Tom Penny is both a living legend in the modern skateboarding world, and a long time friend since we were both the size of small rats. He has survived the ups and downs that life throws at us all with a radness and rare quality that is admired by all who come into contact with him. His influences are everywhere and all around us. Not one pro-skater from the mid to late nineties can claim to have affected us all in such a profound way, and I mean nobody! The man is a true natural. Well-travelled, well-spoken and fluent in many a language. Tom is living and skating as humble as ever. I am proud to introduce to you this pure genius of a man, the most stealthy, underground darkness I have ever had the fortune to watch unfold, the chapter has just begun...
- Rowley X

A lot of things have been written about Tom in the past that have been the figment of various "writers' " imagination. Maybe these grand illusions have helped create the "legend" that Tom today is to a lot of skateboarders worldwide. There is always two sides to every story though and this interview is backing one side of the story only, Tom's side. Reap what you sow.
- Ian Deacon

The last time I met you was August at the World Championships in Rotterdam. It was the last stop of your European Flip Tour right?
Yeah, I was in Barcelona with Rodrigo TX and Oliver Barton before that, shooting photos and filming for a week. Then I met with the rest of the team and went on a little European Flip tour. We ended up in Rotterdam at the contest.

So how was the tour? Did you enjoy being on the road?
Yeah, totally. It was fun! Almost all of the team were there. We made a little video out of it and filmed for the new Flip video. We had some really cool demos aswell. It was the first tour after almost a year from when we did the Feast Tour through the US and Canada in 2006.

I didn’t realise that you live in Argentina now. Tell us a little bit about it...
Ok, so my girlfriend grew up in Argentina until she was about 11 when she moved to Huntington Beach.

That’s where you met her?
No, I met her in Paris. I was going to meet Chad Muska in Europe on a C1rca tour, who I hadn’t seen for a long long time. The C1rca distributor wanted me to be at the restaurant in Paris as a surprise guest so I met him and she was working for the same company. Then I stayed on the tour and hung out with her and Chad, that’s how we actually met.

But by this time she was still living in Huntington?
Yeah, she was living in Huntington.

So how come you are now in Argentina?
I don’t know. It’s just where we are at the moment for whatever reason it might be. I’m just trying to get a visa for the States as I can’t go there right now.

Why aren’t you allowed to go there at the moment?
Well, I go there a lot to work as a professional skateboarder. I shouldn't be working there obviously so I say that I am going on holiday but just recently they found out! They're pretty heavy at the border with all that stuff you know. I know a lot of Europeans with the same problem.

You said earlier that you are filming, what video are you working on?
You know that we started up a new shoe company? I mean it’s been going for a while now but we are getting it going. It’s Supra and Krew that we are working and filming for.

How did this collaboration come about? I mean you nearly disappeared from the skate biz, well at least from the media since there wasn’t really any coverage for quite a while. How come you're back and on the same team as Muska, Ellington and Greco?
When we first started up it was just me and Ellington. Obviously we had to get more people on the team and it just seemed to happen naturally. Chad didn’t have a sponsor at the time but was one of my best friends and also one of my favorite skateboarders. If you've got Chad on the team, he does more than just skate for the team, he designs T-shirts and he does things for the website, it seemed like the perfect match.

It seems like you are really involved in Supra. Are you more than just a team rider for them?
Yeah, I’m more involved but can’t do a lot at the moment because I’m not in the States. I have to wait until I get back there and then I’ll be a lot more involved.

Last time we talked about Sami Harithi we discussed how he's had a family already for quite a while, so did having a child change your life a lot?
Yeah of course! Just as you're teaching them how to grow up, it teaches you at the same time. You learn as much as they do. I definitely learnt a lot. I got a lot more motivation because there is someone that I have to take care of. It's almost like getting a second life, it straightens your life out a lot and changes you for the better.

Do you think about the future a lot? Like what will happen 10 years from now? If you will be involved in skateboarding still...?
Well I’m always thinking and I've got a lot of good ideas but I’m not very good at actually seeing them work in reality. Maybe that's because I’m skating most of the time so maybe it'll happen when I’m done skating and I’m a little bit more settled down in my house. You know I draw a lot and that kind of stuff......

Have you ever turned your drawings into designs for some of your companies?
Not yet, but I’m sure you’ll see it in the future.

Tell us a little bit about the time when you stepped back a little bit, the time when you weren’t in magazines all the time and moved away from the States.
You know some people make out like I couldn’t handle the fame, I just went to a contest in Europe and then went to London afterwards. I haven’t seen a lot of friends in a long time so I stayed in London. For about 1 1/2 years I was in London and skated Southbank a lot. I was always skating. Then after that I moved to my mum’s house in France where I lived for a couple of years. So I skated there a little bit, I had a miniramp. I ended up travelling around Europe after that. Stayed a month here and there. Finally one day I went back to the States.

