StrangeLove
what if... anita tessensohn had turned pro?
Sean Cliver
Off-the-nose kickflip—a give or take 3.5" nose, mind you. Ask any kid who watched Powell-Peralta's Public Domain, aka Bones Brigade Video 4, when the VHS tapes first hit skate shops in 1988 and that's one of the highlights they're sure to remember from Anita Tessensohn's 15-seconds of instant video fame. This was, I believe, an on-video NBD at a time when most skaters were still learning how to do regular ol' kick flips in the mobbest of eras. Oh, not to mention the fact that hardcore female street skaters in the '80s were the equivalent to spotting hen's teeth in the mouth of a unicorn—or at least so it was in my red neck of the Midwest woods where skateboarding was frowned upon in every single imaginable sense. So, to see a girl seriously kicking ass on street made the fantasy of the West Coast… well, even that much more fantastic.
meet the new artist on our block: tyler pennington
Sean Cliver
This is only the first sentence, but allow me to backtrack. Think New Hope to Phantom Menace if it helps… or maybe don’t because it doesn’t? Anyway, like almost 10 years ago now, circa 2014, Nick and I were both spitballing skateboard company dreams while strolling along on the streets of San Francisco. For my wishful part, I'd long harbored a fantasy about starting something up and getting all my art friends and acquaintances to jump in and out on era correct boards produced in era correct methods. I mean surely they'd all love to do that. Why wouldn't they? What fun it would be! Well, as it turned out, there were plenty of reasons why not. Definitely more than I would have imagined and none of which I'll bother going into here—well, aside from one artist in particular: Aaron Horkey.
hopping fences for the culture: a tampa recap
Sean Cliver
Remember when I was saying how there's a war outside your window for the history of skateboarding? Of course not. Nor should you. For one, I myself can barely remember anything I've tossed into this wasteland where words go to die; and two, it's an absolutely ridiculous and wholly cryptic thing to allude to. Heck, I'd even go so far as to say it rivals some of ithe truly esoteric bullshit that would find its way into a vintage "Trash" column of Thrasher back in the '80s—and that's saying a lot, because those were the smudgy newsprint days when the riddles were absurdly obscure and I spent way too much time trying to decode the lore of an industry I dreamed to one day crack. Anyway, just know that various factions and forces are indeed at work in the shadows and to beware of silver-tongued salesmen bearing snake oil wares. Question all motives. Trust no one. Be kind and rewind. I mean, the kids have got to know, right? Or am I wrong? So hard to tell these days, but that's half the fun of skateboarding. Otherwise it would just be some antiseptic Olympian pursuit and bollocks to that.
a chromeball excerpt with mike frazier
Sean Cliver
I remember appearing on what was basically the German version of Good Morning, America back in the ’90s with Tony [Hawk]. The most watched morning talk show in Germany. They invited Tony and I to come on and skate this ramp that they’d built in a park. We were supposed to shoot it all the next morning, and in our heads, we thought that we’d be able to get there early and skate the ramp a little bit first before the show. No, we get there that morning and they’re like, “No, you can’t skate the ramp because it’s the backdrop of our set.”
all roads lead to florida
Sean Cliver
A funny thing, history. To those who experienced the past, going back to a specific point in time can be a heady rush of memories not too dissimilar from mainlining heroin and sinking into a warm, fuzzy fog of nostalgia. To those who did not, these crusty reflections of yore can oftentimes be nothing short of an insufferable bore, because it is incumbent upon the young to punch that in the face which is fucking old. Unless, that is, you happen to be like Nick and I. Apparently the two of us were both born out of sync with own generations and share the peculiar compulsion to get down and dirty with the historical roots of our obsessions. Look, we just want to know how the past influenced the present, okay? Anyway, all of this brings us to… Florida. Well, I'm not sure any of that really did, but here we are now nonetheless.