Did Forrest Edwards teach Jamie Thomas to enjoy life again, as Punxsutawney Phil did for Bill Murray in the famous movie ‘Groundhog Wild’? The answer is yes, but this is simply a trick question, because Forrest Edwards really did so for all of us. Yet the Reynolds diet-endorser may have at least tangentially sparked Jamie Thomas with regard to Zero’s ‘Cold War,’ which features the best Jamie Thomas part in perhaps a decade — the kinked hubba kickflip 5-0, the ‘Misled Youth’ cast cameos, a fresh assault on Rincon, and the euphoric ender ending pictured above.
But how do we get there from here? (Via the Zero ‘Thrasher’): I don’t know that carefree fun has ever been my style. A lot of people judge me for that. That was the beef that Muska and I had back in the day. He wanted to cruise around, get gnarly, have fun and not really take it that serious but still get stuff done. I didn’t feel like I was talented enough to just cruise around and hope stuff happened. My fun is more of an enjoyment of the mission. It’s just setting out on a path and accomplishing it. That’s what drives me. There’s obviously lots of smiles along the way, but I’m not just carefree floating around.
One did not have to see ‘One in a Million’ to conceptualize the unpredictable effect Forrest Edwards has upon any nearby bros. In the case of his new boss, Forrest Edwards’s board-twirling antics at the Clipper ledge seem to have inspired Jamie Thomas, on the doorstep of 40 years old, to follow suit and/or attempt the impossible. Is Forrest Edwards’ speedy flow-to-pro journey that much more impressive considering he did not toil for years in the Black Box warehouse as he sought his spot? Do Jamie Thomas’ floral button-ups suggest a more relaxed attitude toward work and play now that Dane Burman’s 50-50 grind has secured the distribution’s future for another generation? Is Erik Ellington’s cap-over-the-hood a throwback to San Diego superhero Peter Smolik’s glory days or a stab at Axl Rose-influenced ‘outsider’ fashion?
The re-emergence of the transition/all-terrain discipline over the last 5-6 years has brought much good, including renewed reverence for certain ’80s pros, pants of the canvas persuasion and counteracting the counter-intuitive notion of striving to keeping one’s action sporting sneakers crisp. However, a potential rogue thread woven into this fine flannel has been the de-emphasizing of the street grab in favor of the bowl or vert variety. Here we wade into a minefield of hot words and controversy and people rightly will point to various stink-bug stylings and the horrendous notion of tuck-knees down gaps, and it’s folly to argue, though I would submit that the melon grab is the exception proving the rule in this case.
Years ago I misplaced the Thrasher containing the above Satva Leung photo but it stuck with me to the point that when I ran across it on some blog I hurriedly right-clicked away to reclaim this digital rendition, glad to no longer feel obligation to paw through old boxes of mouldering magazines after it. The shot came to mind during Brandon Westgate’s SF bombing run and more recently in Elissa Steamer’s memory-lane trip back to Ed Templeton’s island of misfit toys. Don’t recall ever seeing footage of this trick but the boost Satva Leung looks to get off the sidewalk bump points to a separate righteous melon grab employed in a PA ditch by another former Toy Machiner, Bam Margera, in “Jump Off A Building.” The case could be made that this was some type of golden age for this move given that “Thrill of It All” dropped around the same time featuring a good backside rendition by Jamie Thomas, who also on behalf of Emerica deployed the notorious “ninja” varietal. What other melon grabs deserve to live on for perpetuity in Valhalla, hall of the slain? Does anybody got a good switch melon?
