Tony Trujillo #8.

Police files.

Tony's interview in the March 2026 issue of Thrasher is a good read. He talks about some health problems he has had, getting sober for the benefit of his kids, the pluses and minuses of being around Jake Phelps, working as a stage hand, and playing in a band. It's cool to take in some of his stories about touring for skateboarding and music. It's also cool to see how he's grown as a person after nearly 30 years in the spotlight.

Slap - October 1998 Volume 7 Number 10

Bob Burnquist #12.

Maximum weirdness.

Bob glides through a unique one footed noseslide at Hubba Hideout. He was kicking his foot off for backside Smith grinds on vert so this was probably somewhere in his zone of odd things he felt comfortable doing on a skateboard. While researching this week, I discovered that Bob has never been featured on the Chrome Ball Incident.

Slap - February 1999 Volume 8 Number 2

Bob Burnquist & Tony Trujillo.

Circa 1999.

Bob flexes his street skills and Tony kickflips at the old days of a Vans park. That black & white photo always sketched me out. It looks scary.

Slap - July 1999 Volume 8 Number 7

Tony Trujillo & Eric J.

Nothing compelled me to get up.

Julien cut and pasted some literature and photos for this one featuring Tony and the late Eric J. I figured I might as well follow up Stereo and Real with the third board line out of Deluxe. I think I've scanned nearly everything from Anti-Hhero for the 1990s so this is about the last of it. I like the older ads that were more handmade over the use of Photoshop in the modern ads. The effect is theoretically the same, but the analog results are far superior.

Slap - December 1999 Volume 8 Number 12

Max Schaaf #18.

Journey to the end.

Max was doing some proper tech on the coping back in his heyday. Most of his maneuvers would cut it in the street on a ledge. He was wisely picking out classic tricks that will look good no matter what the terrain. I understand that everybody's skateboarding skills have improved over the decades, but a little bit of refinement in trick selection can go a long way.

Vert Is Dead is taking a summer break.

I need some time off from magazines, computers, and the internet. It will probably be a one to three week break. I'll see how things feel. Skateboarding has been going OK. I've been trying to roll every day for the sake of being outside in the summer. Have a good weekend.

Slap - February 2000 Volume 9 Number 2

Cairo Foster #15.

Built To Spill vs. Modest Mouse.

Cairo's video parts could spark the 90s version of the classic 80s debate over who is the better band, The Cure or The Smiths. He was only on Real from 1999 to 2002. I didn't realize it was such a short stint because I tend to associate him with Real. He was previously on Mad Circle right before the company went under. Cairo would start Popwar with Giant Distribution before a long run on enjoi. His nollie and nollie kickflip game was on point back in The Reason and Kicked Out Of Everywhere era.

Slap - July 1999 Volume 8 Number 7

Keith Hufnagel #19.

Stryct-Nine.

Keith had a rail and hubba phase for Real's Kicked Out Of Everywhere video in 1999. The part has that extra long kinked square rail he 50-50'd for a DC Shoes ad. You tend to associate him with more cruising down the street and busting tricks over anything in the way, but Huf dabbled with Zero style skating at the time. The results were pretty good.

I think I did have one of the Stryct-Nine nine ply boards. It was OK, but maybe not great. Something wore out on it faster than it should have or the plies separated. I don't remember the exact problem.

Slap - June 1999 Volume 8 Number 6

Salman Agah #9.

Hot Shot.

Big Salman crushes a handrail with a lipslide. This ad would have been from when he returned to Real after riding for the Firm. Salman had a few tricks in their Kicked Out Of Everywhere video from 1999. There were even some vert clips at Max Schaaf's ramp. Salman wasn't on Real too long before heading over to The Black Label in the early 2000s.

It's interesting how Real is constantly tinkering with board construction. None of the innovations seem to stick for long so it makes me wonder how well the new ideas work. Of course, they do probably pick out subtle things that do click and carry those forward for future deck designs.

Weren't there skateboard trading cards in the early 1990s called Hot Shots?

Slap - April 1999 Volume 8 Number 4

Real Team 1999.

Masters of Reality.

Real was running their usual heavy squad for 1999. These are some classic photos with Gonz mobbing a kickflip, Huf doing a big ollie wearing the DC Rick Howard IIs, and Max making a backyard pool appearance. Matt and Quim were also on the team, but didn't make picture day. From a design perspective, it's easier to put together an ad with five or six photos and not seven. I really dig the font Real uses. It's one they've used from time to time.

Slap - February 1999 Volume 8 Number 2

Ethan Fowler & Chris "Dune" Pastras #2.

Imperfections.

What do you do with somebody like Ethan Fowler? He's an important part of skateboard history, but flawed as a person. I don't really have a definitive answer. I suppose you recognize the talent to an extent while mentioning the transgressions.

I haven't posted anything with Ethan since the Free Skate Magazine interview with Benny Fairfax from May of 2021 was published. In the interview, Benny recounts how Ethan called him the n-word at a show Ethan's band was playing in Los Angeles. To say Ethan looks bad in the story is a major understatement. I have no intent to post anything else with him, but I found this ad and was pondering what to do with the characters who ruin their legacies.

I feel like the skate media probably covered for Ethan when he was at his peak. If you read between the lines and piece together assorted stories over the years, you get the sense that his personality could politely be described as prickly at best. I imagine there were a few incidents that were swept under the rug because he could do great backside lipslides on handrails. The fact that he has essentially vanished makes it much easier for him to be lost to the sands of time, which is quite possibly the best case scenario in this particular situation.

Slap - July 1997 Volume 6 Number 7

Carl Shipman #6.

