Bio
Concrete Magazine Alex Chalmers Interview
By Frank Daniello
It's another dark winter day in East Vancouver, and as the dark skies blend seamlessly into the water-soaked drab buildings, sidewalks, and streets below—I scurry, late as usual, to Antisocial in order to meet Alex Chalmers and Brian Caissie. Upon entrance, the scenario is exactly how I envisioned it. Chalmers is applying his strategic Independent sticker assignment; Caissie is testing flashes and pulling out the medium format setup on Antisocial's new mini-ramp. Despite losing virtually all his sponsors over the last year, Chalmers is business as usual as he readies himself for a switch pivot pop-out atop the tight and steep 7-foot extension.
"It started with losing my clothing sponsor Quiksilver, then my board sponsor Flip, and finally Adio, my shoe sponsor," he recalls. "Since then, I've just been enjoying my time up here in Vancouver. I've been spending a lot of time skateboarding, BBQing, playing golf, going to see some concerts, and hanging out with my father who just retired."
The skateboard industry certainly hasn't forgotten Chalmers. Currently, he gets direct flow from Independent Trucks, Swiss Bearings, and Autobahn Wheels. But the lucrative paychecks of the past, are no longer. Well, for now at least.
"My goal is to continue to be a professional skater with sponsors and a board, get on a shoe team, and a clothing team and continue to travel the world and do what I do. As it stands right now, it's not a simple task."
At this point, he's had a couple stabs at the switch pivot, and it's getting close. Then, he makes a beverage proposal to the 5 kids standing on the deck, and you know it involves that dark carbonated fuel he's known to consume.
"If I make this one, everyone here gets a Coke."
I was tired and thirsty at this point, but to my dismay, he didn't get it. After Caissie wound up his 120 film a few more times, he exited the ramp room once the roll was cashed. The minute Caissie closes the door. Chalmers drops in and pounces it clean. Things often do happen when the mechanical eye is not looking. Chalmers is a man of leisure, but when he wants something, he'll aggressively pursue it. That night, it happened to be butter chicken. We drove around Vancouver in search of it since there was time to kill before he was to join a late night mini-ramp session at LBC in North Van. His Audi brought us to all the right places, but they were either closed, or a recent menu change had bumped butter chicken. Not one to give up easily, we sped over to his North Van stomping grounds and over to Safeway where Chalmers decided to purchase the means to produce butter chicken at home. Naturally, a 24 pack of Coke was purchased.
His cabin style home seems secluded, and after a brief tour, which included showing me his backyard mini and how bottle rockets are his bear deterrent, he started buckling down on the butter chicken while I watched 1st and Hope on his big screen. Eventually, he ladles it over steaming basmati rice, and the conversation moves towards misconceptions.
"The last 7 out of 10 photos I've had published in magazines around the world have been street or natural terrain. I've been put into this category of transition/skatepark rider when the reality is I'm a skateboarder that skates flatground just as much as I skate ledges, mini-ramps, parks, and whatever," he says. "For the last 7 years having ridden for Flip Skateboards, they wanted me to only be the transition/skatepark skater. They didn't want to see street-Chalms. That's just how I've been presented to the world and it's so hard in anything to change your image. I ain't gonna wear tight pants and all of that, and I don't have the fashion flair to stand out, so I'll just let my skateboarding do the talking."
Chalmers thrives on the road, and loves touring. He's traveled a lot over the last 7 years; on trips that were both rock-bottom and up-scale on the funding spectrum. From first-class flights, accommodations, and rock star buses on Tony
Hawk tours—to questionable motels and crammed rental vans thick with fart smog.
"I've flown first class to places like Australia and South Africa on high-end tours, and I've had just as much fun driving down the coast of Oregon with (Peter) Hewitt and (Darren) Navarrette on a crustier trip for The Skateboard Mag. I think I've seen all types of tours and enjoyed them all for their own reasons."
More recently, Chalmers had been on a Tony Hawk Secret Skatepark Tour that went to Montana, Utah, and Winnipeg with the likes of Hawk, Bam Margera, Andrew Reynolds, and others. I got a little curious as I imagined Hawk giving Chalms the call-up.