Before you took off to Europe you got a lot of coverage which kind of stopped when you were over here in Europe. Back in the States though you started getting more media coverage again. Was that because you were feeling that it was time, ready for shooting stuff again?
No, I was never like that. I mean it's just the way life went for me. That was just where I was and what I was doing. I mean in America there were photographers calling me up every morning, it’s just the way it went. I was never like " I don’t want to take a picture or film for a video, I’m just going to be underground" I was never like that.

Alright, but I heard from a lot of people like "hey where is he we want to shoot with him, we want a photo of him" so it seemed like you weren’t really into that, like you wanted a break, time out!
People always say that I’m hard to get hold of. I've never had a cell phone in my life and I don’t really use phones at all. I’m pretty bad at staying in contact with people.

But if someone did reach you, were you always open for shooting photos and stuff?
Yeah, totally.

So besides skateboarding what are you into? What about music?
Yeah, I’m into music a lot. I like all kinds of music but mostly reggae and hip-hop. As long as it is good music, I like it. If I buy music it is mostly hip-hop.

Do you play any instruments or do you use a computer to make music?
No, not really but I’ve always been interested in it. I did actually buy a lot of music equipment at one point when I was living in Bordeaux with my mum like turntables, a big selection of records, a big African drum and stuff like that. Just a couple of months after I got it though, something happened and I lost it all. I can’t really talk about it but you know, one day I’ll try to get it again because it interests me a lot. I love music. I like instrumentals a lot and I like Indian women singing... and I really like beats, hip-hop beats.

I think there are many skateboarders out there that have talent for other creative things besides skateboarding, whether it's music, design, photography or film. What about you?
Yeah, I’m creative but I don’t know, I’m kinda lazy man! I've got so many ideas, so many things I could do but I don’t do them. I’m just too lazy. You know like music for example, where you could really get into it and put all your creativity in it and get your ideas out there.

Speaking about creativity and ideas, you were talking about drawings you did. Is that something for a crew or another company that you're working with? Could it be an option?
No no, not yet. When I said I draw, it's just that I draw. You know both my parents are artists. That’s actually how they met. They’re both really talented and were always drawing when I grew up. I haven’t done it that much in the past myself but I really want to learn how to paint properly and maybe even go to college for a bit. You know, to learn all kinds of stuff like how to stretch a canvas.

Let’s speak about the early days in skateboarding for you. Who were some of the people you liked and people that influenced you?
You know back then there weren’t that many videos coming out and there weren’t that many skaters around either. I had my London friends that I was skating with and then basically the European skaters like Carl Shipman, Curtis McCann, Sami Harithi. Later on when I learnt about American skateboarders it was Danny Way. I was really into skating ramps and to me he is the best ramp skateboarder around. As for street skateboarding, I liked Guy Mariano the most.

When I was first coming up in skateboarding and the first time I learnt about skateboarding, about contests, sponsoring and winning money and all that, Sami was one of the only skateboarders in Europe who was riding for a big sponsor and winning contests. I remember I went to Munster where he was doing nosebluntslides over the hip and that was before people were doing nosebluntslides! I think he won the contest that year and it was the first time I saw him skate so was like "wow, he is really amazing."

Who do you usually skate with nowadays, I mean when you're not on tour?
I have my group of friends I hang out with. There aren’t that many skateboarders in Argentina. But I mainly hang out with this one kid Mario Gonzales. He is one of the most respected in the local scene.

How is the scene in Argentina?
The skate scene is pretty good, but it is really small. Everyone knows each other and they are all really friendly to each other. If you go to another spot and meet other skateboarders they are super nice and no one talks shit about other skateboarders. If they hear you talking shit, they tell you to stop it! They don’t do that kind of stuff...

What does a usual day look like for you? I mean you have a child. So how does that work? How often do you have time to skate?
I skate everyday!  My son has school at 1 so I’m usually with him all morning until then and when he’s at school I’m skating. Then I get back pretty much the same time that he’s coming home from school. If it is the weekend and he’s not in school, I spend the day with him and skate at night. Sometimes Ewan (Flip filmer) comes down and we film a bit. Just recently my girlfriend got me a camera so I film a bit with some of the locals as well.

So after shooting some photos with Tom we had a little chat about the States and the difficulties of getting through customs and into America. Due to the fact that today the world wide web makes it easy for cops and customs patrols to find out about people though googling a name, we won’t write about all that, because he is in the process of getting his visa and we all want him to get back to the States and work on his projects and his future!!

Thanks, Tom!

Itv. + portraits. Foley
action. Shad Lambert