When VCJ retired from Powell Peralta, they advertised a contest to be the next artist in Thrasher. I was 17, about to graduate and go to art school to study graphic design. I sent them a bunch of drawings, skulls and bones, PusHead style stuff. About a month later, I got a package from Powell with a hand-written letter from Trish Powell, George Powell's daughter. She said that the contest had ended two months before and that they hired someone, but she really liked all my drawings. She sent me some stickers, posters, and a couple of autographed postcards...Stevie Cab (one of my all time favorite skaters) and Ray Underhill (RIP). I was stoked. I wrote her back thanking her for the merch and the response. I got a couple more handwritten postcards from her. I still have a bunch of that stuff in a shoebox. Powell had an ad in the next Thrasher announcing that Sean Cliver was the new guy. I always thought I missed it by that much, but in reality would have been in way over my head. I'm still a working artist today.
That's a great story. Glad you continued and found a career in art as well. I like when skating feels like a small community - the postcards being an example. Thx for sharing.
Steve, dude, I bought a Ray Underhill (complete w.Tracker Ultralkights & G-bones) about 6 years ago from a dude who left it at his Granparents house for 20+ years... This was the original 1987/1988'ish Underhill cross deck...And that kicknose is HUUGE! and surprisingly it's a full year or maybe 2 years b4 Kiknoses caught on. ***THE QUALITY= instantly noticeable! The wood quality of the Underhill deck is so strong(kinda heavy) I don't know how we Tre flipped em! I don't skate that deck often. but it did get me unretired. I was 38 at the time and have been skating non stop since... The deck.complete is special and makes me want to find more garage kept, great condition late 1980's Powell decks.. Maybe even Early 90's like Chris Senn boards orthe rare Ray Barbee ones.. ~~Rumor tells that Sir Lance & Ray Barbee used the same factory & wood for ALL TheFirm decks.. if true then this is my #1 wishlist
Every single time I'm having a less-than-stellar day at work and need just the right distraction, it seems another Love Letter drops and I am saved. Thank you. You all are the best.
grosso forever. every time i watch one of these, i can feel his pure love for skateboarding. i don't have a lot of skateboarders left in my life. this makes me feel good. rest in peace grosso. forever a legend.
the rob roskopp melting face deck with a set of slimeball wheels started it all for me. skate art looked so insane to us young kids back then ... haha we loved it!
This was wicked - but please, PLEASE, give John Lucero a full Loveletter. He's as important as Lance, and reps what skating is at its core. Let's give him the props he's due!
thank you for this episode, made me truly realize how important clivers art was to me when I was a kid and I had no idea who did my favorite graphics, much less all from the same guy.
ogmike Cliver and McKee are my hands down favorites. As much as I liked Gonz’s own stuff and the minimal 50s/60s throwback/midcentury modern-inspired Stereo graphics from 93-95, the stuff those two did was mind blowing, provocative, hilarious, clean and made you want to own almost everything they produced in the early 90’s. I had no idea Cliver started off at Powell Peralta and was responsible for their best stuff (Ray Barbee rag doll and Vallely elephant). I should have paid more attention. I need that Disposable Skateboard Bible.
Love it! Been itchn for another letters.. Well said, this is what it was/all about. In the 80's we would fixate on the board graphics because it would be the shit you would rock for a longer while until it was comeplerly dead. Have one board for now but wanted 10 other ones because of the graphics. So insanely sick👍
Oh man, my fave video so far! Keep em coming, Grosso! Keeps me from going down the rabbit hole between Star Wars stuff and weird shit caught on tape! (Sometimes skate footage just begins to blur together after a while.)
4 minutes and 44 seconds into this video and tempted to spend life savings on different boards with gnarly graphics which encourages more skateboarding and i better get to bed now instead of finishing this video so i can do more skareboarding!
