Interview by Jeff
Turner of skatemag.com
- Jeff: Hi Chris
Chris: Hi.
- Jeff: Is there anything you want to ask me before we start?
- Chris: When is this going to come out?
- Jeff: April 1st 2000 issue seven
- Chris: Ok
- Jeff:
(starts up tape recorder)Can you hear me okay?
- Chris: Yeah
- Jeff:
I guess we should start with the basics like name, age, and where you live.
- Chris: Ok, my name is
Chris Gentry, we're from Houston Texas originally. My wife(Ricca) and I live in Costa Mesa
California where we do Kingdom skateboards out of our house. We've been doing it(Kingdom)
for about the last four years, business is good, we're just trying to get going, get
moving, and get touring. Trying to put something back into skateboarding and making it
bigger.
- Jeff:
Growing up in Houston you must have been influenced quite a bit by Jeff Phillips.
- Chris: Yeah, I was
real good friends with Jeff Phillips. Brian Pennington was also a guy that I looked up to
alot, he used to give me rides to the skatepark. Dave Nielsen, Gene Herr, Todd Prince, Ken
Fillion, all the locals that were there. John Gibson, Craig Johnson, Mike Crum were some
others.
- Jeff:
Yeah, alot of good vert skaters came out of Texas during that era.
- Chris: Yeah, totally,
I grew up in that whole era.
- Jeff:
You're also into the hip-hop scene pretty big too right?
- Chris: Yeah, I do
music too, working with Mr. K from the Doghouse records, hes doing an album with me right
now. The Abyssmen, they're from Vegas and Hawaii, we've been doing stuff with them. Just
been trying to get some stuff going with it, I've been working on it for like ten years
now and it something to do on the side. Plus it helps out Kingdom as well, with making all
the soundtracks and just try to talk about skateboarding.
- Jeff:
I heard a rumor that you and some other pro skateboarders were supposed to lay down some
tracks together, is there any truth in that?
- Chris: Yeah, me and
Chad Muska and Kareem Campbell we got to gether one time and we did a session one night in
the studio. Our schedules have been so off right now though we haven't been able to get
back in the studio to finish what we started. We do talk all of the time and its still
definitely in the works to get something going. We also have a Snoop Dogg and Mr. Kane
skateboard on Kingdom as well.
- Jeff:
Really?
- Chris: Yeah.
- Jeff:
Would you say that you're skating is influenced by your music, vice versa, or both?
- Chris: Both, I was
listening to music before I started skating so it just kind of goes hand in hand.
Skateboarding and music are the same really. There's the audio part of music, and then
theres skateboarding which is like visual music.
- Jeff:
Since you've achieved the level of a professional skateboarder, do you see yourself going
more towards promoting your music in the future?
- Chris: Well, the music
is good to have there because you can't skate forever. Music is something you can do
forever, pretty much. But I'm definitely glad I have something like that, that I love just
as much as skateboarding. Something I can go to if I didn't have a skateboard anymore. In
fact, right now I'm hurt and I'll be out for at least two months.
- Jeff:
Really? What happened there?
- Chris: I twisted my
knees at the invert contest in Anaheim. I've been out for a month and a half, and I'll
probably be out for another month.
- Jeff:
Ouch, that vert skating will really do a number on your knees huh?
- Chris: Yeah, I tore
both "meniscus?" at the same time.
- Jeff:
Have you ever had surgery on your knees?
- Chris: No, and I had
MRI's on this and the doctor said I wouldn't need surgery. So I just need to rehabilitate.
- Jeff:
I notice in alot of the Kingdom ads you alway have your wife (Ricca) right out there, are
you guys pretty much equal partners in everything that deals with Kingdom?
- Chris: Yeah, I mean we
built Kingdom together and we run day to day together all of the time. She takes care of
the whole business end of it pretty much. I take care of all the physical work involved.
- Jeff:
So she takes care of all of the unpleasant details then.
- Chris: Yeah, plus we
go everywhere together and people like to see us together when we go. Alot of kids will
talk to her while I'm skating so we just pretty much use everything to our ability that we
have when we go to a contest or a demo. We aren't a huge company, so we have to do what we
have to do to survive. Its definitely one of the things that have kept us alive, being
together all the time how we are.
- Jeff:
Cool. Do you guys have any plans for kids in the future?
- Chris: Yeah, we have
plans for kids someday. We're just trying to get this kid we're working with right now
(talking about Kingdom) up and started!
- Jeff:
So what are the plans for growth with Kingdom? Do you guys want to stay at a grassroots
level or sort of a super-coporate entity.
- Chris: We'd love to
grow to a huge level, but we always want to be in control of it always. Thats been our
problem since we've been in business. We always run across people that want to take over
our ideas and get involved in us more than we want them to and it just kind of takes away
the whole reason we started it. So, I guess we'd like to be one of the biggest companies
in skateboarding and still keep it on a grassroots level, just keep it real which is how
we started it.
- Jeff:
Whats the big difference between living in California and living in Houston?
- Chris: California is
nice because its where the business is (skateboarding) and its definitely got nicer
weather. Its not as humid as Texas. California has alot to offer us, so thats why we're
here. We go back home all of the time, but if you want to make it in skateboarding
California is the place to be.
- Jeff:
Well I think that takes care of all of my questions, is there anyone you would like to
thank?
- Chris: Sure, I'd like
to thank my wife Ricca, Mr. Kane, Dogghouse records, Damian at South Shore, CandC ride
shop(Larry), and all of our team riders Hui Lee, Brad Hiser, Warren Day, Nate Broussard,
Anthony LaBoscoe, Troy Chason, Brian Pennington, Ken Fillion, Tas Pappas, and Tom Boyle.
- Jeff:
Wow, you guys have a pretty big team going.
- Chris: Yeah we just
keep adding people on. We try to take care of our people as much as we can.
- Jeff:
Let me turn off my tape recorder
- Chris:
cool...
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