⚠️Trigger Warning: The following article and interview contain discussions and victim accounts of predatory behavior regarding minors, sexual harassment and abuse.⚠️
If you were a victim of predatory or abusive behavior at the hands of a professional skateboarder or someone from the skateboarding industry and you want to share your story, please contact me. You will remain anonymous and all conversations will remain confidential until you agree otherwise. Thank you.
The backstory:
In May 2024, Christine Flannigan shared a post on Instagram about being the victim of abuse during her marriage to professional skateboarder Chris Cole, and that she received a cease and desist from him for doing so.
I retired from the skateboarding industry in 2022 and was planning to create content independently—a departure from the traditional skate media, which is primarily marketing or trade content. I’ve known Christine for many years and during her 2014 Weekend Buzz episode, she revealed a story of an altercation with Cole, so I asked if she would be willing to share more. She bravely agreed and the interview went live in January of 2025.
The piece got attention—it inspired discussion, debate, more content from other creators, memes, and backlash. It did everything these types of pieces do in our modern age.
As part of her story, Christine revealed an incident in 2022 where she approached Jamie Thomas, Zero founder/owner and Chris Cole’s friend/sponsor, for help regarding the abuse. She communicated that she feared for the safety of her children. Jamie dismissed her plea:
The Dane Burman problem:
The most alarming outcome of Christine’s interview was the number of women, or men speaking on behalf of women, who contacted me with more stories of abuse from within the skate industry. Some simply wanted to share or talk or get my opinion; others wanted to work with me to tell their story to the public. Many expressed gratitude and support for Christine and I immediately realized this was the beginning of something much bigger.
A staggering amount of these stories regarded Jamie Thomas and people from within the Zero skateboards organization (formerly BlackBox distribution). Some of the people sharing their stories were directly involved with Zero/Blackbox at some point or adjacent to the organization somehow.
The most frequent mention: The long-running allegations that Dane Burman was contacting female minors via social media.
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On January 31, 2025, I anonymously emailed to Jamie Thomas to see where he stood on the Dane issue. The following is a truncated version of our conversation:
Jamie,
“I wonder about the risk of still sponsoring Dane Burman with allegations of him accosting minors floating around for many years now. I do realize it could be fake. But what if it isn't? What if more comes out? Especially after we saw the texts with Christine where you said you couldn't help her?
“Aren’t you also dismissing serious allegations against Dane? Do you want to be caught doing that again? I cannot see a situation where not getting rid of him makes any sense. As someone with a daughter; as a husband; as a business owner; as ‘Jamie Thomas’; as a Christian who publicly displays his faith and as a human being, I’m bewildered at the risk you are taking.”
Jamie’s reply:
“I have not seen or heard any factual basis for the allegations against Dane whatsoever. Based on my experience, I honestly do not believe the rumor about Dane to be true, so to let a 15-year dedicated team rider and employee go, based on hearsay or what looks like a faked screenshot with no context, is totally unethical in my opinion. Everything points to this being gossip / slanderous hearsay rather than truth. Since there is no credible source to challenge my belief, standing by him as a friend is what feels right. I will stand by Dane until there’s proof that the allegations are true, because I would want someone to do the same for me.”
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Then, on September 19, 2025, the following was anonymously posted to the Slap forum in the “Jamie Thomas & Dane Burman Thread”:
“I don't know if anyone will read this, but if you're a girl who was targeted by Dane, you're not alone. He asked me for nudes when I was underage, I still have the messages on Facebook. He made me think we were friends. After I said “no”, he gaslighted and made me feel really bad about it, then ghosted me. I saw him on Instagram complaining about guys taking advantage of girls and I messaged him about what he did. He said he didn't remember but apologized. I hope that he really is changing his ways.”
I immediately reached out and began conversing with Yasmin Benoit, an accomplished 29-year-old British model and activist who was willing to speak about her experience with Dane Burman in the following interview from November 26, 2025:
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What turned you on to skateboarding?
I feel like it was a late-90s kid thing. I used to love Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2, and I always played Elissa Steamer because she was the only girl. When I realized the characters were real people, I looked them up. She rode for Zero, so I started paying attention to Zero. I got the Cold War DVD. One of my favorite bands was Children of Bodom and they had Chris Cole in a music video, so that introduced me to Chris Cole too.
