Chris Mohney Interview

“I'm gonna continue to skate until I can't anymore, but that'll take a lot.”
-Chris Mohney



Well this is the second interview of 2010, and I still find it weird typing “2010,” it just still hasn’t hit me. Well Chris has been my friend since I started skateboarding. He’s always been a few years older than me, and his skill-level basically speaks for that. Anyways, this interview is a very humble one indeed. I spent some of the most exciting and fun years skating with Chris and the old posse we you used to roll around with. (Many whom I still do) and Chris has always had it though. He’s one of those kids that can just do the wildest flat-ground tricks all day, switch or regular, nollie or fakie—whatever. And besides these incredible magic tricks that he seems to pull off on his skateboard—his consistency with super hard tricks that he can take down big sets of stairs or huge gaps is overwhelming dude. Not to mention, my belief that he is the official possessor of the three-sixty flip. Even though he’ll never admit it—whatever, I’m taking it to the grave--he is.

“Take him to anything—he’ll three-sixty flip it.” –ME.

I’ll let this quote sit alone. (laughing). It’s true though. But honestly, besides his effortless three flip, Chris has handled business on all types of shred-terrain, all over. He can skate a handrail, huge sets of stairs, a ledge, a manual pad, a parking block… you get my point. And before I was even into skateboarding Chris was having fun and rolling around, man.

But above all, Chris is inspiring. The dude has honestly broken so many bones, or dislocated so many “somethings,” sprained this and that, and honestly taking a beating, time and time again, and still continues to kill it harder than a lot of people I see. I’ve literally seen him snap his arm in half—yeah. Anyways, working full time at Syndrome, Chris surrounds himself with skateboarding on a day-to-day basis, as well as skating Syndrome Park on his off time. When you see him skate though, you wouldn’t think otherwise.

The fact that Chris is still on his skateboard would honestly shock some people if sat down and told the damage he’s done to his body, but he’s done just as much damage to a number of spots simply because he kills it. Determined, aggressive, and consistent is Chris.

So without further ado, let me introduce, my good friend, Chris Mohney…

BB) Chris, first and foremost, how’s everything going man? What’s going on?
CM) Yo Beebs. I'm glad you decided to do this with me. I'm doing alright. Livin’ that everyday struggle. I've just been skating as much as I can and working everyday. Gotta make that scrilla. Been working on a project car. It definitely has gone as planned. Way to many problems. Pretty much just chillin.

BB) So this is my 2nd interview of 2010, did you have yourself a good New Years?
(what’d you do)
Damn son sloppy seconds… I thought we were tighter than that (laughing). My new years was real mellow. It was my mom’s birthday as well so me and my girl made her a cake. I basically just chilled with my girl and my mom all night. I enjoyed it a lot. It was cool hanging out with my mom.

BB) Anything broken on your body right now? (laughing)
CM) (Laughing) Nah, nothings broke right now (knock on some skateboard wood). It's actually been a while since I broke anything. Last few injuries have been rolled ankles and dislocated shoulders…those are a bitch. But all in all I've been healthy and glad to say skating as much as possible.

BB) Good to hear man. K, so tell me where you learned those dictionary three flips (360 flips) fool? How long have you had that trick as your property? (laughing)
CM) (Laughing) I remember the first tre-flip I ever did. It was right in front of my house and I was riding parallel with the curb and popped it of the curb into the street. So funny. Dan (Carbajal) filmed that shit too…Man I miss those days. I don't even know how I really got it. It just kinda came to me and I never knew how to varial flip. I hate varial flips, but that was the beginning of the tre-flips. I don't even know how old I was…it was in middle school though…probably like 6th grade was when I got them. So back in 1999…damn over a decade ago (laughing) time flies.

(Snap, swoosh, crack; hardflip over ten stair handrail... this was a cover for Concrete Wave by the way)
BB) Are you working right now? And if so, where at?
CM) Yeah I'm working... Going on 3 years now at Syndrome Distribution. Home of: Plan b Skateboards, FKD Bearings and Silver Trucks. It’s in Vista, CA in the business parks. It’s a good job. It’s kept me straight and on track in life. And I think it’s been a big part in me still skating to this day. I get to skate with some of the sickest dudes ever and there's a skate park inside the warehouse that's fun as fuck. It's pretty much the dream job that I could ever ask for. I get to be around skateboarding all day and I get to skate all day as well.

BB) So what in skateboarding sparked your attention when you first got into it? How old were you?
CM) I've always seen skateboarding as that next level thing. It's the one thing that would drive me to push myself everyday and keep me in line. I love challenges and I knew that skateboarding would be a gnarly one. I got into it when I moved out here in like '97 or '98. My first board was from Toys-R-Us or something, it was a Nash board (laughing). I have the funniest photo of me holding the board. I've been on a board and having fun since then.

BB) How old are you now?
CM) I'm 22 years young about to be 23 in May…Cinco de Mayo fool!

BB) Have you ever thought to yourself, “I could maybe do something with this one day…?”
CM) I never really thought of going big with skating. I never wanted to get my hopes and dreams up and have them crushed…if I did I'd be bumming hard right now. I've always liked having skating there as a stress free place I can go, have fun, and kick it with the homies.

BB) (Laughing) So give me your personal perspective from the good ol’ FC days? What were a few of your favorite times from back then?
CM) The FC days were the shit!! Such fun times doing random shit and skating. Those are the highlights of my life. The little trips we'd go on to LA and SD were sick as fuck. I catch myself reminiscing about those days and wish sometimes I could go back and do it all over again. I wouldn't trade any of those moments for anything.

