The Man With The Blue Cat - Tony Hawk interviews Neil Blender

If you didn't know, Tony Hawk was the editor for the first issue (Summer 1997) of the second run of Skateboarder. One of the things he did for that first issue was track down skateboarding legend Neil Blender, who had stepped away from professional skateboarding right before it blew up in popularity. Below is the interview.

The small inset photo was shot by Glen Friedman.



The Kids Are Sick - August 2004 The Skateboard Mag

Kevin Wilkins wrote up an article for the August 2004 issue of The Skateboard Mag about the next new wave of up & coming skateboarders. It's nuts how good some of these kids were at such a young age, and 18 years later, a few of them are still some of the top names in the skate industry.

Photos by Andrew Mapstone.







Milestone: Andrew Reynolds

The Andrew Reynolds Milestone interview, from the July 2004 issue of The Skateboard Mag. Words by Paul Zitzer and photos by Atiba Jefferson. 










"What The Hell?" - Mike Ballard photo project

I know that I have read some of the backstory of how this photoshoot went, but I unfortunately couldn't remember where I'd read it. If anyone knows, please let me know. It included something about how they had to leave the rainbow rail behind? Well, regardless, the What The Hell? photo article appeared in the Summer 1998 issue of Skateboarder, with many of the photos shot by Mike Ballard (as well as Thomas Campbell and "Moss"). I also included the cover photo for this issue (shot by Campbell), which is another angle of Rick Howard's rainbow rail grind.





This One Guy... Mariano

A short feature with Guy Mariano from the June 2004 issue. I believe that this was from around the time when he was starting to get back into the skating game. All photos by Atiba Jefferson.






Manifesto of Indifference - Summer 1998 Skateboarder

This "Manifesto of Indifference" article appeared in the Summer 1998 issue of Skateboarder Magazine. I'm pretty sure that this specific style of article only appeared in this issue and for the 20 Questions feature in the Summer 1997 issue. Here, five prominent women skateboarders of the time (Jodi McDonald, Jamie Reyes, Jen O'Brien, Cara-Beth Burnside, and Elissa Steamer) are asked 13 rapid-fire-style questions. 

Introduction written by Jessie van Roechoudt. Photos by Thomas Campbell, Bryce Kanights, Patty Segovia, Joe Brook & Sohar.




Face To Face - Skateboarder Summer 1998

The second special edition of Skateboarder Magazine has a feature in it called Face To Face, which might have been what inspired the Cohorts feature? Maybe? That's pure speculation. Regardless, it's a pretty interesting article of skaters interviewing each other.

Jamie & Berra (photos by Thomas Campbell)


Rodney and MJ (Rodney's photo by Sturt, MJ's by Joe Brook)

Muska & Penny (photos by Thomas Campbell & Benjamin Deberdt)

Gonz & Burnquist (photos by Bryce Kanights)




Dan Sturt skating Bob's Mega Ramp

The Exposed section of the May 2007 issue of The Skateboard Mag has a fun sequence of legendary photographer Daniel Harold Sturt purposely taking a swan dive into Bob Burnquist's Mega Ramp safety net. I wonder if he's still not allowed back there?

Photo sequence by Tim Rice. Thanks to Tim Aguilar for suggesting that I post this.



Julien Stranger Vans ad - Summer 1998 Skateboarder

I'm attempting two-page merge scans for the first time tonight, and the first one I did was a two-page Vans ad with Julien Stranger doing a frontside air. With almost all of the magazines I have, I am able to scan two pages simultaneously, but the Summer 1997 & 1998 and the February/March 2011-Feb/March 2013 issues of Skateboarder have 12-inch wide pages, which means they're 24" wide for a two-page scan. Thankfully, an unknowing benefit of upgrading my scanner is that it is able to "merge" two separate scans. Pretty interesting, eh? If you've read this far into this post, I commend you for your diligence.