"He doesn't personally call me up. His assistants, the filmers and the people that put the tour together call me up. They want to have the best final product possible which is a nice video to show. They need to think of footage and what they're going to get out of every rider. I don't do any of Tony's Boom Boom Huck Jam tours or anything," he clarifies. "There's so many good guys on those skatepark tours, it's fun. I get the feeling like they call me up and it's, 'we gotta get Chalmers on there for the video', and that's where I thrive. Bring it on, and I'll go anytime&ahellip;especially if someone else is footing the bill, that's a given."
At this point, we're having Twix bars for desert and I've already exceeded my 6-month Coke quota by cracking a second one. Being that this is for Concrete's Skatepark Issue, and Chalmers being an all-around concrete connoisseur who's skated parks around the world, it got me to wondering if he'd ever consider a position at a skatepark design company. He cracks a Coke, takes a slug, and gets right to it. "Absolutely, it's come across my mind a lot in the last 6 months now that I don't get paid for skateboarding and have a mortgage to take care of. I don't think I'm at that point right now where I have to dedicate myself to the background of skateboarding. I have a very good friend named Jim Barnum who I grew up with that does a great job at designing skateparks in Canada, as well as Colby Carter who does an amazing job doing it down in the States," he explains. "I'm not saying I won't get into it in the future, but right now my focus is still skateboarding. If I had to sit in an office and design them (parks), it would just take away from my time on the board."
One simply cannot have a conversation with Chalms without the mention of hockey, and the Vancouver Canucks. Left Winger Matt Cooke hasn't been having the greatest '06-'07 NHL campaign, nor have the Canucks as a team, but Chalmers is a huge fan and is still maintaining his personal Cooke fan club that started 3 years back.
"I've been fortunate to go to so many games. For about 30 games, I watched from the wheelchair section with my friend Murray Siple, and we started to do this thing where we'd wear chef 's uniforms and had a big sign that said 'Cooke's Kitchen'. This was a few years back when Matt Cooke was crunching hits, and having a 15-goal season," he adds. "A good friend's wife just so happens to work for the Cooke family. Numerous times throughout the year I get the call to go to the game and sit in Matt Cooke's seats, which his wife usually takes. When she doesn't go, she'll pass the tickets our way. Last week, I already had tickets to the game, and I got a call from my friend who said Michelle Cooke requested that we take their seats and that we wear the chef uniforms to get Matt Cooke hyped up. So we wore that uniform at a game against Edmonton; low and behold there was a message on my friend's phone later from Matt Cooke thanking us for showing up to the game, and that he looked up and saw us with the chef hats on—and was really stoked."
It's getting late now, and I have a belly full of butter chicken and Twix bars wading uneasily in a sea of cola. We're leaving the idle North Van wilderness, and heading back to the contrasting urban wilderness of East Van. Ironically, Kraftwerk's Numbers is playing in his Audi as we speed down the rain-soaked highway on an autobahn run. I remember that his former Flip teammate, Ali Boulala, was in town a while back on an extended couch tour at Chalmers' humble abode.
"It was a blast I tell ya! I came home in September from this Tony Hawk Tour and heard that Ali was in town doing some work on a video game for Electronic Arts with some friends of mine. I got ahold of him and we went out for lunch. He was only supposed to be in town for 3 days. I'd met him briefly years ago, but never really got to know him even though we were on the same team. So I mentioned he should stick around a little longer because the weather was good and he could stay at my house in North Van with the mini ramp in the back yard," explains Chalmers. "The 3 days turned into 7 weeks and I had a blast the whole time. He found out Bob Dylan was playing in Vancouver, he insisted he stay at least 'till then. He ended up staying 5 weeks past the Dylan concert even; we were skating, and on the hunt for Vancouver's best eggs bennie every morning. I got him into golfing and hockey—he loved the Canucks because of the Swedes on the team. Ali couldn't even swing a golf club at the beginning, and by the end of 3 weeks worth of golfing, he had a full-on pro swing. I'd wake up in the morning and he'd be on my couch watching the golf channel everyday. We got along really well and it's funny how I got to know him better after being let go from Flip."
