The House of Neil

This Site Is Dead! Last updated some time in 2002. Here for archival purposes. This is where the action is.

House of Neil, Sept 2001

Editor's Note: Neil's Letter to Thrasher was a response to an interview with skateboarding's ledgendary Steve Alba. It is published (minus the web site address) in the letters section of the November issue of Thrasher. They titled it "The Grump", and told him to start longboarding, which he coincidentally just did. Read on.

I've been witnessing Thrasher's sad decline for years. In the mid 80s Thrasher was THE bible for all skateboarders everywhere. It was the anti-establishment voice. It made skaters feel like rebels. It had great pictures, interesting articles, regular columns, great music reviews etc. The best thing was its varied content. Backyard ramp jams, contests, bank sessions, freestyle, street. Every issue had it all, done with attitude and style. fast forward to the present , and what do we have? Another bland skateboarding magazine, no different than TWS or Big Brother. Actually, it is different: the photos aren't as good as TWS, and it isn't as funny as BB. Still, you get the point. The main focus doesn't seem to be promoting a way of life anymore, the focus appears to be pushing product. Simply stated, the magazine is stale and boring. "Ooh look, yet another picture of somebody doing a handrail! Wait, here's another! And another! This time he's ollieing OVER the handrail! How different". You get the message. The picture of Ricky Stiles doing a lien to tail in a pool in the August issue was like a breath of fresh air, and just underlined how dull it is to see page after page of the same trick variation. Of course, it was wedged in-between 4 photos of handrails, so it was bound to stand out!

Is it any wonder most kids today have no knowledge of skate history, or of other tricks outside of the ollie? You had the perfect opportunity in August: you "interviewed" an all-time skate legend in Steve Alba. An interview with Salba should have been pages long. It could have shown kids what it was like to skate in 4 decades, the differences in style attitudes etc. It could have introduced them to other skate legends: names they've probably never heard before. Instead it was a pathetic 1 page long, and asked him demeaning questions like "Have you ever heard of the vert button?". To his credit Salba was a professional and answered all of the dumbass questions with dignity instead of decking the guy. I was especially enraged when the interviewer made fun of Salba's Thrasher cover. Yes, he was carving a bank. Guess what? That cover has a ton more energy than your latest cover, and it shows somebody actually RIDING a skateboard. Why ask "were you wearing knee pads"? If he was, does that somehow negate Salba's 27 years of ripping? Make him a joke to you? Hey Mike Burnett: why don't you go skate a pool with Salba, and oh yeah, show him how cool you are and don't wear kneepads. The fact that Salba got the same amount of ink as the 14 year old on the next spread is indicative of how far you have fallen. Oh well, at least we got a full bleed photo that wasn't a handrail.

The way you cut down old school decks in Trash was nice too. "Obsolete"? "oddities"? To you perhaps. To a lot of us they are symbols of a better time when skating wasn't ruled by the almighty dollar, and everything wasn't so damned corporate. Hey guys, here's a secret for ya: decks don't all have to be the same shape and size! And you are allowed to actually be creative with the graphics! And oh yeah, Natas was doing ollie kickflips over chairs in 1986 on those "obsolete odd decks" that you speak of. (And nobody yet has matched the street brilliance of Natas in the 2 Santa Cruz videos Streets On Fire and Wheels Of Fire).

Please guys I beg of you, make Thrasher the legend it once was. Vary the content and photos. Bring back Skarfing Material and Ask the Doctor! Do something, anything to get it out of the stagnant malaise it is in! The only similarity between Thrasher now and what it once was is the logo! Does Kevin Thatcher know what you've done to his magazine?

Still skatin’ at 38
House of Neil
www.annoying.com

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