Tom Penny

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Tom Penny (born April 13, 1977) is a professional skateboarder from Dorchester-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, England. He is well known in the skateboarding community for his calm style and natural abilities and as a master of frontside flips and many kickflip variations. He is also known as one of the few talents to avoid the trappings of skateboarding fame.

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[edit] Career

Tom was first spotted and sponsored by Sean Goff, ex pro skater and owner of SS20 skateshop in Oxford, England. He gained coverage in UK skate magazines such as RAD and Skateboard, as well as videos such as Rollersnakes 540 and 720, and was soon spotted by Flip Skateboards owner Jeremy Fox and added to the Deathbox Skateboards team, which later combined with Bash Skateboards and re branded into Flip Skateboards.

Around 1993, Tom made his first International video appearance in 411vm's video Issue 2 Wheels of Fortune at the age of 15, where he was filmed skating at the Radlands Skatepark in Northampton, England. He also made his debut at the UK Championships Contest at Radlands, where he came 3rd in a very high calibre field of US, UK and European pros. US pro Willy Santos won the contest.

Tom was back at Radlands in 1994 for the UK Championships again. This year a small group of US pros, seemingly lead by Mike Carroll, were openly heckling Tom for his unique style, maybe through jealousy as Tom was fast overtaking them and taking skateboarding to a completely new level[citation needed]. Tom brushed this aside in his casual manner and although not skating as well as in practise still finished in 6th place. US pro Mike Santarossa won the contest.

In late 1994 Flip Skateboards left UK shores and moved to Huntington Beach, California, the hub of world skateboarding. Along with other team members Geoff Rowley, Andy Scott and Rune Glifberg, Tom took the skateboard world by storm, amazing viewers with his small part in the Flip Skateboards industry section in 411vm number 11, switch frontside flipping the infamous Carlsbad Gap and doing an amazing 5 trick downhill run without pushing or speed checking, ending in a backside tailslide on a 9 stair rail, only the second time this trick had been caught on video and the first time in a run. All of this done in an amazing smooth style that looked like he wasn't even trying.

Back in the UK, Tom ended up winning the 1995 Radlands UK Championships Contest which had by then evolved into one of the world's biggest contests. He beat over 100 other competitors including over 75 top US pros, such as Ray Barbee, Tony Hawk, Bob Burnquist, Andrew Reynolds, Ed Templeton, Eric Koston, Phil Shao (now deceased), and Jamie Thomas. His winning run is regarded as one of the best contest runs in history[citation needed], and clearly cemented his place right in the upper ranks of Pro Skateboarding, quickly achieving legendary status[citation needed]. After the previous year's heckling, the skateboard world had now embraced Penny as the skater to lead it into a new generation where style came before anything else[citation needed]. By the end of 1995 Penny was widely regarded as the best all round skateboarder in the world[citation needed], and received acclaim from such notable people as Tony Hawk who was quoted saying to other Vert pros at a contest "If Tom Penny ever started skating Vert full time, we all might as well retire".

During his time in the US, Tom had video parts in the mid 90's such as Etnies "Hi-Five" video, Transworld Skateboarding "Uno", TSA's "Life in the Fast Lane", Balance in the World of Chaos, Dope Clothing's "Time for Tea" as well as numerous cameos in 411vm including the "Europe 1995" video. Tom could easily steal a whole video with just one or two tricks[citation needed].

In 1997 after being at the very top of the Skateboarding world for only 3 or 4 years but having had enough of the spotlight and pro scene, he left California for good and went to Europe, keeping a low profile. He was living in Saint Victor, France for many years with his mother at their holiday home, with time also spent in Barcelona, Spain[citation needed]. Rumour has it he got heavily into hard drugs and lost a few steps, but he made occasional appearances in France and Spain in the late 1990s and thereafter[citation needed].

During the early years of the new Millennium, Tom reappeared and made his comeback in Flip Skateboards classic videos, Sorry, Really Sorry & most recently Extremely Sorry.

After living in Buenos Aires, Argentina for a few years with his partner and young son, Tom is now back in Europe, based in Barcelona, and in the last few months has been seen in The UK, Holland, Sweden, Germany, Denmark, and France.

In fact there have been more sightings of Penny in 2011 than at any other time since the mid 1990's.

[edit] Personal life

He was also famous for putting his stamp on a series of graphics used on skateboard decks and consequentially, t-shirts and hoodies. Tom Penny's graphics for Flip contained numerous drug references, while specifically extolling the virtues of psychedelic mushrooms and smoking Pot. His Cheech and Chong, Alice and Wonderland, and Mushroom related graphic skateboards decks and clothing were a huge sale in the 90's, especially among younger rebellious kids who were drawn to the memorabilia because of its controversial subject matter[citation needed].

His partner is an Argentinian woman and they have a son, Nicholas, born in April 2003[citation needed].

[edit] Sponsors

[edit] Videography

[edit] External links

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