Lance Mountain - Heads_Mountain - Interview

Thrasher Magazine, June, 2002 by Michael Burnett

"I had a scumstache too"

Most parents have no idea what their kids' lives are like. Being around teenagers a lot, do you feel like you have a better understanding of your son?

I had a kid when I was really young and I've been growing up as he's grown up, so I feel like I can relate to what being a kid is like. I'm involved with what he's involved in still so I think I know him a lot better than my dad knew me.

Do you ever want to act like a parent to the ams on your team, or do you draw the line?

I'm pretty parent-y. I don't know how other people are, but I would think I'm more like a parent than say, uhmm...

Mic-E Reyes?

Yeah. Probably more than Mic-E. I just think the rowdiness and the craziness--most of it can be done on a skateboard. Now that people are getting wilder and crazier, they're just mimicking and trying to act like what they think skateboarders used to be like. A lot of it just seems really phony to me. On the other side of it, I care about the guys on my team, so I want the best for them. I've been with dudes who are snorting coke and are going to get run over by a car and just acting totally retarded. I don't think they really want to be acting that way. So sure, I'm going to come in there and act like a parent instead of being, "Whewhhh! Yeah! Let's make an ad out of this!" Because I know they don't want to be doing it anyway and they're dying. For me, it should be more about the skating.

What do you think of your son's mustache?

He shaved it yesterday.

What?!

He shaved yesterday.

Did you guys have a party?

I was excited, but he kind of got bummed because everyone kept saying, "Oh, you look so much younger." He's at that age where you're in high school and you're dealing with all the jock older boys and you're just the little skateboard kid, so you don't want to look any younger than you have to. I just told him it looked really bad. He'll probably grow it back. I had a scumstache too, when I was a kid.

So was Whittier your favorite park?

Yeah. Because that was when I skated the best. I was 16, 17, 18. That was when I was doing stuff that no one else was doing. That's when you feel like you're skating your best. I did Andrecht fakes, which nobody else was doing. I was doing lein 360s. I did invert channels and nobody was doing those--stuff like that. I was at the top of my game. Even though my Powell days were what I got known for, I was skating better when I was on Variflex, when I was doing stuff that no one could do.

What was the most memorable example of torture of a youngster by the older guys you ever witnessed at a skatepark?

That would be me. I wasn't getting tortured but I was pretty much the idiot who would do anything the other guys told me to. We'd roll in on people. They'd be coming down yelling, "Get out of the way!" or whatever and we'd just scream in on them. Lucero would do it and everyone would do it and I remember rolling in on this kid called Bubbles and I broke his toe. There was another one with this kid named Mark Poots. I wasn't really involved in it so I can't really lay claim on it, but Lucero's friends put this kid in a trash can and slid him in the deep pool, They did that a couple of times and then they duct-taped his hands and feet behind his back and put him in the bottom and left him there for an hour or so. I think he got mentally damaged from it. I wasn't involved in that one.

Worst vert trick of all time?

I wouldn't say the worst one, but the most obsolete is the layback air. They're rad, but they got seriously banned from the repertoire. There's way worse, like the fake splat or the everybody.

What's the everybody?

It was this trick Neil was doing, and then he goes to this contest and everybody was trying it. It was like a fake to handplant, but he would try and seriously hoist it up, like a switch egg or something. He was over it and decided it couldn't be done. So he gets to this contest and everyone's doing these stale little bunny hops. He's like, "Great! It's the fake everybody now! That's not a trick!" It was lame. All this is very timely for the kids today.

Well, you can't give the kids what you think they want, you have to give them what they need.

I know. They need a history lesson.

The Bones Brigade videos made it seem like you guys all lived together and skated together every day. Who was your actual skate crew in those days?

I skated with Cab, but he was eight hours away. That was probably when I was skating my ramp with Grosso and Eric Castro. Steve Keenan, Eric Nash, Ben Schroeder.

Were you an easy-going ramp owner?

I went in phases. I have dudes now come up to me and tell me, 'Yeah, I came and rode your ramp! It was rad!" and other guys telling me, "I tried to ride your ramp and you were lame, man!" I really don't have recollections of what I was like. I'd wake up and people I didn't know would be skating my ramp. I'd go down and be like, "Who are you? Get out of here!" We had a ramp since '78. I have a photo when we had a ramp in front of my house in '77 and there were like 35 kids lined up. I pretty much didn't want people skating when I wasn't because otherwise it was non-stop. I'd skate with my friends, and people I didn't know would just watch. We never had any big problems. It was cool.