Chad Fernandez is a 25-year-old professional skateboarder from Los Angeles, California, where he is also studying to be an actor. During the last two years he's drawn attention competing internationally and also appearing in ads, magazines and videos. His sponsors are some of the biggest names in the industry, including Globe shoes, World Industries decks, Independent trucks and Darkstar wheels. He is also sponsored by a cellular phone company. Yesterday, the Taipei Times caught up with him for a chat about his bizarre existence as a pro skateboarder.
TT: What are the most radical things in skateboarding going on right now?
CF: Media attention, that's pretty radical -- like the amount. There's also video games. That's kind of cool.
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TT: Have you been in any video games?
CF: Yeah, I've been in the X-Games video game.
TT: So you can play the video game at home and be Chad Fernandez? Have you done that?
CF: I don't like to. I've only played it like twice. It's kind of weird, like some of the other crazy things going on. They're also making skate dolls and action figures.
TT: Is there a Chad Fernandez action figure?
CF: I turned it down, because, I don't know?
TT: There is a Jesus action figure. Have you heard of it?
CF: Crazy.
TT: That would be pretty cool, Chad Fernandez versus Jesus, an action figure war.
CF: I would just let Jesus beat me, or no, I would kick it with Jesus. I'd have him, like, hang out and have a beer?You know, I don't want an action figure of me because I'd freak out, people having it, you know. It's kind of weird.
TT: Hmm, maybe we should talk about skating. As a pro skater, do you have a different mentality in the way you approach skating. Like do you take on a more serious mentality toward practicing that might be different from the attitude of a 12-year-old out on some street corner just screwing around?
CF: Yeah, there is a difference. Because if I'm gonna go shoot a photo of some, like, big stunt, trick or whatever you wanna call it, I'll go and practice that trick a lot during the week. But at the same time I'll be doing other things and having fun. In my mind maybe I know I'm going to do a big 360 kickflip over this big gap, so I'll go practice 360 kick-flips all week. But at the same time I'll skate ramps and do other tricks.
I get worried about getting hurt at demos though. If I'm gonna shoot photos for magazines and stuff and I have to do a demo on a kind of crazy street course, I get worried about getting hurt. Then I can't skate and do the videos.
TT: Do skaters do crazier stuff because there are photographers there?
CF: Of course. Documentation is what it's all about. But it's also about fun and progression and doing something you thought you probably couldn't do.
TT: So what's the craziest trick you ever did?
CF: Mainly like jumping down big sets of stairs, like big, huge 22-stair handrails. That's the kind of crazy stuff I do that I get kind of nervous about. I also do big ledges.
TT: In one issue of the skateboarding magazine Big Brother there was an article comparing skateboarders to the weaker caribou. It said that skating was basically a self-destructive mechanism for weeding out weaker members of the human race. The author, I think it was Dave Carnie, basically compared skateboarding to the weaker caribou because he saw them both as processes of natural selection. Do you find this to be true?
CF: Skateboarding could be seen as that, but it could also be seen as planting a seed and growing as a person. Of course I could talk about the negative right now and say, `Yeah, I'm going to be self destructive and I'm going to end up like a piece of shit because I'm a skateboarder, you know, so f**k everything.' But that's not necessarily the route I want to go. Some people want to go the negative route and self-destruct by doing drugs and being rebellious to a point of being stupid. But you could also prove a point rebelling by saying, `F**k this if it's this way. I'm going to do a positive thing, you know, and move forward.'
TT: As a skateboarder, what inspires you?
CF: I get inspiration off figures that have changed things. You know, like Andy Warhol thought differently, and he didn't care if people said, `That's just a piece of sh*t thing you got at the junkyard or the swap meet or the market.' He turned it into art. It was his perspective on things: `This is cool. I'm saying this is cool, because I see it differently.' And he made people see things in his way, and I think that's amazing. Yeah, he's probably an outcast, a weirdo -- whatever. You know, he wore wigs. But it was just what he was doing, and he was thinking for himself -- that kind of character is what I get inspired by. For me, the attitude is in the approach, and that's what I get hyped on.
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