Shape and graphics were the factors for my board choices. I remember using the plastic rails just to preserve the art. After that first scratch being pissed and sad I would board slide off the rest of the art and then paint my own art. Eventually I stopped buying boards with good art. I wish I had collected some just to hang on the wall.
damn homie, you & me shared the same brain. shape & graphics were the main factors for me as well. for my 1st "real, "pro" board, I was gonna get that VISION GATOR 'cause the graphics were killer. then I saw that HOSOI HAMMERHEAD street with the rising sun & him doin' that frontside grab off of a launch ramp....fell in love with that 1. I also dug those JOHN LUCERO boards from SCHMITT STIX & LUCERO LTD. up until then I used to get like, VARIFLEX boards from sears & k-mart & either ride 'em as they were or sometimes pops would reshape 'em & re-paint 'em.
My first board was the Agent Orange. I didn't even know they were a band! I was just so blown away by the grafficks. Then someone lent me Black Flag Damaged & I bought my first issue of ThrasheR. Haven't been the same since. Board got retired early cause someone told me I had to get a real board. I bought The Gonz. Lost Agent Orange board running from the cops at a keg party 5 years after I got it. Went looking for it the next day almost in tears. GONE. I'm still upset. Pisses me off. Probably the coolest art form for me personally. I trash picked a fucking Zorlac Metallic board with blue gullwings in the 90s. Gave it to my Bruddah in Law minus the trucks & Hosoi Rockets. He never skated a day in his life & he thinks it is the coolest thing he has ever seen! PusHead! Keep On Rolling.
Great vid! Hey Jeff, have you done one on trick names? I was just thinking that I know the origins of a lot of trick names, but some, like indy air, I don't know the story. There's so many of them, and tons of them have really interesting stories: Madonna, body jar, unit, texas plant, salad grind, feeble, etc., etc. That would be a fun vid! Or vids!
Some of the best graphics I remember were a Jason Lee World Industries deck with a car full of punks with Mohawks chasing after another car throwing beer bottles at it that was full of Nuns🤣
47- I remember almost every single one of these- but when I saw first Thiebaud's hanging Klansman- I said 'Whoa...' :) Thanks, wish there was more, but then where would you cut it? Art upon Art upon Art. Best, *A.
first board = psycho stick. That was about 30 years ago and to this day the smell of a new deck and grip tape brings me back to that board. Every single time. It's like a Pavlovian thing.
Not saying the art is all that drew me to skateboarding but it definitely had a major influence. I can still remember walking into my first skate store and just being mesmerized by all the boards on the walls as a kid under 10. This was during Powell and Santa cruz's dominant era. I'd spend literally hours staring at them during school holidays. My first 2 decks were a vision psycho stick and then the grosso wonderland board. Yes I had good taste as a kid.
Gerrit Graham’s Animal Chin cameo is great. Jason Lee paraphrased the “death, dismemberment...” skateboard graphics dialogue in his teenage footage that was featured in Stereo’s Tin Can Folklore.
Golden girls so epic, but I’m here to say Natas panther, dune board and the Jason Lee Burger King I skated on are very memorable during my adolescence!
My favorite graphics that I have had are the NASH 1987 catatonic graphic and the erick winkowski ghost. those two stand out the most to me. Probably a bit biased on the Erick Winkowski graphic since that is my current board. Love it. I want to buy a second for a wall piece.
Great episode (as usual) although I'm surprised they didn't go more in-depth about how screen print graphics gave way to heat transfer graphics in the early 90s (around the same time that the "modern oval shaped boards came into existence). There was an extremely noticeable shift around 1991-92 between the cartoon/simpler style graphics (screen print) to photo realistic graphics (heat print).
My first deck was a Santa Cruz Grosso and I bought it for the graphics. That devil thing erupting out of the ground, with the old Schmitt Stix voodoo graphic doll dead in the corner.
Yes I think so. Madrid was pretty big in the early to mid 80s and after they were featured in the movie Back to the Future (a Valterra board with a Madrid sticker on it) they were everywhere.
