Will Harmon #2.

The shoes of Walt "Clyde" Frazier.

Will does a nollie backside tailslide while wearing one of Puma's more classic shoe designs. He is the editor of the very fine Free Skate Mag these days.

Vert Is Dead will be back on Monday, August 7. I need a break from this thing.

Famous director and photographer Cheryl Dunn documented the skateboard riding.

Slap - September 1996 Volume 5 Number 9

Richard Paez #3.

Jesse's younger brother throws down some ledge tech. Richard had some switch skills, as he did an opposite footed pole jam for a Spitfire ad in June of 1998, too.

Lance Dalgart took the picture.

Slap - June 1996 Volume 5 Number 6

Jimmy Chung.

Jimmy is Chinese and was born in Vietnam. His family moved to the states a long ago from now. He lived in Philadelphia and was sponsored by American Dream Inc., Fairman's skateboard shop, Wheelie Co., and Venture. Jimmy liked skating all the East Coast cities.

The photo is by Ryan Gee.

For the info: Slap - January 1996 Volume 5 Number 1

Slap - May 1996 Volume 5 Number 5

Robbie Gangemi #3.

Robbie uses his catlike reflexes to pounce into a backside tailslide on a handrail. Puma had a small team, but they mixed it up with guys from California, the Northeast, and the South. That's probably a good strategy to spread the riders around to different parts of the country.

I've been in a weird slump for skateboarding the last month. I'm not skating bad, it's simply not clicking on every cylinder. I think I'm still getting used to riding 55 mm wheels again, which is taking more time than I expected. Taller wheels are also wider wheels and that will mildly alter things. My trucks are getting worn out as well and that probably has something to do with it, but I want to ride this pair down until I hit axle. It's nice to have the extra speed for the few times I go to the skatepark, but ollies are still popping strangely at times and grinds don't lock in correctly.

Dimitri Elyashkevich was the photographer.

Slap - March 1996 Volume 5 Number 3

Kien Lieu #7.

With ASICS recently launching a skateboard footwear line, I thought I'd look at a slice of Puma's effort from the 1990s. Even with how popular their shoes were for skateboarders in the low 1990s, the official skate program never really connected. The ads didn't have the best design so that probably didn't help the cause any. The shoes looked very much like the 1990s, by being well padded cupsoles.

We often make a simplified generalization that all a company has to do is make basic skate versions of a couple of their iconic shoes and it will work out fine, but it never does. Maybe that's a harder task than it sounds. I also imagine there are too many cooks in the kitchen at the large shoe companies so the undertakings are doomed from the get-go.

I watched some of the X-Games this weekend and it was fine.

The photo is by Ed Dominick.

Slap - February 1996 Volume 5 Number 2

Gershon Mosley & Dave Mayhew.

Game over.

This is the wrap up of the A-Team trick contest. Both Gershon and Dave's tricks went unmatched and nobody got the money.

GMOS was inspired by Yoshi Obayashi, a unique ripper who rode for Milk and Z.

Even though Marc Johnson's trick was labeled a frontside nosegrind to nollie 180 flip, the trick he is doing is actually a switch nosegrind to half cab kickflip out. Marc is regular foot. I had never noticed that before, although I did think the second and third frames looked odd for some reason. I wonder if the minor deception was intentional to make the contest seem more possible?

Dave's photos are by Steve Celentani. Wez Lundry took the picture of Yoshi.

Gershon: Transworld - December 1998 Volume 16 Number 12

Dave: Transworld - February 1999 Volume 17 Number 2

2K: Transworld - January 2000 Volume 18 Number 1

Yoshi: Thrasher - September 1997 Volume 17 Number 10

Marc Johnson & Jonathan Lindengerg.

Marc's trick for the contest was a frontside nosegrind to nollie 180 flip out. Jonathan Lindengerg was able to do the trick and win $1000. I get that Marc is trying to be funny, but notice the difference between this ad and how excited Rodney Mullen was about the tricks being duplicated.

It's also worth noticing that the A-Team changed their logo in the ten months between the ads.

Marc's ad was photographed by John Old.

Marc: Transworld - January 1999 Volume 17 Number 1

Jonathan: Transworld - November 1999 Volume 17 Number 11