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.
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!
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.
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.
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!
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!
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.)
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👍
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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🤣
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.
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).
@6:53 ooh ooh that's the one I had as a kid and left it out on the street and it got well can't in all fairness say stolen. Badass dragon graphic as a kid I loved dragons still do.
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.
Skateboarding = Art
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
My life is legitimately better because of this series, thanks Vans and thanks Grosso 🙌🏼👊🏼
Amen!!
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
Grosso is the man. I could watch the letters all day, the show really gives you so much history about skating
I miss silkscreened boards! Heat transfers opened up a whole new world, though. Loved the detailed process info at the end!
Man! That was a trip down memory lane! RIP Grosso.
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.
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.
Love this episode so much. Talkin' about two of my favorite things, art and skateboards
Rest In Peace brother. Just came to hear you talk about the thing we all love.
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
Hahaha I'm so glad loveletters to skateboarding exists! I hope it keeps going forever!
Aw yeah. First graphic they go off about was Zorlac John Gibson. My first deck.
Rest In Peace Grosso! You make & made a lot us whole with these videos.
Nostalgic! Today is not the same thing!
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
Love letters is so relevant. I love you guys.
I miss my Santa Cruz Jammer I got back in 81'
Oh the ending, just pure love for the guys who went and are still going thru that process.
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
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?
Blender is everything !!
One of the greatest history lessons I've ever seen. Thank you guys.
Totally agree this should be a full length doc!
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!
RIP GROSSO!!!!!
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.)
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👍
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.
When it rains outside, I come here for inspiration and some JG nostalgia...
bro cliver is the man i love those books.. great show!!
Disposable is my favourite book of all time
My mother in law gave me that disposable book for for Christmas. It’s great!
Creature does my favorite graphics. I love how they chose a color to rep hard like a gang or some shit.
3:52 in..I had that Lavar McBride deck...that was my favorite graphic.
It's about time...🤗 MORE!!!!
LOVE YOU JEFF... RIP GROSSMAN
Another legendary video
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
Those old screens at NHS did to be protected forever. Crazy history right there
I'm a superfan of Dave Freil. Love that guy and all that he's contributed to the world in general.
why so short
Sean Cliver and VCJ are the reason I even like to do skateboard graphics
The reason I don't board slide much...ART!😉
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
11:00 thank you for the information. Crazy process.
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.....
Well that dude just sold another book, how did I not know of thos. Fantastic episode
80's decks: Street Creep, Nightmare, Grosso Demon, Lucero Series, Roskop Series, Blender Coffee, Mullen Freestylin Skeleton... But Welcome Boards are purely artistic.
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.
Do a part II, and part III, and if you get that far might as well do part IV etc...
MUCH LONGER!!!
Sean Clover's book is awesome. My favorite deck is the McGill fish deck.... Where the school of fish turns into a snake
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.
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.
Staab “Mad Scientist” was always a favorite! I like other Lucero art. Favorite is Skull n Helmet Vallely?
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.
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.
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.
Still on my wheels since 83’. It’s ALWAYS been about the graphics. Powell, Old Ghost, Natas, anything Santa Cruz.
thanks jeff please keep doing this its a saviour ,please come and skate ROM ,worlds oldest and best skatepark london uk
3:26 the 1st pro board I had, but green and black, and grip was cut to match shapes of the gator logo
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👍
Don Pendleton graphics for early workshop should have had a mention- love the lines on them
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!
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🤣
Grosso, chill, it’s 3 in the morning and raining. I promise to wake up tomorrow and skate🍻 hahahaha
I love jeff telling us to go fuck off and go skate that's the best part of the videos lol
I love that Winkowski and Asta and Guzman all have graphics on their decks harking back to late 80's and 90's
10:27 I use to have that alien vs predator skate mental deck 8.25 one of my favorites
Epic episode!
best show ever
Outstanding.
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.
Roskopp and Gator are to me the most iconic 80's graphics
Got the Schmitt Stix ATV tat I saw in Thrasher in "87" starting to fade a bit.
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.
Now we need a love letters on skateboard shapes!
VCJ graphics are my favourite
Great episode
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).
one of the best letters!!...my first one??
...rod rosckop eye!...after that santacruz with litle angel and litle devil!
Yaaaaa Todd Francis!!! AH18 Art is so good
good shit. i hope someone could make sth for the early 90s slick boards. so much crazy shit.
classic shot behind them of Paul Gebauer at Sunset around 1960
Still love how Grosso was the first to stick it to the man with his Coca-Cola board. Rip ledge.
I miss my old Gibson Zorlac!!
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
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
@6:53 ooh ooh that's the one I had as a kid and left it out on the street and it got well can't in all fairness say stolen. Badass dragon graphic as a kid I loved dragons still do.
Too cool. Those hand printing screens will end up in a skateboarding museum at some point.
Grosso Forever
One of my first boards was that Chris Cook with all those little mini skulls that made up the lettering ( I miss my legs more )
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