This week, Thrasher Magazine’s editor in chief, Jake Phelps, is clearing the air on his famous list of five skaters that he permanently banned from the magazine. This week-long feature entitled “Five Days of Hate” details why Benji Galloway, Tony Farmer, Frank Hirata, Choppy Omega, and Billy Pepper were excluded from coverage.
Love him or hate him, Phelps is maintaining his reputation as an outspoken and brutally honest figure in the skateboarding community. Will his words expose injustices in skateboarding? Or will he simply go on a slanderous rampage? This week will showcase Phelps in his true form.
Above picture taken from thrashermagazine.com
62 comments
Wallace
Man I’ve known Choppy for about 10 years, we’ve had some crazy times. I’ve known many celebrities, many from my days as a photographer at Playboy and without question (at least in Portland) wherever we went everyone was excited to see him. I don’t follow skateboarding or anything I just know Choppy has been a blast to know. I’ve lost touch and would love to find him. Choppy if you read this hmu up brother, remember when your street got shut down for some hot cars and Gram got caught and released? I went away but I’m back and found you on Instagram but message hasn’t been read, 858 480 1891
Shawn Carpenter
I grew up in Pennsylvania with choppy in the Hershey area back then he went by the name Hasoi or his real name Renee he was always a fun dude to be around
John Stoddard
Well I’ll tell you what , Ive met and skated with Choppy and he is exactly what I thought that he would be ; sketchy but brilliant on a skateboard, spontaneous and entertaining as your craziest drunk friend on new years eve, and as degenerate and blown out as that same best friend of yours on new years day . The last time that I saw Choppy was on Kauai in 1999, the Saturday night before Easter Sunday. We had helped our friend Clint from Oahu put on a Veeco party in a warehouse. Between the 10ft ramp , the punk band Generic, the booze, and the broads, I clearly recall accidently peering behind building a building in to a random dark lit alley and seeing Choppy and Pancho spitroasting some lady of the night. Some things you just cannot unsee! As for the late Phelper ( RIP) , I used to work in the city ( SF) , back in 2010, and down by the Embarcadero , in one of the restaurants on the water I seen him out having a noon cocktail as I was on my lunch break and doing something that I never do , I went ahead and asked him for an autograph ( I’ve skated and known about Phelps since 1988) and he pretty much shined me like I was some kook and just said ” not today” or some such asshole reply. It wasn’t like he was with his girl or whatever but he wasn’t making the slightest effort and I instantly regretted being a fan That was the first and only time . I didn’t really care but still I couldn’t help but feel a little betrayed by the voice of the skate rag that got my psyched on the shred sled so long ago. Yeah sorry , long shitty stories , from a long shitty time ago. Now I am old stale and negative. Don’t get old kids one day you might just have to spew up some torrid tales about times and troops long beaten and forgotten. JMS
John
I know more than 5 people who couldn
Strainz
Chopps is amazing when he’s on, peirod. And all of PORTLAND will tell you the same. Keep writing your BS Phelps we’ll see you in Ptown soon enough! You the fuckin man Chop!
HANDSOMEYOUNGBUCK
Megan Fox? Thats crazy, cause I actually love your blog.
I just came across your picture, literally. In fact its all over my computer and even in the keyboard some.
I really hope you are the real Megan Fox and not the sinister cyborg impersonator I suspect you are.
Yeah, I can read evil robot code, sign: ppp99994nhtudn
to you too.
Teiana brown
Choppy omega is one of my favorite skaters of all time. It’s to bad that phelper can’t handle the truth and choppy rages at the wrong times, so what does that have to do with skateboarding, nothing. Photgraphers if your lucky enough to shoot some shots of choppy skateboarding I would keep them for yourself to prove what you witness everytine I see him skate he pulls an original high speed move that I have never seen before. He rips rips
miguel
dah! potrero not protero. There were pro’s and ex pros and ex magazaine editors so I guess it works. Too brain dead and trip lagged.
miguel
jake was skating at protero on friday? I think it was singing “no presents for christmas”
KC
I think it’s time for an intervention?
