Steve Nesser's Vegas kickflip melon

Steve Nesser's Rock Adio part is introduced by him doing a kickflip melon over a huge bump-to-bar in Las Vegas, which blew my mind the first time I saw it because before then, I'd always thought of Nesser as more of a low-impact skater. Part of what makes him such a legend is that he could skate practically any obstacle quite well. Huge rails, big gaps, ledge lines, crusty street QPs, bump-to-bars, the list goes on and on. 

The kickflip melon appeared in a two-page Birdhouse ad in the July 2004 issue of The Skateboard Mag, and was shot by Jeff Taylor. When I posted this scan on my Instagram page last April, he commented that this was "one of the raddest things I ever witnessed. He did it in just a couple of tries as well."

Jose Rojo interview - April 2011 TSM

In this interview, Jose shares a couple of funny stories about Jerry Hsu, discusses about getting recognized as Eric Koston, and talks about his hobby of going fishing. Words by Chris Nieratko and photos by Jeff Landi. 

Divulge: Anthony Pappalardo

Words by Mackenzie Eisenhour and photos by Mike O'Meally. This interview came out shortly after Pops turned pro for Alien Workshop.

A Culinary Disaster: Zero in Barcelona

With words and photos by Brian Gaberman, this December 2002 Skateboarder article is a document of Jamie Thomas, Chris Cole, John Rattray, and Ryan Smith's (with filmer Lee Dupont) 2002 Dying To Live filming trip to the street skating paradise city known as Barcelona, Spain. Gaberman frames the intense productivity of the Zero team around personal anecdotes of not being able to enjoy the local cuisine because he spent all of his time taking photos. For anyone who grew up watching Dying To Live, this article is a real treat.

Heads: Gilbert Crockett

From the October 2008 issue of Thrasher, before he went to Alien Workshop and Vans and redefined his skating style. Words by Ian Berry, photo credit in the captions. The kickflip nosegrind on the Rincon hubba is pretty perfect.

portrait by Shigeo
sequence by Ty Bush

sequence by Shigeo

sequence by Shigeo

Chris Cole's switch frontside flip 5-0 on the Rincon hubba

Chris Cole seemed like he could do anything at the peak of his career, and this June 2009 The Skateboard Mag cover is an example of that. Has anyone else done this trick on a spot this size since? Both the cover and the sequence are credited to Shigeo.

Brian Hansen Smiths - October 2008 Thrasher

Slash has two photos doing a Smith grind in this issue of Thrasher. The first one is frontside for a Fallen ad:

photo: Shigeo

And then backside in the Photo Feature section.

photo: Broach

Jamie Thomas' Skateboarder covers

Jamie Thomas is tied with Stefan Janoski for the most Skateboarder covers, having 4 of them. Here they are, in chronological order.

Photo: Sturt

Photo: Brian Gaberman

Photo: Oliver Barton

Photo: Shigeo

Two early 2000s Pappalardo ads

Usually, I try to include a little quip or story with everything that I post on here. However, sometimes I don't have any words to say about something I've recently scanned, but I want to upload it so that people can see it in better quality than Instagram. This is one of those times. Below are two great Anthony Pappalardo ads that I recently scanned from the January/February 2001 and December 2002 issues of Skateboarder.

Photo by Josh Stewart

Photo by Giovanni Reda

Alex "Trainwreck" Gall's Dying To Live ads

Before skating for Bootleg, Alex "Trainwreck" Gall had a brief stint on Zero and appeared in three ads in a row in Skateboarder, advertising for the upcoming Dying To Live video. Below are the ads, as well as an earlier one for Zero Wheels. If he was more than the ones below, I haven't found them yet and will post if I do. Photo credits in the captions.

July/August 2000
Photo by Atiba

November/December 2000

January/February 2001
Photo by Atiba

March 2001
Photo by Jon Humphries

Mark Appleyard - kickflip backside 5-0 Clipper

Photo sequence was taken by Luke Ogden, and was printed in the July 2001 issue of Thrasher. It is incredible how casual Mark looks doing this trick.

Three exceptional wide-frame photos in the June/July 2011 Skateboarder

One of the best advantages of Skateboarder transitioning to an oversized format for the last two years it was in print was how the photos looked. These issues were roughly 21"x12" end-to-end when laid flat with both pages open, and holding and looking at photos this large from some of the best photographers in the industry was incredible. To me, it felt a little more like I was able to insert myself inside of the frame and understand what it was like to exist in that space at that exact moment when the camera clicked. Below are three from the June/July 2011 issue that particularly stand out to me.

Omar Salazar, back tail
photo: Jonathan Mehring

Casey Rigney, switch front blunt
photo: Jon Coulthard

Kevin Spanky Long, wallie in Istanbul
photo: Jonathan Mehring

Spanky's wallie photo above can also be seen in Mehring's book, Skate The World. I highly suggest picking that one up.

(Blogger note: I understand the irony of uploading scans of these pages right after explaining how they are best appreciated in a print format. Don't @ me!)

Volcom's Let’s Live US Tour

This article appears in the February 2008 issue of Skateboarder, which means that the tour happened sometime in 2007. Aside from the infamous Dustin Dollin cheese grater slam in Denver, there are a lot of other goodies in this one - young Chima and Grant Taylor, Lewis Marnell, Jake Duncombe absolutely ripping, and more. Photos were taken by Andrew Mapstone, words by Steve Stratton.

Jamie Thomas Skateboarder interview - November 2008

This 18-page feature article was the first time that I read a full Jamie Thomas interview, and I remember being taken in by how intense his process was for making skate videos and running his companies. It was also the first time that I noticed how much criticism he had to field in interview questions.

Some of the first skate videos I watched obsessively were Dying To Live, New Blood, and Welcome To Hell, so I was used to watching Jamie pushing the boundaries of gap and rail skating within the context of the video he was in. So, it was compelling for my first present-day media exposure of him to be a piece where he talks about "not feeling like I got any business out there" with the younger skaters he sponsors, and being done with going on missions to get one trick. Jamie also talks about the possible future of his skating and his companies, which is interesting to read about 14 years later.

It's not a secret that Jamie Thomas has a reputation for being a polarizing person, and I'm not going to argue for or against that. But, I would be lying if I said that I wasn't a lifelong fan of his skating and still didn't rewatch his parts. This is a record of him simultaneously talking about the past and the future of his skateboarding career, as well as a document of his skating as it begins to decline from being defined as "groundbreaking".

Jamie also got the cover of this issue, which was his fourth and last for Skateboarder and the first one that was him doing a back lip. The cover and interview photos were all shot by Shigeo, unless noted otherwise in the caption.

kickflip dumpster ride shot by Ty Bush