve Schneer #3.

Flip out.

The late Steve Schneer uses his Gullwings to carve over a tight spot in a backyard pool. He was a master of unique inverts that influenced select modern day skaters such as Erick Winkowski. Of note is the Poweredge sticker on his board. There's also a Grind King sticker and it looks like he is using the inverted Grind King kingpins.

Poweredge - April 1989 Volume 2 Number 3

United Skates of America.

The New Breed.

I'd never heard of this before. It was a partnership between Bronze Age clothing from Venice, Shut Skates from NYC, and Cow Skates from the Dayton/Cincinnati area of Ohio. I'm guessing it was for distribution purposes.

I think I figured out the plan for this thing's 4,000 post. It's at 3991 as of today. The initial idea was two weeks of Poweredge from the three issues I scanned from the Look Back Library, but I posted nearly all the really cool ads last summer. I pieced together a best of the rest from those mags for the week and then will go back to the middle 2010s for next week.

Congratulations to Sora Shirai on winning the Tampa Pro.

Poweredge - October 1989 Volume 2 Number 9

Ben Gore #6.

Hipster flash art.

Ben has been ripping for a while now and is a long time pro on Magenta. He showed up with a bunch of tricks in the new Miles Davis video from clothing line Butter Goods.

The high winds have been blowing all week long so it hasn't been a ton of fun going outside for skateboarding. There has been rain, too. I took a trip to Jamestown last Sunday. After getting some new socks at the mall, I swung by Jamestown Skateboard Products to see if they were open. They were and I got to roll for a bit on rainy day. Otherwise, I've just been skating the ledges in my driveway. It'd be nice if the weather improved enough to hit up the park again, but the forecast is looking cold and wet for the week ahead.

The photo is by Josh Stewart.

Transworld - November/December 2017 Issue 389

Brian Powderly.

Maryland Wildlife.

Brian is from Long Island and moved to Baltimore when he was younger. That's where he fully got into skateboarding. Once he was older, Brian headed out west to San Francisco. He is pro for Politic. His part in Static VI is full of quick footwork on spots off the beaten path. He reminds me a little of Bobby Puleo and Jake Rupp in trick selection.

Dial Tone is the wheel company that Josh does under the Theories of Atlantis umbrella. The team includes Alexis Sablone, Jordan Trahan, Zander Mitchell, Trevor Thompson, and Christian Maalouf.

RIP Josh Marlowe.

The photo is by Josh Stewart.

Transworld - September/October 2018 Issue 397

Steve Brandi.

Car wreck.

Steve is from Tampa, Florida. He's a regular in all the assorted Josh Stewart video projects. He's also a tennis instructor on account of his sister being a professional tennis player. Steve has ridden for Planet Earth, Hopps, and Converse. He has his own company called Dance Parti.

Mike Heikkila was the photographer.

Transworld - July/August 2017 Issue 387

John Baragwanath.

Sheepril Fools.

Theories of Atlantis has a bit of fun with a spoof of the classic Sheep Shoes logo and ad design.

The photo is by Josh Stewart.

Transworld - March/April 2019 Issue 397

Brett Weinstein.

Sea calls me home.

Brett is from the Chicago, Illinois area. He reps the Windy City very nicely with his part in Static VI, Josh Stewart's video from 2023. There are plenty of zippy street lines on raw Chicago spots with lots of big ollies. He does a bunch of Smith grinds, too. This lipslide was in the part. He possibly rides for Studio Skateboards.

It's a week of Theories of Atlantis scans. TOA is the long standing umbrella for the assorted projects of Josh Stewart. Josh is a master videographer and engineer of the Static series of videos. Theories also handles the US distribution for Magenta, Evisen, Traffic, Hopps, and others. Additionally, they carry assorted independent videos and print mags such as Free, Skate Jawn, and North Skate Mag.

The photo is by Josh Stewart.

Transworld - March/April 2018 Issue 391

Cole Wilson #2.

"I think Foundation is just an oddity in itself. You look at the history of it and it's all over the map. But so many of my favorite skaters have skated for the brand. We're just oddballs, man."

Barbarian over the gap.

