"You Did not talk to him, did you?" Aaron asked, once I told him I had seen Neil Blender many occasions at a local skatepark. Good Beginner Skateboard For Adults, Boy

 Hell No, I did not. What's the point? Finest case scenario: we behave as skate pals and match each other for the occasional sesh. Worst example: he says something along the lines of,"Fuck off, fat butt! I'm down with your spectacle "

 I Don't have to take those sort of chances. Not this late in this match. In any event, meeting him now couldn't be as good as my thoughts as a kid--standing in the crowd seeing him torque out straight-legged handplants, then having him draw among his trendy dogs on the back of my own T-shirt. Childhood nostalgia always outshines adult reality.

 A LITTLE BACKGROUND: When you came of age between 1986 and 1991, Lance Mountain was pretty much one of the favorite skaters. Beginning with the milestone Bones Brigade Video Show (1984) and continuing with Future Primitive and The Search for Animal Chin, Lance became the primary personality of the video age. Hawk might have experienced the contest victories and Cab the trendy suspenders, but it was Mr Mountain who brought the message of skateboarding = fun into the masses with his loose fashion and talent for physical comedy. He was, for so many, the archetype for what it's supposed to be a skater--a ripper but not a jocka artist but perhaps not"artsy," someone who seemed like he was always having a blast on the board. Lance inspired a generation of children, the straggling, growed-up tail-end of that surrounded him at every demonstration or store look we moved to-lined up with small anecdotes to discuss or bits of memorabilia for him to sign.

 "You Came into my ramp in'87 and also my mother made you a chicken salad sandwich" A dude would declare proudly.

 "Oh yeah?" Lance would answer.

 "I Met you at the Skunk ditch in'85 and you gave me your bearings" Another would say.

 "Cool," Lance would answer.

 He Was receptive and happy to every tale, regardless of if he recalled any of it not

 "You Signed my sweatpants in 1989!" They'd say.

 "Rad" He would respond.

 No One left feeling ignored or slighted. On occasion the whole team could be from the van while Lance held dad using a bunch of guys that were grown for hours. He brought so much happiness to whoever came to him--it was like he was Muhammad Ali or anything.

 Even though There weren't any huge, unsettling surprises (no white power or Prince tattoos or anything), he wasn't exactly the guy I thought I knew from all those movies. There is no way he might have been. What? Is he supposed to operate and do a backflip off the wall for every fan he meets?

 "Nice To satisfy you. Wanna go play fingerboards from the sink?"

 "Do I? That would be rad!" Skateboards For Girl Beginner Reviews To Buy

 No, Lance is a really normal person. He's not especially wacky nor is he's eager to reminisce over or analyze his place at the rich tapestry of modern skate history-not which I didn't try and force him.

 "Why Did you use PVC working on the Chin ramp?" 

 "Were Powell admit that Bonite[TM] was a scam"

 "How Many back-to-back McTwists did you do?"

 "What Was Mike McGill really like?"

 I Hassled him . In all honestythe only difference between me and the dudes from the huddle with him following the demos was I had been around long enough for the magic to kind of wear off.

 There Was a lot of time for Q&A with this demonstration tour. We covered a lot of ground between stops and frequently drove until four in the morning to remain on schedule. The whole team came, except for Rodrigo, who had been recovering from knee surgery and also The Scorpion, who had been sorely missed. Bob also took off after a couple of days due to some contest duties, but that I did get to see him split up the legendary Kona park.

 There Were two vans--a big one and a small one. I had been in the small one the whole time with video guy Kurt Hayashi plus some mixture of Lance, Jani, Weiger or Jon Humphries. The small van was fairly tame, with Lance's Clash-heavy I-pod or mine which is pretty much full of stuff that only I like. The significant van had a far more festive atmosphere with 50 Cent and Sean Paul in heavy rotation along with Javier setting up some type of gypsy camp at the back seats. At one point I looked in to see him hanging his socks onto a makeshift clothesline. Lance reckons he might have been cooking back there:

Newer Skaters who have no clue what the hell I'm talking about are invited to take this time to reflect on their own fond memories--411 #33 or whatever.

