Jimmy Wilkins #4.

One of the best videos of the year was Jimmy's "Under, Over" part. He teamed up with fellow Real rider Shea Donavan for a doubles filled vert video filmed at Tony Hawk's ramp. Both excel at proper street tech vertical skating. Jimmy is doing some of the best ollies in all of skateboarding right now. Nobody else looks as smooth and stylish as he does.

Have a good weekend everybody.

Thrasher - February 2022 Volume 43 Number 2

Elijah Berle & Austyn Gillette.

Rodeo Technology.

I guess whatever beef Elijah and Austyn had has been squashed since Austyn had a trick in Elijah's most recent video part. Or maybe they're making it worse? I don't know. It's a strange world these days. The Pretty Sweet ad could almost be an FA ad if it was BW with some film grain and collage elements added. I think Austyn was riding for WKND in 2018. Elijah would leave Chocolate in 2017 to ride for Jason Dill and Anthony Van Engelen's board company. He recently released a new video part full of gnarly handrail stunts set to sad country music.

Elijah: Thrasher - September 2012 Volume 32 Number 9

Austyn: Thrasher - July 2018 Volume 39 Number 7

Evan Smith #5.

Spinning out in the grasslands.

Evan, Roman Pabich, and Trey Wade did a demo at the Food Court Skatepark in the McKinley Mall and hit up Jamestown Skateboard Products two weekends ago. I didn't go because of adult life, but I saw the clips Food Court and JSP posted on the internet. Evan and Roman destroyed Food Court. I know the park fairly well so the tricks they did were amazing. Roman wasn't messing around in the giant bowl in Jamestown either. I'm glad Western New York is starting to have visiting pros swing by for demos and events.

Chops has an awesome new interview with Duane Pitre up at the Chrome Ball Incident.

The photograph is by Brian Gaberman.

Thrasher - November 2014 Volume 35 Number 11

Jamie Foy #2.

Diamond Days.

Mr. Foy has basically dominated skateboarding the last 12 months and is probably on his way to winning a well deserved second SOTY. Diamond started off as a bolt company that grew into a streetwear entity with their own line of sneakers. The shoe team included Foy, Torey Pudwill, Boo Johnson, and Brandon Biebel.

Icon: Thrasher - January 2018 Volume 39 Number 1

SOTY: Thrasher - April 2018 Volume 39 Number 4

Tiago Lemos #3.

Sure Shot.

Tiago has been on quite the roll lately by churning out three full parts of his high tech street skateboarding and scoring the cover of Thrasher. I like that he skated some handrails to add variety to the expected tall ledges. I wanted to find an ad of him on either Listen or BLVD, but that might have been a lot of time spent searching for something that didn't exist so I went with Primitive instead. I think Tiago was still sponsored by DC Shoes in 2019. In a perfect world, he should probably win SOTY this year, but I don't really see that happening. Thrasher needs to impose a one and done rule for the trophy going forward.

The photo is by Oliver Barton.

Thrasher - July 2019 Volume 40 Number 7

Brandon Westgate #6.

No tow-ins.

Brandon has maintained his mastery of giant street ollies and kickflips after all these years as was shown in Intervals, the latest New Balance video. It's too bad he's stuck in board sponsor purgatory by riding for Element, but it somehow seems to be working for him. What's more impressive is that Brandon relied on his legs to get the speed for nearly every trick he did in the part. Modern skateboarding, with its reliance on tow-ins to jump a gap or rail and then crash into a wall upon landing, is uninspiring to watch. I'd rather watch Westgate push.

Thrasher - December 2015 Volume 36 Number 12

Peter Hewitt #20.

Joe Pino's old ledge spot.

Pete gets inverted at the famous Washington Street skateboard park. The place has been around for 25 years now. Thrasher had a story on its history in the November issue. Joe started building concrete benches back in 1999 due to a lack of spots in San Diego. A bench and a flatbar eventually grew into a massive concrete park underneath a bridge.

I know Dickies has had a skateboard team for a while and I was curious who else rode for them. In 2015, they were giving free clothes to Vincent Alvarez, Stevie Perez, Ronnie Sandoval, and Jon Sciano to name a few. I believe Jim Greco was a rider at some point, too. Vincent and Ronnie are still formally on the team in 2024. I imagine Dickies flows a number of other skaters gear, too.

The photograph is by Sam Muller.

Thrasher - December 2015 Volume 36 Number 12