In 1998, Justin Girardi and Mad Circle released 5ive Flavors featuring Bobby Puleo, Karl Watson, Pontus Alv, Rob Welsh, and Scott Johnston.
The video is a beautiful time capsule of classy 90’s street skating that showcased a meticulously stylish and selective team of pioneers. Its accessibility stood out in stark contrast to the “hammers” ethos that shortly followed.
All of these skaters have continued to be involved in skateboarding in the 23 years since 5ive Flavors joined the canon of classic ’90s skate videos, working with or owning various companies including Supreme, Adidas, Polar, Maxallure and more.
We were able to get the whole team back together along with photographer Mike Blabac for a good old-fashioned meeting in which the guys reconnect, reminisce, and rewatch the parts through the long lens of over two decades past. There’s a palpable joy the guys experience being back together, along with a sense that Mad Circle hasn’t been given its rightful place in the history books.
This condensed edit of their conversation captures a bit of what it was like for them to grow up together skating in a golden era, and how sometimes doing something with integrity means having to let it go…
PS. If you never saw the video – peep it here.
Related Posts
-
BIKING AROUND NYC WITH CITI BIKE BOYZ
We met the man throwing down crazy tricks on NYC's heavy rideshare bikes.
-
LEARNING 540S WITH ZION WRIGHT AND JAKE KEENAN
Watch our friend Jake try to learn his dream trick from a master.
-
WATCH ANOTHER QUALITY VX EDIT FROM JAPAN WITH JUNNOSUKE HASEGAWA
Tons of grainy night footage, 4:3 standard definition, and zero instances of the "Strobeck" zoom. A treat for the VX purists.
-
“PARTS” WITH LUCAS PUIG
We hit up France's smoothest export to see what he's watching when he isn't surfing, parenting, or synchronized skating with planes.
-
A STUDIO VISIT WITH ALI BOULALA AND HIS NEW BAND
We visited Ali and his new band Ghost Boys in the studio and got a little life update.
-
BRANDON TURNER AND BRANDON NOVAK SKATE AROUND NYC
Turner and Novak met up in NYC to skate and create a support system for anyone wanting help managing their mental health or drug use.
-
WATCH “SIRENS” BY HOTEL BLUE
A golden nugget amongst the vast stanky sea of skateboard videos out right now.
-
WATCH A NEW VIDEO FROM THE TIMESCAN CREW IN JAPAN
A reminder that the Japanese skate scene is so much more than the new wave of contest robots.
Comments
Popular
-
HOW CAN WE HELP KEEP SKATE SHOPS ALIVE?
For years brands and skaters have blindly cried "support your local," but we asked shop owners about other ways we can all provide actual help.
-
MEET UNITY, SKATEBOARDING’S MOST PROGRESSIVE CREW
"Never has my gay life intersected with my skateboarding life. If anything, maybe I’d worked to pull them apart."
-
WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON WITH ILLEGAL CIV?
The Illegal Civ stuff feels like an ongoing soap opera, so to air out any confusion we talked to a few key characters.
-
PREMIERE: “MANIMAL” A SHORT FILM ON COREY DUFFEL
Revisiting skating's premier big-gap-slammer.
-
MY EXPERIENCES IN SKATEBOARDING
"I've been terrified of garnering the reputation of 'ramp-tramp' or 'pro-ho' just from spending time with skaters."
November 9, 2021 10:26 am
I’ll watch Rob Welsh talk about anything. Man could talk about variegated estate tax bracket reform and he would sound dope as fuck.
November 9, 2021 11:28 am
donde esta Moses?…eh
vivamadcircle! :)
November 9, 2021 6:49 pm
Straight up…
Look what happened to New Deal. After the first 3 years it became a me too brand. Would never have wanted to see Mad Circle go out like that.
November 10, 2021 12:39 am
The era when there’s no nike sb, no corporate crap and celebrity crap… just raw skateboarding
November 10, 2021 5:34 pm
those were the days!
I remember watching the x-games back then and thinking thank god corporate crap hasn’t invaded skating, things were so pure and raw.