This video hit like the proverbial ton of bricks when it came out and the lineup’s still heavy 13 years later — Jamie Thomas, Ellington, Mumford, Greco and Adrian Lopez, who in particular was kicking new holes through reality at the time. Nobody was taking backside tailslides to the levels he pushed in this section, as far as both scale and distance (that gap to ledge here) and at the time putting that trick onto a rail at all was worth talking about. Zero’s trademark quick-cut editing is in full effect here but even if the clips weren’t trimmed to the bone I feel like this part wouldn’t be as visceral if it were padded out to four minutes or more. Because of injuries or side-project clothing lines or lofty standards or whatever Adrian Lopez exited the stage some time ago — seemed like he might have had some kind of reverse-Samson thing going on where his powers diminished once he dropped the Bic — but you look at a guy like Gilbert Crockett and think about frontside shove-its and backside 50-50s and it makes sense that the same dude put on both him and Adrian Lopez.
In the Josh Kalis “Epicly Latered,” Black Box impresario Jamie Thomas draws a line between the raw vein tapped by both Lennie Kirk and Alex “Trainwreck” Gall, which is fairly on point and could be extended maybe in both directions, back to the street-brawling style of previously noted Thomas favorite Sean Sheffey and then also Zeroites like Eric Ellington or the early years of Jim Greco, with the way he used to ollie way down onto the rail for tricks. In the past I’ve sometimes thought that Lennie Kirk shares some trick selection and freedom-of-arm movements with new Fallen signee Jackson Curtin but that prompted an argument I think — whatever the case, the period-jumping view into Alex Gall’s career via a look at Lennie Kirk’s quick burn in the context of a Kalis retrospective brought my browser to this reconsideration of Trainwreck’s tenure on Zero a decade back, of which I was a pretty major fan, touched off by his sudden Zero ad takeover and this 411 section:
Whether or not Alex Gall mounts some eventual comeback, what’s worth celebrating is his visceral approach to landing tricks and occasionally skewed selection of moves (switch Japan air down stairs, lots of fakie ollies onto rails), sharpened by the way Jamie Thomas would put together the old Zero vids — super quick cuts to tricks just before the dude snaps the ollie, translating to a lot of short parts, 80s guitar music, jeans, big jumps, etc. It didn’t seem real outlandish back then but making videos this way seems pretty far removed from the current practice of ramping the slow mo when a bro gets onto a trick, letting him slide and then ramping it up again for the landing, to the point where it’s hard to get any fix on what it would’ve looked like in real life.
In that respect it’s too bad Jamie Thomas doesn’t exert greater control over the dual VCRs these days, but as Ernst & Young years ago recognized, he has this expanding business empire to look after. The announcement in January that Chris Cole was being brought in as an equity partner in Zero seemed a sort of ingenious response to the DC pickup and possibly the final step toward creating what could be a totally vertically integrated skateboard company — nearly all bases covered across the hardgoods/softgoods spectrum (including the all-powerful revenue generator of shoes, and a bargain-priced deck lineup), production at the Cinco Maderas plant in Mexico, distribution, online store and trade show, with rumors also on the hoof that Jamie Thomas has secured a venture capital investment from Bigfoot to acquire large swaths of Great Lakes-region forests, as well as a stableful of aging horses. Now with its marquee pros fully vested in the company’s expansion and a warehouse staffing/housing potential amateur talent, the circle nearly is complete.
As for Tom Asta, currently enjoying a sort of “roadblock” campaign on the Black Box site linked to his pro debut (with boards immediately available in the online shop) — I support this dude’s judicious mix of do-it-all tech with more straightforward tricks like the half-cab over the sphere or the big frontside feeble grind, and you can tell he’s really going for it on some of these clips, like the big boost put onto that one backside flip. One of the best things about “This Time Tomorrow” was seeing Asta and a slew of other dudes reviving some of the classic Love Park/downtown Philadelphia street spots, and the ender-ender here is a nice bookend to Asta-backer Cole’s contribution to the fountain gap back in that TWS vid.
