Tom Schaar #2.

Zombie.

A young Tom catches a stalefish in a pool. He would have been on Element back in 2012. These days he's riding for Birdhouse Projects and New Balance. Tom used his vert skills in the recent Thrasher bowl contest at Supreme in LA. He was blasting some big airs and getting tricks on a very tall makeshift Supreme extension. It was cool to see Hugo Boserup tearing up the bowl to win the contest, too.

Try to stay warm out there. Spring has to get here sooner or later. I'm almost mildly optimistic about getting to an indoor park to skateboard this weekend. Our usual winter cycle is snow a couple days, dig out, warm up, dry up, and then snow again. You can fit in some skating at the end of that cycle, but we haven't had a break from the snow and it sure hasn't warmed up.

The photo is by Mike Blabac.

Transworld - December 2012 Volume 30 Number 12

Chris Joslin #2.

Champion Matador.

Now that the dust and hot takes have settled, we can evaluate Chris winning Thrasher's SOTY for 2025. I feel he picked up the honor for a career body of work, along the lines of when Anthony Van Engelen won. Add into that one amazing 360 flip with a great backstory and it's a done deal. That said, he's still an oddly surprising choice. I had the frontrunners as Antonio Durao, Greyson Fletcher, TJ Rogers, and Tom Schaar so Joslin wasn't on my short list. I figured Tom would win because of two ridiculous vert parts and knowing that Michael Burnett has a soft spot for the tamers of giant halfpipes.

Joslin has been out there hucking flip tricks down massive stairs and gaps for over a decade now in the skateboarding spotlight. He isn't somebody I keep up with. I'll watch a video part here or a contest run there and that's about the extent of it. He's great at what he does, it's not the type of skateboarding I'm into. And that's fine.

I remember when he turned pro and how popular he was with certain skaters. Joslin was also on nearly every other page of the mags back in the middle 2010s. His part in Album, the Etnies video from 2018, is a tour de force of big gaps, ledges, and handrails. He even does a couple of no-complies and 43s in the section.

I am curious about how Plan B is doing these days. I can't imagine they have the draw they once had. I think they probably do have a fan base that keeps buying the boards. I live in a poor area to do market research on what is popular, but I've seen more Hardbody decks than Plan B for whatever that is worth. I'm also curious what the average skater thinks of the new version of Lakai. My guess would be they are oblivious to all the behind the scenes ownership changes that cost the brand most of its supporters. I'm just wondering aloud about all these things since we don't have Transworld Business publishing the numbers like we used to back in the day.

The photo is by Sam McGuire.

Thrasher - August 2017 Volume 38 Number 8

TJ Rogers.

Survivor.

TJ had a productive 2025 with several video parts of gnarly street tech and a pro shoe on éS. He's from Whitby, Ontario. Bill Weiss hooked a fellow Canadian up with a sponsorship from Blind in the early 2010s. When Dwindle came to an unsightly end in 2022, TJ found a home at SK8MAFIA. He's elevated ledge tech to new heights and distances while also still jumping down big stairs as he gets older.

Thrasher - September 2025 Volume 46 Number 9

Bobby de Keyzer #2.

Canadian Broadcasting Company.

Bobby filmed an entire video part at the plaza next to the CBC's office building in downtown Toronto. He spent the fall of 2024 with videographer Tomas Morrison going back to the plaza enough times until he was probably sick of the place. I believe he said it wasn't really one of his favorite spots and wanted to see what he could do there over time. BOBCBC is an arty middle ground between a traditional video part and a raw files dump. You get to see the process Bobby uses for landing tricks and putting together lines, along with all the frustration that goes into said process. Barret Avner's experimental score keeps the video moving along. It's a good soundtrack to break up the repetition of the tricks and broken boards. I like how they included bits of weather data throughout the project. I listen to the CBC radio station that Bobby is skating in front of so there's some kind of odd connection for me to the part.

The sequence was documented by Mike Blabac.

Transworld - January 2015 Volume 33 Number 1

Tristan Funkhouser #2.

"You go disco and I'll go Funkadelic, man."

DC dropped two new ams on us in 2015 with four pages of ads in Transworld. The new riders were Tristan and Bobby de Keyzer. Both would go on to become pro and are very much relevant to skateboarding right now so that was some good talent scouting at DC. T-Funk has been wrecking both spots and himself the last few years. He still rides for Baker and I think he might be on Vans.

It was cold and snowed this weekend so there was no skateboarding again. I've been trying to watch some old videos on DVD and I gave Grey Area's Neverwhere from 2018 a fresh viewing. The whole video is really good with Michal Juraś having an outstanding closing part. Neverwhere opens with a skater ollieing up onto a car and slamming. The video ends with him making the ride over the car after the credits. I'd never noticed that bit of symmetry before. Try to stay warm out there.

The photo is by Mike Blabac.

Transworld - January 2015 Volume 33 Number 1

Antonio Durao #4.

Interlude.

A young Antonio does one of his patented switch 360 flips down a six block in San Jose. He had a few interesting video parts for Hardbody and Spitfire in 2025 that put him in the mix as a legitimate contender for SOTY. I bet Girl thought they had the next Gino Iannucci when they added Antonio to the team. I'm still not really sure what I think of Hardbody, but I dig how grainy and ambiguous all their videos and ads are. It was cool to see some new footage from Hjalte Halberg to close out the year.

It's been cold here all week and is looking to be cold here all next week. The odds of getting skateboarding any time soon aren't looking so hot. It is January so this tracks.

Sam Muller was the photographer.

Transworld - August 2015 Volume 33 Number 8

Nathan Midgette.

Bones Brigade.

Skeleton Key is Darren Navarrette's company. He started it more than a few years back to make copers, t-shirts, and other assorted vert related trinkets. Darren has expanded the manufacturing to include boards. Nathan, Alex Hajimihalis, and Josh Rodriguez comprise the pro team. Nate is the son of Schmitt Stix pro Allen Midgette. He drew the graphics for his board, but it looks kind of like something his dad would've created. I'm stoked on seeing their ads in Thrasher every month. It's a nice throwback to the 1980s vert days while adding a contemporary touch.

The photo is by J. Grant Brittain.

Thrasher - September 2025 Volume 46 Number 9