MAIL DROP.

Spit game and lay all blame, shame and derogatory names at: Mail Drop c/o THRASHER PO Box 884570 San Francisco, CA 94188-4570

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, and 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. The main focus doesn't seem to be promoting a way of life anymore. The focus appears to be pushing products. Simply stated, the magazine is stale and boring. "Oh 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 jus t underlined how dull it is to see page after page of the same trick variation. Of course, it was wedged in between four 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, Steve Alba. An interview with Salba should have been pages long. It could have shown kids what it was like to skate in four decades, the differences in style attitudes, etc. It could have introduced them to other skate legends and names they've probably never heard before. Instead it was a pathetic one-pager 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 dumb-ass 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 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 knee pads. 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 you 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 two 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?

House of Neil

I bet if you started longboarding, you could get sponsored! -mb

I started skateboarding because I saw it on TV It looked cool. My favorite skater is Tony Hawk. I have his video game. I read your magazine and tell my friends that I can do hard tricks and they think I'm cool, I like to impress people with my skateboard tricks. I like to watch Racketpower on Nickelodeon. My friends and I have a big Tech Deck collection. I wear full padding so I don't bump my bottom. I notice no one in your magazine wears pads. That's not safe. My dad is a policeman. I don't know why you make fun of policemen.

They are nice Rollerbladers are nice I can do a 90 One time I went to a skatepark and went to the top of a six-foot halfpipe. I was so scared that I peed my pants and everyone laughed at me. The skateboarders in your magazine look like they don't wash. I have never heard of any of them. Why don't you have more pictures of Tony Hawk? The X-Games rule! The pictures of girls in your magazine make my wiener hard. So, I have to hide your magazine from my mom. My mom only buys me the skateboards at Toys 'R' Us because the good ones are too expensive. Talk to you later, skater dudes,

Jeremy Mathews

Baltimore, MD

Two more years and you'll be as jaded as Neil. T-ed

I am writing to let you know your magazine kicks some major fuckin' ass. Thrasher is the whole reason I started sk8-ing. I looked at one at school and said, "Fuck, I want to do this shit." Five years later, I am looking in the July 2001 issue and see the article on Ed Templeton and I am thinking, "What the fuck?" You have most of the dudes that skate with Ed but you don't have any pictures of the goddess of skating, Elissa Steamer, bustin' out. What's up with that shit? She is my goddess and I would eat my own shit if she told me to. She is what kept me skatin' when I wanted to quit. I would watch Toy Machine's Jump Off a Building, watch her, then go get hurt trying to kickflip a 14 stair. I think you should do some big article based on her. And another thing, this goes to Ian from Sidney, British Columbia: You ain't nothing but a poser-ass bitch. Just 'cause I got GKS don't mean I am rich, you dick-sucking fag. I am straight up white trailer trash from Jupiter, Florida. So you can suck my dick and then shove your poser deck up your ass sideways while fuckin' your mom. Thank you Thrasher for giving me the chance to express myself.

Jacob Hammond

Jupiter, FL

Open letter to Frank Garcia-Hirata,

After seeing your video spot where you show your side job as a skatepark designer I realized that it's you and your boys at Purkiss-Rose (the geniuses who built HB's famous ashtray, possibly the worst park on the planet) who are the idiots responsible for the rash of shitty, haif-assed parks sprouting up all over Southern California. Don't get me wrong, I'm stoked that there are parks being built, but the kinked-out, cramped concrete splotches you guys are coming up with are not cutting it. Have you skated these parks? Did you design the four-inch-high rails going down pyramids that have the pitch of a doghouse? Was it you who decided the bowls would have lips that fall back, sport aluminum coping, and kink into the flat bottom? Is it because of your design skills that many of your parks feature hips and spines that lead directly into walls (like at Santee)? From the Purkiss-Rose website I discovered that the West Coast will soon be crawling with these things, which means you stand to make a mint in consulti ng fees. Before you cash another check, put on those funny sunglasses of yours and take a good look at the parks you've already designed. Is that what you'd build in your own backyard? Well, it's in somebody's backyard, so why not take pride in your work and make your parks outstanding? I know it's easy to complain after the fact, but bitch, you're getting paid for your "pro" advice! Throw all your existing plans in the trash and start over, Frank. You and your parks suck.

Frank Hater

Down South

The Promised Land is just one northbound interstate away. See Jackson County Line, Sept. '99. T-ed