I went down a skateboarding rabbit hole. I had the Flip Extremely Sorry DVD. I used to love Toy Machine as well. Even though I could never skate because my coordination is so bad, as someone who was into metal music, skateboarding just felt spiritually similar. The way people made videos back then—each skater was like a character, and they all had a different vibe. I would be so intrigued watching and seeing what music they were using for the parts, and the videos exposed me to new bands.
So how did you initially come to interact with Dane Burman?
I saw him in my Facebook suggestions one day and was like, “Is this really him?” I sent him a friend request and a message like, “Hello? Is this actually you?” Because I wasn't expecting him to accept my request to begin with.
Yeah, you’re a stoked fan … and that’s where this is sinister in the sense that you're a young girl who's so excited to interact with a pro skater.
Yeah, and now as somebody who has fans myself, I'm very careful. There is a balance that is very easy to take advantage of, especially when you're going for people who are that young. I don't like when people take advantage of others. I was still in secondary school when this happened. You are very fresh at that age—you don't know anything.
Starting in the early 2000s, social media gave us unfathomable access to people. If I were 15 and talked to a pro skater online, I would freak the fuck out. How long were you two chatting before it turned sexual?
We talked for seven or eight months, but it wasn't continuous every day. It started in early 2012 when I was 15 and ended later that year. By then I was 16. His approach went from innocent to sexual very quickly. That's why I was really confused.
I was getting bullied a lot at school. I didn’t have many friends. So most of the conversations with Dane was me ranting and confiding in him about how unpopular I was and how mean kids were, which, in hindsight, made me such easy pickings for someone with a predatory mindset. I’m giving every vulnerable detail and being very open about being asexual because I didn’t want him to think I was hitting on him. I felt we were talking about sexuality, like, in a learning way. I was 15, I didn’t really know much about sex. I didn't know what things were like from a straight male perspective, and as an asexual girl, I’m trying to understand something like “What is attraction like?" from his perspective.
It was a combination of me venting about school stuff, trying to learn about skateboarding from a pro skater. And then this kind of, sexuality-related conversation, but out of nowhere he went to the “You are too young to get freaky with” thing and I was like, “I thought we were being friends?”
When you told him you were asexual, he acted understanding and supportive.
Most people weren’t at the time, so that felt nice. He wasn’t being weird like everyone else.
But then he began testing the waters …
I was a very naive 15. I feel like psychologically, my childhood didn’t end until I was 14. I was one of those kids who was holding on to my childhood as long as I could. I wasn’t trying to act older or do things older kids did. Fifteen was my first proper teenage year of going to the park and drinking energy drinks. Drinking energy drinks felt rebellious! And I'm literally thinking, “Oh how nice it is of him to want to be my friend,” hoping that we're going to be buddies forever. It sounds so cheesy I know.
Not at all. But my theory is he knew you were turning 16, and for whatever reason he thought 15 wasn't okay, but maybe legally, 16 was?
Maybe he was vaguely aware of the law, but even if the age of consent is 16 in certain places, you're not of the age to be asked for, or send, nudes. And as much as guys like to be like, “You don't look 15!” I feel like I did.
You look 12 or 13 in those photos. He was about 25, saw them, and asked to see you topless. That's crazy.
I just got my braces off. That's the only thing that made me look different in those photos to how I did when I was 13 or 14. In hindsight, even if he hadn't asked for nudes, it was still weird to befriend a 15-year-old girl at his age to begin with. Then he went and made it really weird, and I realized he wasn't trying to befriend me at all.
Photos from Yasmin's Facebook (including her profile picture) at the time of the exchange with Dane.
He also knows he constantly tours and will eventually come through your area ...
And my dumb ass would have been there, like, “You're in my city? I’ll go to the demo!” I completely would have done that thinking he wanted to hang out and be friends.
So you never sent him photos, right? Then he got mad?
Yeah, when he asked for them, I was disappointed because I thought he wasn’t like that. I considered it though, because I had no friends and he was trying to be friends with me. So I felt "If this is the exchange, maybe it’s worth it?" At times I feel like he detected how objectionable I was and backed off, only to randomly ask again later in the middle of a conversation, dropping hints at nudes. And in my head, I was thinking, “Are you still trying to do that?” Then he got mean and I realized that’s what it was about the whole time.
It's textbook gaslighting … after you asked if he does it with all the girls, he immediately snapped.