You were my first graphic grosso. The angel flying with the banner around the demon. Indys with 52 bullets. Who did that ? r.i.p. dude. you’re truly missed.
When VCJ retired from Powell Peralta, they advertised a contest to be the next artist in Thrasher. I was 17, about to graduate and go to art school to study graphic design. I sent them a bunch of drawings, skulls and bones, PusHead style stuff. About a month later, I got a package from Powell with a hand-written letter from Trish Powell, George Powell's daughter. She said that the contest had ended two months before and that they hired someone, but she really liked all my drawings. She sent me some stickers, posters, and a couple of autographed postcards...Stevie Cab (one of my all time favorite skaters) and Ray Underhill (RIP). I was stoked. I wrote her back thanking her for the merch and the response. I got a couple more handwritten postcards from her. I still have a bunch of that stuff in a shoebox. Powell had an ad in the next Thrasher announcing that Sean Cliver was the new guy. I always thought I missed it by that much, but in reality would have been in way over my head. I'm still a working artist today.
That's a great story. Glad you continued and found a career in art as well. I like when skating feels like a small community - the postcards being an example. Thx for sharing.
Great story! Thanks for sharing it. Be safe out there.
Steve, dude, I bought a Ray Underhill (complete w.Tracker Ultralkights & G-bones) about 6 years ago from a dude who left it at his Granparents house for 20+ years...
This was the original 1987/1988'ish Underhill cross deck...And that kicknose is HUUGE!
and surprisingly it's a full year or maybe 2 years b4 Kiknoses caught on.
***THE QUALITY= instantly noticeable! The wood quality of the Underhill deck is so strong(kinda heavy) I don't know how we Tre flipped em!
I don't skate that deck often. but it did get me unretired. I was 38 at the time and have been skating non stop since...
The deck.complete is special and makes me want to find more garage kept, great condition late 1980's Powell decks..
Maybe even Early 90's like Chris Senn boards orthe rare Ray Barbee ones..
~~Rumor tells that Sir Lance & Ray Barbee used the same factory & wood for ALL TheFirm decks.. if true then this is my #1 wishlist
Thats fucken awesome man!
That is so rad man
Every single time I'm having a less-than-stellar day at work and need just the right distraction, it seems another Love Letter drops and I am saved. Thank you. You all are the best.
My life is legitimately better because of this series, thanks Vans and thanks Grosso 🙌🏼👊🏼
Amen!!
The neil blender coffee break art is my all time favorite to this day. I loved that board.
Lorem Opossum The shape was also awesome. Great concave and nice whale tail for Ollie’s.
You're thinking of Neal Hendrix haha
Grosso is the man. I could watch the letters all day, the show really gives you so much history about skating
Skateboarding = Art
grosso forever. every time i watch one of these, i can feel his pure love for skateboarding. i don't have a lot of skateboarders left in my life. this makes me feel good. rest in peace grosso. forever a legend.
Man! That was a trip down memory lane! RIP Grosso.
the rob roskopp melting face deck with a set of slimeball wheels started it all for me. skate art looked so insane to us young kids back then ... haha we loved it!
Slime balls!! Remember the ashtray ad 👍. Made me go... "fuck this is rad" !
SeniorMojo Same here, red Roskopp face with bullitt 66 wheels and Indy trucks in 1988
Love this episode so much. Talkin' about two of my favorite things, art and skateboards
I miss silkscreened boards! Heat transfers opened up a whole new world, though. Loved the detailed process info at the end!
I had a Grosso back in ‘86-87 maybe? With the doll and his name on the blocks. Loved that one. It was mint.
He had some great artwork, can't decide my fave Grosso between Alice and Demon...I finally have the green demon reissue at least.
Late 80’s Santa Cruz graphics were the best in my opinion.
Heck yeah man, Jim Phillips! He has a skateboard art book out just for his stuff too.