 IN KEEPING WITH ALL THE IN-VAN back-in-the-day speak, we kept bumping into'80s skate luminaries because we combed the Southeast. Although we found neither hide nor hair of Chuck Dinkins or Fred Reeves, we ran into lots of other people such as the one-time-egg-plant-challenged Donnie Griffin (currently a father and mortgage agent ), freestyle sensation Reggie Barnes (proprietor of Eastern Distribution), formerly sha-danked Ray Underhill (Eastern employee) and, most fascinating, Atlanta's Tommy Kay (mustached Trashmore enthusiast in Future Primitive who educates his mommy to"Maintain the dead raccoon from my automobile, please!") We also ran into a kid claiming to be Jeff Hedges' cousin--an assertion so random it had to be authentic. He looked sort of love.

 In Charleston, South Carolina that a motley contingency of elderly skaters showed up at the rather tame street-course demo specifically to invite Lance to ride the nearby Hanger bowl. Actually, invite is sort of a gentle word--like pressure. They would not take no for the answer.

 "You're Gonna come so I can demonstrate how we skate around here!" Neighborhood legend Jimmy Leaphart declared.

 The Hanger is your giant, thrice-rebuilt wooden bowl that was once a characteristic of a skatepark but now sits at a man named Hank's big front lawn. Together with Skatopia and a couple of remote pockets around Florida, the Hanger represents the last of a dying custom of ultra-hesh backyard vert riding arenas which once dominated and characterized the Southeast tubing experience. These guys are fuckin' doing it!

 Old, A little less old, men, girls, together with teeth without--the Hanger skaters are becoming busy as it's 1985 without a rat's buttocks given to what the remainder of the skate globe is thinking or doing. Jimmy Leaphart was screaming the whole time--pounding beers or strumming a little air guitar between action-packed runs that included more grinds, slides and cool transfers than most folks can handle.

 "KEEP YOUR CIGARETTE AWAY FROM THAT BABY!"

 A MOM SCOLDED before dropping into a healthier indy air. She cradled the baby between knee pads in place. The Hanger is really a beautiful scene unlike any other.

 As Was said, in Atlanta Lance was reunited with Chin ramp builder Tommy Kay who took us to a great backyard pool at a resort behind a titty bar.

 "We're Gon t get arrested, I just know it!" Lance kept saying on the way over. Here is a Mountain fun reality: despite his own skate and destroy history and standing as a backyard pool destroyer, Lance has a very healthy respect for the law.

 "I'd Instead sit in the vehicle than skate someplace that I could get arrested," he explained.

 I've Found it in action! One time at these full pipes at Long Beach, a security guard called the cops and the next thing you know a police helicopter was telling us"Stay where you are!" Lance just bolted. He's in his car and sped off, leaving his teenage son behind us to take care of the fuzz.

 "I'm Not gonna get arrested just because he is too slow!" He afterwards explained. The Best Complete Skateboards For Beginners Reviews To Buy 2017

 At The swimming pool, Lance finally relaxed enough to find several airs and grinds. Afterwards, he jumped the fence back in the strip joint parking lot in which we left the van. Hiding between two parked cars, he was in the middle of shifting back to his pants when he met with the place's security guard. The guard was one of those automobiles Lance was hiding .

 "I Realized; here I am in a strip joint parking lot with my pants at my ankles as well as the safety guard is looking in me," Lance later explained. Apparently this sort of behavior is par for the course at that establishment, since the security guard did not say anything and we left without incident.

 LANCE IS GONNA BE SO PISSED...

Most Of this tour was demos, store appearances and autograph sessions. We have out to street skate exactly twice. The group was really good-natured and weathered a few of the boring times without lots of the sour behavior or tantrums I've observed on similar tours. It rained, we travelled, we occasionally got out of their vans to consume Cracker Barrel--everybody was cool the entire time.

 I am Fearful that Lance is gonna be pissed off I invested much of this article writing About him. He has kind of a pessimistic attitude about his ongoing An popularity, While he completely deserves it. He's Lance Mountain, for Pete's sake. Dude, Sometimes I can't even believe I actually know him!