Chalmers drops me off, and I thank him. As he drives away, I stand in the rain wondering how the hell he can go skate more mini after consuming a mountain of butter chicken, and multiple Cokes.
concreteskateboarding.com
By Frank Daniello
It's another dark winter day in East Vancouver, and as the dark skies blend seamlessly into the water-soaked drab buildings, sidewalks, and streets below—I scurry, late as usual, to Antisocial in order to meet Alex Chalmers and Brian Caissie. Upon entrance, the scenario is exactly how I envisioned it. Chalmers is applying his strategic Independent sticker assignment; Caissie is testing flashes and pulling out the medium format setup on Antisocial's new mini-ramp. Despite losing virtually all his sponsors over the last year, Chalmers is business as usual as he readies himself for a switch pivot pop-out atop the tight and steep 7-foot extension.
"It started with losing my clothing sponsor Quiksilver, then my board sponsor Flip, and finally Adio, my shoe sponsor," he recalls. "Since then, I've just been enjoying my time up here in Vancouver. I've been spending a lot of time skateboarding, BBQing, playing golf, going to see some concerts, and hanging out with my father who just retired."
The skateboard industry certainly hasn't forgotten Chalmers. Currently, he gets direct flow from Independent Trucks, Swiss Bearings, and Autobahn Wheels. But the lucrative paychecks of the past, are no longer. Well, for now at least.
"My goal is to continue to be a professional skater with sponsors and a board, get on a shoe team, and a clothing team and continue to travel the world and do what I do. As it stands right now, it's not a simple task."
At this point, he's had a couple stabs at the switch pivot, and it's getting close. Then, he makes a beverage proposal to the 5 kids standing on the deck, and you know it involves that dark carbonated fuel he's known to consume.
"If I make this one, everyone here gets a Coke."
I was tired and thirsty at this point, but to my dismay, he didn't get it. After Caissie wound up his 120 film a few more times, he exited the ramp room once the roll was cashed. The minute Caissie closes the door. Chalmers drops in and pounces it clean. Things often do happen when the mechanical eye is not looking. Chalmers is a man of leisure, but when he wants something, he'll aggressively pursue it. That night, it happened to be butter chicken. We drove around Vancouver in search of it since there was time to kill before he was to join a late night mini-ramp session at LBC in North Van. His Audi brought us to all the right places, but they were either closed, or a recent menu change had bumped butter chicken. Not one to give up easily, we sped over to his North Van stomping grounds and over to Safeway where Chalmers decided to purchase the means to produce butter chicken at home. Naturally, a 24 pack of Coke was purchased.
His cabin style home seems secluded, and after a brief tour, which included showing me his backyard mini and how bottle rockets are his bear deterrent, he started buckling down on the butter chicken while I watched 1st and Hope on his big screen. Eventually, he ladles it over steaming basmati rice, and the conversation moves towards misconceptions.
"The last 7 out of 10 photos I've had published in magazines around the world have been street or natural terrain. I've been put into this category of transition/skatepark rider when the reality is I'm a skateboarder that skates flatground just as much as I skate ledges, mini-ramps, parks, and whatever," he says. "For the last 7 years having ridden for Flip Skateboards, they wanted me to only be the transition/skatepark skater. They didn't want to see street-Chalms. That's just how I've been presented to the world and it's so hard in anything to change your image. I ain't gonna wear tight pants and all of that, and I don't have the fashion flair to stand out, so I'll just let my skateboarding do the talking."
Chalmers thrives on the road, and loves touring. He's traveled a lot over the last 7 years; on trips that were both rock-bottom and up-scale on the funding spectrum. From first-class flights, accommodations, and rock star buses on Tony
Hawk tours—to questionable motels and crammed rental vans thick with fart smog.
"I've flown first class to places like Australia and South Africa on high-end tours, and I've had just as much fun driving down the coast of Oregon with (Peter) Hewitt and (Darren) Navarrette on a crustier trip for The Skateboard Mag. I think I've seen all types of tours and enjoyed them all for their own reasons."
More recently, Chalmers had been on a Tony Hawk Secret Skatepark Tour that went to Montana, Utah, and Winnipeg with the likes of Hawk, Bam Margera, Andrew Reynolds, and others. I got a little curious as I imagined Hawk giving Chalms the call-up.