Royal Air Force.

My mind might be a little fuzzy about this, but I think on one of the DC Euro Super Tours they were introducing Carl Shipman at demos as being from the USA simply for the sake of messing with him. It did not go over well with Carl.

Slap - June 1997 Volume 6 Number 6

Matt Rodriguez #7.

A Minor Lipslide.

It's well known that Matt is a musician, but I was mildly surprised that he is also a visual artist. He talks about drawing and wanting to study art at the university level in his Thrasher interview from May of 1994. It's very much possible I simply forgot Matt has done artwork for Stereo, Supernaut, IPath, and Creation over the years.

Slap - April 1997 Volume 6 Number 4

Mike Frazier #11.

Right side up, upside down.

Mike was a staple of modern 1990s vertical skateboarding. He rode for Powell, Birdhouse, Stereo, Toy Machine, Element, and Santa Cruz over the years. He missed having a part in a Toy Machine video. Mike was added to the team after Welcome To Hell and left before Jump Off A Building. I wonder how a part from him would have fit into a Toy Machine flick? His section in Tincan Folklore is a classic. Without double checking, I'm sure this invert was in there. It's good to know Mike is still out there shredding the ramps to this day.

I like how Spitfire would do team lists every now and again to answer any questions about who officially rode the wheels.

Profile: Slap - August 1996 Volume 5 Number 8

Invert: Slap - June 1996 Volume 5 Number 6

Chris "Dune" Pastras #6.

Sonic Raygun.

It maybe gets lost in the shuffle because Chris has worked in the industry for so long, but he's really good at skateboarding. This photo is great. Dune is wearing some Duffs, has the bigger wheels, and is locked in precisely on a frontside railslide. There might even be riser pads on his board.

Dan Rusin's new Into The Void video is out in the world now and it is top shelf stuff. He's even released it on DVD. Dan showcases more Minnesota skateboarding with the likes of Matt Boeltl, TJ Moran, and a few others. It's totally worth checking out.

Slap - June 1996 Volume 5 Number 6

Kenny Hughes #7.

Coastal Hiway.

I've been slowly trying to get more posts of Kenny on here. He was quite the ripper in the 1990s and early 2000s. He's one of those pros that didn't have many interviews so you don't know a lot about him. You'd just hear stories here and there. It adds to the mystique. This might have been his only advertisement for Emerica. Kenny would soon depart for DC Shoes. The switch k-grind was in Element's Third Eye View video from 1998. Everything about this ad is great - the traffic signal photo, the trick, the design, the colors, and the text.

I've been skateboarding lately, but it's not going great. Every trick can randomly become a chore. I don't know, man. I maybe need to take a week off or not be old. Have a fun weekend and stay cool.

Slap - June 1997 Volume 6 Number 6

Phil Shao #15.

Modern freeway systems.

Emerica was running a team list in their ads up until the fall of 1997. The pros were Jamie Thomas, Marc Johnson, Chris Senn, Phil Shao, Donny Barley, Kenny Hughes, Dan Drehobl, John Cardiel, and Darren Navarrette. Tim McKenney and Mike Maldonado were the amateurs. I'm curious about Cardiel's time on Emerica. I don't believe he ever had an ad for them. He was wearing the shoes in his coverage from 1996-98 and did have a few tricks in the Yellow video from 1997. Has he ever mentioned Emerica in an interview? This is one of those curious little bits of trivia that I'd like to know more about. It reminds me of when Rick Howard was on éS for a couple months before he was on DC.

Slap - August 1997 Volume 6 Number 8

Mike Maldonado #7.

Brutalism.

I believe this was Mike's only ad for Emerica. I didn't remember that he even rode for them. It's sort of hard to tell what shoes Mike is wearing in a lot of his photos, but they look like something from Emerica or éS. He was added to the Axion squad in 2000. I miss when skate shoe companies had a line of assorted, somewhat generic in a good sense, plain cupsoles. I might as well make this the obligatory happy 30th anniversary to Welcome To Hell post. It seems like only yesterday the Toy Machine team was doing a demo in a Buffalo parking lot on the tour for the video.

Slap - October 1997 Volume 6 Number 10

Ed Templeton #36.

Description.

Ed was added to the Emerica team in 1998 after Sole Tech put Sheep Shoes out to pasture. He had previously ridden for Vans. He gradually faded away from Emerica as his formal pro career wound down. I think Ed assists Jamie Thomas with his WARSAW shoe project to some extent these days while cranking out the art for Toy Machine. Ed isn't really a backside tailslide guy and this bank looks so rough and bumpy.

Slap - April 1998 Volume 7 Number 4

Andrew Reynolds #21.

Balancing Emerica.

The Boss floats a frontside ollie back in the Birdhouse days. It's a little uncommon to see a skatepark photo of Andrew, particularly for an ad. Emerica has been fairly consistent with their graphic design from the beginning up until now. You seldom see any horrible missteps. Sometimes they try a different green or use fonts that are too small, but they always round back into form. I appreciate that effort. It's cool they have a good looking aesthetic that allows for variation while sticking to their overall image.

Slap - June 1998 Volume 7 Number 6

Jim Menscer #3.

Red Medicine.

Jim was part of the Phillie scene with Ricky Oyola, Matt Reason, and the rest of the crew. I wasn't sure if he turned pro, but this ad confirms that he did. He also rode for Sub Zero and Kastel. His music tastes in the 1990s included Superchunk, Sebadoh, and Fugazi.

I hope everybody has a good holiday weekend. Try to stay cool out there and party smart.

The photo is by Kelly Ryan.

Slap - April 1998 Volume 7 Number 4