Always will be. Slasher forever! Also the Roskopp face!
Jim Phillips,Pushead,ShaneMunce,& MarcMckee!#80’sRule#🛹🔥✨
Absolutely
Rest In Peace Grosso! You make & made a lot us whole with these videos.
Rest In Peace brother. Just came to hear you talk about the thing we all love.
This was wicked - but please, PLEASE, give John Lucero a full Loveletter. He's as important as Lance, and reps what skating is at its core. Let's give him the props he's due!
No doubt dude! He deserves significant props.
Not to mention his partner in crime for years
Hahaha I'm so glad loveletters to skateboarding exists! I hope it keeps going forever!
One of the greatest history lessons I've ever seen. Thank you guys.
Love letters is so relevant. I love you guys.
SkateboaRDING is one of the greatest things in the world,and this is straight to the best treasures. My buddy Danny always tells me to watch these.
We're feeling the love here on our end! Feel free to watch more from Jeff Grosso's Loveletters To Skateboarding here: bit.ly/2yDCO51
@@vans I've come back to watch again. I collect Vans, nothing too rare,I wish, but of course, this is a saved playlist!!
@@vans If I made a super edit in honour of Grosso could I possibly submit it to Vans?
thank you for this episode, made me truly realize how important clivers art was to me when I was a kid and I had no idea who did my favorite graphics, much less all from the same guy.
We're feeling the love on our end! Feel free to watch more from Jeff Grosso's Loveletters To Skateboard here!: bit.ly/2yDCO51
Vans seen em all dude
ogmike Cliver and McKee are my hands down favorites. As much as I liked Gonz’s own stuff and the minimal 50s/60s throwback/midcentury modern-inspired Stereo graphics from 93-95, the stuff those two did was mind blowing, provocative, hilarious, clean and made you want to own almost everything they produced in the early 90’s. I had no idea Cliver started off at Powell Peralta and was responsible for their best stuff (Ray Barbee rag doll and Vallely elephant). I should have paid more attention. I need that Disposable Skateboard Bible.
Can someone at vans thank grosso from all the viewers
Aw yeah. First graphic they go off about was Zorlac John Gibson. My first deck.
Oh the ending, just pure love for the guys who went and are still going thru that process.
Nostalgic! Today is not the same thing!
Blender is everything !!
Totally agree this should be a full length doc!
Love it! Been itchn for another letters.. Well said, this is what it was/all about. In the 80's we would fixate on the board graphics because it would be the shit you would rock for a longer while until it was comeplerly dead. Have one board for now but wanted 10 other ones because of the graphics. So insanely sick👍
I was a big fan of Blockhead's graphics. Omar Hassan magic carpet, Good Sam and snake eye, Mark Partain....They were all great.
Great shape and feel to them too!
yeah they were minimal
why so short
Oh man, my fave video so far! Keep em coming, Grosso! Keeps me from going down the rabbit hole between Star Wars stuff and weird shit caught on tape! (Sometimes skate footage just begins to blur together after a while.)
80's decks: Street Creep, Nightmare, Grosso Demon, Lucero Series, Roskop Series, Blender Coffee, Mullen Freestylin Skeleton... But Welcome Boards are purely artistic.
4 minutes and 44 seconds into this video and tempted to spend life savings on different boards with gnarly graphics which encourages more skateboarding and i better get to bed now instead of finishing this video so i can do more skareboarding!
Shape and graphics were the factors for my board choices. I remember using the plastic rails just to preserve the art. After that first scratch being pissed and sad I would board slide off the rest of the art and then paint my own art. Eventually I stopped buying boards with good art. I wish I had collected some just to hang on the wall.
damn homie, you & me shared the same brain. shape & graphics were the main factors for me as well. for my 1st "real, "pro" board, I was gonna get that VISION GATOR 'cause the graphics were killer. then I saw that HOSOI HAMMERHEAD street with the rising sun & him doin' that frontside grab off of a launch ramp....fell in love with that 1. I also dug those JOHN LUCERO boards from SCHMITT STIX & LUCERO LTD. up until then I used to get like, VARIFLEX boards from sears & k-mart & either ride 'em as they were or sometimes pops would reshape 'em & re-paint 'em.
