"Crazy" Eddie Nemeth.

Happy Halloween!

"There's more to Ed than meets the eye. He may appear to be dirty, but if you took the kind of falls Eddie does, you'd be dead, not to mention dirty. He's also the craziest sane person you'll ever know, and that shines through when you see Ed skating on the edge of control. Enter Eddie's vortex and see that he is the world's greatest showman. In his spare time, this impressive twenty-one year old can be found wrecked underneath Jason Adams' loft, deep in the heart of old San Jose, or backflipping off the stage at Apeface shows. Eddie rides for Scarecrow and Krux. Eddie rules." - Branch Benson

The photo is by Jai Tanju.

For the quote: Thrasher - May 1996 Volume 16 Number 5

Thrasher - February 1997 Volume 17 Number 2

Dorian Tucker.

Dorian turned pro for Scarecrow. He had a neat part in Pig Wheels' All Systems Go video. He also rode for Hollywood Skateboards, Kris Markovich's company that was backed by Tum Yeto in the early 2000s. Not much else to say about this guy, except that I had one of his boards in 1997 and it was a nice deck.

Hope everybody on the East Coast survived the storm safely.

Thrasher - August 1996 Volume 16 Number 8

Ben Horton.

Get spooky.

Scarecrow was started in 1996 by Russ Pope and Mike Adamski of CCS. Pope had started Creature at NHS, but wanted to do something on his own. He also wanted to continue with the horror theme, since very few other companies were using scary graphics at the time. Most of the original Creatures made the switch as well. This included Jason Adams, Barker Barrett, and Crazy Eddy Nemeth. A few others were added and there was even a wheel team with Hanzy Driscoll, Josh Kasper, and Adam McNatt.

Ben was an am for Scarecrow. He is an artist and does $LAVE from out of Black Box Distribution these days. Black Box is the overall name Jamie Thomas uses for his assortment of companies, including Zero, Mystery, and Fallen.

Thrasher - May 1996 Volume 16 Number 5

Ron Whaley #2.

The tall guy closes out SMA week with a fat ollie out of the darkness.

Prepare to get spooky with Scarecrow next week.

Chris Kardas took the picture.

Thrasher - January 1993 Volume 13 Number 1

Israel Forbes #4.

Down on the corner.

Israel is from Santa Cruz, California. He is into art and likes drawing. That was what I got from a Transworld interview from 1998. He switched over to Santa Cruz after SMA ended. I have a feeling he was an am for Sims along with Ron Whaley during the time NHS was distributing Sims in 1992.

I'm calling it an inward heelflip.

Thrasher - September 1993 Volume 13 Number 9

Frank Hirata.

Quicksand.

Frank was an amateur for Small Room and Powell Peralta. He had a good street part in Powell's Propaganda video. When NHS took control of Sims in 1992, he was on the team. Frank moved over to SMA for a year or two and then switched to Foundation for most of the 1990s. After Foundation, he rode for Planet Earth and Maple, as well as Sheep Shoes and Physics Wheels.

Thrasher - March 1993 Volume 13 Number 3

Jason Adams #7.

The Kid gets flippy. He also does a big 180 ollie off a bump over a piece of caution tape.

Jason was riding for Think before catching a flight on Santa Monica Airlines. At the end of SMA, he switched over to Creature and then rode for Scarecrow. After that, Jason was on Black Label, enjoi, back to Black Label, and 1031. He was on Sonic at some point, too. He currently rides for Mike Vallely's Elephant Skateboards. Jason has also been making a bunch of art.

Lunch break skateboarding is a good idea.

Thrasher - August 1993 Volume 13 Number 8

Tim Brauch #13.

It's going to be a week of SMA stuff from the last couple years of the company.

Beans get blunted in a pool.

Santa Monica Airlines was started by Skip Engblom in the late 1970s. Natas Kaupus was the important pro in the beginning. Skip partnered SMA with NHS (Santa Cruz) for increased distribution. The team was Natas, Jim Thiebaud, Mick-e Reyes, Julien Stranger, and Sean Sheffey. As riders left and things changed, Mike Conroy, Alan Petersen, Eric Britton, and Karma Tsocheff were all sponsored by the company. The final version of the team lasted until the end of 1994 when NHS dissolved the brand. The team included the late Tim Brauch, Jason Adams, Frank Hirata, Israel Forbes, Paul Sharpe, and Ron Whaley. Skip is still doing Santa Monica Airlines today and custom shaping boards in a variety of shapes and sizes.

