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.
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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.