He would compliment my appearance randomly, and I didn't know how to accept a compliment because I usually never got them and didn't feel attractive at all. So I was jokingly like, "I bet you all that to all the girls," you know that old saying. Then he got mad and acted really offended, saying I was calling him a womanizer. He made me feel really bad for saying that, so I was apologizing to him, thinking I had genuinely insulted him and hurt his feelings. He got meaner after that.
He went from 0 to 60 so fast.
I didn't even mean to call him out, but now I realize I was clocking him and he knew it. He wasn’t getting what he wanted and was probably looking for a way to get out of the conversation anyway at that point. He probably would have found something to get mad about soon regardless, just to cut ties and move on to the next girl.
It bummed me out because I had this cool secret friend that I wasn’t telling people or boasting about. Nobody knew I was talking to Dane. Nobody ever asked me about my interests or even knew I liked skateboarding anyway—that’s how little attention anyone paid to me. So it was my own personal thing, it felt like having a diary—a person to share what was going on in my life with. I was about to change schools, so it was nice to have a consistent person who liked me to talk with. Then I began to wonder, “Is this the price I have to pay just to have a friend?” And part of me was also thinking, “How do I know that he's not gonna share that with all the other skateboarders?”
Well we know from the Cody Davis story that he probably would have.
I was envisioning him in a bus full of skaters showing everybody the photo, which would have been mortifying. I didn’t have the psychological endurance to deal with that scenario. If he had pushed harder, I probably would've given in, but the whole thing fell apart.
You are 16 and lost somebody who meant something to you. That would have been devastating for me at that age too.
As someone who is asexual and aromantic, I don't have romantic relationships. So for me, a friend is the pinnacle of a relationship—the deepest I will ever have. So I'm careful with who I call a friend. For me, there is no such thing as “We are more than just friends”. I thought Dane and I were heading towards a proper friendship. He knew so much about me. He knew about my social anxiety and the bullying, and he just ghosted.
It made me sad reading the texts. I would’ve felt tremendously rejected. At 16 those types of feelings are so amplified.
Yes, and it’s even weirder when it's a recognizable person. Because after it happened, now I can’t watch Cold War—it’s awkward. I can't enjoy the thing the way I used to. So I distanced myself from skateboarding because I didn’t like seeing his name pop up.
Should Dane attempt to claim Yasmin was writing to an impostor Facebook page, we catfished him with a crypto scam so he would confirm the account. Serving Dane some Cody Davis catfish karma felt amazing, by the way.
The following screenshots are from Dane and Yasmin's 2012 conversation (left to right). Scrolling video of the DMs exists as proof nothing has been altered or edited.
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What prompted you to post about this on Slap in September?
It was one of those flukes. I was on Instagram looking at a post from a skateboarding friend or a skateboarding bulldog or something random—and I saw his name in the comments.
And I was like, “Well there's a name I haven’t thought about in a while”, and I click his profile and see a bio alluding to the fact that he had done something wrong. That's a wild thing to write because any casual observer is immediately gonna think, “What did you do?” Why would you broadcast that unless you think something's about to go down?
Having had my experience with him and viewing it through the lens of an adult, I Googled him. The Slap forum came up and I’m reading about all his allegations and what stood out was people saying, “Well, nothing's being done about it because no one has actual evidence. Where are the screenshots?”
And I’d been sitting on screenshots for 12 years. So I wanted to anonymously say, “If there's smoke, there's actually a fire because I had this experience and I have proof just in case this information is useful to anybody.”
I didn't know what would come of that, but I wanted people to know there might be some truth to the allegations.
His bio is interesting, and everyone notices it. There were other screenshots posted on Instagram and Slap of selfies he allegedly sent to a 14-year-old girl asking, “When are we going to hang out?” He’s wearing a bra in one.
One time I saw him condemning Chris D’Elia like, “I know women that have been impacted by this guy, and I stand with the victims.” Dude, don't play feminist when you were trying to get nudes off me when I was a kid.
What is your response to people who say, “This happened 15 years ago. Why are we crucifying him for it now?” That’s a narrative men tend to clutch on to.
I was watching skateboarding in the Olympics a couple years ago and the girls competing were children. Young girls are getting into skateboarding more than ever. So if I wasn't a one-off and this is a pattern of behavior among these guys, and now we're in an era where they have more access to increasingly young girls just entering the scene, it's irresponsible of me to sit on evidence, not speak up, and let them continue.
