Keith Hufnagel #5.

Real did a lot of ads in the mid to late 1990s that would be spread out over a couple of pages in Thrasher. This one the showed the spot first and then when you turned the page, you would get to see what trick Huf did.

Thrasher - December 1997 Volume 17 Number 12

Meshach Harrell.

This is a rad photo. I've never heard of Meshach before and didn't remember the ad at all. I found it when I was looking for Freedumb stuff.

Slap - September 1997 Volume 6 Number 9

Rob Carlyon.

Straight from the Hawaiian Islands, Rob rode for New Deal and turned pro for ATM. I'm not exactly sure what he is up to these days.

Rob's a hard guy to find coverage of. I've been looking to see if he had a New Deal ad and couldn't find any other than a group am one. I'm wondering if he had a truck or wheel ad ever.

Theo Hand was the photographer.

Slap - August 1997 Volume 6 Number 8

Javier Nunez.

I watched R.B. Umali's NY Revisited 1996-97 the other night to make sure Javier did do the perfect switch kickflip over the wall at the Brooklyn Banks as the ender. He did.

NY Revisited is a good video since it has a ton of different skaters on the streets of NYC. I'm sure most of the footage has been in other videos. There's some cool stuff with the Cardona brothers and Keith Hufnagel. Keenan Milton has a few tricks and there's one trick from Gino. Peter Bici is underrated. Andy Bautista isn't afraid of blasting some big street grabs, which seems oddly out of place for the vid, but at the same time provides a nice variety.

I always get requests for Menace. I liked the company, had a board or two and never really thought much about them after the name changed a couple of times. Menace always seemed like another World Industries subdivision to me. Here today, gone tomorrow. That apparently is not the case as I was surprised at all the fans who were super into the company when I started doing Vert Is Dead back in 2008. It's fascinating what parts of skateboarding history stick with you compared to what registers with other people.

Thrasher - August 1997 Volume 17 Number 8

Gino Iannucci.

Gino turned pro for Black Label a long time ago now. He switch kickflipped the stairs at the now demolished Hubba Hideout and backside heelflipped the Gonz gap at EMB during those days. He moved onto 101 before settling in at Chocolate for the last fourteen years or so. He runs a skateshop in Long Island called Poets.

Dimitry Elyashkevich took the action photo and Michael Burnett took the lifestyle photos.

Big Brother - September 1997 Issue 28

Zoo York Assassination Squad.

Fully equipped with an army of lawyers.

I don't think Zoo York would try this ad again today. It totally taps into the mid 1990s hip hop influence that was central to the image of the company. I don't think anybody would publish it either. Even back in the day, Big Brother was probably the only mag that was cool with it.

Eli Morgan Gesner took photos.

Big Brother - June 1997 Issue 26

Freedumb Clothing.

Happy Valentine's Day.

Freedumb was Dan Drehobl's clothing company. It was distributed by Think, Dan's board sponsor at the time. In addition to Phil Shao and Tim Upson, Jim Greco and Ed Templeton were on the team. All the graphics were Dan's dumb little drawings. It was awesome and gave us this gem of advice from Dan:

"Whatever you do, don't get a piss cat tattoo."

Vert Is Dead will be back on Monday, February 21st. I need a break from the internet.

Slap - January 1997 Volume 6 Number 1