Thursday, August 31, 2023

Chris Senn #12.




Artist Extreme.

Chris gets wild both in the streets and on the canvas.

What was the story behind the ollie into the ramp? Was it something along the lines of Chris doing the trick after time expired in the best trick contest so it didn't count? He landed the trick in his run, too. Who won best trick? Was it Jamie Thomas or Gerhson Mosley? Chris was the street winner for 1995, with Tony Hawk in second and Willy Santos in third at the Extreme Games.

Speaking of skater artists, is there a new article or interview with Sean Cliver somewhere on the internet? A few posts for him have been getting a lot of hits and I can't figure out where the traffic is coming from.

The photos are by Bryce Kanights and Geoff Kula.

Hill bomb: Slap - August 1995 Volume 4 Number 8

X Games: Slap - November 1995 Volume 4 Number 11

6 comments:

Justin said...

Senn gets Extreme:

https://youtu.be/qF9SUnIpdTc?si=Zj_gHqbBxlXeb9lb

The commentary isn't in English and I don't have the time to figure out the language.

I've been phoning this thing in all week.

JCM said...

I think the winning trick was Jamie T doing BS5050 down the handrail, as in the intro to his part in Welcome To Hell. Could be wrong. Yes, something was 'wrong' with the Senn ollie, but can't remember what. I thought it might've been something simple like they didn't get a good shot of it.

Pete said...

Correct. In the very first ESPN eXtreme Games, Chris Senn did this transfer during the best trick contest. It was agreed upon by everyone that it was the best trick, however, ESPN execs wouldn't count it since they didn't get it properly on video for the broadcast. So the prize went to Jamie Thomas' 50-50 grind.

Jamie included the ESPN footage in Welcome to Hell sarcastically. I believe both JT and Senn were so bummed on the whole thing that neither ever entered an X-Games again.

I always knew this story but had never seen this Adrenalin ad about it. Very cool.

Justin said...

Pete is right with ESPN not having the cameras rolling for the trick. Thrasher reported that this was what happened in the October 1995 issue. I wrongly thought he landed it after time was called.

It is worth noting Chris did the trick in his run. He did keep entering and winning at the X-Games. He had art school and children to pay for.

JCM said...

Sitting at the cafe in Radlands (Northampton) in 96 my friend overheard Chris Senn say something like he maybe went for it a bit too much prior to the final and ended up getting knackered (or something like that). In 95 Penny won and Penny was streets ahead, in 96 I've no idea who won, but Chris Senn and Donny Barley put on the best show for sure. Couldn't care less about contest standings. I think it must be difficult to skate your best in the very artificial world of contests but with Chris Senn you felt like you were being allowed to play voyeur to him actually having a session. Awesome.

Justin said...

After watching the X-Games clip, it feels like Chris is kind of just skating naturally and his style works well on the obstacle courses. Some people do get into that aspect of skating under pressure. I think Chris talked about contests in his Chrome Ball interview and it was more of a fun thing than a competition, even with the amount of money on the line.

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