3.17.2009

chrome ball incident #239: soul clap







one of the most stylish to ever do it...wish holmes would've given us more.

almost forgot about this one.

and I'll say it again, somebody really needs to reissue/bootleg those old blind "black radical" shirts. for real.

few things I've been diggin'...

kinda nice seeing peralta back in the mix.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

chops, give this guy some danny way and colin mckay already!

Keith said...

Vision Street Wear ad! Crazy!

Always been a huge fan of Jovontae. Saw him around a lot when I went to SF in 91.

Anonymous said...

whos the ad for with gonz in it? world? blind?

Anonymous said...

I think I mentionned it before here, but Jake Rosenberg used to shoot stuff for that French mag called Noway, that turned into Anyway and then B-Side (that's 1989-1992). Among the gems was that super-sick photo of Jovantae at EMB rocking the Airwalk boots and a yellow shirt with 'nuff celebs sightings in the background I'm sure, wish I could find these mags now.
Also, thanks for the link Chops!

Keith said...

It's a Blind ad.

Anonymous said...

Wait, what were the black radical shirts?? Im drawing a blank here..I remember the Lench Mob graphics, was it related to that?

chops said...

d way's up as we speak

what's going on, austin? how you been, homie?

keith, you ever see him skate in person?

jason, that's a blind ad.

keep up the good work, seb

anon2, the black radical shirt had a photo of tae raising the black power fist on the front with a graphic of africa and "blind" over top of it on the back. it was in conjunction with the white trash shirt that had j. lee holding the will skate for food sign backed with a graphic of the US and "blind". Had 'em both. Wish I still did.

SKEEM said...

DAMN!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the response Chops, both those shirts sound sick!

I wish I could just see photos of 'em somewhere at this point...

JayCee said...

I've known Jovontae since high school and I can honestly say that he's always been that fresh. From clothes to shoes to cars, to trick selection, he's always been stylish since day one. Skating with Tae was always a treat. Thinking back to some of our sessions, there was some incredible skating going on. There were days when we were skating that I would just watch him and think to myself that there was nobody in the world more on than him at that moment. It's crazy to think back on Blind and how it was back then. Obviously you think of Gonz, J Lee, Guy and Rudy. But for a long time, Tae was the only am on Blind. That used to trip me out on how huge that was. Think about a team consisting of Mark Gonzales and Jason Lee and you're the only am. That's crazy! But if you saw Jovontae skate back then, you'd understand why. Everything he did was just looked that much better than when anyone else did it. Jovontae's a pretty tall dude and obviously that can go one of two ways when you're a skater. But if you can pull it off, you end up looking that much better when you do tricks. I remember him being pretty stoked when Guy and Rudy got on cause they could finally film a video since they had a bigger team now. Obviously he left before they finished filming. I would assume there's probably some footage of him skating with those guys for the video. He's in the background of at least one part I know in Video Days. From what I remember, Lowrider was actually gonna be his song in the video. Now that would've been sick!

I kinda remember when he quit Blind. I remember we were coming out the Embarcadero Station and we had been skating around and there was a few of us and he was talking about it and I remember walking out the station and and he walked back downstairs (years before anyone had a cellphone) and and got on a payphone and made a call. After he came back, someone asked him if he did it and he said he did. I just remember thinking to myself that it was one of the craziest most insane things ever. The enormity of it is just sort something you can't really comprehend at that point. I think we were all still teenagers at the time. In hindsight, it's still pretty crazy, but I can understand it and look at it as what it was. He wanted to ride for someone else and he went ahead and did that. He always did what he wanted to and obviously people still sweat him regardless of who he was riding for back then.

I still talk to Tae when I see him from time to time. He's really into bikes as I'm sure most people know at this point. I remember one day I was riding my bike to work one day and it was really early in the morning and I see Tae on the other side of the street going the opposite direction doing a wheelie with headphones on. It was almost like this weird Zen thing. I watched him for a bit and he must've held that wheelie for a least a couple of blocks. And if you know anything about Jovontae, he made that wheelie look better than any wheelie you've ever seen.

chops said...

i know they were bootlegging the jason lee one for a minute on ebay... don't know of any black radical pics though.

damn, jaycee. once again, thanks homie. you droppin' science like that is always very much appreciated. and i got a matt rodriguez post coming up with your check-out in there.

Anonymous said...

So glad you did a Jovontae one. One of my Top 5 favorite styles in skating. His Love Child part was awesome. I had the Napping Negro board when I was 13 and didn't even realize the meaning of the graphic.

Anonymous said...

One thing I never noticed in Ban This, is how badly Stacy, or whoever, misspelled Salman Agah's name at the begining titles in his and Jovontae's part. Too funny. Check the link.

Anonymous said...

Tae-Tae was ALWAYS a major player from the West-coast that was doin-it.. just enough flavor to keep your mouth watering for more. He's someone I looked at and admired for his style and grace..both on a skateboard and with the fabric selection. I identified with him a 100%..and still do.

-Hernandez