Besides a flair for danger, eye for drama and a noble mane of hair, one of the things that made Jamie Thomas super exciting to watch in those early Toy Machine days was the uncanny way he had of sticking his trucks onto rails, be they round, skinny or otherwise. We are reminded of this fact as video maker and Fox Mulder kindred spirit Josh Stewart posts up a batch of vintage Jamie Thomas video, some of which wound up in “Welcome To Hell” and thereby helped it become revered as among the top ten greatest videos ever probably. The clip I’m thinking about here is the wallie grind on the white bar at night, but an equally boss example could be found in the finished product at about 2:56 wherein Jamie Thomas transfers his way across a different rail. (Also the one-footer/50-25 or also the credits clip.) There is more promised from the Atlantis vaults, but in the meantime make sure you watch all the Hopps commercials including this Police Squad-tinged entry.
It hit me watching Zero’s mildly psychedelic new offering “Strange World” that a company concerned with some of the more macho aspects of skate endeavors has drawn into its orbit two bookends of female street skating, that is, mid-90s Toy story Elissa Steamer and new blood Marisa Dal Santo, who seem to share a similar sensibility if not on-board choice of terrain. The notoriously slothlike and often laid-up Elissa Steamer’s trick count comes up kinda short in what was pitched as her Zero board-earning debut and while it’s possible she’ll have more stuff in Nike productions still to come, you’re kinda left wondering what coulda been. The tailslide and frontside boardslide shove-its are cool tricks and incorporating hill bombs ups the gnar factor.
The new lady on the scene Marisa Dal Santo brings the heat, cribbing well-advised moves from the likes of Fred Gall, Donny Binaco and Mike Ruscyzk in ways that put to the side that kind of weird Chris Nieratko makeover. With Steamer’s Toy Machine rise as the benchmark for successive aspirants to queen-bee status (Torres, Sablone, Caron) Dal Santo does her share of envelope-pushing and bar-raising via the kickflip f/s boardslide, a fairly major varial heelflip and the 14-stair frontside boardslide.
We are about to be a decade deeper, and the debate over girl skateboarders rages on. To wit:
“I’m just saying skateboarding is based on skill. So if girls are not as skilled, I don’t think they should be getting magazine articles, pro boards, pro shoes, and the likes. What’s next? Someone getting a pro board because they’re fat and it’s way harder to skate when you’re fat instead of skinny?”
But there may be broader implications here than just whether or not a video is entertaining. Photos and footage help establish what is possible and relevant, showcase progression and build the foundation for what’s next – in this respect we’ve traveled from tripping out over even seeing a girl in a video to the first female Mctwist. Are women skaters supposed to progress in secret, or some type of separate-but-equal feminine sphere, akin to “international” board/shoe teams? If women are to achieve the same parity with men they have found in basketball, NASCAR and international warfare they need at least the chance to act on the same stage.
I noted this recent Thunder ad a while ago and meant to post it up and remark on how the ballcap, faded jeans and t-shirt ensemble could’ve placed this Jamie Thomas trick back in the Toy Machine days, certain advances in graphic design aside. The trick’s in the “Strange World” video and it’s fairly gnarly as you might expect but toward the middle of the video I started noticing a lot of throwback spots as well – Dane Berman skates what looks a lot like a gap utilized by Thomas for the “Thrill of It All” section, I’m fairly certain Donovan Piscopo walked the barrel-laden path of Ronnie Creager and Kareem Campbell, and I think somebody skated the Neal Mims rail from his Transworld cover. BTW, to bring all this shit full circle, there’s a pic in the new Skateboard Mag photo annual of Neal Mims grinding a tank, of all things. It shall take its rightful place on the militaristic wall of fame in between Berra backside flipping that plane and Tony Hawk doing a handplant on a Jeep Cherokee.
