I’m heartbroken to have to announce that our newest Pro, Zane Timpson passed away on Saturday. If you were lucky enough to know Zane, you loved him, his infectious enthusiasm, the passion that he had for life and skateboarding radiated from him.
The first time I met Zane he was living in San Francisco and riding for my friend Ira’s company Warco. He somehow ended up being our tour guide for the city and as you can imagine it was one of the best trips because of him.
After Warco ended, he hit me up about getting boards, but we’d just put a load of people on the team so it wasn’t quite the right time, he rode for a brand called Vagrant for a few years and around 2019 he hit me up again, and as it happened we had room, as a few people had just left. Perfect timing, the planets had aligned. Having Zane riding for us really inspired me as a brand owner, his enthusiasm, as I mentioned, was infectious, and having someone who believes in the brand the way that Zane did, gave me a lot of confidence to push things. He started working on a “Welcome to” video, and it ended up being the first part in the “Earth Goblin” video from Jan 2020. Needless to say it was great, he edited the whole thing and used his friend Pablo’s band for the music too. So he was officially on the team, and I told him “If you put another part out for us I’ll give you a board”. It was on. Whilst working on that he also happened to put out another incredible part called “FFFURTHER” for Western World Clothing. His ender on that part was legendary and made it into a Thrasher “My War” article.
His next project was his pro part for Heroin, which he called “Sufferlove” an incredibly appropriate name as anyone who has filmed a video part knows. He worked his ass off on this one, and would send me early edits as it progressed. One day I happened to tell him I skated Capitol records banks in L.A. and sent him a clip of a trick that I almost made and he immediately said “I’m coming up and filming that, and it’s going in my part”. I was honored beyond belief (Just ask my wife, I kept trying to explain what an honor this was). That Zane, one of the gnarliest skateboarders I know, who I love and respect so much, would ask me to film a trick for his part. I thought about it for a whole week, I switched out my wheels to deal with the rough bank, set a spare board up in case I needed it, and every time I thought about doing that trick my palms would sweat and I’d get super nervous. “Zane is driving up from SD to film this, I’d better make it” It was a feeling I hadn’t had for a long time to be honest. When the day came, we all met up at the spot, and Zane had also brought Nick Hanson, an awesome filmer, for a second angle and I started trying the trick over and over as you do. It was his enthusiasm and belief in me to make it that made it happen. I made it within about twenty tries and there weren’t too many slams. It was all down to Zane that one.
As the time was getting closer, he mentioned to me that he wanted to skate to a Modest Mouse song, they were formerly on Fat Possum records and I’d send some boards over there before and they’d sent me some records, so we had a relationship, so I sent some emails and did everything I could to make that work. Huge thanks to Patrick at Fat Possum and Ryan Baldoz for clearing that, it absolutely made Zanes day when I told him that we’d gotten the song he wanted cleared for the part.
It was only upon seeing the final part that I understood how much work Zane had put into “Sufferlove” he skated in it, he animated the whole thing and he edited it. It’s incredible from start to finish. The whole thing, you could just pull out any trick and it could be his ender, the entire part is made up of ender worthy tricks. It’s incredible. I really feel that this was Zane’s best part and his proudest accomplishment.
The day that this part dropped on the Thrasher site also happened to be his birthday, I drove down to Leucadia and brought two boxes of both of his brand new Pro boards with me. His pro party couldn’t have been any better, his parents were there at the park, and just overwhelmed with joy when I brought out the boards. We all went back to their house afterwards and hung in his back yard and his dad cooked burgers for us all.
Zane and his girl Maddie had just fixed up his van “Sylvie” and were road tripping around the West Coast in it. He’d just gone pro for us, off the back of an incredible part, he was completely happy and living his best life and I could hear the optimism and excitement in his voice whenever I spoke with him.
I’m absolutely heartbroken over his passing. I’m heartbroken because I miss my friend and his infectious energy and love for all those around him, and I’m heartbroken for his parents who just gave him nothing but love and support in his skateboarding, they were so proud of him and loved him so much. I’m heartbroken for his girlfriend Maddie and I’m heartbroken for all the friends he’s left behind, all the people that Zane’s light has touched. I’m heartbroken that he was taken from us all too soon, that we didn’t get to skate all the spots or do any of those trips that we talked about. The world isn’t as good without Zane in it. In the words of Zane “Don’t forget to tell your friends that you love them” I love you Zane.
