Despite a global pandemic, Chase Webb just dropped a mind-melting, five minute part for Pizza Skateboards that was packed with hammers from start to finish. The Rough Cut of the edit dropped this week, and the raw clips were well worth the rewatch. As if that wasn’t enough during these strange times, Webb followed that up with a repeat win for his Real Street video submission. Between the two parts, Webb went on an all-out wrecking spree of kinked and curved handrails.
But those videos are only half of what Webb has in store. What’s coming next? Two more video parts that are guaranteed to grab your attention all over again, because Webb doesn’t use filler clips—only bangers.
The final few clips for his Pizza part came from his most recent skate mission to Barcelona, but as we heard from his friend and go-to photographer, Andrew Durso last week, the Barcelona trip was cut short due to COVID-19. The stacking on that trip may have come to an early end, but once Webb was back on his home turf he hit the streets again.
Webb admits that COVID-19 has not had the hardest impact on him personally—apart from having to emergency evacuate from a foreign country. He explains how his current lifestyle of skating daily with small crews in between his parents’ place in SoCal and his girlfriend’s spot in NorCal has not only kept him motivated but also semi-isolated to respect the ongoing stay-at-home orders in California.
Read on for Webb’s take on everything from the Coronavirus, contest skating, filming video part after part, and how his new living situation has kept him skating harder than ever.
Let’s start with your last trip to Barcelona. What were you doing out there, and what was it like getting the call to come home immediately?
Every March the homies go to Barcelona, so it happened to be that I was finishing up my Pizza [Skateboards] part. I was like, ‘What a perfect time to go on a homie trip and try to wrap up a part.’
While we were out there we didn’t realize how crazy or serious this Coronavirus was. Then, we got a call at like three in the morning, pretty much saying that Trump was closing the borders. We didn’t have any details on what that even meant or anything, so we kind of just scrambled and we all dipped to the airport right then and there. We got emergency flights home.
I was kind of stuck in London for 24 hours. I watched all the homies get on a fight, and then I was just stuck there by myself. It was pretty crazy, but we all got home.
Why’d you get stuck?
Pretty much, I blew it. When we got that call at three in the morning, I didn’t call my airline that I was flying back home with. I just ended up buying a whatever, generic flight to Germany and then Germany to London. When I got there I was trying to get on with a Buddy Pass through my aunt, because she’s a flight attendant, but it just wasn’t working. [Andrew] Durso and all the homies had their stuff on United and all squared away. I was not really prepared and had to wait around for 24 hours for British Airways to get me on a flight back home.
I just kicked it in the airport, because I didn’t really know what was going on. The city is kind of far from the airport in London, and it is kind of expensive to get into the city. Plus I had all my luggage. I ate some food and slept on the floor.
It was weird vibes in there. Like I said, I didn’t really know how serious the whole Coronavirus was. I didn’t have a facemask, I was just bumming it, sleeping with a shirt wrapped around my head.
“There is a lot of pressure if you take it seriously. Every clip I get in every part I work for and I try my hardest.” —Chase Webb
How about the first few days of the trip? Did you get to stack any clips?
Yeah, we got a good amount of stuff. That was my last filming trip and it really helped my Pizza part come together. I was stoked! The first seven days were definitely productive.
What have you been doing since returning home? I heard you were hitting the streets hard at first with the Lake Elsinore homies, but then that cooled off.
Since then, yeah, we were hitting the streets. I had real big motivation once the [Pizza Skateboards] part came out. I think I was out in the streets the day that part came out.
I don’t even know, I was just stoked to get back out there and get after it again. But then people started saying I really shouldn’t be out and should lay low for a while. I skate with the same people, and we are always together, so we just kept it small and continued to skate.
Nice. You also won another X Games gold medal. Congratulations on repeating the win with your Real Street video part. How important was it to get that gold again?
Dude, thank you! I’m so stoked, man. I can’t believe it.
It was definitely a big goal of mine to try and make it happen because after you win one year you want to do it again. There was a lot of motivation, a lot of stress. A lot of things happened, I hurt my knee last year when I got the green light to start filming the part, to go for it again—that definitely was a big setback.
There is a lot of pressure if you take it seriously. Every clip I get in every part, I work for and I try my hardest. So, there was even more pressure I feel like because it is a contest on top of that. A lot of pressure. A lot of fun. A lot of all of it, but trying to make it happen after a knee injury is kind of stressful.
Yeah, I hear that. Knee injuries are sketch!
I got the good end of the stick, I only tore my meniscus and didn’t need surgery. But still, you hear of people hurting their knees, so you never want to hurt your knee, and then when you do it is a big bummer. It is probably never going to feel the same, I think that is just how knees are.
You never know, the body is crazy. Are you feeling good with it as of now?
Yeah. It was only the meniscus and I think, but am not totally sure, you are supposed to feel it slip a little. Yesterday, when I was skating it felt almost like my meniscus turned around, or—I don’t even know how to explain it.
I got this weird feeling. Wiggled my knee around, bent down and stuff, then it went back to normal. I get these weird times where it feels like it slips underneath something. I don’t really know what it is, but I think it is normal. That is what the homie was telling me, so I’m taking his word.
Watching your Real Street part was nuts, everything was a hammer. What was the toughest trick for you to pull from that edit?
