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THE TOP 501 REASONS
REASON No. 043
JAMES REED
PROUD TO BE AMERICAN
CELEBRATING HIS INDEPENDANCE
BIG BEN
I've been skating for some time
now and have seen skateboarding
go through many changes-some
good, some bad-but one of the
fondest memories I have of this
sport is watching a vert contest in
Las Vegas held at one of the local
high schools. It was just an ama
teur event but had several spon
sored ams from around the coun
try. The image that keeps coming
to mind is of this big, burly guy
just tearing the shit out of the
ramp: big, fat airs and technical lip
tricks-all at Mach 5 speed. It was
BY-RIN
unbelievable. It was "beyond," as
Tony Hawk would say. I was in
awe, as was the rest of the Vegas
crowd. This skater had awesome
ability, aggressiveness, speed and
big balls. The skater's name was
Ben Schroeder. He quickly became
my favorite skater, and my room,
over time, became a shrine to pay
homage to his greatness with pic-
tures of alley-oops, Madonnas,
5-0s to fakie and so much more
(including stuff I couldn't even
comprehend). Well, Ben's cover-
age slowly diminished to obscurity
and every once in a while his name
would be brought up in an article
only to fade away shortly after.
Just when I thought I'd never see
or hear anything about Ben again,
I find "Beyond & Back" in the April
'95 issue of Thrasher, and came to
find out Ben was almost killed in a
car accident, I freaked out seeing
the picture of him with the neck
supporter-I couldn't believe it. I
was so relieved to hear that he has
recovered and is still skating. Well,
what all this is getting to is:
thanks Thrasher for paying respect
to one of the greatest skaters ever.
And I also want to thank Ben for
just being so rad and such a big
inspiration in my life. Thanks Ben.
Danny Baldonado
STEER QUEER
Las Vegas, NV
1 am writing in with a typical
story of: I moved to "Hicksville." I
recently moved away from around
Norfolk, Virginia, where lots of
people I knew skated. Where I live
now, people think of the word
"Nash" when I mention skating.
They say, "I remember back in the
eighties, I had a good ol' Nash."
Well, back in Virginia, my best
IF YOU'RE THROWN OFF YOUR BOARD AT 50 MPH, THEY'LL KEEP THE SKIN ON YOUR LEGS.
CELEBRATE YOUR INDEPENDANCE BY SE NECK FOR AND CATALOG
THRASHE
PO BOX 88457
SAN FRANCISCO
CA 94188-4570
10 THRASHER
501
ORIGINAL 501 BLUE JEANS OLEVI STRAUSS & CO. 1995