On the left: 1995, Simon Woodstock skating for Vans with a ‘penny board’ in his first penny suit (as seen in Skate Book 2, p.106). On the right: March 2014, Simon visiting Lance Mountain Jr.’s art show in style with his new penny suit and a penny bike (at the Seeing Things Gallery  in San Jose). Pictures by Felix Archuleta, click for bigger image.

Gold Cup Skateboards comes to you from the mind of Lance Mountain. The boards are all made in U.S.A. and distributed by NHS. The product looks fully flushed out, right down to the “Power Slider” tail blocks. It’s not all retro nostalgia. Well maybe it is actually, but they do seem to be built with functionality in mind, as long as you are OK with a bizarro Streets of Fire ( Note “of” not “on” fire ) scenario where the technology of the future is wildly available in the past. It’s as if somebody forked a parallel universe on GitHub where certain niche technologies and fashions remained the same while the rest of the world advanced. Maybe they can get a young William Dafoe on the team. It’s a strange but interesting time in skateboarding. You can basically buy skateboard technology form any past generation right now. I can’t think of a similar scenario in any other sport. Imagine a football team where everyone decided to wear the old leather style helmets. I suppose you can still buy a basic wooden tennis racket. Maybe it’s just that skateboard styles and technology are more distinct through the ages.

I’m sure he’d hate being called that, but it might be true. Fingerboarder Magazine(?!) has a video preview of an interview with the always entertaining Lance Mountain to be published in their upcoming second issue. You should watch it if you A: Like Skateboarding. B: Like fingerboarding C: Hate fingerboarding, or D: Enjoy Lance Mountain. Any answer is correct. I’m still surprised about the rabid fingerboarding culture in Europe, Japan wouldn’t have surprised me.

On Friday April 9th the HVW8 Art + Design Gallery will be hosting the Heel Bruise book launch for the last batch of Disaster zines. Celebrating its origins in counter culture youth movements and DIY bookmaking, the Disaster zine highlights the art of Lance Mountain, Thomas Yu, and SkyPage. The final edition comes signed and numbered with a Disaster zine tee shirt. Also on display will be a selection of new works from the three contributing artists, and sounds courtesy of Ras Dynamite (aka Lance C. Mountain). HVW8 Production House Art + Design Gallery 661 N Spaulding Ave Los Angeles, Ca 90036

MRZ has posted some great pre-opening day photos of a new skatepark in the LA (Moorpark) area called Poindexter Park. Head on over to Concrete Disciples to see them. It’s a California Skateparks project. Lance Mountain designed the bowl (above right) after a backyard spot named the Buddah pool. There are some construction shots, where esle, but Concrete Disciples? There is supposed to be some sort of snake run feature but so far I can’t find any photos. – Thanks to Keith Cote for the tip.

I might be changing hosts, possibly as early as the weekend. Had hoped to wait so I could spring a redesign on you at the same time, but the recent incredibly bad customer service I’ve been experiencing during the intermittent server outages of the past week… sheesh! There are actually a couple of tech support guys at IX Webhosting that have been really cool, it’s just the people around them making the decisions that have been the bane of my existence. Who knows, maybe you won’t even be able to read this because the site is down. In the mean time, expect a scarcity of updates in the immediate future. Two great things happened though. One reader asked if I was experiencing problems that a donation might help. I am blown away and flattered that someone would even consider that, and I don’t want to embarrass anyone, but thanks for the offer Ben! However, I’m not going to pass the hat, not my style. If anyone feels like helping out, there’s always t-shirts for sale. Second thing, I saw the best video clip I’ve seen since, well, the last great movie clip, say the opening segment from Fully Flaired. There’s…

I took too many pictures. It’s taking a while to get through them all. Here’s Lance to tide you over.

Hey, it’s Lance Mountain and the Tigard dinosaur. That’s a combination you don’t usually see at a skateboard contest. First to post Trifecta 2009 video, as far as I know, a site called BFD.com. Check it out after the jump.