The Louisville handrail destroyer closed out Oddity with a part chock full of banister destruction. He even did a feeble grind with a seatbelt grab, which is a nice tip of the hat to Remy Stratton. Cole stepped away from the professional spotlight a few years back. I think a few injuries took a toll on his body so he called it a day. I can't say I blame him. Even with a relatively short career, for lack of a better word, Cole is in the upper echelon of rail skaters, especially for his 50-50 up a double kink that landed on the cover of Transworld.

It has been too windy this past week for skateboarding to be fun. I've tried, but it has been cold out there.

For the quote: Thrasher - March 2017 Volume 38 Number 3

Thrasher - February 2017 Volume 38 Number

Corey Glick #6.

Breakdown.

Corey used to be on Mystery and even lived at the infamous Black Box warehouse. He went full blown "trying out for the Zero team" in Oddity. I know we tend to think of Corey as more of a smartly refined technical skater, but he could shred the gnar with the best of them in the late 2010s.

Thrasher - January 2017 Volume 38 Number 1

Dylan Witkin #2.

Actual superstar of BMX.

Dylan was a new rider on Foundation for Oddity. This roll-in was the first trick in his part. He crushed a lot of big handrails and gaps in the section. A fun fact is that the Grateful Dead are one of his favorite bands.

Thrasher - November 2016 Volume 37 Number 11

Aidan Campbell & Dakota Servold.

Filling in the gaps.

Aidan and Dakota are both long time Foundation pros who still ride for the company today. Each had a gnarly part in Oddity. This was Aidan's last trick. He takes the frontside bluntslide to fakie off the end of the wall. Aidan skates a lot of rails and ditches. Dakota had been pro for a few years and was starting to establish himself as a high quality handrail destroyer.

Note: Tum Yeto rotates their ads so Foundation wasn't always in the mags every month. They did make an advertising push to promote Oddity at the end of 2016 and leading up to its premiere in 2017. I was hoping to find one more ad in the 'zine collage style, but I couldn't. That doesn't mean it doesn't exist, I simply couldn't find it.

Aidan: Thrasher - March 2016 Volume 37 Number 3

Dakota: Thrasher - August 2016 Volume 37 Number 8

Foundation's Oddity.

Oddities.

Foundation released a video in 2017 called Oddity. It was filmed by top notch videographer Don Luong. I think it was only released online, but Foundation does occasionally do short runs of DVDs. Gripes over physical formats aside, the team at the time was Corey Duffel, Corey Glick, Ryan Spencer, Nick Merlino, Joey Ragali, Dylan Witkin, Dakota Servold, Aidan Campbell, and Cole Wilson. Oddity had the expected high quality music curation that often happens with F-Troop flicks, except I'm ticked they didn't use the song "Oddity" by The Clean. It would've been perfect to work that tune in there somehow. I dig the Swank 'zine style for the ads. That's why I picked this era of Foundation for the week.

Congratulations to Nelly Morville for being moved up to the driver's seat at Limosine with a pro model.

One: Thrasher - December 2016 Volume 37 Number 12

Two: Thrasher - March 2017 Volume 38 Number 3

Kevin Bækkel #2.

Keep on pushing.

The word is that Kevin is off Emerica. I think a few other long time riders haven't been on the team for a while either, like Jeremy Leabres and Rob Pace. Since nobody keeps updated team rider pages on their websites, who actually knows what is going on? All that we hear are vague rumors that the industry is not in a good spot right now, which mirrors most of the last decade or so. It sucks that a company like Emerica is in a slump. At the same time, their shoe designs have been stuck in skateboarding's boat shoe era from 2010. It's not the most practical of styles to stick with so that doesn't help. I like their team and always enjoy the videos, but since physical media is dead, they aren't bringing in extra cash from DVD sales. Things are looking grim, even though everybody is out there skateboarding and churning out more videos than are humanly possible to take in.

The photograph is by Kyle Duval.

Thrasher - May 2018 Volume 39 Number 5

Collin Provost #11.

Chillin' with the dogs.

Collin had a classic part in Emerica's Made video from 2013. He blasts around a bunch of ditches, gaps, ledges, and parks to the sounds of Witchcraft and Radio Moscow. Made was such a good video with a quick run time, strong editing, Emerica appropriate music, and ripping parts from Jeremy Leabres, Leo Romero, and Brandon Westgate. They don't make 'em like that any more.

