Lance Leisher Spotlight

A Word with Lance Leisher

How old are you?
17 years of age.

Where do you live?
I live in Roseburg, Oregon.

How long have you been skateboarding?
I have been skateboarding for about 5 years.

Where do you skate?
Most of the time I skate at the Roseburg outdoor skatepark, and the Roseburg Indoor Sk8 church, But my favorite place to skate is at Newberg, Oregon

What’s your favorite terrain?
I like to just skate any kind of tranny, skating bowls, and vert ramps, but I will skate just about anything, I like to skate stuff that is built all gnarly, I like a challenge.

You seem to have a large bag of tricks, what inspires your trick progression?
I don’t know, I guess skating with my friends helps me out a lot, because we feed of each other, and they will inspire me, and a lot of the time I will just be at home resting or something, and I will be thinking about skating and stuff, and I will just think of new tricks, and I will go to the skatepark, and sometimes make the them.

Did you think you could do the Reedsport loop when they had the contest?
I had no intentions of even trying it when I got there for the competition, but after all those guys were trying it, I was regretting not trying it, because I felt like I could do it after watching them.

What made you come back a week later to try it?
My dads friend from California had come into Roseburg to visit, and I wanted to show him how rad the skateparks in Oregon are, so we took him to Reedsport skatepark a week after the super loop comp. And so me and my friend Rion were just skating up the vert, and I mentioned to Rion that we should just mess around and see how high up the loop we could get, and he was like alright. So then we were doing that, and my friend Rion started to get around the loop without his board, and I was like whoaaa, and the more he tried it the closer he got, so I knew then I had to try it, so after getting myself pumped up for awhile, I got myself to try it, and after a few try’s I was super close, well after 16 trys of eating crap, I dropped in, hauled ass around the tile wall, and went up a did the loop and rode out super clean.

How did it feel to make it?
Right when I got to the bottom of the loop and rode out, it was like I had conquered the biggest fear of skateboarding. It was the best feeling ever, I just couldn’t believe I did it, lol.

Do you think you can do it repeatedly now?
Maybe someday, I actually went back to Reedsport Monday August 15th and tried it again, and every try I was getting so close, but after about 10 try’s I was pretty beat up, so I stopped it there, but it was cool because on this one try I had got to the bottom of the loop and slipped out, and I fell on my back, and my board shot up, and it dropped down and I caught it, it was rad.

Who sponsors your skateboarding?
Well right now I ride for Bonzai Boardshop in Roseburg, Oregon, and its really cool riding for them, Bobby the owner is very supportive of my skateboarding.

What are your future plans?
Well I’m just going to keep on skateboarding, because its fun, and maybe one day I will be a pro vert skater, but I will always skateboard!