Chase Webb

Back in 2013 when I started working in the skate industry I met a young ripper named Chase Webb. I was sure he would become a great skateboarder and time has shown me right! Earlier this year he came back in Paris with the Pizza dudes to murder the Parisian spots, a good occasion to catch up with him and ask him a couple of questions.

How was the trip? We’ve been here for like 10 days so everyone’s getting a lot of stuff, we probably have a six minutes video already. We just been skating from the time we wake up till the sun goes down pretty much, just trying to make the time here worth it. We’ve been dealing with the rain a little too, but we’ve been doing good like it rain a little and then it stops, it’s not like constant rain but it’s kinda scary when you look at your weather app and it says 50% all day…

It’s been a tough winter here, we had so much rain. In California, we had the worst winter in a long time. I snowboard a lot and I go to Bear Mountain that is two hours away from my place, and they didn’t even get a total foot of snow this year.

Only artificial snow then? Yeah they blow snow but not even getting a foot is real bad, you can see the lake there drying up it’s pretty scary but I think it’s a cycle and hopefully it will come back around.

Yeah maybe once humans are no longer on earth! Yeah probably. It’s crazy when you go to other states and it’s so green and then when you get to California and especially where I live because it’s a valley it’s just so dry.

Last time I saw you, it was in 2013 during an Element tour across France, your first time in Europe if I recall right? Yeah it was my first time and it was the greatest time, we went to Lyon, Lille and Paris. It was also my first time out of the country and it was like ground breaking for me. I knew I would get here some day but once it happened I was like damn it’s so sick! I love it out here dude, I’d love to live here.

A lot have change since that era, what made you quit Element? I didn’t really quit Element I would say. It was like, I was on for a while but nothing really happened. I wasn’t fully on the team and it wasn’t working out basically, from what they told me I understood that I wasn’t going to get on and there’s no bad terms or anything but… these guys showed me a lot of love and it was kind of mutual agreement. In the end I think it helped me because it made me care about skating more. I was like, why am I trying to get on a team so hard, and so I rock no board sponsor for a year and a half. I got Zero boards for a bit but I wasn’t going to get on either, so I was just riding the boards cause Jamie hooked me up. Then basically I was just waiting for something to approach me, I didn’t want to get in where I didn’t fit in.

Waiting for the right opportunity. Yeah and then Michael Pulizzi hit me up and told me that Pizza was looking for new people, and I was like, damn that sounds sick because it’s small, and we’re all friends. Literally, everyone that runs Pizza is here you know, it’s like an office of three people so it’s real tight.

It was a good call and it felt like it helped you accomplish yourself! Yeah definitely because it’s like when you are part of something and you don’t really hang out with the people, I mean you can be yourself but not fully you know, you’re gonna hold back a little. But with these dudes it’s like… they know what I’m about and I know what they’re about, and we just have a good time. It’s super cool and I feel like skateboarding is in a place right now where it’s more of a small company vibe. A lot of people are quitting their sponsor and are starting to take different direction and do their own thing. Skating right now is like when Rick Howard quit plan B and started Girl. I feel like that’s happening again.

Like everything in life it’s a cycle. Yeah it’s exactly what it is and it’s never ending. Just look at what happened with magazines! Maybe in ten years from now full lengths will be back. But social media and everything kind of killed that…

I think there’s still room! There is and it’s still respected but it’s just harder and harder because there are so many companies, and they’re not all making a lot of money. Skating became so big that it’s just harder to stand out now. But I wouldn’t want to be doing anything else… kicking it in Paris right now all for skateboarding, it’s fucking great!

Cheers to that! Oh yeah!

Tonight we were at Dayoff for Thaw and Order, how long did it take to shoot the video? Well not long for me since I only have one trick in the video because I was working on Ty Evans project last year. It took me 7 months and it was strictly that, so I didn’t really have time to film with the dudes. They’re up in Sacramento and I’m down in San Diego, so I just drove up there once and got a trick. Now I’m filming for a DC project!

You’re getting a colorway right? Yeah I’m filming for that right now and I want to have a part to go with it.

What shoe is it going to be? It’s actually a new shoe called the Lynnfield but I took the laces off to ad Velcro straps. That’s another thing I would have never thought would ever happen. The opportunity to have a shoe. A lot of people have a colorway and are just filming a little commercial, but I was like, this is monumental for me, so I want to put my heart in it and make sure that it remains a good memory in my life. Like, damn I got a colorway and I filmed that part! So I’m focusing on that right now and I think I’m going to do trips, go to Barcelona for a little while maybe three weeks and then a road trip with my friend Jamie Foy from Florida to California and do some stuff.

Sounds good! I think focusing on projects one at a time is a pretty efficient way to get shit done! I’m a type of skater where it’s like I don’t want to double up, I already grind a lot of rails so it’s like what am I going to do? I’d rather do some new stuff you know, so I just focus on one thing, and they understand. Plus, not even the whole team was in that video, it’s mainly parts from Jesse, Michael and Adam. But I’m stoked about the video, it’s a good one!

At least you got plenty offootagehere in Paris!

Dude thefootagewe’ve gotten here… I’m stoked on what we’ve done down here. Coming on a trip with all the boys is great because we all skate different except me andDucky, buthe’s hurtright now. So it’s like Michael wants to skate that manual pad and then you haveJessethat wants to go down to the cut of thestreet, buthe getsfuckinggnarly as well. It’s just hard with that many people but it worked. It was like I get a trick on this spot, thehomieget a trick on the other spot or maybe we all get a trick on the same spot. There’s been the ledges at LaDéfense, we all gotten tricks over there and it’s pretty cool when it happens and it almost makes the video… you remember these sessions where we all got something!

That’s how it used to be in the old videos! Yeah like it was just a session, they weren’t going out to film, they were going out to skate! And if someone had a camera it was caught on tape, it reminds me of the Plan B Questionable and you can tell by the filming too, long lens, they don’t even know they going to film something, that shit is sick! I was born in 95 but I wish I could have been around at that time. Actually I got some of it when I was kid, my homies and me would do that just cruise around town.

92 was a different era and being inspired by the video is good enough so no regrets! Yeah of course, no regrets at all but I mean skating back in the days seemed way purer!

True that but skateboarding is still the best! Thanks for your time Chase, enjoy your last night here! Yeah dog, no worries!

Interview: Clément Chouleur Photos: Kyle Duval & Clément Chouleur