Anyways, here's the ad.

no photo credit given


Leo Romero Turned Pro 18 Years Ago Today

I've been going through the early issues of The Skateboard Mag recently and just happened to come across this Festivus article in the July 2004 issue:

photos: Swift & Justin Regan

In it, Dave Swift notes the exact date that Leo Romero turned pro, which was April 24, 2004 (Fun fact: Kids In Emerica debuted on the same day.) He's been pro for 18 years and is still absolutely ripping, which is amazing, especially because a lot of his skating isn't low-impact. Congratulations, Leo!

Here are some scans of Leo from around this time period that I've also recently come across:

Foundation ad in the May 2004 issue of The Skateboard Mag.
No photo credit given.

Ollie down the Pepper Tree 17 for an Emerica ad in the
back of the June 2004 issue of The Skateboard Mag.
Maybe Atiba's photo?

Backside 50-50 for a RVCA/RUCA? ad in the back of the
August 2004 issue of The Skateboard Mag.
No photo credit given.

He also had a Milestone feature in the June 2004 issue of TSM. Words by Dave Carnie and photos by Atiba.











August 1999 Thrasher - Selective Scan Dump

Sometimes it can be hard to figure out what I want to post from a certain magazine, or what I should post here versus what I should post only to Instagram, and so on and so forth. So as I scan through magazines, maybe I'll just start dumping the stuff that I scan on the blog and then cherry pick from that to post to IG. Or, this might be the first & only time I do something like this. 

Below are all of the things I felt were worth scanning from the August 1999 issue of Thrasher. I got this issue months ago from a friend who offered to mail me a bunch of old Thrashers and Slaps for $100, and it was well worth it.

photo: Mike Burnett

no photo credit given

no photo credit given

photo sequence: Gabe Morford

no photo credit given

no photo credit given for either, but
the Anti Hero ad is probably Morford

no photo credit given, and it doesn't
say if it is a lipslide or a boardslide.

no photo credit given

no photo credit given

no photo credit given for either page

photo sequence: Morford

I cannot say for certain, but I think this might be the first Jamie Thomas interview in Thrasher?
Words by Burnett.
portrait and 50-50 photo by Daniel Harold Sturt

ollie photo by Sturt
boardslide sequence: Burnett

ollie: Burnett
Smith grind: Sturt

photo: Mike O'Meally

ollie: Sturt
switch lipslide sequence: Burnett

These two pages are from the Return of the Hammerhead article, which has a bunch of photos of some of the top street skaters at the time getting tricks on it. Unfortunately, one of the pages was torn out of this particular issue, which means that I couldn't scan the photo of Ed Dominick doing a Christ Air. Dammit!! I love Clyde Singleton's fakie tailslide, and Geoff Rowley's front noseslide on the small UCI hubba is really sick.
all photos by Burnett

The first page from the Buggin' Out article. I initially flagged this for scanning because of the Frank Gerwer nosegrind and was going to crop out the left page, but then when I had it under the scanner, I noticed that that was The Butcher doing the front 3!
Butcher's front 360 sequence: Luke Ogden
Marko's 50-50: Daniel Haney
Gerwer's nosegrind: also Ogden

More Buggin' Out.
Cairo Foster ss fs flip sequence: Morford
Chris Roberts switch ollie: Socrates Leal
Julien's fs ollie at Mt. Baldy: Morford
Derrick Paris nosegrind: Haney

Joel Meinholz, fs 180 nosegrind for his Welcome to Stereo ad.
no photo credit given

I'd never heard of Circuit Wheels until I saw this ad.
no photo credit given

Keenan Milton is on the list of skaters I will scan & post almost anything they appeared in. Admittedly, it's not a short list, but you get my point.
no photo credit given

no photo credit given

Jeff Lenoce Firing Line on the left. One of the biggest reasons why I love going through the old magazines is to find stuff like this. I think it's interesting to observe how much the Firing Line section has changed over time. It bookends Thrasher now, with a full-page photo, but in 1999 it's puzzle-pieced into the back of the magazine.
Jeff's nollie lipslide: Burnett
no photo credit given for Sheffey's noseslide

no photo credit given, but probably
someone who worked for Playboy