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