Skateboarding
The Pro Skate Career We Dream About: Chris Roberts
Chris Roberts talks Google, Garvy the Cat and not making "sponsor me" tapes.
Chris Roberts Kickflip
© Yoon Sul/Red Bull Media House
Chris Roberts has the pro skate career we all dream about. He rides for Chocolate Skateboards, has a mean front noseslide and his deadpan brand of humor easily makes him the funniest guy in the tour van.
We met up with Chris at Girl/Chocolate skateboards in Torrance, California, for a casual sit-down talk about his feline roommate, sucking on spark plugs, and the other more famous Chris Roberts.
I googled your name last night. Have you ever done that?
I google myself everyday to see what I'm going to do. Just kidding. I know that there's another Chris Roberts out there that did the Wing Commander video games.
Then there's this other Chris Roberts that's some sort of German folk singer artist dude, I don't know. I've had people send me YouTube videos of him. "Look dude, It's Chris Roberts!" I'm like, "Yeah, OK."
Don't get me wrong, I think it's funny. It's probably the most common name ever, like John Doe or something. Nobody's set up a Wikipedia for me yet. Maybe an IMDB? C'mon guys, let's do this!
I credit you with making cats en vogue this season.
It's funny how the whole Garvy cat thing came about. He first appeared in my Crailtap "Slice of Life" video. It started off as an MTV Cribs kinda thing. I'm showing what's in my fridge, what's in my house, my chair.
As we're filming I keep saying how I feel stupid doing it. "I FEEL LAME!" Then the wall socket thing comes out. Then Garvy comes over. The whole thing just happened organically.
After that Garvy became an overnight cat sensation. Board graphics, shirts, all kinds of stuff. It's cool though, he's just the funniest cat. I've always grown up around cats. I'm not a dog person. Dogs are always up in your business, scratching at you, "What are you doing? What are you doing? Feed me, walk me."
With cats you just give them a place to shit, put some food and water out, and take off for a couple of days. When you come back you find them sitting in the same exact place looking at you like, "What up?" We didn't set out to be like, "Let's market Garvy!" If you could even call it marketing; he's just a lazy cat. It just happened and people gravitated towards him. We ran with it. "Here, have a Garvy board." To me it's hilarious what you can do with a cat on a board graphic. The possibilities are endless.
I met you right before you turned pro for Chocolate, and now there's this whole new group of young dudes on Chocolate. Do you feel old?
I'm not that old. You're making me sound like the veteran. I guess time flies when you're having fun. It seems like just yesterday that I got on Chocolate. You know the saying, "You're only as old as you feel." And I feel like skateboarding keeps you young. It's one of those things where I think your body adapts to what you're into.
If I was a basketball player and I was jumping everyday trying to dunk the ball my body would adapt to what I'm doing. Maybe my body would stretch out a little bit. So I think for skateboarding that my body has just adapted to it.
Nowadays with YouTube a video comes out on Friday and it's forgotten about by Tuesday.
There always needs to be progression. There always has to be something new. Having all the new young guys on the team is pretty rad. It's cool to see Chocolate take the steps to keep up and stay current with the times. Not to say that the old guys are done, but it's just rad to see the newer aspect of the team.
I don't really feel old, but when I was growing up skateboarding it was completely different from how it is now. Back then one video would come out and you'd watch that video so much that you'd know it click for clack, sound for sound, trick for trick. It was visually looping in your mind.
Nowadays with YouTube a video comes out on Friday and it's forgotten about by Tuesday. Everything is so quick and rapid that if you're not in the cycle of the YouTube phase you'll get lost. Back when I was first skating I didn't even think about getting sponsored. I didn't even think it was possible. It was never my motivation for skateboarding.
My motivation for skating was being with my friends and cruising around the city just having fun. I never made a "sponsor me" tape, it just sort of happened for me. I'm so thankful for Girl and Chocolate. It's been an amazing ride. Can we change the subject? It's getting a little too teary eyed for me.
Chris Roberts: Deep Thoughts
© Yoon Sul/Red Bull Media House
Speaking about how you got on Chocolate without a "sponsor me" tape; in this day and age I believe it would be nearly impossible to replicate a career like yours.
I'll have parents come up to me and say things like, "How does my little Johnny get sponsored and turn pro?" I look at them like, "Are you kidding me?!" My parents wouldn't even drive me to a skatepark back in the day (not that we even had a skatepark). I would skate down this huge hill and take the bus and go do my thing.
I'll usually ask the parents, "Does [he] love skateboarding?" They'll reply with, "Oh yeah, he loves it!" Then let him love it. Don't go out there and push for him. Let him enjoy skateboarding for what it is. That's why people start skateboarding, because they love it. That's why I started. But I guess times are changing. They see it everywhere: on TV, on the internet, over here, over there.
Follow Chris Roberts on Twitter and get more content like this when you follow Red Bull Skateboarding on Twitter.
Related
