Way back in the day when I was doing time at Think Skateboards, I had the luxury of having the Thrasher headquarters right across the street. While I didn't spend too much time upstairs at Thrasher proper I spent every morning and afternoon break in the dungeon either with the Slap dudes or with Randy in the scan room. The Slap room visits were mostly spent bullshitting with the boys (Whiteley years) and while bullshitting with scanner Randy was fun, I was there for a secret scan project. Thrasher had just bought a state of the art scanner to not only scan all their negatives and slides for each months mag (instead of farming the work out) but to also archive all of their past work. The digital age was upon us and it was time step into the new world and luckily I was at the right place and time to archive all my work right alongside this project...... Even if no one knew but Randy and I
"The Slap room visits were mostly spent bullshitting
with the boys"
I just spent a solid weekend going through almost 100 of those Thrasher discs looking for a single photo of the Duffman snapping a side by side ollie with Wade Speyer. This may seem like a tall tale but I swear the image was found on the 2nd to last disc......
What a fortunate struggle though. Had I not been forced to go through all the discs looking for that single image I wouldn't have unearthed some of these forgotten gems. Don't get me wrong, I posted quite a few of these photos but on almost every disc there was 1 or 2 that I never downloaded. So many great memories of the Bay Area scene from the late 90's to early 2000's that I had to start sharing them right away. The skateboarders I shot during this time ranged from unknown heroes from the hood to straight up legends but were all amazing no matter how their hierarchical rank was perceived
I'm starting this project with one of those local heroes Bryan Guarisco. If you were around the Bay Area during this time you knew Bryan, especially if you were from what was later dubbed Duffel land. Homeboy straight ripped every session I saw him at but faded off into obscurity like so many do..... wherever your at I hope you're still skating G!
That One Blue Ledge
Monte Vista High was known for having the best drugs out of any Bay Area High school and boasting one of the most rugged hubba's in the Bay. I took a hungover Enjoi team there once and no one would step to it... not sure if was the remaining booze in their system or the fact that this was a "locals only" spot. Most likely a combo of both but be rest assured Bryan fucked this spot up!
Favorite Foto of Bryan
Back Smith through the kink with ear muffs at the roller disco school- straight classic!
Showing My Age Photo
Totally forget what the filmers name is in the corner of ths photo? I just remember he was really fucking cool. Please help a old guy out and tell him I said hi....... and oh yeah, this frontside noseslide is sick as fuck
Ahead Of His Time Photo
Not many people kick flapping into krooks back then........ Bryan had it on lock!
90's Twilight Photos Ruled!
Shooting film with slow shutter speeds and flashes was perfectly imperfect!
Brentwood Footage
Summer 1999
GNARLY FACE SLAM!!!
Wear your face masks kids!
New archive post every Monday
Get out and make shit happen...........
Yours (Mostly) Truly
BROdela
