Black Out from Black Label Skateboards, circa 2003. The Black Label videos always stoke my skate fire. They not only have some of the best all-around skaters, but they manage to keep some of the greatest legends in skateboarding too.
John Lucero founded Black Label in 1990. He started skating in 1974, and was one of the last people to be sponsored by Dogtown. His first graphic deck was from Variflex Skateboards in 1984. The next year was his first ever “hand drawn” graphic and was put out by Madrid Skateboards. He later got onto Schmitt Stix with Jeff Grosso, who was the top am of the time. John’s first board “Behind Bars” sold more in one month than Schmitt Stix had sold in it’s first year. His graphics have lasted through all of these years, making appearances on World Industries and NHS goods.
John can be attributed to pushing street skating to new heights, and was supposedly one of the first people to use wax on curbs.
“It could’ve been launched by kids everywhere at the same time. Who knows? Who cares? Besides, a wise man once said, ‘I don’t want any credit, but I’ll take all the blame!'” source: Transworld
Soon, everyone could be spotted with their chunk of candle, waxing up curbs everywhere.
“There used to be so much wax in Huntington Beach that they had de-waxer trucks in the early 90s … They would just come by and steam off the curbs. It’s pretty inspiring to know I helped a whole generation of kids wax and destroy property.” source: Transworld
He even worked with Brad Dorfman to create Vision Street Wax.
Although Black Label seems to be doing very well lately. John also seems to be concerned about the influx in sales of blank decks in skateshops.
Featured Skaters: Jason “The Kid” Adams, Salman Agah, Adam Alfaro, Chet Childress, Ricky Espinoza, Jim Gagne, Ben Gilley, Omar Hassan, Jub, Patrick Melcher, Duane Peters, Pat Rakestraw, Anthony “Ragdoll” Scalamere, Wade Speyer, Kristian Svitak, Jhovany Vidal, Neil Blender, John Lucero
run time: 45 min 20 sec – Check it Out
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