And so it has come to this: The annual wrap up of all that we managed to accomplish deck-wise in the year of someone's lord, aka 2024. And I guess what I really meant by "this" was a glaring example of redundancy in action, given the fact the first sentence is just a wordier and less succinct version of the post title. Feel me? Please don't. I'm really not a hugger—all random tree themes aside—but more on that later.
As much as I'd like to address the elephant in the room straightaway, that's another topic for another paragraph. In the meantime, I'll start at the beginning when we landed on Planéte Sauvage, a French movie from France, and a mighty fine fantastic one at that, as translated by Todd Bratrud. In the joie de vivre of experimentation, several versions were created, both screened and transferred, sizes too, making for quite the nice flight of fancy. I may have exhausted my supply of commas within the context of this paragraph, so I'll run on into Valentine's Day with a massive chub of our cherub and a joy of a deck that introduced not only a mysterious Lola Clique division but a new wood manufacturer that we're absolutely ape about. See what I did there? Ran wild and plunged headlong into the next image.
Whereas many other companies have their shit together a year or so in advance, we're still flying by the seat of our pants in mere months. The upside to this downside being that we are able to react a bit quicker to that which suddenly lands in our lap. For instance, my being tapped as the artist for the Skatepark of Tampa Pro and Am contests in 2024, which presented us with the perfect opportunity to vertically celebrate a few key players in the legendary SPoT scene: Mike Frazier, Brian Howard, and Paul Zitzer [1]. Each guest model borrowed historical facets from their respective graphic pasts, most notably that of Frazier whose very first pro model I had the honor of creating while employed at Powell Peralta in 1991. There's a whole lot more I could say about this project, but we already did and it's all right here.
If you haven't realized it by now, we've got a thing for holiday themes—especially so for that which falls on the date of April 20th. As per usual, we give Todd Bratrud free rein to run wild in the weeds, and he raised not only a village under a blue moon but an ode to the educational PSA films of the past warning against the dangers of frolicking in the Devil's lettuce patch. And, since we're on the topic of the Devil, you know he's always in our details, hence the green sativa and purple indica blends. Once I'd satisfied my SPoT obligations of decorating the park like a scary Colorforms playset, I jumped on the very grenade my berry mind had pulled the pin on, providing us with the opportunity to finally use the old black bag gimmick first made popular by World Industries and Randy Colvin in 1990. My only regret is that we never followed through on the idea to fabricate and include a scratch 'n' sniff card, because the final fruitcake would've made for a real aromatic treat (the rainbow lay up of wood ply was a nice touch, though, if I do say and did just say myself).
When it came to debuting our two latest professional additions to the squad, we blew our promotional budget wad for the year on getting a series of videos made to accompany a full midsummer pro series. Each of these graphics had a specific connection to their respective rider, be it Jake Braun's growing up on an Icelandic sheep farm in Minnesota where the Timberwolves roam, Timothy Johnson's connoisseur-like passion for fine Cuban cigars, Monica Torres' extracurricular adventures in herpetology, and Max Murphy's predilection for skating the trees of Cream City. Want to know more—or rather, watch more? Take your phone the next time you have to make in the toilet and click here.
So, while we may have ruined many a girl's childhood with the afore-talked about poop culture horror show, I believe we made up for it by fulfilling the pro model dream with a "What if…?" story charting a different dimensional path for former Bones Brigade rider Anita Tessensohn-Sanford. In an equally dreamy move, Chris Reed stacked up a few musical icons for an unconventional night of chicken fighting in the pool. Who are they faced off against? No idea. Never thought about that perspective until now. Hmm. Anyway, I don't have a clever segue for what came next—a nebulous theme of three trees that somewhat sort of included Max's model in a serial fashion—but you can always buy the Beleaf zine that Dave Carnie created to not only accompany the series but explain all the mythological trivialities of his Yggdrasil graphic for those who may have gotten lost in the woods on this particular one.
Golly, could this be the elephant in the room I was speaking of? You'd think, but no. The real pachyderm to be concerned with is the massive year of offal it's been for the skateboard industry. Or maybe you didn't know? Or weren't supposed to know? Maybe know all too well? Heck, all I know is that it's still cute as hell how I think we're even considered to be an actual cog in this magical mystery machine. Anyway, back into the woods we go, where the intricate work of Tyler Pennington was introduced to the bottom of a skateboard, an inside joke that probably should've remained the figurative ha-ha it was shared to be over burritos in Milwaukee one wintry day, and a pair of pro models for Jake and Max that either flew to close to the sun or simply jumped the shark. Whatever the case, these happy days are yours and mine.
When summer was but a faded rose and fall finally fell, we piggybacked on a political-themed group art show held at the Subliminal Gallery in LA to provide the skateboard embodiment of Winston Tseng's guerrilla work. You'd be surprised (or maybe not) how much these merit planks irked the ironic ire of skateboarders who claim skateboarders have gone soft, but have you heard the one about the Hadron Collider? Real quick, I don't want to diminish the incredible details of Tyler's additional work for us this year, but there's a theory flying around that posits this scientific marvel may have smashed one too many atoms and ripped a dimensional anal fissure in our world—quantumly speaking, of course. What does this mean exactly? Not sure. Too many big words for my limited means of comprehension, but I think it's supposed to explain away the oddly incomprehensible nature of our current shared reality. All Fruits, Looms, and Bears aside, bullies are now the victims, tough guys are the sensitive triggered, the cruel are the just, the aberrant are the normal, the ignorant are the enlightened, and upside down and stranger so on. Fun is where you can subversively make it, though, even if some may have forgotten how this has long been woven into the fabric of skateboarding.
Just because I intimated earlier that we're not the most well oiled of machines doesn't mean we're totally half ass to the wind in our product planning. For instance, we knew at some point this year that I was gonna try my hand at a sequel to the first "Serial Party" board I did for Paisley Skates back in 2015. Good thing I took care of this sooner than later, too, because the very last stroke of Satanic Panic I put to paper on the top logo was the last I'd be doing for a while due to an eye against I complication and the subsequent surgeries I didn't see coming. I suppose it's odd to sound so jocular about these ocular woes, but I guess that's just a testament to looking on the lighter side of life—the brighter side of life! Sure, I'm still in the process of working out the finer optics, but I was at least able to attend to my annual holiday duties with a Krampus exclusive for our friends over at Old Skull Skateboards and an inspired bit of ultraviolence that would make Anthony Burgess blush a pale shade of orange.
So, there you have it. One year's worth of output boiled down to a succession of hot takes and glib thoughts; or, in other words, exactly what you've come to expect from us fine folks (or fucks, you're entitled to your opinion) at StrangeLove. —Sean Cliver
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1. Normally I don't deviate from the wood, but pulp still counts, right? Anyway, forgive me for tooting my own horn [2], but I was especially proud of myself for plopping out this advertisement we placed in the 7th issue of Jaime Owen's Closer skateboarding mag. Unfamiliar? I really suggest you check it out, especially if you dig our deeper dives into the history of skateboarding and have a cultural appreciation for jacked germs and vert brigade.
2. It's not like you can have just one beep, right? Horns go beep-beep! So here's my second runner-up, if only because I really had to click 'n' wish my way around Photoshop to figure out how to replicate the look of something that was once rudimentarily done in the '80s. Also, who would've ever guessed this of all things would be the ad to trigger people into thinking we were some kinda horribly divisive company? Nick himself even had to step out from the shadows to admit he still plays with dolls and harbors no ill will against others who do so as well. Anyway, I guess Bob Dylan was right, but c'mon... lighten up, Francis.
