Skate Culture

Felix Culpa: Vision, Sean Goff, Bernie Tostenson and the Unknown Deck

One of the things I have said about skate art before — or if I didn’t say it, I certainly meant to — is that the industry was so prolific art-wise that you can seemingly look at historical board art everyday and still, even after years of doing this, expect to run into something you’ve never come across before. It’s fantastic and it’s what keeps me coming back.

Today, I offer up one recent example of just that, a board that was sent in by a reader who was checking out one of Skate Culture’s more popular pieces, The Skateboard Art of Bernie Tostenson. His example comes from Vision:

vision2bgoff-esque2bboard-5994473

Our reader asks the question:

I just read your article online about Bernie Tostenson. I have a deck that I cannot seem to find another of. You can tell he took the Goff design and changed it up just a bit for Vision. Do you think this might be the first one he did for Vision? Maybe a one-off? Or very small batch?

It is a good question. He is absolutely correct that the design is clearly related to Sean Goff’s Brand X “Goin Crazy” board from circa 1987. Check out the comparison of the two, taking particular note of the geometric designs, the design near the top truck and the skull on the right:

pic-6939050

I checked out the usual sources such as AOS and wasn’t able to pull it up. It seems to be a Vision team deck given that it doesn’t have the name of any particular skater attached to it. One thing I’d like to know is whether Bernie Tostenson actually did this board art or if someone else did a spin-off?

I have some feelers out with a few experts, so I’ll update this post if I find out anything definitive. In the meantime, if anyone has any insights on it, please let me know in the comments or send me an email.

Join the conversation on our Facebook page.

Share:

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *