Jamie Thomas #18.

Happy Halloween!

Jamie was on Mercury prior to starting the Monster project. The rollout was deliberately on the slow side with them taking five months to show a picture of a truck. Starting in October was a good move for a scary looking brand. The nosegrind was the second ad. Jamie's origin blurb was printed eight months after the launch. One thing I'm not sure on is how fast the mags were printing back then so it is kind of hard to pin down exact dates. I want to say Transworld was maybe a bit ahead of the calendar and everybody else was on the proper monthly schedule, but I'm not positive. The Monster ads kind of have a similar feel to what Circa was doing, with all black, night time skateboarding photos. Jamie would switch to Thunder after a couple of years of being scared of the dark.

Nosegrind: Transworld - November 2000 Volume 18 Number 11

Statement: Transworld - June 2001 Volume 19 Number 6

Monster Trucks.

Scary monsters, super creeps.

Monster was started in the fall of 2000. It was a truck brand from Giant Distribution, the home of Element, 411, Destructo, and more. Jamie Thomas was the primary force behind the trucks. The team also included Brian Anderson, Heath Kirchart, and Alex "Trainwreck" Gall. The general artistic direction for the company was dark and spooky, which makes sense, but I'm not sure how well it worked. The look reads as kind of campy in retrospect. I never had a set of Monsters and I don't recall seeing a pair in the wild. I imagine they sold at least a little because of how popular Jamie was at the time. Monster only lasted a couple of years and the riders dispersed to other truck brands soon after.

Note: These things were a mix of blacks and grays on pages that had a little warping from being in the basement. Hence, the scans aren't perfect.

Afraid: Transworld - October 2000 Volume 18 Number 10

List: Transworld - March 2001 Volume 19 Number 3

Trucks: Transworld - December 2001 Volume 19 Number 12

Chris Senn #13.

Death to False Metal.

The Senn Dog puts the metal to the rail for this bluntslide. I think he was on the second go-round of Adrenalin for boards at the time of this photo.

I only ever used the red or black Speed Metal bearings and didn't dabble with their higher performance models. I think by the end they were just making the cheaper red versions.

If you need something to do this weekend, Jamestown Skateboard Products is having their annual King of the Ramp event on Saturday night. There's a contest in the bowl, Halloween costumes, live music by Tiny The Dream, and all sorts of fun. Rumor has it the Lowcard crew is in town for the party.

Shout out to Theories of Atlantis. They were as stoked as I was on that John Igei ollie for an Aesthetics ad.

Are you afraid of the dark? You should be.

Thrasher - November 2002 Volume 22 Number 11

Steve Nesser #8.

"The scene here was pretty much vert and ramp, so all the ramp rippers like Darren Navarrette, Dave Leroux, and Seth "Zed" McCallum ripped and got me psyched. But watching vert and mini-ramp sessions were inspiring because, other than videos, I never got to see that. The only video I owned was Hokus Pokus; that shit is still ill. Mostly we would just skate around, and we had our own spot like EMB called The Fed. That was the everyday street spot; there were some rippers, for sure."

Steve breaks down his hometown scene in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

For the quote: Thrasher - November 2007 Volume 27 Number 11

Thrasher - September 2002 Volume 22 Number 9

Jason Adams #22.

Pointedly punk.

The Kid recently celebrated his 50th birthday.

Speaking of aging, I thought I might be at the age where I'm retired from doing flip tricks, but I've been on a roll with heelflips, just like the olden days. The only drawback is that missed flip tricks mess up your grip tape and that bugs me.

I still need to figure out what wheel size to go with next. I could use up this set of 54s I've got, give 56s a go or order a new set of 55s.

Thrasher - March 2002 Volume 22 Number 3

Donny Barley #9.

"I was born in New London, Connecticut and raised just over a bridge in a town called Groton. Poquonnock Bridge is the actual name of the area I lived in Groton. We have very cold winters - winters that would often hinder us from skateboarding. So back in the day, me and my boys would bundle up and shovel out skate spots and sweep the sand and salt away and session just about anything in town we could dig out."

Gnarly Barley talks about the process for skateboarding in the winter.

For the quote: Transworld - October 2005 Volume 23 Number 10

Thrasher - January 2002 Volume 22 Number 1

Mike Rusczyk #10.

Real Fast Metal.

Speed Metal was a bearing brand out of Giant that was launched in 1998 and lasted until about 2015. I rode them for nearly the entire time. They seemed to be good bearings. I figure as long as they are new and clean, most bearings will be fine.

Remember when Giant distributed Zoo York? Me neither. This is from a fall 1998 catalog so I wonder if Zoo had some type of production and distro deal for the Mixtape video?

Thrasher - November 2001 Volume 21 Number 11