Chris Roberts | |
|---|---|
| Born | August 13, 1977 Inglewood, California, U.S. |
| Years active | 1996–present |
| Notable work | Listen (1998), The Chocolate Tour (1999), Logic Skateboard Media #3 (1999), Land Pirates (2002), Yeah Right! (2003), Hot Chocolate (2004), Transworld Skateboarding's A Time to Shine (2006), Via Marina (2007), Pretty Sweet (2012), and the Switch Flip Switch Manual (2003) |
Chris Roberts is an American professional skateboarder and host of the podcast The Nine Club with Chris Roberts . [1]
Roberts was born in Inglewood, California on August 13, 1977, and raised in Malibu, California. [2] He grew up skateboarding around Los Angeles County and Southern California.
In 2007, Roberts became a professional skateboarder with Chocolate Skateboards. In 2009, while filming for Crailtap's "Lil Slice of Life" web clip, Roberts' cat, Garvy, figured prominently in the segment. [3] After becoming an inside joke among sponsored Southern California skateboarders, Roberts's cat was featured on a series of skateboard decks and merchandise for a variety of his sponsors' brands.
Roberts collaborated with Marc Johnson and Kenny Anderson to launch the "Back Forty" project in mid-2013/early 2014, a creative outlet meant to build and retain quality skateboarding media, industry, and cultural content by and for skateboarders, instead of allowing outside companies unrelated to skate culture capitalizing on skateboarding's popularity and global reach. [4]
Johnson stated in a March 2014 interview that while the project sold products, it was not a company per se. On the Back Forty's Facebook page, the project is self-defined as a commitment to "Becoming the voice for what skateboarding has to say for itself." Johnson further explained: "We have tons of ideas that don't belong anywhere else ... Back Forty's a home for all the ideas that we have that don't really vibe with anything else that we're involved in."
While the project has been largely inactive in recent years, the creative vision which originated with the Back Forty continues in Roberts' Nine Club podcast and web series (see below). Johnson appeared on episode #36 of The Nine Club [5] [6] [7] hosted by Roberts where the two discussed their ideas about skateboarding media and industry opportunities for lifelong skateboarders. While technically unrelated to The Back Forty, the podcast shows a clear vision of furthering the missions of the former project and generating skateboarding culture, history, and business content by and for skateboarders.
In 2016, Roberts started The Nine Club with Chris Roberts, an interview program hosted by Roberts, Roger Bagley, and Kelly Hart. [8] [9] The show, which has over two-hundred episodes and reached its five-year anniversary in June 2021, has interviewed some of the most legendary personalities in professional skateboarding, including Steve Caballero, Lance Mountain, Chad Muska, Bam Margera, Andrew Reynolds, Tony Hawk, Mike Carroll, Marc Johnson, and Paul Rodriguez. [10]
The program has the tagline "the show that has skaters talking." Guests often provide humorous and historically insightful stories and anecdotes about skateboarding culture and history through their own unique experiences and perspectives. Guests have commented on the show's intellectual and historiographic merits, highlighting the program's value as an oral history archive and its conceptual relationship to programs such as the Smithsonian's Innoskate program. [11]
The Nine Club with Chris Roberts featured rapper Li'l Wayne, who is a recreational skateboarder, in late 2016, garnering over 350,000 views. [12]
Guests have provided symbolic gifts for the set. For example, in episode #36 Marc Johnson provided the set with a digital picture frame that plays Roberts' world-famous switch kickflip, switch manual at the West LA Courthouse, looping the trick on repeat. In episode #43, Erik Bragg provided the hosts with a vintage styled The Nine Club neon sign. Both artifacts are prominently displayed on set and are visible throughout subsequent episodes. Brian Wenning also provided Kelly Hart with one of his original Habitat pro model decks on episode #53. [13] Chris Robert's still skateboards however he keeps it more to curb skating.
Skate advertisements featuring Chris Roberts [72]
I'm Glad I'm Not Me is a series created by Chris Roberts, featuring Chris Roberts. Each episode, Tim Olson (the camera operator) follows Chris around. [73]
*Not to be confused with vlogs.*
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