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Not well known...
In the March 1997 issue of Thrasher magazine (issue 194), the one where Eric Koston is on the cover and declared 1996's Skater of the Year, Thrasher retroactively declared SOTYs from 1975 - 1989. I'm not sure if this is still considered canon by Thrasher, and so far in this thread I don't too much mention of skaters whose careers peaked before 1990, but here you go anyway.
- 1975: Ty Page
- 1976: Greg Weaver
- 1977: Stacy Peralta
- 1978: Tony Alva
- 1979: Steve Olsen
- 1980: Eddie Elguera
- 1981: Duane Peters
- 1982: Billy Ruff
- 1983: Steve Caballero
- 1984: Mike McGill
- 1985: Christian Hosoi
- 1986: Mark Rogowski
- 1987: Mark Gonzales
- 1988: Tommy Guerrero
- 1989: Eric Dressen
Pretty sure they forgot about this list because sometime in the 00's they had an article about top pros who never got SOTY and Gonz was one of them. Poor Gonz. I'd let him cry on my shoulder. He has won a bunch of TWS awards though, which I guess are like the Golden Globes of skateboarding.
I think the point is that the retroactive list wasn't "official".
Warmup - thanks for the trip down memory lane. I don't know why, but the one thing burned into my brain from that article is the photo of Ty Page doing a nose wheelie on a bank.
Also, pretty weird they put Gator on the list, even if he was the best of that year. Let's just agree to erase any of his achievements, or at least this is the way I feel. 1997 was a different time I suppose.
Edit: to add to the thread, while the skate nerd in me wants to say Serge Trudnowski or something like that, the most realistic one is Guy.
Topic: Pros who never won soty but deserve a lifetime achievement award. (Read 8742 times)