Plan B Skateboards: The Brand That Changed Modern Skateboarding Forever

Plan B Skateboards is much more than just a skateboard brand. Plan B represents one of the most significant revolutions in the history of modern street skateboarding. There are brands that have left their mark, and then there are companies that have literally changed the way we skate, shoot videos, build teams, and even conceive of skate culture as a whole. Plan B belongs to this category.

When the brand was founded in the early ’90s, skateboarding was undergoing a massive transformation. The ’80s, dominated by vert, pool skating, and massive ramps, were slowly giving way to something completely different. Street skateboarding was exploding, tricks were becoming increasingly technical, and a new generation of skaters wanted to push the bar far beyond anything seen up to that point.

Behind this revolution was a key figure: Mike Ternasky. Mike had already worked at historic skateboarding brands like H-Street alongside Tony Magnusson, but he immediately realized that the future of skateboarding would need a new direction.

Ternasky wanted to build something completely different from the traditional skate companies of the time. Not just a board brand, but a true dream team capable of pushing skateboarding into a new technical and cultural dimension.

And that’s how Plan B Skateboards was born within the historic Dwindle Distribution, then led by Steve Rocco and Rodney Mullen.

The initial team still seems unreal today. In fact, some of the most important riders in the history of skateboarding ended up at Plan B: Danny Way, Colin McKay, Rodney Mullen, Mike Carroll, Matt Hensley, Rick Howard, Sean Sheffey, and Sal Barbier.

A lineup that is still considered one of the strongest ever assembled in the history of global skateboarding.

Mike Ternasky and the Birth of Progressive Skateboarding

Mike Ternasky was a decade ahead of the rest of the skate industry. At a time when many brands were still stuck in an ’80s mindset, Mike began approaching skateboarding in a much more modern and professional way.

He immediately understood the importance of image, videos, and above all, technical progression. His goal was to create the strongest team on the planet and turn the riders into true skateboarding superstars. But Ternasky’s true genius lay in anticipating where skateboarding would evolve.

One of the most striking examples was his relationship with Rodney Mullen. In the ’80s, Mullen was already an absolute legend of freestyle skateboarding, but that discipline was slowly losing popularity. Many thought his technical style could never adapt to modern street skating.

Mike Ternasky, however, saw something that others couldn’t yet grasp.

He convinced Mullen to transfer all his technical expertise to street skateboarding. The result was explosive. Rodney began developing tricks that still form the foundation of modern skateboarding today: late flips, pressure flips, darkslides, advanced impossibles, switch technical skating, and combinations that at the time seemed to come from the future.

At the same time, riders like Danny Way were raising the bar in skateboarding gap after gap. Mega staircases, out-of-control speeds, gigantic BS 360s, and a completely new approach to urban spots were redefining the very concept of street skateboarding.

Mike managed to create a true family within the team. All the riders still talk about him today as a father figure capable of uniting the group and motivating every single skater to give their all. The energy within Plan B was something completely different from the rest of the scene.

Questionable: the video that changed the world of skateboarding

In 1992, Questionable was released, and from that moment on, skateboarding changed forever.

Even today, Questionable is considered one of the most important videos ever produced in the history of skateboarding. It wasn’t just a team video. It was a generational manifesto that showed, for the first time, what modern skateboarding would become.

The video parts contained within seemed to come from another planet. Rodney Mullen completely redefined technical street skating. Danny Way was pulling off monstrous gaps at absurd speeds. Pat Duffy was practically inventing modern handrail skating by grinding rails that seemed impossible at the time.

Late shove-its, pressure flips, switch stance tricks, mega rails, ultra-technical street lines, and speeds never seen before were revolutionizing the global level of skateboarding.

The equipment was also changing radically. Between 1990 and 1993, boards began to evolve rapidly: more aggressive concaves, more technical shapes, and better construction allowed skaters to push the bar higher and higher.

At the same time, skate culture was also changing. The era of plazas like Embarcadero, baggy pants, worn-out Adidas skate shoes, Puma sneakers worn down on the asphalt, and XXL T-shirts was born. Skateboarding was becoming something much more urban, technical, and stylistically recognizable.

Plan B became the ultimate symbol of this transformation. Following *Questionable* came other masterpieces like *Virtual Reality* and *Second Hand Smoke*, while incredible new riders like Jeremy Wray, Ronnie Bertino, Pat Channita, and Tony Ferguson joined the team.