The weather has been assorted flavors of spring for the week. I started tinkering around with trying some different tricks that I used to be able to do. The results have been mixed. I had fun the one day, but not the other. That's how it goes, I guess. I definitely need to set up a new board soon. I want to start going to the local park again, but it has been too windy on the lake since December. Happy spring.

Thrasher - April 2018 Volume 39 Number 4

Jon Dickson #6.

Ice fishing.

It's always a frontside flip with Jon.

Thrasher - March 2018 Volume 39 Number 3

Kader Sylla #2.

Focused.

I like how Emerica picks a different font for each team rider. They used a hand drawn version of Impact, the font Baker uses, for Kader's name. He didn't ride for Emerica for very long and would be on Vans by later on in 2018. Kader switched to Adidas in 2021. He left Baker for Violet in 2023 and scored a Thrasher cover in 2024.

These ads were a very odd shade of green. I'm not sure if I made them better, worse, or correctly scanned the color.

Thrasher - February 2018 Volume 39 Number 2

Victor Aceves.

Cool green world.

Victor is from Northridge, California. His favorite skaters include Andrew Reynolds, Bryan Herman, Shane Cross, and Ali Boulala. His uncle got him into skateboarding. He grew up skating the Pedlow skatepark. Victor is into drawing and playing guitar. He rode for Toy Machine, Baker, and Foundation. Along with Kader Sylla and Zach Allen, Victor was part of a new am team at Emerica that was featured in the Young Emericans video of 2017. He jumped down a bunch of handrails and big gaps with a degree of technical flare for the flick. This backside Smith grind was the last trick of his section. Victor might also have or have had a vert ramp in his backyard.

The photo is by Kyle Seidler.

Thrasher - January 2018 Volume 39 Number 1

Raney Beres #4.

Old school cellphones.

It's another radical backside ollie photo. As I've said, I've been stoked on that trick lately. Raney has been pro for Anti-Hero for a while now. It's strange how quickly time passes and all of a sudden the young guns have been pro for a decade.

The weather has been firmly in the early spring realm for the week so I've gotten in some skateboarding in the driveway every day after work. I probably have to set up a new board sooner or later. I need to check out the local park since I suspect all the snow is gone. The problem is the temperature has been about seven degrees cooler on the lake than in town. It's also been windy. This is to be expected when the seasons change.

Thrasher - May 2019 Volume 40 Number 5

John Cardiel #19.

Fakie to fakie.

Cards dabbles with a trick that would have fit in well with a 1991 Powell Peralta or H-Street video. A fakie to fakie ollie with a backside grab over a hip is an absurd move to do and was probably not a fun process to work through to a landing. Of course, John makes it look really sick.

The photos are by Gabe Morford.

Thrasher - April 2019 Volume 40 Number 4

Austin Kanfoush.

Cement Mixer.

Austin was born in Texas and moved to Pittsburgh at a very young age. He grew up skateboarding in the Steel City. He also made several trips out to California and got his foot in the door of the sponsorship world. Austin was on the rebooted version of Axion before landing at Vans. He lived in San Francisco for a while before moving to Napa with his wife and kids. In addition to his skateboard skills, Austin is known for his construction work. He knows how to build stuff with concrete. Thrasher has used his talents for an ongoing video series on building ramps and obstacles. I liked his soulful frontside kickturn on a piece of modern art photo for the July 2022 cover of Thrasher.

Thrasher - July 2018 Volume 39 Number 7

Brian Anderson #16.

Pop culture infused trick.

BA flew to the Eagle at the end of 2016 when 3D flattened out. It's cool that Julien wanted him to ride for Anti-Hero all the way back in the 1990s. He's still riding for Anti-Hero.

Thrasher - January 2017 Volume 38 Number 1

Anti-Hero Park Build.

Concrete.

I like the simplicity and atmosphere of this ad.

Anti-Hero turns 30 this year. The company was launched in the middle of 1995 with a debut ad in Thrasher that September. The original team was Julien Stranger, John Cardiel, Bob Burnquist, Eric Jalovaara, and Sean Young. Julien had been on Real and John was on Black Label. I think Bob was on Real and probably visited the states knowing that he would be part of Anti-Hero. I'm unsure if Eric and Sean had board sponsors. Everybody knows this already and I'm not adding anything new. It's interesting to look at where the Eagle started, where it has been, and where it is today.

