#TBT Tom Penny SPoT Footage

Posted by Paul Zitzer, Thursday, September 17, 2015 8:50 AM

If you believe the moon landing was faked, or that Lee Harvey Oswald was a CIA patsy, then you’ve probably seen this footage of Tom Penny. It comes courtesy of Theories of Atlantis, aka Josh Stewart, who had the good fortune of being in the right place [SPoT], at the right time [1996 Tampa Pro-ish?], with the right equipment [Sony VX-3] to capture some candidly casual shredding by one of the most notable figures in the history of what we do. In addition to Tom’s switch backside lipslides and the ridiculous ease of his signature frontside flips (which are cited by Andrew Reynolds as the inspiration for his frontside flips) you should know he was skating with a broken hand which had swelled up like a balloon and turned a nasty shade of purplish green. It was known as his Elephant Paw stage, and in typical Penny fashion I’m pretty sure he never went to the doctor for it. There was no other skateboarder in the world that skated like Tom Penny, or did anything like Tom Penny for that matter.