"He doesn't personally call me up. His assistants, the filmers and the people that put the tour together call me up. They want to have the best final product possible which is a nice video to show. They need to think of footage and what they're going to get out of every rider. I don't do any of Tony's Boom Boom Huck Jam tours or anything," he clarifies. "There's so many good guys on those skatepark tours, it's fun. I get the feeling like they call me up and it's, 'we gotta get Chalmers on there for the video', and that's where I thrive. Bring it on, and I'll go anytime&ahellip;especially if someone else is footing the bill, that's a given."
At this point, we're having Twix bars for desert and I've already exceeded my 6-month Coke quota by cracking a second one. Being that this is for Concrete's Skatepark Issue, and Chalmers being an all-around concrete connoisseur who's skated parks around the world, it got me to wondering if he'd ever consider a position at a skatepark design company. He cracks a Coke, takes a slug, and gets right to it. "Absolutely, it's come across my mind a lot in the last 6 months now that I don't get paid for skateboarding and have a mortgage to take care of. I don't think I'm at that point right now where I have to dedicate myself to the background of skateboarding. I have a very good friend named Jim Barnum who I grew up with that does a great job at designing skateparks in Canada, as well as Colby Carter who does an amazing job doing it down in the States," he explains. "I'm not saying I won't get into it in the future, but right now my focus is still skateboarding. If I had to sit in an office and design them (parks), it would just take away from my time on the board."
One simply cannot have a conversation with Chalms without the mention of hockey, and the Vancouver Canucks. Left Winger Matt Cooke hasn't been having the greatest '06-'07 NHL campaign, nor have the Canucks as a team, but Chalmers is a huge fan and is still maintaining his personal Cooke fan club that started 3 years back.
"I've been fortunate to go to so many games. For about 30 games, I watched from the wheelchair section with my friend Murray Siple, and we started to do this thing where we'd wear chef 's uniforms and had a big sign that said 'Cooke's Kitchen'. This was a few years back when Matt Cooke was crunching hits, and having a 15-goal season," he adds. "A good friend's wife just so happens to work for the Cooke family. Numerous times throughout the year I get the call to go to the game and sit in Matt Cooke's seats, which his wife usually takes. When she doesn't go, she'll pass the tickets our way. Last week, I already had tickets to the game, and I got a call from my friend who said Michelle Cooke requested that we take their seats and that we wear the chef uniforms to get Matt Cooke hyped up. So we wore that uniform at a game against Edmonton; low and behold there was a message on my friend's phone later from Matt Cooke thanking us for showing up to the game, and that he looked up and saw us with the chef hats on—and was really stoked."
It's getting late now, and I have a belly full of butter chicken and Twix bars wading uneasily in a sea of cola. We're leaving the idle North Van wilderness, and heading back to the contrasting urban wilderness of East Van. Ironically, Kraftwerk's Numbers is playing in his Audi as we speed down the rain-soaked highway on an autobahn run. I remember that his former Flip teammate, Ali Boulala, was in town a while back on an extended couch tour at Chalmers' humble abode.
"It was a blast I tell ya! I came home in September from this Tony Hawk Tour and heard that Ali was in town doing some work on a video game for Electronic Arts with some friends of mine. I got ahold of him and we went out for lunch. He was only supposed to be in town for 3 days. I'd met him briefly years ago, but never really got to know him even though we were on the same team. So I mentioned he should stick around a little longer because the weather was good and he could stay at my house in North Van with the mini ramp in the back yard," explains Chalmers. "The 3 days turned into 7 weeks and I had a blast the whole time. He found out Bob Dylan was playing in Vancouver, he insisted he stay at least 'till then. He ended up staying 5 weeks past the Dylan concert even; we were skating, and on the hunt for Vancouver's best eggs bennie every morning. I got him into golfing and hockey—he loved the Canucks because of the Swedes on the team. Ali couldn't even swing a golf club at the beginning, and by the end of 3 weeks worth of golfing, he had a full-on pro swing. I'd wake up in the morning and he'd be on my couch watching the golf channel everyday. We got along really well and it's funny how I got to know him better after being let go from Flip."
Chalmers drops me off, and I thank him. As he drives away, I stand in the rain wondering how the hell he can go skate more mini after consuming a mountain of butter chicken, and multiple Cokes.
concreteskateboarding.com
