@Scurbrampwoody do you think the south coast deserves a bit more of a mention instead of Oxford claiming all the Penny credit?
What is a “43”?
No. Oxford. Haha.
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No man, not at all. I mean we wouldn’t have had that Oxford graduation bike riding ad if that was the case. Rad/Sidewalk would probably have ended up with a Wurzels or similar themed back page ad and that would have sucked 
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Old man speak for frontside 180 no comply.
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He might have given up if you didn’t inspire him that day.
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That’s what keeps me going 
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Sounds like you were pretty sick back in the day too!
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What an amazing story!
Thanks for sharing.
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I’ve probably already told this one but here it is…
I was born and bred in the French-speaking part of Switzerland. My parents listened to The Beatles, Neil Young, The Rolling Stones and that stuff and could translate some of the lyrics but not that well. So when I was about 10 or something I bought one of those books called Learn English in 90 days or something like that, in order to understand those lyrics better as I loved listening to old rock. Started learning on my own as we were only learning German as a foreign language at school when we were kids. Nobody around me could speak English well back then, I was just a kid in the sticks in the Alps, where everybody spoke French.
Fast forward to July 1996, a lovely sunny Monday right after the Grand Prix in Lausanne, I’m cruising down the street by the train station and have a brand spanking new Beer City blank board covered with All Access (local SOS) stickers in my hand. A dude is waving at me. It’s Tom Penny and he’s my fucking hero. Skated like a fucking legend during the whole weekend. Mind-blowing stuff. Was a hero before that comp, is now way above all gods. He checks the board I have in my hands, says my sticker job is dope and asks about a nice place where he could relax. IN ENGLISH of course. I tell him about the local meeting spot, the blocks by the harbour, give him directions, in English, and we say our goodbyes.
An hour or two later I go skating down there and there he is, chilling, smiling, thanks me for pointing him to this lovely place.
I was pretty stoked to have interacted with him being a kid but what I was even more stoked on was that this conversation we had just had was my first one with a native speaker, and I had made myself understood. TOM PENNY WAS MY FIRST ENGLISH TEACHER. Haha.
Sorry if I didn’t word that very well. Let’s blame Friday and beer.
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What was it like getting waved down by Tom penny? Well random!
Well, that was 25 years ago, I was 14, things are a bit hazy… It wasn’t that crazy as he’d just spent the weekend in town, among a hundred other pros. It wasn’t like say bumping into Lavar McBride in Kyle of Lochalsh.
Random semi-related story: one evening during another GP (98) I was walking by the same train station with my girlfriend at the time and we saw BA roaming around on his own. I wondered what he was doing as most pros were all in bars and shit, doing the typical 'muricans-in-Europe thing… Seems like he was roaming around for the sake of it, looking at architecture and smoking cigs.
I totally remembered that when Carroll talked about him being different, leaving the crew for hours during tours and stuff in that Vice thing when he came out.
Random semi-related ting 2.0: Lance Mountain did the intro for 411 41 from his hotel room balcony which was by the same train station too. Wearing a Union Jack shirt.
I’ve been to this train station thousands of times ever since and still regularly think about these stories. They definitely brightened my old commute many times.
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Here’s that Penny footage I mentioned in the stoked thread.
Uploaded for non-Insta heads (@anon83623327 et al)
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That park was so good
Nice to see him pull out the rare regular heelflip, a beautiful sight. Looking very comfortable on his board these days as well.
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That’s from this year?? He looks really healthy and on point. Mega mega stoke
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Wow, he looks in good shape, stoked for him
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this surprised me
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He did one of the best heelflips ever at the old HB park in the TSA vid. Proper ninja shit.
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Yeah I remember him talking about doing a fair bit of snowboarding in an interview a long while ago on the és site I think it was and I had assumed no one had been able to film but it looks like I was wrong!
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