God I wish this episode would continue for all eternity.
Damn I had no idea John drew the Staab graphic. Who drew the Buck Smith magician graphic?
Who drew eric nashs bad hombre graphic- so many unknowns
It's about time...🤗 MORE!!!!
3:52 in..I had that Lavar McBride deck...that was my favorite graphic.
When it rains outside, I come here for inspiration and some JG nostalgia...
Creature does my favorite graphics. I love how they chose a color to rep hard like a gang or some shit.
I miss my Santa Cruz Jammer I got back in 81'
Another legendary video
Sean Cliver and VCJ are the reason I even like to do skateboard graphics
I'm a superfan of Dave Freil. Love that guy and all that he's contributed to the world in general.
Those old screens at NHS did to be protected forever. Crazy history right there
My first board was the Agent Orange. I didn't even know they were a band! I was just so blown away by the grafficks. Then someone lent me Black Flag Damaged & I bought my first issue of ThrasheR. Haven't been the same since. Board got retired early cause someone told me I had to get a real board. I bought The Gonz. Lost Agent Orange board running from the cops at a keg party 5 years after I got it. Went looking for it the next day almost in tears. GONE. I'm still upset. Pisses me off. Probably the coolest art form for me personally. I trash picked a fucking Zorlac Metallic board with blue gullwings in the 90s. Gave it to my Bruddah in Law minus the trucks & Hosoi Rockets. He never skated a day in his life & he thinks it is the coolest thing he has ever seen! PusHead! Keep On Rolling.
bro cliver is the man i love those books.. great show!!
Great vid! Hey Jeff, have you done one on trick names? I was just thinking that I know the origins of a lot of trick names, but some, like indy air, I don't know the story. There's so many of them, and tons of them have really interesting stories: Madonna, body jar, unit, texas plant, salad grind, feeble, etc., etc. That would be a fun vid! Or vids!
That's a great idea, even after 40+ years of skating I still don't know where half the trick names came from.
11:00 thank you for the information. Crazy process.
RIP GROSSO!!!!!
Some of the best graphics I remember were a Jason Lee World Industries deck with a car full of punks with Mohawks chasing after another car throwing beer bottles at it that was full of Nuns🤣
The reason I don't board slide much...ART!😉
Disposable is my favourite book of all time
47- I remember almost every single one of these- but when I saw first Thiebaud's hanging Klansman- I said 'Whoa...' :) Thanks, wish there was more, but then where would you cut it? Art upon Art upon Art. Best, *A.
My mother in law gave me that disposable book for for Christmas. It’s great!
Sean Clover's book is awesome. My favorite deck is the McGill fish deck.... Where the school of fish turns into a snake
Do a part II, and part III, and if you get that far might as well do part IV etc...
I love jeff telling us to go fuck off and go skate that's the best part of the videos lol
Staab “Mad Scientist” was always a favorite! I like other Lucero art. Favorite is Skull n Helmet Vallely?
first board = psycho stick. That was about 30 years ago and to this day the smell of a new deck and grip tape brings me back to that board. Every single time. It's like a Pavlovian thing.
That was a large and odd shaped deck but a great one.
LOVE YOU JEFF... RIP GROSSMAN
Not saying the art is all that drew me to skateboarding but it definitely had a major influence. I can still remember walking into my first skate store and just being mesmerized by all the boards on the walls as a kid under 10. This was during Powell and Santa cruz's dominant era. I'd spend literally hours staring at them during school holidays. My first 2 decks were a vision psycho stick and then the grosso wonderland board. Yes I had good taste as a kid.
ikr, the Wonderland is genius, never had the op though.
