Tom Penny’s Never Seen 7-Flat-6 Kickflip: MX Plaza, Bordeaux, France (2001)
Star Maps Feature x TWS Witness x @cultoftom x @mxequipement94 x uba-uba.com x Amrit Jain x Theo Hand x Serge de Freitas
As most of you know, Tom Penny arrived in California with the Flip crew in 1995—quickly put a hurting on a host of iconic spots (Carlsbad Gap, Chain-to-Bank, San Deguito Rails, etc…) before linking up with the Muska to become the two most marketable pros in skateboarding. At the peak of his powers and fame—Penny departed the United States in ‘96 to live in Europe. At that exact moment, a stream of far-fetched sounding rumors of things Tom had done all over the EU (mostly without footage or photos) opened up like a folkloric flood. You could hardly visit a spot or skatepark on the continent without some insane sounding tale like; “Penny drank seven tall boys, ate a bag of shrooms, then nollie bs flipped into this vert ramp from the deck with a spliff in his hand.” Every town had one. One such tale from Bordeaux—near where Tom lived with his mother, ran something like; “Tom kickflipped one of the biggest sets of stairs in France—in the rain with a sprained ankle—and didn’t even bother telling the filmer flown out to film him or call a photographer.” 24 years later, we can actually prove that this specific myth was absolutely true, down to every last detail. Read on.
This began with Ciaran McCarthy who helps run the @cultoftom Instagram handle. Building off the TWS Witness article I worked on with Theo Hand back in July ‘17 where we covered Tom’s “Invisible Shove-it” at a plaza in Bordeaux called Malraux or MX—Ciaran uncovered this second Penny gem there. During the interview with Theo, as he talked about Penny’s clip of the mystical BS 5-0 shove-it he also mentioned a massive kickflip Tom had done.
Here’s Theo: “Tom did a lot of great stuff there (MX). Everything was spontaneous. Nothing was planned. I can remember one rainy day when I was over at a friend's house, (Tom was at his girlfriend's place) and I found out that he had gone to MX (the weather cleared just enough so the ground was half-dry) and he kickflipped the double-set there, which is/was really big (See present day photos above courtesy Amrit Jain). No footage, no photo, except some random person shot a shitty Kodak throwaway photo! Somewhere that exists.”
Welcome to ‘Somewhere’—Tom Penny’s kickflip, MX 7-flat-6, May 1, 2001. Photo shot on disposable camera by Nathas Kraus.
Well, 24 years later I’m glad to say Ciaran found that Kodak throwaway photo. I wouldn’t even call it “shitty”. It’s actually pretty good for an instamatic print (see above). He also found the person who shot it—a French skater/photographer named Nathas Kraus. This is the story of how it came to be, compiled by Ciaran and with assists from Amrit Jain, Nathas, Serge De Freitas, and Theo Hand.
The MX plaza was since redeveloped and much of it was grassed over. So this is also a tribute to the spot, the MX locals (they even have an Insta @mxequipement94) and a present day look for the Star Maps. The 7-flat-6 is still standing, and still huge, although the rollaway is almost non-existent. To give some context, this set was switch ollied by Geoff Rowley early in his Sorry part. So you know it’s no joke. Geoff also tried a few nollies that day as seen in the behind the scenes footage (check at 7:07) from French Fred. Meanwhile, Tom ollies the first 7 stairs onto a piece of wood on the 6 in his Sorry part so I can safely assume a kickflip down the whole thing would have been prominently featured in his part.
Geoff Rowley’s switch ollie sequence (Photos: Jim the “Skin” which I assume was Skin Phillips) TWS April 2000, Vol. 18, No. 4.
The bulk of this story is told by Nathas, who detailed his road trip to MX on May 1, 2001 and witnessing Penny’s kickflip in a blog post on the website UBA-UBA.com. Nathas shot the disposable camera shot only after he realized he had forgotten the battery to his pro level camera at home. He regrets that to this very day. Here was Ciaran’s summary, including Nathas’ blogpost translated from French and lightly edited by me.
Text by Ciaran: South Bank, Pulaski, Le Dôme, EMB, Love Park, Courthouse, and MACBA are just some of the infamous street plazas in skate lore—each providing a rich history for the both the locals and those who migrated to skate them. In the south of France, located in the city of Bordeaux there was Malraux, to the locals MX.