Thrasher - February 2015 Volume 36 Number 2

Justin Modica.

Knives on the mind.

Justin is from Texas. He lives in Phoenix with his family and a vert ramp in his backyard. He rode for Send Help/High Five when those companies were around back in the day. Justin has a business creating finely crafted, elaborately decorated knives.

The weather was a mix of late winter/early spring this week. I've only been skateboarding in the driveway on my assortment of ledges. There's still snow at the skatepark. I think I skated the best for me on the colder days and not the one truly warm day, which is how it goes sometimes.

This thing is creeping up on 4,000 posts very soon. I'm trying to figure what I should do for the moment.

The photo is by Coburn Huff.

Thrasher - October 2017 Volume 38 Number 10

Zane Timpson #3.

Zane steps into a fakie 50-50 by way of a 43. This trick has a bit of a Patrick Melcher flair to it.

The photographic sequence is by Tadashi Yamaoda. The collage art for the layout would have been by Zane.

Thrasher - May 2019 Volume 40 Number 5

Nora Vasconcellos #9.

Cobblestone quarter.

I've been stoked on backside ollie photos lately.

The picture is by Sam McGuire.

Thrasher - May 2019 Volume 40 Number 5

Aaron Herrington #6.

Aaron had a great part in Polar's I Don’t Even Know How To F**cking Airwalk video from 2024. I imagine his section was maybe overlooked a little because the video was dominated by the frenetic skating of Emile Laurent and that's fine. Emile is in his prime and deserves the attention for the wreckless stunts he does. Aaron is an elder statesman at this point and he delivers some high quality rail and gap skating in his hometown of Portland. A fun bit of trivia about Aaron is that he used to ride for Blood Wizard.

Thrasher - June 2018 Volume 39 Number 6

Ben Kadow #2.

The supposed story is that Ben declined an interview request with Thrasher, but asked to write a Skarfing Material column instead. They happily honored his request.

Thrasher - June 2018 Volume 39 Number 6

Tony Hawk #16.

Prototypical.

The feel good story that makes you feel old is that Tony is a now grandfather. His son Riley married Frances Bean Cobain, the daughter of Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love, in 2023. Tony recently publicly announced that the couple has a daughter with a post on Instagram.

The Prototype was Tony's heavily Airwalk inspired model on Lakai. They kicked it back to the Powell Peralta and backyard ramp days for this most Transworld of ads.

The photos are by Grant Brittain.

Thrasher - October 2018 Volume 39 Number 10

Lizzie Armanto #3.

It's rad how Lizzie has a backyard vert ramp that routinely pops up in photos and video parts for herself and other skaters. She's had the ramp a long time, too. It's good to see that backyard ramps still exist.

The weather has been mellow for the last few days so I've gotten in some skateboarding after work in the driveway. The local park is going to be buried under snow for a while longer. I also went to Jamestown Skateboard Products on Saturday. It was the first time I had been there since November. Their street course is really fun with a bunch of low impact concrete hips and banks to go with an extra long 10" straight ledge.

Thrasher - May 2017 Volume 38 Number 5

Roman Pabich #2.

El Memorioso.

Roman is another pro looking for a board sponsor after UMA Landsleds ended. He released a part appropriately titled Sponsor Me at the start of 2025. His street and transition skills are top notch. Roman isn't afraid to throw down some kickflip and/or varial grabs either. He stopped at Jamestown Skateboard Products this past fall and ripped up the big bowl.

Thrasher - June 2017 Volume 38 Number 6

Daniel Espinoza, Jon Sciano & Sebo Walker.

Anchors away.

This was a series of custom colorways Lakai did for skateshops in 2015.

I've been trying to get whatever Jon Sciano coverage I can find scanned for here. He had about three ads for Lakai plus short interviews in Transworld and Thrasher. His name pops up every now and again. Dude had a ripper of a part in Lakai's The Flare video.

The photos are by Ben Colen and Hendrik Herzmann.

Thrasher - March 2015 Volume 36 Number 3

Cody Chapman #4.

Call it morning.

Cody has some of the best hardflips in the business. He has had a tough go with sponsorships recently with the lame corporate hi-jinx at Lakai and UMA Landsleds closing up shop. The Cold Dawg has been riding Anti-Hero boards and wearing Converse shoes lately. Cody dropped a new part with Ace Trucks to start the year so maybe things will get better.