Small Room was rad too! A less is more style that had an impact of it's own.. pure clear wood grain with simple graphics👍
Well that dude just sold another book, how did I not know of thos. Fantastic episode
thanks jeff please keep doing this its a saviour ,please come and skate ROM ,worlds oldest and best skatepark london uk
Gerrit Graham’s Animal Chin cameo is great. Jason Lee paraphrased the “death, dismemberment...” skateboard graphics dialogue in his teenage footage that was featured in Stereo’s Tin Can Folklore.
Love skate art I've got's my copy of the Disposable Bible it's so good,Grosso packing a few now after being off the board go skate mate.....
MUCH LONGER!!!
3:26 the 1st pro board I had, but green and black, and grip was cut to match shapes of the gator logo
Grosso, chill, it’s 3 in the morning and raining. I promise to wake up tomorrow and skate🍻 hahahaha
I love that Winkowski and Asta and Guzman all have graphics on their decks harking back to late 80's and 90's
Golden girls so epic, but I’m here to say Natas panther, dune board and the Jason Lee Burger King I skated on are very memorable during my adolescence!
Still on my wheels since 83’. It’s ALWAYS been about the graphics. Powell, Old Ghost, Natas, anything Santa Cruz.
best show ever
10:27 I use to have that alien vs predator skate mental deck 8.25 one of my favorites
Still love how Grosso was the first to stick it to the man with his Coca-Cola board. Rip ledge.
Roskopp and Gator are to me the most iconic 80's graphics
Don Pendleton graphics for early workshop should have had a mention- love the lines on them
Where can I find the picture in 7:02 ??
Hearing the explanation of how you would silkscreen a board back then, I can see why Christian Cooper is totally fine with heat transfer now, hahaha.
If you watch old Powell video 1 or 2, they show them making decks
My favorite graphics that I have had are the NASH 1987 catatonic graphic and the erick winkowski ghost. those two stand out the most to me. Probably a bit biased on the Erick Winkowski graphic since that is my current board. Love it. I want to buy a second for a wall piece.
Great episode (as usual) although I'm surprised they didn't go more in-depth about how screen print graphics gave way to heat transfer graphics in the early 90s (around the same time that the "modern oval shaped boards came into existence). There was an extremely noticeable shift around 1991-92 between the cartoon/simpler style graphics (screen print) to photo realistic graphics (heat print).
Now we need a love letters on skateboard shapes!
Too cool. Those hand printing screens will end up in a skateboarding museum at some point.
Outstanding.
Great episode
My first deck was a Santa Cruz Grosso and I bought it for the graphics. That devil thing erupting out of the ground, with the old Schmitt Stix voodoo graphic doll dead in the corner.
Epic episode!
8:33 isn't that Skateboard in Stranger Things??
The Yellow Wheeled one
Yes I think so. Madrid was pretty big in the early to mid 80s and after they were featured in the movie Back to the Future (a Valterra board with a Madrid sticker on it) they were everywhere.
You were my first graphic grosso. The angel flying with the banner around the demon. Indys with 52 bullets. Who did that ? r.i.p. dude. you’re truly missed.
for me the Zorlac PUSHEAD double cut graphic was the best by far
good shit. i hope someone could make sth for the early 90s slick boards. so much crazy shit.
VCJ graphics are my favourite
Was that a mini Grosso at the end? Excellent duck call ;-)
Imagine a Purple and Volt Green Sun God Graphic!! Like Super Neon In Your Face, but crystal clear tho where you can see every intricate line. SO SICK
Damn, no zero graphics? They always have some sick ones
Yaaaaa Todd Francis!!! AH18 Art is so good
Great video, but no mention of Jim Phillips?
Rob roskopp face by Jim Phillips is the best graphic ever.
Got the Schmitt Stix ATV tat I saw in Thrasher in "87" starting to fade a bit.
I miss my old Gibson Zorlac!!