The kickflip at the beginning was the most difficult. That was a three-day mission—not in a row, that’d be insane.
I went there one day and tried it for two hours, and that is on a main road so I had two dudes out in the middle of the road wearing high-vis construction vests. The whole process is part of skating that spot, not just trying the trick but everything that comes with it makes it that much harder. So, the first day I didn’t get it.
The next day I went back and only tried it for an hour or less because half of the bank was covered in a shadow. That made it hard to focus because the lighting was off. Then, the third and final day I went back and had a solid group of friends. Like I said, it is on that main road. So, having that assurance of your friends in the middle of the road, and you know you’re not going to get hit by a car, made it that much better. I think that is what I was lacking the previous two times.
I did it fairly quickly on the third day. All it took was one stick. Out of all the days trying it, I only put it down on four wheels once and that was the one I rode away on. There is a raw clip of me running away. I must have ran about a quarter-mile up the road after I landed that because there was so much adrenaline in me. I took off like a lightning bolt.
What other video parts are you working on? Not to leak any news, but I heard you have more stuff in the works.
Yeah, right now I have quite a bit of footage with DC. Chris Ray and me are always out together, anytime I have an idea he is always down to be on the mission. I have a bunch of footage stacked up with him, so I’m trying to get a DC part out this year, hopefully sometime after summer. Then, Pizza Skateboards is doing a full length [film], so right now I’ve been living up north and working on that part. I’ve been trying to go back and forth, NorCal and SoCal to always stay on the go and not get too comfortable.
I’m treating these living situations as a trip, if you will. I go back down to stay with my parents for two weeks, and I get done as much as I can. Then, I come back up here and it is the same thing. I’m only going to stay for that long. It works out as a lot of motivation to have two places to stay and not get too comfortable.
Where are you at when you’re up north?
My girlfriend lives in Santa Cruz, so I’ve been staying with her. She goes to college up here. I’ll go to Sacramento on the weekends and meet up with the Pizza dudes in the Bay Area because it’s only like an hour away from where I’m at in Santa Cruz. So, I’ll go out to the Bay Area in the middle week.
It is a good scenario up here that I’ve got going on. It is a new place to live and experience. I’m having a lot of fun up here.
What else is going on for you? Anything you have been waiting to do once COVID-19 things relax a bit? Are you looking forward to contests at all?
Like I said, this whole COVID stuff is not cool and affecting a lot of people. But for me, it hasn’t as much because I am always with the same small group of people. I’m just out skating and I feel like if you’re allowed to leave your house to go on walks or whatever for exercise, to me skating is my form of exercise.
I did lay way more low than usual, but I’ve just been skating and working on these next video parts.
Alright, I’m going to totally switch topics on you. What are your thoughts about skating in the Olympics? Is that something you would like to be a part of if contest results worked out?
Umm, I’ve had this question before and my opinion is that I’m not mad at it. It doesn’t affect me. A lot of people are upset about it being in the Olympics and think it will change skateboarding, but I think skateboarding is already set in stone. You can pick what direction you want to go.
As far as me doing the Olympics, I love contests but I feel that I’m not the right candidate. I would try—I never not want to try. But I’m just not the most contest-like, ‘consistently do the same type of tricks’ dude. If there was, like, crazy kink rails and whatnot, but as far as just doing crazy consistent tricks down a basic 10 set and rail, the other dudes got that. That doesn’t get me stoked to go ‘train’, if that is the right word, to make the Olympics happen. I just like to go out filming with my friends.
Like I said, you can pick your direction any way you want in skateboarding. If you want to go out for the Olympics, more power to you. I just don’t think it is really my cup of tea.
That’s cool to hear. Like you said, you can go whichever way you want in skating.
Yeah, and that’s what is cool about it. I don’t understand why people are so bummed on it being in there. A lot of people are about to make a lot of money and it is going to make skateboarding that much bigger. People are going to hopefully respect skating more, too. But whatever, take it as you will. If you hate, you hate it. That’s your opinion.
What are your thoughts on contests today in general? You have definitely come up through the contest scene over the years. Do you still look at contests as a big part of what you do?
Yeah, definitely! Skate contests as a little kid was always the most fun time because you get to travel and see all your friends that you don’t normally get to see. Contests are so cool. They bring people together.
Even if you’re afraid to skate the thing, all you need to do is just drop in and try. If you miss every single one of your tricks, it doesn’t matter. Nobody is judging you, and if they are, they are whack. That is not what skating is about. Contests are just another thing that skating offers, and it is a cool excuse to travel and see all your bros that you don’t get to see all the time. That is the way I look at it.
They are definitely a cool way to try to make money, and it just feels good doing good in those types of things. If you have that type of mentality, it is fucking sick.
Agreed. They are an option and can be fun. It’s exactly as you said, a cool opportunity to travel and see your friends. How it goes is just how it goes.
Yeah, exactly. Most contests are just two, 60-second runs. You know? It is literally only two minutes of your time that is actually doing the contest. The other part is just having fun and hanging around. I don’t know, it doesn’t hurt me to go to them.
Well Chase, we have covered everything I had for you right now. Anything left to say for the homies out there feeling their way through this crazy COVID situation?
Yeah, yeah. Obviously everything that is going on in the world right now sucks, but we are all going to be skating again soon if you’re not skating already. We’ll be back to it soon.
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