Consisting of ledges, gaps and stairs MX was "an incredible place for skaters, a plaza we could skate whenever we wanted" explains local pro, Serge De Freitas. To the side of the plaza was the big set—a seven-flat-six. The six could be skated solo as it had an off set run up. Vincent Cassaranjue was the first to Ollie the full double-set in the late ‘80s—opening it up to anyone willing to battle.
In 2001, photographer Nathas Kraus and a crew of skaters travelled from St. Gilles to MX to skate. The day they arrived it was overcast and rain had been forecast. As they rolled up, they spotted someone skating the other end of the plaza—it was Tom Penny, who was living in Bordeaux at the time, with Ali Boulala.
Tom’s ollie into a wood bank, and Rowley’s switch ollie from Sorry (2001 by Flip and French Fred.)
Nathas remembers: "Tom was there just doing manuals on the other side of the plaza, but skated over to us within a few minutes. We were sipping on some cider and Tom joined in. After a while, there was a small session beginning down the six, so Tom picked up his board and joined in. Tom started putting down a few perfect nollie backside flips. I went to grab my camera to shoot the session that was going off, but It was at this point I realized I had forgotten my camera battery at home. Right then, Tom walks up the seven, looks down at the whole set. I scrambled to find anything to shoot with and all I had was this disposable camera.
Tom starts going for it, he throws down a shifty ollie that makes us all throw our boards in celebration. Then he goes back to the top and talks to my friend Nicolas. Nicolas runs down within a few seconds, saying to get prepared as Tom is going to kickflip the stairs. Tom then starts throwing down huge kickflips. After about the third try of feeling it out Tom shows us his very swollen ankle from a previous spot days before. I tell him not to kill himself for a crappy disposable camera, but by now I understand this was not for any media—just Tom’s own pride and pleasure.
Unfortunately by this time the rain drops start falling—it was those big drops that soak the ground quickly. Tom doesn't seem bothered and goes for it again. On the 4th or 5th try he pops, flicks, catches and rides away. I still remember the flip as monstrous, slow, mastered, violent and smooth all at the same time. Tom rides about 10 or 12 feet and then slips out from the ground now being drenched from the drops. Everyone watching is now in complete utter madness, yelling and celebrating.
We packed up, said our goodbyes to Tom and went to find a place to get the camera developed—still in disbelief at what we had just witnessed. The development wouldn’t be ready until the next day, as I missed the cut-off for 1 hour development. I was wondering the whole time if the photo turned out at all. I finally got the photo back the next day. The contrast was off, but it was ok. We head back to MX and Tom was there (drinking Baileys). I gave him some copies, and he seemed genuinely happy.
Still, 24 years later—I'm still mad at myself. I'm always super thorough and can't believe I forgot my battery knowing the better photo that I could have captured.”
—Nathas Kraus
Meanwhile, Theo Hand, who was on a mission with Tom and Ali to capture footage looks back and shares: " I was bummed that he didn't let me know or wait till I got down there. But I also knew that if Tom felt like doing something, he was going to do it."
There you have it. An amazing first hand witness account of this historic moment so many years ago. I can pretty safely say that had Nathas remembered his batteries and shot a pro quality photo of this kickflip in ’01—it would almost certainly been the cover of any magazine—EU or in the US. I think at Skateboarder Magazine where I worked at that time we might even have considered running the disposable version—that’s how sought after any coverage of Penny was then.
When Ciaran emailed over all the bits and pieces for this story, he also shared that Amrit had spoken to Tom about it recently. Amrit shared that Tom is happy that this story is finally coming out. A huge thanks to Ciaran, Amrit, Theo, and Serge for putting this all together. Also huge thanks to Nathas Kraus for even capturing the disposable camera shot that day. In some ways it seems almost more Pennyesque the way it all worked out. And of course, a huge salute to Tom for so many decades of pure and legendary skateboarding—always doing it for himself, never for media fame or for anyone else. Dedicated to MX Locals past, present, and future.
More Tom Penny fandom:
• Church of Penny article - From TWS Dec. 2009.
• Tom Penny INTV, Skateboarder Magazine, Oct. 2003 Page 1, Page 2, Audio of the INTV tape.
• TWS Witness 1, Magnus Gyllenberg on Tom Penny, 1998.
• TWS Witness: Penny Part 2, The Invisible Shove-It w/ Theo Hand.
Tom Penny and Serge de Freitas hanging out in Bordeaux, present day. Photo: Amrit Jain.
Bordeaux local Serge de Freitas ollies the 7-flat-6 in 1993. Photo courtesy Serge and Ciaran.