Mac
Ok, so he’s NOT fired, AND we don’t get the other 4 days of hate? That’s just wrong all around. Had to be the lawyers…
heath
jakeferranti- Yes, and you don’t have to worry if her friends will like you or not.
jakeferranti
Heath- so what your telling me is Gators’ girlfriend is single now?
Mac
Yeah, 1 day of hate was enough. So we’re never going to know what transgressions got the other 4 banned?
bk
highly unlikely.
hass
Phelps, you reap what you sow.
nweyesk8
Is it true what I just saw at Thrasher, Jake got fired by High Speed Productions over the whole “five days of hate” and only after the first day?
heath
Actually, Gator raped and killed Jessica Bergsten, who was a friend of Gator’s girlfriend.
LP
thrasher is kind of irrelevant anyway since theres way better mags like lowcard and of course sna.com. not as irrelevant as ranny world, but getting there! swatch watch ads please!
curtis
I know alot about gator, and I know their is a big difference between killing someone because you want to, and killing someone because you are told to. but both acts are sort of on the same side of the fence to me.
I wanna puke when thrasher prints photos of helicopters with the thrasher banner haning out the door.
JF
who buys Trasher anyway? skate mags (except Juice) are lame, all ads and only street skating. I’m banning Trasher from my mag. list.
barf
definitely lamer in real life… definitely
bobcat
Last gasp of the printed skate media
Will Jones
ive never even heard of any of these guys (cept benji), when was the last time any of them had anything in thrasher anyway? this is kinda stupid, hes banning some no names and making a big ass deal about it, thats low
Wreckage
No names? Frank hirata ? You clearly are a kid that knows nothing, do some homework before you open your pie hole
jakeferranti
I read something years ago about Jamie Thomas being on that list but all those on the list got plenty coverage in Big Brother Magazine. Coincedence?
Who cares i got hot wing to eat. Curtis;
“Benji spent his time ripping he could have gone to war and killed someone like Gator.”
Ummm..you should probably watch the documentary or hit up wikipedia cause Gator killed his girlfriend..in the valley,not Iraq. I heard she didnt give him enough attention so maybe its a wash.
Otherwise,Curtis, I enjoyed most of your rant.
BJJPDX/Tom
Whats his deal with Benji? Ive only bumped into him a few times, dont know him at all, but he was kool as hell when I met him. Seemed like a pretty nice guy.
ssk
Has ‘Thrasher’ become a teen gossip magazine these days? I might say that was the last straw but I canceled my subscription a long time ago.
curtis
I want to apologize for blaming Frank Hirata for the most pop bottle littered park in the inland northwest, Richland. I’m cruzing along in the bowl this afternoon and it dawned on me that I was an idiot this morning, spouting my mouth off about shit I don’t know about. I assume Phelps is cooler in real life because I sort of think I am cool, but I sure am an Idiot when I’m on the internet!!
Pat Chanita is the bozo on the Mt. dew dispenser. I don’t know who he is ether, but he’s riding a lame pre fab ramp. most every one needs to make a living somehow, so I try not to be too judgemental about skaters endorsments. so even if Frank was on that pop machine I would not ban him for that. I don’t know how bad purkiss rose really is because I live in dreamline grindland.
I do appriciate Phelps because, yes he keeps it entertaining and I think Thrasher has way more integrity than the other glossy skate mags. but he’s just another person in “the media”, producing propaganda. as much as I like my beer (second only to weed) why promote it to skateboarders? I see enough beer promotion in the rest of the world. is the goal to inspire kids to be “zorched”?? I could go on and on about how Thrashers agenda rubs me the wrong way, I’m trying not to, but to me the worst stuff has been thrashers slight support of the gulf (Iraq) war, they have supported it by not banning it from coverage. Benji Galloway spent his time ripping, he could have gone to war and killed someone like Gator, but he decided to skate. I can’t wait to find out why he was banned.