At that time, it truly seemed as though Plan B could dominate skateboarding forever.

The Loss of Mike Ternasky and the Rebirth of Plan B

In 1994, however, a tragedy occurred that completely changed the brand’s history. Mike Ternasky lost his life in a car accident, and the entire skateboarding world was left in shock.

For the Plan B team, the loss was devastating. Mike wasn’t just the brand’s founder. He was the emotional and creative heart of the entire project. Without him, the brand suddenly lost its guiding force, and for years, nothing seemed the same.

Many riders went their separate ways, and the company drastically scaled back its operations. Mike’s absence was felt everywhere, and the original dream seemed to have ended too soon.

In 1997, *The Revolution*, directed by Mary Ternasky, Mike’s wife, was released. The video serves as a powerful tribute to Mike and the culture built in the preceding years. But it was in the early 2000s that Plan B truly began its comeback.

Danny Way and Colin McKay decided to revive the brand, striving to keep Mike Ternasky’s original philosophy alive.

With the addition of riders like Paul Rodriguez, the brand quickly returned to the center of the global skateboarding scene. Later, Ryan Sheckler, Torey Pudwill, Felipe Gustavo, and especially Chris Joslin joined the team, with Joslin becoming one of the absolute icons of modern technical and powerful skateboarding.

In recent years, Aurélien Giraud has also helped elevate the team’s level toward a new generation of skateboarding that is increasingly fast, technical, and off-the-charts.

Plan B Skateboards Today: An Extraordinary Team, Speed, and Modern Skateboarding

Even today, Plan B Skateboards continues to field one of the strongest and most respected teams in the global skateboarding scene. Thirty years after the brand’s founding, Mike Ternasky’s original philosophy is still very much alive: bringing together riders capable of pushing the boundaries of skateboarding ever further.

In recent years, the Plan B team has become an incredible blend of speed, technique, and power. Riders like Felipe Gustavo perfectly embody the evolution of modern skateboarding. Felipe is one of the most fluid and technical skaters on the global scene, capable of combining Brazilian style, mind-blowing tricks, and impressive consistency on any street spot.

Alongside him is Chris Joslin, who has become one of the absolute icons of Plan B Skateboards. Joslin has redefined the concept of powerful and technical skateboarding thanks to massive tricks, insane rails, and gaps that are practically off the charts. Many skaters today consider Chris Joslin one of the greatest riders ever in modern street skateboarding.

The team continues to raise the bar with devastating riders like Aurélien Giraud, arguably one of the most technically impressive skaters on the planet. Unreal speed, perfect flips, and absolute control make Aurélien one of the most spectacular riders of the new generation.

Plan B’s Historic Legends and the New Generation

The team also features historic and stylish figures like Sean Sheffey, an absolute legend of ’90s skateboarding who still perfectly embodies Plan B’s hardcore and technical identity today.

Riders like Trevor McClung, on the other hand, bring a more creative, fluid, and modern style of skateboarding, while Tommy Fynn continues to showcase a technical and lightning-fast style that is highly regarded in the international street scene.

The brand also maintains a strong identity thanks to the presence of skaters like Christian Jordan, Lazer Crawford, and the legendary Danny Way, who remains a towering figure in global skate culture to this day.

What’s impressive is that Plan B continues to unite different generations of skateboarding under a single vision. Historic legends coexist with riders from the new school, consistently maintaining the team’s exceptionally high technical level.

And this is likely precisely why, after more than thirty years, Plan B Skateboards is still considered one of the most important, influential, and respected companies in the entire history of skateboarding.

Pleasures Milano: Plan B Skateboards on Pleasures Milano 

From Pleasures Milano Plan B Skateboards remains one of the most prominent and influential names in the history of global skateboarding. A brand that revolutionized street skating from the ’90s right up to the modern scene with one of the strongest teams on the planet.

From the legendary video parts of Questionable to the modern hammers of riders like Chris Joslin, Felipe Gustavo, and Aurélien Giraud, Plan B continues to push skateboarding toward ever more technical, fast, and progressive levels.

Plan B decks retain that technical construction, that aggressive pop, and that street identity that have made the brand famous worldwide for over thirty years.

For those who love true, technical, and uncompromising skateboarding, Plan B remains one of the most important companies ever to exist. Because Plan B isn’t just a historic brand. Plan B is a fundamental part of the history of modern skateboarding.