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Matt "Jedi" DeAngelis (MD)

Lance Mountain: Inner-viewed

by Matt "Jedi" DeAngelis

Lance Mountain (LM)

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I don�t think that there are many people out there that can say that they�ve had the opportunity to meet and hang out with many of their heroes. I had that opportunity last year when I was lucky enough to interview Steve Caballero and Ray Barbee. As luck would have it, I was able to interview another former Bones Brigade legend; Lance Mountain...and the only reason I was able to do that was because I had been able to interview Cab last year.

I noticed an ad saying that the Flip team would be touring through eastern Canada and now that Lance is riding for Flip he�d be coming through too! I emailed Cab and asked him to pass along my request to Lance for an interview. Cab gave me a good recommendation I guess cuz Lance emailed me back saying he�d be happy to sit and talk with me.

You never know how you�re going to respond when you meet one of your heroes. When I met Steve Cab my mouth went dry and I could barely believe I was in the same room as him. When I met up with Lance it felt like I was talking to a guy I�d known for a long time. Maybe it was because I thought I�d gotten to know him through all of his antics in the skate videos over the years. I mean come on!...everybody knows Lance! He�s the guy who chased a skateboarding dog while wearing a baby bonnet!!

Far from being the goofball portrayed in the old Powell videos, Lance was a very intelligent and thoughtful person. The following is a verbatim transcription of almost an hour of talking with Lance. Once the tape ran out we talked for another hour or more. We stopped talking about skateboards and started to talk about life, religion, family and just about everything other than skateboarding. I came away feeling as though I really got to know Lance and was left with one dominate impression; this is a really good guy that I�d be proud to have listed amongst those I call my friends.