(BIG kick flip)
BB) Yeah dude, those were rad times, I agree. Wow, so tell me about the Knob Hill Arm Break Massacre that occurred however many years ago, I know I was there, but I mean, what was going on in your head? How old were you when that happened?
CM) That day sucked (laughing). I remember I just got home from a trip from Maryland and I had no intentions of skating that day because of jet lag and shit but as soon as I pulled up to my house, all you guys were chilling outside waiting to skate. So we all cruised over to Knob and the day was going pretty well until that fatal ollie (laughing). I remember it was July 22, 2003. I was 15 at the time. I remember it like it happened yesterday. I landed right on my arm and it buckled right under me. I got up did my little "OH SHIT" scream and the first thing that went through my mind was to be as calm as possible.

BB) Man, I was only 13, crazy. I’m glad you reminded me yesterday that I told you “it was ok to cry, and that we wouldn't think you were a pussy,” (laughing), but you were unbelievably mellow about it, not a tear shed, you were the calmest one there dude… crazy day.
CM) Yeah man I wanted to be as calm as possible because I didn't want to freak everyone out and shit. I remember getting a pretty good laugh in once you said that.

BB) So who’s hooking you up right now?
CM) I've been riding for Allied Board shop in Escondido for a while now. Crispin the owner holla'd at me one day and asked me to ride for him. I was surprised I didn't expect that at all. But that's all the hook ups I got going as of now. I'm siked though, Allied is a good shop and everyone on the team and that work there are down as fuck.

(360 flip over Knob Hill 8 stair's handrail--wonder how many times he did this?)
BB) Who have you been filming and skating with a lot—as of lately?
CM) I've been skating and filming a lot with Vicente Rosales. He kills it, he’s always down to skate whenever and he’s a real good homie. Same with the homie Chris, he took pretty much all the photos for this interview. Nuckols is around a lot and destroys everything he touches. I get to skate with the real good homie Tim Tom every now and then. Life's tough now so it’s hard to actually get out and skate with all the homies.

BB) Are you filming for anything?
CM) I think there’s some projects in the works. I'm filming for Vicente (Rosales’s) video Greedy Monsters. Not sure when that's gonna drop but it'll be dope. And I think I have a syndrome part coming out soon. Vicente's in the works of putting that together as well.

BB) So even though I might already know the answer to this one, what’s your favorite trick?
CM) Ha I'm gonna have to say tre-flip, but I've been feeling hard flips. That's normally one of my go to tricks now down stuff.

BB) Yup, called it. Do you still have that super proper kicker ramp that we used to shred back in the day?
CM) Dude I don't even know. That ramp was fucking awesome. I haven't seen it in years. It probably got broken up and thrown away to make space in the backyard.

BB) Who built that thing? It was amazing.
CM) I gotta give the credit to my dad on that. I wanted something to skate and he built that thing with all types of legit-ness. That ramp lasted years man. It was one of the greater things I had to skate growing up.

BB) How long have you lived in San Marcos?
CM) Well I lived in the Marcos for about 8 years or something around there. I got booted when I was 18 and lived out of my car for like a year and a half. Then I had an apartment in Esco for a while but the lease was up in February '09.

(Hardflip down 6 block, Temecula. Cheers.)

BB) Where are you living?
CM) I'm living at my girls pad in Vista, Ca. But I still say I live in the Marcos…Gotta represent.

BB) What’s your favorite spot to skate these days? Where do you go for strictly fun?
CM) My favorite spot would have to be the skate park in Syndrome. It's the most convenient place for me to skate and it’s a lot of fun. There's of variety of stuff to skate so it helps out my skating a lot. I definitely learn something new everyday, or at least try to.

BB) What would your dream spot be? (DETAILS HOMIE)
CM) Damn my dream spot...I don't even know where to begin. It would have to have a variety of stair sets ranging from 2 to 11. Some decent sized gaps... Gotta have my gaps (laughing). A few buttery ass boxes that are all different in height and length. Some manual pads and some tranny. Like 2 different sized mini ramps, a pool and a couple big ass quarter pipes. I don't skate tranny but I gotta look out for the homies that do. It'd be free and absolutely no hassle from the cops… because that shits weak. I don't know how the layout would be, but it would work out so everything has a proper amount of runway and landing. Smooth ass ground is a must.

BB) Off your board you’re doing:
CM) Off my board I'm either working or chilling with my girl. I don't really do too much these days. I go out on the weekends every now and then but I just like to lay low and chill. I work on my car every now and then. Chilling with my mom whenever I can get over to her house.

BB) So what’s the future looking like for Chris Mohney, in skateboarding, as well as life in general, man?
CM) I got no clue man. I just live day by day. I have plans of finishing up my car and getting back on the road. Eventually get my own pad again. I'm gonna continue to skate until I can't anymore, but that'll take a lot. Basically take what’s given to me in life and handle the biz.

BB) Shout outs:
CM) I gotta holla at my girl Haidee for supporting everything I do and being there for me, Allied for supporting me, Vicente for killing it at filming and being a homie, Chris for taking my photos and filming, Tim Tom for being a true G ass homie, and inspiring me to skate like him, Nuckols for bein my Nigga (laughing), my mom and the rest of my big family, my job, the homies I work with, and everyone that’s been true and has helped me along in my life to be who I am today.


BB) Chris man, good looks! I appreciate it, lets skate soon! Adios.
CM) No doubt homie. Stay up. Peace!

Interview By: Brian Blakely
Photos by: Old School Chris