The Importance Behind Thrasher #544

 In 2023, the biggest, baddest, and most influential stair set in all of skateboarding, El Toro, was tre flipped by Chris Joslin, arguably. He “landed” the trick after a long, hard battle, but unfortunately, one of his trucks broke, making it unable to ride away from the trick. This sparked a massive argument for two years over whether the trick counted or not. This argument is now irrelevant due to Thrasher Magazine's latest publication. 

On the cover of Thrasher Magazine #544, it shows Chris Joslin attempting to tre flip El Toro one more time to silence the skateboarding community. The cover pictures him catching the tre flip and about to land the trick on this massive 25 stair set, with the Thrasher logo at the top of the page. Shredzshop.com released a small article on this cover promoting nothing but appraisal. This is the same case heard from every other article. The only issue that the community is promoting is that the footage of this trick hasn't been released. Does this make the community doubt the completion of the trick? Absolutely not, it is obvious that Chris Joslin is going to drag the hype and the anticipation of this trick as much as possible. 

This ad is very empty, with the only two aspects of it being Thrasher's logo and the beautiful image of Chris Joslin’s tre flip. They chose to leave this cover very empty to grab the attention of the reader and show the passion and story behind this moment. Anyone somewhat involved in the skateboarding community has probably heard about his previous attempt. Thrasher knew how important this cover was and how well-known the context is. You can see the focus in Chris’s face and the use of a fish-eye lens, the most classic lens used in skateboarding, really grasping the size and danger of El Toro.

This cover is the same as every other Thrasher cover. A massive trick with the Logo at the top. Thrasher magazine has always been the top magazine in the skate community for as long as I can remember. They target all skaters. Teens, adults, kids, and anyone who has an interest in skate culture. 

This cover does a great job of really grabbing the reader's attention. The image is very bright and shows the emotion and difficulty of the trick. I do think it lacks detail on Chris Joslin. The main focus is on El Toro. Sure, everyone knows or has heard that Chris went back and did the trick, but in the image, that has so small compared to the rest of the shot. If I were to change this, I would have had an angle closer to him and not at the bottom of the staircase. This magazine cover is extremely memorable and might go down as one of the best and most famous covers in Thrasher history. 

This advertisement isn’t mainly being pushed out by Thrasher itself, but more by word of mouth. Everyone in the skateboarding community is talking about it or posting about it. Personally, I have never actually bought a Thrasher magazine. But the importance and awesomeness of this cover caused me to go and order a copy. 

As I’ve been dissecting this cover, I’ve learned more about how important this cover is to skateboarding as a whole. It is one of the biggest moments besides Tony Hawks 900, which I think will never be outlived. But for Thrasher, they have outdone every issue they have made before #544.