Chris Kardas was the photographer.

Thrasher - May 1994 Volume 14 Number 5

Greg Hunt #3.

Magnet pulls through.

I've been watching the Stereo videos a bunch recently. I was always a fan of Greg back in the 1990s and I think I'm more of a fan today. He was an am and turned pro for Stereo. Greg was only pro for a few years and then started working behind the camera filming videos. He did a few for Transworld and then the DC video. He also filmed Alien Workshop's Mindfield and is currently working on a project for Vans.

It's going to be a quick flight on Santa Monica Airlines next week. Maybe. It depends on what's been on here before and what hasn't.

Note: Greg got the front cover of this issue of Slap, in addition to the paid product placement on the back cover.

Slap - February 1996 Volume 5 Number 2

Mike Frazier #5.

"Mike Frazier rides for Stereo."

Mike had been on Birdhouse prior to Stereo. He had awesome parts in both A Visual Sound and Tincan Folklore. He left for Toy Machine and then Element in the second half of the 1990s.

In case you are wondering about the gaps in months from each Stereo ad, I wanted to get all of the riders from the first video on here. Stereo repeated some skaters and had a few team ads over the time span as well. Each ad is most likely the first each guy had with the company. This is Mike's second. His first had already been posted on Vert Is Dead.

Was Rick Ibaseta supposed to be on Stereo? His name was listed in the ad for A Visual Sound.

Thrasher - April 1995 Volume 15 Number 4

Ethan Fowler #9.

Ethan had been riding for Toy Machine before Stereo. He had moved to Iowa with his mom from California. He was famously "abducted" back to San Francisco by Thomas Campbell and Tobin Yelland when the duo were making a cross country trek from New York. At least I think that's how the story went. Ethan was on Stereo until the end of the 1990s and then rode for Foundation for most of the 2000s. He left Foundation to start Bummer High, which I don't think is around any longer. I'm not sure if he even has a board sponsor these days and is off the Converse skate team. He is playing in the band Green & Wood.

Thrasher - October 1994 Volume 14 Number 10

Matt Rodriguez.

I like the how they made Stereo into Stereolab.

Matt is from Sacramento and was one of the first guys on Stereo. He turned pro for them and was with the team for a number of years. He rode for Supernaut after that, but now is back on the Stereo Classics team. He helped start IPath Footwear in 1999. As an aside, he is known for riding very loose trucks. Matt also plays in the reggae band Storytellers.

Thrasher - September 1994 Volume 14 Number 9

Carl Shipman #3.

Onto the B side for week two of Stereo.

Carl was discovered by the American skateboard world in the summer of 1993 at the contests that take place in Europe and England. Let's face it, Europe knew about him already at that point, but we can be a little slow over here. He was hooked up by Jason Lee and Chris Pastras. Carl is from Worksop in Northern England. He was pro for them for a number of years and also rode for DC Shoes. He is currently riding for the Classics division of Stereo.

Thrasher - December 1993 Volume 13 Number 12

Mike York #2.

Yorktron.

Mike was sponsored by Stereo as an am before he went onto Chocolate in 1994. He had been doing Turf Global after parting ways with Chocolate, but that appears to be done.

The small sequence is a pop shove-it to nose grind, with maybe a shove-it out. I'm not a fan of running photos small.

The Chrome Ball Incident is back in operation with an interview with Andy Jenkins. Burnside, too.

That was side A. We'll pause for the weekend and then flip the record over to listen to the B side next week.

Thrasher - July 1993 Volume 13 Number 7

Mike Daher #2.

Mike is from Florida. He was an am for Powell Peralta and turned pro for Stereo. In a time when there were a lot of low to the ground tech tricks, Mike was doing big ollies and kickflips over things. He was also doing nollies to manual as well as 180s to manual. This included regular and switch, frontside and backside. I watched his part in A Visual Sound last night and the man put together some solid lines. For somebody who does a skateboard nostalgia website, I tend not to be the type of person who thinks the past was better, but after watching the first Stereo video, there is something I miss about those days.

Thrasher - June 1993 Volume 13 Number 6

Paulo Diaz #4.

Along with Salman Agah, Paulo was one of the first to push switch to levels that had only been previously attained going in one's natural stance. This switch picnic table blast is a perfect example of that. Paulo was not on Stereo for very long before becoming an original member of the Chocolate family.

