Matthijs van Wijk sent this to SnA. Someone was auctioning off a copy of BODYSLAM four on EBay. Haw! You can download pdfs of all the issues here. I did clean some of them up when I was digitizing them, I couldn’t help myself! So the copy on auction is more authentic I suppose. That’s eighties vintage copy paper. The auction ends tomorrow. No bids so far.
I was looking at a great old photo set of kids riding bmx bikes – that could easily have been my brother and I and our childhood friends – and dug out these old skate shots. That’s me, about 14 or 15 years old, high jumping in front of our house.
Thanks to my old pal Dave Thornton for the tip. I’m so glad I got to see this. I look better than I thought I did. I’m the third skater and show up at about 3:15 in the vid after the jump.
I saw him do this at Marina Del Rey Skatepark. When I came across a four shot sequence of Jay Smith tonight, (anyone remember who took this one?) I tried making an animated gif but then decided to try out the composite.
My friend Shawn can do them almost as well. We’ll have to shoot the sequence. Hey, did they ever include the layback in one of the Powell Peralta videos?
Check out the animated gif after the jump.
Some art by my 16 year-old self appeared with a nice note from a guy I haven’t heard from for over 30 years. Thanks internet!
Back in the early days of pools and ramps (late 70′s) there was a guy named Mark Conahan who lived a street down from us in Lomita Ca.. He was the best local kid we knew of, first guy I remember seeing catch air. A little older than us, In his Moms driveway he built one of the first curved ramps (half pipe) we had ever seen or rode. He drove, so he used to be the ride to all the skate spots. He was also a serious photographer and artist, his main focus was comics and animation. He was just this super cool, super talented, but super modest dude that we all looked up to.
Mark, along with his brother Craig and some other local kids formed their own skateboard team -”Team Fresno” why Fresno? I’m not sure, probably just because “Fresno” sounds funny.
Attached is probably the only Team Fresno membership card still in existence. Early M.C. art and design -circa 1977?
Mark knew what he wanted to do with his life early on, and he did it. A renowned skateboarding enthusiast (and still not a bad skater for an old guy) and an accomplished cartoonist and designer. His comics are incredibly funny and insightful.
Mark, I don’t know if you are a dad, but you had a fatherly influence on a lot of kids back in the day. So -
HAPPY FATHERS DAY!
I’m really stoked that things have turned out the way they have for you.
Keep it up.
Jon Thornton
Thanks man. Best wishes to you too.
The first comic I submitted to Thrasher appeared in the February 1982 issue. That must have been my birthday present. I turned 21 that month. Skate Daily pointed out that Thrasher Magazine has posted all of the issues from their second year on their website.
