TOM PENNY
ORN?
Bo
Dorchester, United Kingdom.
How long did you live in the United Kingdom?
Sixteen years.
Did you move around a bit or did you just stay
in one spot?
I grew up living at home, until I got into skat-
ing, and then I travelled all around England to
all the spots in the cities.
How long have you known Jeremy Fox?
Since I was about 14.
Where did you meet him?
First time I saw him was at Saint Albans, in
London, but I didn't meet him then. I met him
a couple of weeks later.
When did he put you on Flip?
About half a year later.
When was the first time you ever stood on
a skateboard?
name. You probably remember.
Was it Azteca or Maya?
I dunno. What's his name, Bryce Kanights,
took me there one time.
So you shot photos with Bryce when you were
out there?
Yeah, on some handrail in a playground with
a bunch of kids' drawings on the wall.
What was the first picture you ever had in
a magazine?
It was in an English magazine; it was a sub-
scribe page, and I was doing a backside 180° tail
grab one-foot off a jump ramp.
What was the name of the magazine?
It was called RAD, Read And Destroy.
Who was your first sponsor?
SS 20.
What's that?
A skate shop in Oxford.
What would you do if you didn't skate?
Buy a skateboard.
When was the last time you broke a board?
It was in Copenhagen, the first time I ever
went to see Rune, in his hometown, and that's
the only one I ever broke in my whole life.
Fuckin' Rune jinxed me.
How long have you known Rune?
Since I was about 15.
How fast did you progress in skateboarding?
It's just the same as in languages; I hear
the sound and just repeat it until I know
the sound and then ask what it means,
and then they tell me. In skating I just
did the same thing. I found out what it
was after I had learned it, if that make.
any sense.
"I'LL BOMB THE BIGGEST
HILL SWITCH, LOOKING THE
OTHER WAY, LIKE JULIEN"
Probably one of my mom's friend's sons had
a skateboard and I was standing on it. It was a
yellow banana board, just before I moved out of
Abingdon to Oxford, so I was about six. But I
just stood on it.
What was the first Thrasher you ever read?
I don't know what issue, but it had the Gonz
doing a frontside rock and roll at Alcatraz
wearing a black and white striped jail suit.
Thrasher started 1981; what were you
doing then?
I was fucking three, man. I was learning how
to speak and walk and shit.
Have you ever owned a Thrasher t-shirt?
No, I've had some Slap shirts from you, but
never any Thrasher shirts.
I'll see if I can get you some.
Get me one of those Thrasher flame shirts,
Who were you living with?
Just my mom and my dad,
for like three years, and than
my dad broke out, so just
my mom.
How was it living with your
mom growing up? Was she
strict or did she let you just
do whatever?
I was just starting school,
man. I don't know, she let me
cross the street after a while,
on my own.
Where did you move after
that? Did you go straight
to France?
No, Oxford after that, from
seven to 16.
and I'll bomb the biggest hill switch, looking At what point did you move
the other way, like Julien.
Have you ever skated in San Francisco?
Yeah, a couple of times. They brought us out
for a week or so.
What are your favorite memories of San Francisco?
Hills, bagels, and that crazy fuckin' Mexican
spot where you get burritos the size of a tank
for about 20 cents; I can't remember the
to France?
We used to just come out on
holiday 'cause we had a holi-
day house, and then one time
I came out on holiday, like a
couple of years ago, and I just
ended up stayin' and chillin'
with some homies.
THENITWIT
Was switchstance skating happening when parking lots, garages, whatever indoor
you were learning?
Not at all. I remember there used to be
sequences of people doing nollies but off the
cracks in the pavement, and then one time I
saw a sequence of someone doing a nollie.
but without the crack in the pavement.
Before they had done it with computers or
some shit; it was a joke. I looked at the front
of the magazine to see if it was the April
issue, but it wasn't:
Who did you used to skate with when you
were younger? Any people we know or just
some underground heads?
A bunch of us used to skate together, but
a couple of people out of the bunch defi-
nitely did all right. Danny Wainwright, Alex
Moul, Carl Shipman, Paul Shier, Curtis
McCann, Mike Manzoori... If I told you the
underground heads, they wouldn't be
underground anymore.
Where did you skate since it rains so much?
We skate with umbrellas, man. Mad
manuals in car parks-you know, it
rains in SF too. We go skate
THENUWIT
skatepark there is, South Bank is under
cover, London Bridge skatepark, the front of
a record shop with a little cover over it, and
some underground subway tubes.
What was the first thing that tripped you out
about America when you came here?
When we saw the first handrail that Rodney
Mullen did in a video; we saw that driving from
the airport.
Where did you live when you first came
to America?
Some apartment building that Per had, but he
wasn't there. We just stayed there.
And after that?
Some little fucked up Flip house. We were
chilling there for a while.
Was the whole team living there?
Pretty much everybody was there, then after
a while I got a place with Angel and Chad in
Newport Beach. Chad and I shared a room for
about one year.
How was that house?
It was fun; we had some good laughs.
What do you think of the Southern California
clubs, like Club Rubber and those crazy spots?
They had a dope thing where they had a
white sheet up on the stage, and they would
have live orgies behind it so you could just
see the shadows.
You're one of the only skaters I know who
does not make sponsor changes; or have you
ever done that?
I changed a company once; it was Danny Way's
Fakie inward heelflip.