Cardiel

Unbelievable style in this shot.

Menace 9D5

Restless Youth

New York State of Mind

Nice Thrasher article from the glory days of 1995.

Wallride

Two photos of a wallride nollie out executed by none other than Ryan Hickey. A simple and stylish trick that can either look oh so bad or oh so good. The best one I can think of is in this montage from Eastern Exposure 3. I was always bummed that the frontside flip was cut from Eastern Exposure Zero.

Bobby

Benchmark

For sure one of the best ads of all time from the best skateboarder. Scabs on ankle and foot, 'lil dose of front foot "English", rad trick, classic spot, and a nice color combo if you are into that sort of thing. Maybe the last Stranger ad before Anti-Hero?

Jeff Pang

Another one of those '94 era Zoo York ads that I love so much. Jefferson Pang has a hot interview over at Bobshirt right now, so go peep if you haven't already. In other news, I've added a couple links in the sidebar, one is Haunted-Graffiti, which belongs to my friend and fellow street person, Gavin. It's a blog about hip-hop and Icelandic existentialism, I think. The other site I've added is essentially a better version of this site, it's called Chrome Ball Incident and there are already a bunch of gems up on there. The content seems to be slightly earlier-90's themed than what I post, which is good because my earliest magazines are from about 1993 or so.

American Original

I risk sounding horribly pretentious by admitting that the Kerouac quote kind of parallels the way I feel about skating. Maybe that's the point of the ad.

Loose

Just got back from my little trip. Updates will be more regular now, sorry that the blog has been sucking so hard lately. Gotta thank Seb and especially Jacob for putting me up. Check the Lewis Cruise myspace for videos and updates about our posse; a legit website is coming very soon. I don't have anything on there yet, but I'm working on a part for the next one, due out in early fall.

Back on topic - here is a nice Scott Johnston photo from Transworld. The gear kind of dates this one; DC logos such as the one on SJ's shirt were pretty hideous in retrospect. I think the reason I say that is because the shirt that he is wearing kind of clashes with the rest of the photo, if that makes any sense. Just like how you wouldn't want to look at a photo of someone skating Brooklyn Banks in D3's. It's all about being tasteful.

More Leo

Drake

Matt Reason

Good to GO!

Julien from 1993 - 180 to "backward grind".

Posts might be a little sparse for the next week or so as I'll be away from my computer on a little skate venture. I'll still put stuff up when I can find a computer.

Sean Mullendore

While reading the Sean Mullendore interview and watching the accompanying video part over at the always amazing 48 Blocks it occurred to me that I hadn't yet posted any photos of him. I'm glad to hear that he still skates, if only every now and then.

Dill

Jason Dill has been one of my favorite skaters for as long as I can remember. I always look forward to seeing what he will come out with next; every video part of his is unique, completely different from whatever he was doing before but equally sick. There are some skaters that I admire for maintaining a style or staying true to whatever it is they do throughout their career, but there is definitely something insanely exciting about the guys who just constantly move forward and evolve in random ways; you never know what to expect. I'm also a big fan of Dill's interviews because he always has something interesting to say and doesn't hold back. Here is an interview with Jason from 1997, when he was riding for the excellent 23 Skateboards. Notice the f/s tail at Chicken's was pretty far ahead of that annoying trend of street dudes trying to get photos skating pools, which usually resulted in a 'hand down' f/s rock or an artsy barefoot carve.

Gall

Quim Cardona

More Quim! This interview is from Thrasher, 1996. That switch ollie at Fort Miley has got to be one of the best shots of that trick, ever.

Credo

Credo was an incredible video from Tantrum distribution (Fit Skateboards, C/o Wheels, Civilian Clothing) that remains underrated and unseen. Amazing skating from all the dudes you wanted to see but never did, as well as a choice soundtrack. Tantrum ads were generally great as well, if a bit hit-or-miss; this one definitely hits the mark though and seems to encapsulate the vibe of the team perfectly. I've been steady linking to videos from BobShirt lately; I sure hope they don't mind me making use of their treasure trove to emphasize my point.

Joey Alvarez

After scanning this photo I realized that Joey was skating a Menace board, which makes perfect sense as when I envisioned making this post in my head the main thrust was going to be to point out that he would have been a perfect fit for the Menace squad. Nice backside tail, not switch as the caption stated but fresh nonetheless.

Looking at his setup also made me wonder if dudes are going to go back to skating small boards anytime soon. It seems like everybody skates an eight incher nowadays, myself included. I think that Girl should pioneer a new trend and bring back the Mariano 'toothpick tail' shape(also used on some Sheffey models) - here's a photo of a couple I skated back then and somehow still have a decade later:

Judging by the novice sticker job, I guess I liked Es Footwear and Big Brother back then. Anyway, I snapped the one on the left doing a kickflip or frontside flip over a bench the same day I set it up, which explains the condition of the paint - I remember going to the skateshop that day and purchasing the exact same board, which I most likely broke in a few days as well. I think I ran this shape exclusively for about a year, or until I got tired of snapping a board every week or so. What this shape lacked in durability it more than made up for in flippability; the functionality of this shape in the switch tre and inward heel department was far superior to whatever else was available at the time. Didn't work as well for tailslides though, unless you had like a size 6 foot, which was about all that could fit on that tail. Still, an excellent shape which is definitely worthy of a reissue. In retrospect, another huge reason that I liked these so much was probably just because it was Guy's board - I had about eight of these boards in a row as well, and they had a completely different shape - one which was definitely more suited to all-terrain dominance. Not that I was dominating any terrain, but had I felt the urge to do so I couldn't have picked a better cue.

Jason Dill

A photo and a sequence of Jason Dill from the 101 days.

Kenny Reed

Early Kenny Reed coverage was really sick, and inspired a lot of ollie "roastage" in my neck of the woods. While New Deal was pretty flavorless at that point, they managed to put together a decent team by the time 7 Year Glitch came out; definitely a few good parts in that video. I wonder what happened to the guys in that amateur montage, they were sick but seemed to fade away after appearing in the video. Tim Achille in particular had some good stuff.