Interview by Jenkin Au
Words by Alan Ng & Amie Nguyen
Photography by Jenkin Au

The justalilhype! Crew met with Lanny DeBoer and discussed about his love of skateboarding. Lanny is originally from Alberta and have moved to Vancouver to pursue a career in skateboarding. He skates for fun and his main forte is street skating. He describes to us his interpretation of everything on the streets, and how he could be able to spot out rails and stairs that could keep him occupied all day long. In the interview, he told us how he got into skateboarding, what keeps him skating, and what he hopes to do in the future as a skater.

Tell us a little bit about yourself.

My name is Lanny DeBoer. I am original from Alberta and moved to Vancouver to skateboard. Been enjoying the sun, beautiful weather, and that’s pretty much all I do.

When did you start skateboarding?

I started skateboarding when I was 13. My friend had a skateboard and I took his skateboard and started learning from him. Eventually we started going to a skate park and I learned how to skate there in about 5 years.

What can only skateboard do that you feel that no other sport can do for you?

Skateboarding is a sport but I guess it’s more of an art form too. Say you do certain tricks; you can’t say you just did that exact trick as someone else, because tricks on certain obstacles turn out different. It all comes into play; that time of day, how you did the trick. It all adds up into an art form.

Pretty much the whole feeling of everything combined right?

Yea. Once you start to skateboard and learn how to do it, you will understand. Once you get pass the hardest learning parts, then you can actually be selfish about it and just have fun. And not really caring about falling too much, that’s when it’s really fun. You don’t even have to do tricks; just cruising itself is worth the time.

Skateboarding originated from surfing. They use to call it land surfing. What do you think it’ll feel like to be land surfing?

Well, people tell me surfing is hard and a skating bowl is damn hard. It’s a scary thing. It doesn’t look scary, but when you are up there, when you are about 14 feet above the flat ground, it’s a long fall to the bottom.

When was the first time that you actually skated in a bowl?

Some of it was maybe today. I learned how to skate on curves with a lot of ramps, some vert. A bowl is pretty much all vert so that’s definitely new to me so that’s why you see me not quite cruising as smooth as the older guys here but they have many years to work that out and I am still getting it down.

What’s the feeling like on a bowl?

It’s fast. It’s not really fast but at the same time it’s hard to keep your speed. That’s why these guys know what to do and I am still a learner. I try to take what I know especially with some street skating which kind of got a little different style compared to what these guys might do.

Speaking of street skating, I guess you are more of a street skater rather than park right?

Yea, well I like the skate park a lot. It’s a training ground where you warm up and stuff. But, when it comes down to it, I guess street is my thing. When you are just bored and got nothing to do driving through the city. You can just look at a set of stairs or something that isn’t interesting to a normal person and I would be completely stoked about. A stupid little rail going down some grass that nobody even thought of, or looked past twice. All of a sudden I would be thinking that I could have fun there for hours. It’s a lifestyle change.

Speaking of skating as a lifestyle. Well they built this, but they are cracking down a lot of skateboarding in a lot of public areas. Covering both angles, you as a skater wanting to have fun and them wanting to preserve what they own. What do you have to say about that?

Yea, it is a fine line and it basically comes down to them hiring security guards but they don’t have a whole lot more of authority than I do I guess. Yea, I understand that maybe we are making their lives look a little black but there’s a lot of other vandalism and miniscule damage compared to what other people would be doing to the city. I don’t know. It’s like throwing a bottle out of the window, breaking it for fun, versus us actually having some physical activity to do and spend our whole day doing that instead of causing shit.

Other than here, what other places do you skate at regularly?

Well, I live in Richmond so I like to skate in Richmond skate parks, then we go to Tsawwassen but I mean I’ve been hitting up a lot of other parks lately like ones in Port Coquitlam, Maple Ridge, and Abbotsford. Richmond parks are good but it’s kind of old. I do like it. It’s really fun. I can see how people might get good there because it’s similar to street skating because the old school parks didn’t really know what they were doing when they made it, so it just makes it that much more difficult.

What are some of the hardest tricks that you can pull off?

It’s kind of hard to say a favorite trick. As I was saying earlier, when it comes down to it, every trick is different. I can do a trick in one spot and it might not be that big of a deal. I can do it on something else and I could be really stoked about it. If you really want to do know tricks, it’ll be my front slide 360s. I like to do three-flips, grinds, and I like to do a lot of airs as well.

How long did it take you to learn the three-flip?

That was a tough one actually. It was one of the things that you get down and it looks easy but to work for it, it’s hard. I spent a whole summer when I was younger learning that trick. I went to my dad’s place Bay River in Northwest Territories and I spent the summer there. There wasn’t much to do over there so I figured it would be a good time to get my flat ground skating going. Then I just started three-flipping all summer and when I came back, it stuck to me.

What kind of skater do you want to be like?

I like to do a little bit of everything. I am kind of unique that way I guess. I try not to limit myself. Skated with a lot of people too, some people skate tech and some people skate rail, so I try to get a little bit of variety in everything. So when it comes down to it, I can skate with anybody or skate at any spot. But what I would like to see myself as? I would like to see myself do more of the street skating, that’s where you get the good footage and photos, and that’s what makes me happy.

Are you a part of any skate teams right now?

Yea. I am with Mosaic Skateboards, they got some new boards out in all shops. Then we got United Riders clothing. Been with them for a while and I will be dropping a video soon. It’s pretty much together, it’s just got to be finished and edited. And I am with West 49 as well. Hopefully going to get something going with them as well.

What are some of the other teams that you are trying to get on to?

I take what I can get man. Hungry skater world but I would like to get on a shoe company. Possibly. I don’t know. Anything. I just try to skate and take what comes to me.

How old are you now?

I turned 21 in May.

Not a lot of people would think this is the ideal lifestyle choice, whether for their careers or what not. Do you plan to continue this in the future or do you have other plans in life?

All I am going to say is see where it takes me. It definitely is a lifestyle change because if it weren’t for skateboarding, I would most likely be in school. I had decent grades when I moved here and I could of done more school but I like to skateboard man. That’s what makes me happy and might as well do it when I am young. I’ll see where it takes me. If it works out, it works out. If it doesn’t, it happens to a lot of people as well so I am not going to be too disappointed. I am going to enjoy the ride.

What is HYPE?

HYPE is skateboarding.