62
Hawk won it for achievement,
Way won it for ability, Cardiel
won it for sessions, Agah won
it by video, MC won it for the
finesse and Chris Senn won it
by destroying everything in
sight. In any situation, what-
ever the terrain, vert, pools,
curbs or contest, he is out
there charging it. After win-
ning three big contests, ESPN,
Münster and the Battle on
the Bay, Chris Senn stopped
pushing long enough to set
the record straight.
625
1995 SKATER OF THE YEAR
CHRIS SENN
INTERVIEW & PHOTOGRAPHS BY
BRYCE KANIGHTS
Where were you born and raised?
Costa Mesa, California.
And then where'd you go from there?
I went to the Bay Area, and then to Grass
Valley, California, and then to Huntington Beach
again which sucked, and then I moved back
here again. I live in San Francisco, and that's
where life just really came together for me.
How were you introduced to skateboarding?
When I was a little kid I skated a lot, and then
we used to watch skate videos in sixth grade.
Then after that, we just skated a lot and read
magazines and hung out and watched way too
many videos and skated way too much.
What was your first set-up?
An Alan Gelfand with Indys and Rat Bones and
Gorilla Ribs and a Bird. I had a Bird for like a
week till it broke.
What was the first Thrasher that you saw?
It was the one with Jeff Phillips on the cover
with the green flames.
Who were your influences back then?
Neil Blender, Lance Mountain, Natas, Tony
Hawk and pretty much everyone back then.
Everyone was ruling.
Last summer you went to the ESPN Extreme
Games and took first place on the street, but
you got burned in the best trick contest.
Share your thoughts on that whole scene.
Those people are just corporate fools. They
don't really understand skateboarding, they just
want to make money off of it without having to
really be involved like skateboarders are. It just
seems like they're trying to build it up, not build
it up to have fun and progress the sport and help
people out with their views on life, they're just
trying to make money, and if it's dead, it's dead,
they don't really care.
Do you enjoy competition?
If it's fun, but not if it's all serious and people
getting pissed off because someone got first
place, they didn't want them to or whatever.
That's nothing to worry about. But it's fun to go
see everyone, skate and hang out and get every-
thing paid for and all that.
You can obviously skate all sorts of terrain.
What's your current favorite?
Lately it's been vert, but it's pretty much every-
thing I'd have to say to tell you the truth, but
lately it's been vert just because I've always want-
ed to skate vert, and I've never been able to.
Now I've been able to because I've been doing it
a lot, and it's never really been accessible to me.
It seemed like it died for a while, and there were
no ramps, and now there's a ramp an hour away.
so it's kind of easy to go to now.
What is the best aspect of skating?
It's a release. You can release feelings and
aggressions. You go have fun and relax and get
away from the everyday grind and all that.
What's the low-point of skateboarding?
People who don't even skateboard making
money off skateboarding.
Clockwise from opposite top left: For CS, 1995 was a
good year, and this lien is all she wrote in Grass Valley.
A tall 50-50 was the call for Chris when he stomped
downtown Sacramento. This bank is so steep that we
are going to have to call this one a cliff ellie. The spot
is top secret. Shhhhh. The man is alone in the field.