WW: What's your website going to be all about?
CH: It's gonna be about the movie. I'm gonna have bios. I kind of want to do, like go to the photo shoots and film those so you can see the actual footage from the pictures. And then I wanna have people come over and sponsors can send their people over to my house and I can film them and put it on the website. And put everyone's new trick that they've landed.
WW: Is the website up yet?
CH: No, not yet.
WW: What's the address going to be?
CH: I'm thinking about 731 Pine Tree cuz that's my street address. That's the production company's name, Pine Tree Productions.
WW: So it would be 731PineTree.com?
CH: Yeah, something like. I don't know. I haven't totally figured it out yet.
WW: What other events do you want to be involved with?
CH: I like the slider and the double contests, anything where you can just go and do whatever you want.
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Click the image to see the entire sequence of Chase on the slider (Pics: Josh Letchworth).
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WW: What are your goals for 2000?
CH: I think this year is going to be the year that makes or breaks me as an athlete. I'm going to keep at it for sure, but I have started to realize that wakeboarding is not forever. My goals are to learn some new tricks, make this movie and build my website. If it all works out, then I will stick with it, but if not than I will move on.
WW: What new moves are you working on now?
CH: Well I took the winter off so I'm working on relearning everything. I'm working on sliding a lot, though. It's fun. I like doing that more than I like hitting the wake right now.
WW: What can we expect to see as far as professional competition, Pro Tour as well as alternative events, for 2000? Anything different? Any
surprises?
CH: Ummm, well, the slider contest, and maybe ill throw a contest, who knows. I might have a little something up my sleeve.
WW: Who do you consider to be the most influential non-pro rider in the industry?
CH: I would say the editors of the magazines. They have the say in what goes in and out of the mags.
WW: Do you think they do a good job of it?
CH: Mmmm, sometimes. I think sometimes they have to put people in because of the whole advertising situation. You know, people pay like 80 grand a year to put their ads in the magazine. So they're paying that much money and they expect to get a couple editorial shots, you know what I'm saying? So as far as that goes they have to put some people in they don't really want to.
I think it's getting a lot better. The pictures that I've seen in the last two magazines are really good. A lot of different angles and a lot of different styles of pictures.
WW: What photographers do you like?
CH: Josh Letchworth is really good. That's who I've been shootin' with for the last three months. He's gettin' a lot of cool stuff 'cause we've been doing a lot of sliders. He's doin' a lot of really cool stuff right now with us, me, Matt and Thomas. He's pretty much the only guy who's been shootin' us. Another good guy is Rob Gracie. He's got the oldest camera I've ever seen and he takes the best pictures ever.
WW: Name some people that you respect in this industry?
CH: I respect Billy McCaffray he is one of the only guys who really knows what he's doing. He is going to be the editor of the new Launch magazine, which is going to be super sick.
WW: Which do you think influences the sport most: grass roots festivals, videos, the Pro Tour, magazines, web sites or sponsors?
CH: I think videos and mags. I mean, when was the last time you saw someone throw something just for the heck of it in a contest? Never. It's always the same run over and over that they have practiced everyday all year. That's not pushing anything. For me at least, whenever I have a camera in front of me it puts way more pressure on me to do something cool cause I know everyone is going to see it and hopefully it will push everyone up a notch.
I mean, I can remember when I did that blind 7 for the first time. I was so nervous 'cause I was the first guy to ever do it and when the photo guy came over to shoot it I was so nervous cause when I landed it I would be the first guy to ever land that trick. I don't know, it's a cool feeling. You feel like you're making a difference.
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