Because who is to say they aren't still doing this? I'm not trying to ruin someone’s life or career, but I want to educate young girls about the red flags. Maybe don’t answer the DM or believe that they are only looking for friendship. Maybe don’t send the photo, you know? Because if Dane had passed through town before he ghosted me, I would’ve hung out with him and that could have gone way worse. I want to prevent that from happening to others if I can.
These things have horrible effects on people. I’ve seen it happen and it can cause serious childhood trauma that sticks with someone their entire life. Especially when it's a recognizable, famous person. You see them in the media you're consuming, and you see them being praised. You see people glorifying them when they shouldn’t be glorified. If I can do anything to prevent that, then I'm going to.
I hate seeing people who have ruined other people's lives out having a great time. For example, Cody is in a rough spot and has been for a long time. Dane, Jamie and Thrasher fucking ruined him. They all had a laugh and then forgot about it.
I'm in a position where I'm always saying that we need to stand up for people. I want to put my name and face out there to help others. Empowering and educating people and trying to stop bad things from happening is part of my work, so let’s do this.
How does it feel knowing Jamie has been hearing about all these allegations for years but still sponsors Dane?
If you are essentially enabling people to prey on children, then you are just as bad. You need to hold yourself accountable but also hold your friends accountable.
What I'm realizing is that even though my instinct is giving people the benefit of the doubt, it's probably best to assume the worst. Like, my hypothetical worst-case scenario for Dane would have been, “This is not a one-off, he’s constantly seeking out teenagers.” And now I realize I should have assumed exactly that.
If there's any talk about a friend soliciting what is essentially child pornography from children—if there's even a question about it—then that’s a serious conversation that needs to be had. It's basic human decency to do so. And if there's no evidence that supports the claims, you might still want to be like, “Hey maybe I shouldn't market this guy to children. Maybe I should let him go from the team just to be safe,” because skateboarding's primary audience is men and young people, with more young girls getting involved than ever.
If you’re in Jamie’s position, you have a responsibility to stop supporting this kind of behavior. You have a responsibility to stop paying, promoting and enabling people who do these things. Stop the perceived power and influence these guys have because people like Jamie Thomas give it to them. That's where it comes from. That’s what made me think these guys were so cool as a kid. Like, “My God! I can't believe he's talking to me!” So if you're continuing to create that illusion, and then these men continue to prey on kids, then you're a huge part of the problem.
The Dane allegations are so well known that there are memes about how much of a pussy hound he is. It's been a running joke in the skate community forever.
But at least be a pussy hound for girls who are over 18. He’s a professional skateboarder in California. He can get girls who are legal. Unless you're just a pedo or whatever, there's no reason to be going for teenage schoolgirls in random countries. Like no reason.
14 and 15-year-old girls look their age almost every single time. There's no way you see a girl of that age and think she’s an adult. If you even initiated that conversation, you were aware you were talking to someone that at least looks very underage. It isn’t an accident. I don't think people realize what Dane did was solicit explicit images of children. When you are under 18 you are a considered a child, so its child pornography.
Sometimes I wonder how many girls he did get the pictures from. Some girls must have said “yes”, and he probably ended up in possession of something.
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A supporting testimony from Christine Flannigan, December 24, 2025:
“At some point between 2018 and 2020, I saw a post on Slap accusing Dane of texting with underage girls that accompanied a selfie of Dane wearing a bra and alleged that the girl he was sending it to was underage.
“I brought it up to Chris [Cole, Christine’s then-husband] and he swore Dane didn’t know the girl was underage. I said I didn’t think that mattered and he should know better than to send something so weird to someone who could possibly be underage.
“When I revisited the Slap thread, there were additional claims that Dane messaged underage girls. It was a pattern and Dane is a problematic person in general, so even though they were allegations with no real proof, the stories sounded like something Dane would do. I brought it up to Chris again and explained that I didn’t want our kids, especially our daughter, hanging around Dane. Chris got super angry, said I was being ridiculous and that Dane didn’t know the girls were under 18.
“Our daughter was in her early teens at the time, so I didn’t want her or her friends exposed to someone with extremely problematic, questionable judgment and allegations against him. The best-case scenario is that he does or says something inappropriate to my daughter or her friends, and the worst-case scenario he actually does something horrible.”
