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Five minutes with...
Chris Cole
The Pennsylvanian skateboarder helped shape the skate edit
scene and has a trophy cabinet filled with gold medals and rider
of the year awards. So what next?
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Hey Chris, how’s 2016 been so far?
I’ve been rushing around a lot. Tons to
do; which is nice, but exhausting.
I remember being blown away by
your section in Dying to Live, what
was it like filming it?
Thank you for saying that. It was great!
I had a lot of tricks I wanted to show
and it was the best outlet for that.
Being a part of a great team and time
period really drove me. It was also a
time where we worked harder than ever
before. Since it was in my formative
years it became normal for me to tour/
skate like that.
Did you know it was something
special right away?
I knew it was big to be in The Zero
video but it was in the editing room
with Jamie that it really hit me that I
was onto something great. It was the
late nights editing and the moment I
saw the intro text for each part. That’s
when it really dawned on me.
How did that section affect your
profile as a rider?
For me personally... I had been on the
scene from 411 and then TWS’ ‘In
Bloom’ video. The Zero video solidified
that I had made it to a place where I
wasn’t going to be forgotten about.
What was your favourite spot or trick
from Dying to Live?
Too many come to mind. The tall back
Noseblunt in my intro still makes me
happy cos it made me feel strong, ha
ha. All the clips from my hometown
near Philadelphia are special. Jamie
came out to film me alone so I did
tricks that have two angles twice or
more. Like the Double Kink Grind I had
to do four times. Also the Kickflip Back
Tail in Miami on the hubba rail. That
was my first day on the shoot and my
first Zero board (from the package I
was overnighted to shoot an ad).
You have such a mega career. How
did you find filming the Motivation
series?
The first Motivation was easy. I just
showed up. The Chris Cole Story
was tougher since I had to dig up the
footage and stories. Not all stories are
important to the film, so it’s hard to
pick which ones are and which aren’t. I
wanted to tell everything.
For Motivation 2, how hard was it to
pick what to cover in the film?
Not at all since I didn’t do it, ha ha! I
just said no to some other options.
Did you struggle to include
everything you wanted to?
Yeah, I did. There are some things I
would’ve liked to have seen more of
in there. Some songs I could take out.
Overall I am really happy with it.
It was a huge success on Netflix how do you handle the fame that’s
brought?
It is very much based on the skating
still. That is nice. More skaters’ family
members know me now from watching
it. Since I was myself in the film and
honest, the attention is for the right
reasons which is really nice.
You built your career on progression
and being super creative with your
tricks. Where do you see yourself
going in the next few years?
I’ve been saying I wanna skate Vert
forever, but haven’t really learned. I still
have a lot of tricks and whatnot I’ve not
achieved yet. Maybe skate curbs more.
Cos they make me happy.
What advice would you pass down to
the young rippers coming up?
Find the fun in trying tricks, not just
landing them. Skate to be YOUR best,
not THE best. T
/ChrisCobraCole
@ChrisCobraCole
@ChrisCobraCole