BACK FADE
JINX
VOLUME 16, NUMBER 1, ISSUE 179. Definition of the enterprise at hand... What is it? Absolutely the
largest issue ever, a bona fide, certified, solid core collectible. The fifteenth year is celebrated
here with this unit, which is the 179th to date. This anniversary compendium is the latest in a
long line of sweaty, stinky, brash, rude, artistic, arrogant, sometimes visionary, occasionally ele-
gant, innovative, downbeat, inspirational, compressed and crude stylizations all served straight
up. No be good, be good. Consensus opinion. These individuals embody the spirit, creativity and
intensity of the last decade and a half. Props to all.
The significance of the Thrasher endeavor is not rooted in arcane statistics and in self-
promotional ditties about the people who write, shoot, art direct, print and publish it. The
magazine's success has always been dependent upon the act of skateboarding and the inter-
ests, opinions and activities of those who do it.
With that in mind, we dedicate this issue to
fifteen skaters whom we feel best defined the last fifteen years. Our picks are based upon a
long, hard-thought and frequently fought process. No morality plays appear on the stage
nor do odes to infantile trendoid hipness. Over 26,700,000 Thrashers have been printed and at
the average pass along readership rate of eight per issue, that's 213,600,000 (two hundred.
thirteen million, six hundred thousand) readers so far. Cubic mass-wise, a forest is gone having
been dedicated to the higher cause of information exchange.
Thrasher stands as the longest running
skateboard publication. It is the originator.
the one and only, by and for skateboarders.
Invented out of need and copied out of greed.
Thrasher exists because it has to. What it's
not is the son of some surf mag, the sister
publication of some media conglomerate tit-
sucking snow job, or a vanity press catazine
put out by born-again BMXers. -CR Stecyk III
Clockwise from top left: Alan Losi, Colton, CA, 1981. Duane Peters and Tony
Alva, Lake Meridith, TX, 1982. Mark Gonzales, art, 1986. Jaks Team, Boomer-
ang Banks, SF, 1984. Kona Hotel Riot, Jacksonville, FL, 1982. Lance Mountain,
LA, 1983. John Cardiel, Ocean Beach, SF, 1993. On the road, SF, 1981.
42 THRASHER
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APTIST C