The photo is by Jordan Tabayoyon.

Thrasher - January 2014 Volume 35 Number 1

Dick Rizzo #2.

Billennium Soundscape.

Dick is from New Jersey and grew up skateboarding in New York City. He was riding for Habitat before Quasi came into the picture. They turned him pro in 2019. He was also riding for HUF footwear and is currently on their clothing team. Vans provides him with all the cool looking Half Cabs these days. Dick is into drawing and painting.

Note: The wallride ad already ran on here, but it was laid out differently for Thrasher than what was printed in the Skateboard Mag so I decided it was OK to rerun it.

Pole jam: Thrasher - February 2018 Volume 39 Number 2

Wallride: Thrasher - May 2017 Volume 38 Number 5

Jake Anderson.

Griptape Voice.

Jake is the younger brother of long time Krooked pro Mike Anderson. He currently is a professional for FA Entertainment and Spitfire. I think he rides for Nike, too. Jake previously rode for Skate Mental. Austyn Gillette's Former clothing company is also one of his sponsors. He kind of skates like his brother Mike with some wallride and ditch tricks, but he does more handrails and bigger gap ollies.

Nosegrind: Thrasher - January 2018 Volume 39 Number 1

Ollie: Thrasher - March 2017 Volume 38 Number 3

Matt Gottwig.

An unknown bird.

I guess Matt is from either California or Seattle. He's ridden for Krooked for a long time and turned pro in 2021. Matt's got a really good trick selection and choice of spots. Atiba Jefferson contributed the music to his 2021 video part called Birds.

Frontside 50-50: Thrasher - March 2018 Volume 39 Number 3

Backside 50-50: Thrasher - April 2017 Volume 38 Number 4

Tyler Bledsoe & Dan Plunkett.

Out of the way locations.

Tyler rode for the Alien Workshop until 2015 when he joined the team at Quasi. His footwear sponsor prior to HUF was Etnies. He's still on Quasi and working as a tattoo artist in Portland, Oregon. Dan was riding for Skate Mental back in 2017. He currently rides for Kevin Terpening's Swim Skateboards.

HUF was really pushing the HUPPER 2 model for 2017, as in it was in nearly every ad. I don't think I was exactly into this shoe back then, but I'd wear a pair of these today for sure.

Tyler: Thrasher - September 2017 Volume 38 Number 9

Dan: Thrasher - November 2017 Volume 38 Number 11

Brad Cromer & Josh Matthews.

Massive HUF blowout.

Brad takes what I'm guessing to be a Krooked Zip Zaggger shaped deck up a flight of stairs while Josh spins a nollie full Cab over a fence. Brad is still pro for Krooked. Josh was pro for Habitat.

I scanned a bunch of adverts for HUF from 2017-18 for the week. I dug the graphic design and photos.

Brad: Thrasher - July 2017 Volume 38 Number 7

Josh: Thrasher - August 2017 Volume 38 Number 8

Alex Olson & Dylan Rieder.

In Excess.

Alex and Dylan high five in a screen shot from Supreme's Cherry video. Dylan was at the peak of his career and crushing it in the streets. It's hard to believe this video was released 11 years ago now. I have a copy on DVD. I don't think I watched it very often. I liked parts of Cherry, but I wasn't into the editing or the music or something. The video did introduce us to a lot of skaters who would rise to fame over the next decade, including Tyshawn Jones, Beatrice Domond, Ben Kadow, and Sage Elsesser to name a few.

The snow has been off and on. There hasn't been much accumulation, although it has been blustery. I got to skateboard in the driveway for a long time on Saturday afternoon and then fit in a couple quick after work sessions to start the week. It's the doldrums of winter so I'd like to hit up an indoor park this weekend. I don't exactly see the weather permitting such a thing.

Thrasher - May 2014 Volume 35 Number 5

Kevin Bradley.

"Kev is down for life. I handed him the keys to The Kibitz Room. Only a few have opened it at 10 AM and closed it at 2 AM. Kev is one of them." - Neckface

For the quote: Thrasher - December 2020 Volume 41 Number 12

Thrasher - July 2015 Volume 36 Number 7