Opinions on Thrasher Magazine - From the late Jake Phelps

R.I.P to the skateboarding icon. HYPEBEAST Features - Go in-depth and learn more about the culture. [HYPEBEAST]( [Features]( March 15, 2019 [Opinions on Thrasher Magazine - From the late Jake Phelps]( R.I.P to the skateboarding icon. [sacai & Beats by Dre Announce BeatsX Collaboration]( JAKE PHELPS / THRASHER MAGAZINE Seminal skate magazine Thrasher was founded by Eric Swenson and Fausto Vitello in 1981, and has always represented a sense of incensed opposition to the status quo – within the skate industry and outside of it. So of course, as a skater, it was jarring to catch the magazine repped by models and fashion pundits outside at presentations in early 2016. While the magazine was originally started as a platform for Swenson and Vitello to promote their skate brand, Independent Trucks, Thrasher has since transcended its original purpose to become the most influential skate magazine in the world. In a similar way that The New York Times has a writing style that is literally copied by writers and editors around the world, there too exists a Thrasher-style of skateboarding, though no definitive handbook exists. Under legendary Editor-in-Chief Jake Phelps, the magazine has earned the nickname “The Bible” amongst skaters, referring to its judicial role within the community – its hallowed pages are where skaters are made into legends, or satirized into obscurity. Every good magazine has one issue that can’t be missed. In fashion, that would be Vogue’s fall fashion issue. In skating, Thrasher’s annual “Skater of the Year” issue is the must-read news of the season: the magazine celebrates the skateboarder that has most accurately embodied its de facto mantra of “Skate and Destroy” over the past 12 months. The pavement is where the real shit is. Blood and scabs, does it get realer than that? [Priya Ahluwalia Adidas Originals]( Unlike the fashion industry, which rewards the popularity of a label – like who’s been seen in it, and its number of appearances in editorials – “Skater of the Year” can’t really be quantifiably justified. There’s a reason why certain skaters will never win the award, despite performing the most technical maneuvers – style. As skating becomes increasingly framed as a sport (it’s on the verge of being included in the 2020 Olympic Games), a skater’s approach or body language becomes their defining characteristic among peers. Thrasher’s preferred style has the most parallels with hardcore punk movement of the early ‘80s: the skater takes fundamental tricks and executes them while moving faster, in places no one has done them, and, perhaps most importantly, makes it look difficult. “I’m not gonna give the award to some Johnny-come-last-month, flavor-of-the-week guy,” explains Phelps. In the case of this year’s winner, Phelps says he picked Anthony Van Engelen for “services rendered” – in other words, dues paid over a 10+ year career. Skate companies produce videos as a kind of marketing tool – and although lengthy, big budget productions are still the gold standard; shorter, more frequent releases are currently the norm in the YouTube age. Some people that win “Skater of the Year” only appear in one large-scale video per year, if that – which renders the award a measure of quality versus quantity. Within the magazine itself, you might notice that Thrasher dedicates valuable page space to telling the backstory behind every featured photo; that’s because the unseen battle of skateboarding – trying a trick for hours, sometimes days, before pulling it off – is ultimately what garners respect. And the rhetoric surrounding “Skater of the Year” is almost entirely founded on how hard they worked. After all, they’re the legends who performed tricks for which there are no shortcuts. In other words, Thrasher’s highest, most emblematic honor isn’t reserved for the “best” skateboarders – it’s for the inimitable ones. [READ FULL ARTICLE ON HYPEBEAST →](   [More HYPEBEAST Features]( [[FASHION]( [A Closer Look at Supreme's SS19 Stone Island Collaboration]( [[FASHION]( [8 Drops You Don't Want to Miss This Week]( [Get The App Free on iOS and Android]( Follow 2019 HYPEBEAST Limited. All Rights Reserved [Manage Subscriptions]( You are receiving this email because you have subscribed to HYPEBEAST's marketing emails. You can unsubscribe from us any time by clicking [here](3D--584955fc634c3b53e52b6c622e453c7ad0384be2a467d5ac1a12d6a09e346c44?utm_source=hbfeatures&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=mar15_19). It may take 48 hours to complete the unsubscribe process. Contact subscription@hypebeast.com for assistance on any enquiries. Our Mailing Address: HYPEBEAST, 10F, KC 100, 100 Kwai Cheong Road, Kwai Chung, Hong Kong