A couple Fallen shoes related items recently crossed the boil the ocean desk, firstly, the new ad featuring Brian “Saul Hudson” Hansen which gave me serious “oh-shit” pause whilst flipping through the Appleyard TWS last week. The sequence of course doesn’t really do justice to the trick, partly because of the speed required, but also because it’s a super-high ledge… Marius Syvanen also took a shot at it this month, hopping onto the little block before jumping the gap to backside 50-50, but this backside tailslide is a monster with form. Due to my substandard scanning abilities I’m leaving out a few frames, but consider this a protest song dedicated to the fact that the Black Box ad archive isn’t updated on a daily basis.
Anyway, on the topic of form, again-hairless Black Box honcho Jamie Thomas turned in his edition of the ongoing “10 tricks” series, after a false start, and it includes this beauty of a frontside k-grind with the classic executioner pose:
Meanwhile, apparently some of these dudes skated the Maloof contest this weekend
In 1988, pro skateboarder Mike Vallely revolutionized the skateboarding sport
My pleas to let anticipation and tension build ahead of the inevitable BATB Round 2: Daewon Song’s Revenge having fallen on deaf ears, exhaustive coverage of the first quadrant is already under way so I suppose I ought to post my picks for posterity, seeing’s how I’m already 1-for-2 or however it’s termed in actual sporting phrasology. After hanging tough in one of those Es games of skate a few years back and that surprise caballerial kickflip last time around I thought Jamie Thomas had a little bit more in him, but he did not; perhaps chomping too many frontside k-grinds. BTO fared a bit better in the Cole v. Vallely matchup, but just barely, as the Colester’s good-natured agreement to bend the rules in favor of ’80s Skate Rags maneuvers produced probably one of the most fun to watch episodes thus far. Honestly I thought Mike V was pretty amiable about the whole thing and it would’ve been amazing to see one of these with Eric Koston or Mike Carroll. Let this stand as a warning, kids, a cautionary tale of what can happen to your switch heelflips if you choose to focus your energy on celebrity hockey blogging and acting in Kevin James vehicles.
I was thinking to myself on the train the other day that maybe I should title a post about Chris Cole’s more or less flabbergasting Fallen video part something like “Chris Cole: Better Than Guy Mariano.” Not that I necessarily believe such a thing or that I sit around constructing mental “dude X is so totally better than dude Y” WWF matchups, I just thought it would maybe be funny, but then I thought how it would just be stupid, and I promptly forgot about it til just now.
Anyhow, I suppose I could blab on about Chris Cole’s wristbands, or Andy Mac-yellow T-shirts or poached 360s or perhaps how Chris Cole has a proven knack for thinking up ways to push the skateboard envelope (mile-long hubba frontside boardslide in “Dying To Live”, backside 360 noseblunt in “Zero or Die”, flip-out ledge sorcery in “Ride the Sky”). More to the point I could banter about how lucky we are that the dude seems to have his head screwed on straight, and that there are indeed people in that exalted 99th percentile of skateboarding’s crop-creamers that aren’t out for the reality TV dollar, the Dew Tour crown, rap-and/or-rock stardom, signature streetwear lines, cavorting in Vegas with Shaun White, etc.
As the years go by I think we have to look back at that Tampa sit-down in the fleabag motel and extend a sincere thank-you to Jamie Thomas for giving Chris Cole the heads-up on The Way The Industry Really Works etc. and later giving him a platform to get completely ridiculous with tricks and whatnot. Which isn’t to say that Chris Cole would have otherwise fallen out of the game or anything, although I suppose it’s possible, considering his preference for Pennsylvania living over Southern California or Barcelona or what have you.
So while I’m not sure I believe the rumor going around about Chris Cole getting SOTY again (I think it would be a stunning lack of imagination on the part of Phelps & Co.), he’s a pretty obvious frontrunner if winning it like three years ago doesn’t automatically disqualify you. Heath Kirchart, you have three months to either put the Alien video out yourself, do a 18-page Thrasher interview or join Anti-Hero.
Addendum: I did Josh Harmony sort of wrong in the last posting by omitting his fakie bigger spin down the Le Dome jubble-set, which was pretty insane.
boil the ocean 