Thrasher - April 1993 Volume 13 Number 4

Jason Lee & Chris Pastras.

Guaranteed high fidelity.

The bosses getting tricks. Jason does a noseslide and Chris catches a pop shove it over a big hole in the ground.

Thrasher - March 1993 Volume 13 Number 3

John Deago & Lavar McBride.

After leaving Blind and World Industries, Jason Lee and Chris Pastras started Blue with the backing of Vision's Brad Dorfman. The company lasted about a year before it was scraped and the two took their ideas to Deluxe, who were looking to add another board company. Lee and Pastras wanted to do something that was a little different from the rip off and offensive graphics that were popular at the time. They opted for a more creative vintage look that was inspired by jazz music and album art. The company would become a breath of fresh air during the 1990s for their different approach to skateboarding and the videos that documented it. The initial team included Mike Daher, John Deago, Lavar McBride, and Matt Rodriguez. Paulo Diaz and Mike York would soon join Stereo.

On a completely unrelated topic, Brad Staba has a photo of him doing a trick on a skateboard in the new issue of Thrasher. Nice to see you're still rolling around, Brad.

Thrasher - February 1993 Volume 13 Number 2

Rudy Johnson #3.

Seven is seven.

I always liked this ad. Rudy rode for Powell Peralta and was part of the last group of riders Stacy picked for the team before he left. This is the group that included Paulo Diaz, Guy Mariano, and Gabriel Rodriguez. They all departed for assorted World Industries companies and then stuck together for Girl. Rudy turned pro for Blind and retired with Girl at the end of the 1990s. He was also on DC Shoes and had a number of pro models.

It's going to be two weeks from the early days of Stereo starting on Monday. You guys still like Stereo, right?

Thrasher - July 1994 Volume 14 Number 7

Goldfish.

Goldfish was the first video from Girl. I watched it again over the last two nights. Not to diminish the effort, but it's about what you would expect from a new company that had been in business for about a year. Most of the team has full parts, although there are a couple shared sections and montages. Mike Carroll and Rick Howard have great parts. Goldfish also features a few Spike Jonze skits that borrow from the music videos he was directing. There's a teaser for Chocolate, too. The skateboarding is all street moves. It's nearly all lines and lots of flip tricks with a classic hip hop soundtrack. I think they were successful in conveying the skateboarding is fun idea that was the motivation to start Girl. Of course making a video back then was simpler. You could film some lines at the LA courthouse, hit the streets of San Francisco, and then head to Vancouver to wrap it up. Heck, Eric Koston was wearing shorts for most of his part. That right there should tell you how different things were in the first half of the 1990s.

Transworld - October 1994 Volume 12 Number 10

The Chocolate Team.

Chocolate Pow.

The original Chocolate team. Only Chico is still on the team. Mike York had been riding for Stereo and was added by the time Goldfish was released. Keenan Milton and Gino Iannucci joined the crew in the next year or two.

Chris Johanson got his name on the cover of the new issue of Artforum and a nice feature article in the magazine. Probably the first, last and only time an Anti-Hero is going to be in that mag.

Transworld - July 1994 Volume 12 Number 7

Paulo Diaz #3.

CMYK.

Paulo is doing an ollie over a bench off a bump from what I can tell.

After Girl got off the ground, the powers that be decided to start up a second company for all their friends who were still riding for World Industries, Blind or 101.

This is the second Chocolate ad ever. The first was a collage of team head shots that did not look promising for scanning.

Thrasher - June 1994 Volume 14 Number 6

Eric Koston & Jeron Wilson.

Rolling on with the second week of Girl.

Eric had been on 101 and Jeron had been on Blind before Girl started.

The following is an interview with Eric Koston from a Thrasher article on what is wrong with skateboarding. It was done by Brian Brannon.

What's wrong with skating?
Steve Rocco.

How can we change it?
Put an end to Steve Rocco.

What are you willing to do about it?
Forget about him and hope everybody else does too.

What is good about skating?
Not riding for Steve Rocco.

How do you define a pro?
Switchstance.

Have you ever thought about just quitting?
Yes, but only when I rode for Steve Rocco.

For the interview: Thrasher - January 1994 Volume 14 Number 1

Thrasher - February 1994 Volume 14 Number 2