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Flannigan is absolutely correct that Dane is problematic. Apart from the accounts above, my DMs are flooded with allegations of Dane engaging in deplorable acts like spitting on people, kicking skaters out of spots and skateparks with the Zero team so they could skate on their own, indecent exposure (this is on video), verbal harassment of others and more. The general sentiment seems to be that Dane is essentially a pervert bully who treats others he views as “beneath him” like complete garbage because he's a pro skater.
But most commonly reported or inquired about, by a long shot, is Dane allegedly initiating contact or communicating with female minors on social media, frequently ones with photos of their boyfriends in their feed. One individual alleged that Dane wished his girlfriend a “Happy 16th birthday” in a direct message to her, and the number of men who have shared accounts of Dane allegedly messaging their girlfriends as minors is staggering.
Based on my experience in the last 18 months, and as a result of Yasmin's interview, I suspect more evidence from victims of Dane will surface.
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Prior to the interview you just read, the worst of Dane’s known antics was a 2012 incident where, via text, he posed as a female using nude images he obtained from Google and catfished 19-year-old skater Cody Davis.
He solicited a nude from Cody, then took a selfie in a van full of skaters and sent it back to reveal the “prank”.
Dane then distributed the photo, and it was used in a 2013 video interview on Thrasher’s “World’s Best Brunch”, where Dane retold the story of the prank. During the story, Cody's image was broadcast on screen without consent. The interview appeared on Thrasher’s website and YouTube.
Shortly after the interview, also in 2013, Cody won a contest at 3rd Lair skatepark. Jamie Thomas (Dane’s friend and sponsor/employer) was there to present awards to the winners. Jamie approached Cody and whispered, “nice dick” (referencing the photo from the prank) into Cody’s ear while handing him the first-place trophy.
Three weeks after my December 2025 interview with Cody, he informed me that, in what seems to be a very transparent and self-serving attempt at reputation management by Jamie and Dane, the two have been contacting him, allegedly offering to give Cody a Zero guest pro model.
“Jamie's been calling or texting me every day wanting to talk and inviting me on a Zero trip,” says Cody. “I haven't answered his calls or replied to his texts. I talked to Dane on the phone a couple times. It’s just all so fake. Suddenly now they want to make it better.”
Since November 2025, Cody has known this article about Dane’s was in the works. As a result, he communicated to me that has no interest in collaborating with Jamie, Dane or Zero.
And although I can't confirm, I have heard rumors also that Dane and Jamie are currently roommates. They are perfect company for one another.
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It might appear that Thrasher was peripherally or “accidentally” culpable in the Cody Davis abuse saga, until you consider that, at the time of this writing, Dane’s interview featuring Cody’s photo is still published in both places. Thrasher has made a deliberate choice to keep the video visible, prolonging and cementing their involvement in harming Cody.
But that isn't a one-off.
On February 24, 2025, while emailing back and forth with Tony Vitello (President and Publisher of High Speed Productions, Inc., parent company of Thrasher magazine, Juxtapoz magazine and the Slap forum) discussing the legalities of Slap moderators revealing the identities of anonymous users publicly, sometimes by leveraging and posting (or allowing users to post) private data like IP addresses and locations obtained based on IP addresses, I shared that I was working independently on a piece about my experiences on Slap, and that I would like to interview him for it.
In the same email, I informed Tony that I had a claim from a woman alleging someone on Thrasher’s payroll communicated with her and offered to fly her to California to visit him when she was a minor. That individual was Neckface. Not only did he allegedly communicate a minor who resides in another country, offering to fly her across the border to California, but he also allegedly offered to obtain a fake ID for her.
The same woman was also contacted by Dane Burman when she was a minor, and if you’ve read this far, that probably comes as no surprise to you.
I told Tony that I preferred to address the issue confidentially and give him the details. I’ve known Tony a long time, as industry peers, and from my experience, I certainly presumed he would be alarmed and immediately act on it. I was mistaken.
Tony asked to set up a call. We texted back and forth over the course of a few days. We spoke on the phone for a half hour and then texted for a few more days. He never once inquired about the predatory allegations I shared. Not via email, not via text, not on the call. We only discussed Slap. As of this writing, 11 months later, he has still not inquired and Neckface is on the masthead of the most recent issue of Thrasher magazine as “Art Ambassador” and “Contributing Editor”.
Coming soon:
Part 2: The Thrasher problem …
Part 3: The Podcast problem …
Part 4: The Jamie Thomas problem …