INTERVIEW BY WOLFMAN

I have heard that you are a nomad these days. What prompted you to pick up your things and go everywhere and stay nowhere? What are some pros and cons to being a nomadic wandering professional rollerblader?

Yea, I am actually looking for a place at this point, but for the last 6 months I have been on the move. The motivation behind the lifestyle came from my constant travel. I had been gone so much, and knew I would be going on so many trips in the coming months that paying 800 bucks a month for a place a was never at didn’t make sense anymore. The main pro to that lifestyle is the lack of rent. It is really nice for the first to roll around and not give away about half my check. It was fun to cruise around responsibility free, always hanging out with new people, and not really feeling something pulling you back to one place. As fun as it is, there are a few things I don’t like. My car is constantly packed to the brim. Sometimes it was weird to come home from a long trip and be at the airport trying to figure out where to go instead of having your own space to go back to. Other than those things though it was pretty nice.

Where does your ‘100% motivation’ come from? What inspires you to keep pushing skating to new levels?

Umm. It comes from a lot of different places. Music, friends, family, and sometimes just from within. I can’t say though I have ever been inspired to “push skating to a new level.” I get motivated to push myself as far as I can, and I guess somewhere along the way that ended up pushing skating? I don’t know. The thought of me pushing skating is weird to me. I think its more that I am part of a group of people that have had a big effect on the sport.

Do you naturally push your skating further and further in terms of magnitude and technicality? Or do you wake up everyday and think, ‘How can today’s Chris Haffey shred even harder than yesterday’s Chris Haffey?’

Well like I said in the last question its all personal achievement. I think if I started trying to push myself for the sake of impressing other people, or to make my new shit better than my old shit it would fail horribly. I only skate good when I am feeling it. If my motivation was to continue to get better just so people won’t say I fell off, I think that is when I would start to fall off.

What’s the story behind the Drip Drop gap that you didn’t land? How long did you plan for that trick? How did you feel the next day? Will you ever try it again?

That effing gap haha. I think everywhere I go now the question I hear most is “Did you ever land that?” or “Are you going to try it again?” haha. The story is we were at the school and I rolled up on it and was like…dude…its possible. I was going to try it that day, but the sun was going down and it was all overcast. It was the end of the day and I was tired so I decided to come back. I got a crew together to film, and we went back a few weeks later. I tried it once, and basically landed on my knees. (a try that wasn’t in the video) At the time I didn’t have knee pads on. Wrecked my knees. I couldn’t skate for like two weeks. Fast forward like 11 months. The deadline for the video was coming up, and I had a lot of footage, and I wanted to get that gap for my ender. So i got a crew together and went back. I tried it once and came soo close. I kept my feet under me but the impact just bounced me up and back. I knew it wasn’t a good idea,
but I thought I had it and the adrenaline was pumping, so I tried it again. The first time I tried it I had stretched the cores on my wheels a bit so when I hit the second time I just stopped and flew straight back. It felt like a car accident. I couldn’t really feel my legs from my knees down. My legs were shaking, and I thought I had broken at least one of my ankles. Sure it would be sweet to land, but its not worth it anymore. Both days I tried it, I couldn’t skate for 2 weeks afterwards. I am not planning on ever trying it again.

You film street section after street section while also competing at the major skatepark competitions. What do you find more fun? And from which do you make more money?

It depends. Sometimes I have a lot of fun skating contests, and sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I have a lot of fun filming, and sometimes its the most frustrating thing in the world. The contests are fun because a lot of times I get to travel and see the world in the process of getting to and from them. Filming is fun cause its around home, and I can choose how I want to portray myself to the viewer. In terms of money, contests are FAR more lucrative. The last few years I have matched or come very close to matching my yearly salary in contest winnings. I suppose I would be getting my salary anyway if I quit making street sections so filming sections doesn’t really make me any money at all. Its just something I enjoy doing, and will continue to do in the future.

You are clearly one of the great athletes of our culture. How do you care for your body? Do you work out, maintain a specific diet, or stretch? How has your body changed from when you were 18 to now?

The world athlete kind of makes me laugh. I drink on a pretty regular basis, I eat pretty shitty, I don’t work out other than skating, and I don’t “train.” I do stretch before and after skating, but that is one of the only good things I do for myself. I should be better, and I am trying to get better about it, but its hard to get motivated to do things for no reason. I just love to be active, so even if I am not skating I am golfing, or playing basketball or something. My body has changed a lot. When I was 18 I would bounce. Now I don’t. Instead of getting up after a really hard fall and doing it again, I go home. I get sore easier, and sometimes I wake up with pain in my back if I have been doing high impact stuff recently. I need to start taking better care of myself before I start really falling apart.

What is more important to you with regard to your own blading—the style of the trick or the trick itself?—and why?

Umm. Its both. I think style is incredibly important, but I like seeing hard ass tricks done with good style. Only certain people can pull off doing easy stuff super steezy and getting away with it. I am not really one of them haha. I just do what is fun to me. I have the most fun skating when I am pushing myself the hardest, or going the biggest. When I land a trick I am really scared of that is when skating is the most fun. That is the feeling that keeps me in love with skating. Thats why I tend to skate really hard or really big on a pretty regular basis.

Who is your favorite blader and what is your favorite blade video?

Man thats a hard one. I think aaron fienberg is the best rollerblader in the world. He did the most ruthless tricks ever. He could skate street and park equally as dominating. Any of his parts are on my favorite list for sure. I also always have and still love shimas blading. Dude has always held it down, and still does. One time I ordered a medium shirt from the hotel because I saw him wearing it at NISS in phoenix. That has nothing to do with anything. haha. Coup de tat is up there. That team at that time would still be untouchable today. that video was awesome.

What advice do you have for younger rollerbladers who are just getting into blading and trying to ‘come up’?

Only do it if you love it, and you are having fun. You won’t ever make a shit ton of money. It probably won’t get you a bunch of girls. A lot of people will hate on your sport. However, if you love it, and you have fun blading it is the best life ever.

What can we expect from you in the future?—In terms of blading and as a person.

Umm. I don’t know? Something fresh. I try to constantly evolve, so hopefully its something you haven’t really seen from me before. Or something similar, but with a new twist on it I guess? I don’t know really haha. I never even know what to expect from myself…I just kind of go with the flow. So I guess you can expect to see whatever the flow leads me to.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 29th, 2009 at 7:03 pm and is filed under Blade Ripping. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.