112 THRASHER
Clockwise from left: Damon is da man with a but-
tery blue heelflip varial. Bills crumbles the foundation of
a local school with a half-Cab noseslide bigspin. TUX
nollie 5-0s with the help of Dave's car lights.
BEN SCHROEDER
A little east of Pasadena is the bumpkin town
of Monrovia. This is where Ben Schroeder lives.
He's been working on a new design for vert
ramps that he is hoping will help evolve the
sport. He's currently building a dirtboard park
and starting a skatepark contracting business;
he's a design engineer working out of his home.
I met up with him at his father's business, at
which Ben has an 11-foot (one and a half feet of
vert) vert ramp erected in his dad's junkyard.
The ramp originally stood in some rock quarry
or something, and 'then Spidy's had it for a
while. Eric Nash took over payments, and now
Ben has been using it to fool around with ramp
designs for the last few years. He just recently
had his third kid and is swamped with work.
MUSIC
The music scene in Pasadena is making some
noise right now. There's a little art colony coming
up around the area. Three of the musical talents
involved in the scene are Professor Mindbender,
The Mission, and Burning Star. Unfortunately I
never successfully hooked up with Mindbender to
get a photo, but he definitely has strong history in
Pasadena. Burning Star is going to be playing at the
Cypress Hill Smoke Out coming up. If you get a
chance to you might want to check these guys out.