I think it would be funny if the people of San Francisco banned Thrasher from their city for the repeted use of the word “fag” in it’s derogatory form by their editor. I mean, the printed skate media has practicly banned any coverage of female skaters, that seems prity closeted gay to me. media influences people and affects who they are going to be. seems like thrasher prefers women to be like the girls in hubba ads. as a father of a young woman I resent that shit!!
brk
tony hawk has not built, nor as far as i know, even endorsed bad parks. he has endorsed questionable food products.
JF
Benji rules….
John
phelps is a bitch…
egbert
You can’t say he doesn’t keep things entertaining.
duders
“zorched” means burnt out.
DocMurdock
Banishment is the highest form of flattery
heath
No, but he put up bad parks.
Kilwag
Hawk didn’t endorse skate wave, did he?
Mac
Clearly Cab hasn’t threatened the Phelper’s fragile, and gigantic ego like the 5 banned skaters have. I don’t care what his story on Benji is, I’m buying a Bacon Benji Galloway board in support. The dude’s been nothing but extremely cool whenever I’ve been fortunate enough to skate with him in Portland, so I can only imagine that there was some perceived slight of the Jakester that got blown out of proportion…by the Jakester. For Thrasher’s sake, I hope they have a good libel lawyer, but I really don’t care.
brk
the free outdoor thrasher park is the crocker amazon park in sf. that’s the older shitty one, not the new dreamland/grindline park.
working for suckass rose is a valid reason for banishment. so is endorsing skatewave.
heath
Kilwag… “ban Caballero”?
How about Tony Hawk?
Kilwag
Carl did you just get some coverage in Thrasher?
Kilwag
Curtis, lets see a pic of that Mountain Dew machine.
If Phelps is going to ban Hirata for making those shitty purkiss rose abominations, then he’d have to ban Caballero for endorsing skate wave.
handsome jack
phelpers better watch his mouth about billy pepper, it didn’t go over super hot for him last time. i think he shoulda lambasted frank garcia hirata for skating to his own music and going from frank hirata to frank garcia hirata. something pretentious about that. i agree w/ carl, billy pepper was a ripper and he wasn’t scared to pull a knife and use the ‘c word’ if the situation called for it.
Carl
So I’m feeling what he’s saying about Frank Hirata, but he didn’t include where the free, outdoor Thrasher park is. He also forgot my rebate check since he doesn’t want to ‘make alotta money’ off like Frank did.
I don’t see how 80 pages of fucking shoe/freshpark/monster energy/Zinetti wheels ads are any better. Maybe I’m just mad that my coverage sucked.
Carl
I like Billy Pepper.
curtis
I don’t know squat about frank hirata, except for his likness graces my least favorite mountain dew machine. so I curse him while I clean up plastic bottles and caps that litter “my” skate park. but yea, that does not compair to gator (who was in the last thrasher I looked at)
heath
Sure, Purkiss Rose is horrible. No doubt there. That part was substantiated.
But what is the deal with Thrasher allowing ads for those portable “Freshpark” ramps in their mag? Seems hypocritical to me…
aaron
Dude, FUCK Frank Hirata. He’s partially responsible for shitty park in my home town. I’m glad someone called his ass out, even if it was Phelps.
heath
Frank Hirata was first on his list… Phelps talked about how Hirata is a “fag” and that he wanted to rip his throat out. The only thing relevant to skateboarding was that he worked for a company that built bad parks.
#1: unqualified rampage
duders
trust me phelps is not cooler in real life
michael
yes, he has always been a huge ccuuunnttt, 80’s SF, he thought he was so cool but he is a complete d-bagggg. he could skate that’s all.
carvin marvin
i’d love to be in thrasher, can’t even get into photografiti,(or SNA even), people tired of frontside grinds? or what?