Making Friends w/ Chaz Ortiz | A Day-In-The- Life worthy of a skateboard journalism Pulitzer Prize

 

Do you remember a while back when in an interview Alex Olson (I think) was asked about Chaz Ortiz and he claimed he had never heard of him. Surely that slight was prompted by something. What is/was it about Chaz that rubbed skateboarders the wrong way? JENKEM went deep not-undercover to dig up what life as Chaz is like. The result is not a typical Q+A. It is a introspective look into the heart of skateboarding itself. Look for this article to win a skateboard journalism Pulitzer Prize in 2017 if such a thing existed. You crazy for this one Kyle Beachy. (who is currently feuding with Steve Berra about Trump related issues, which is also a good laugh.) But first do yourself a favor and read the article. Especially if you’re not a fan of Chaz Ortiz.

 

Here’s a sample:

“Spend enough time with Chaz Ortiz, affluent professional skateboarder, and you’ll be reminded time and again that skateboarding is senseless. It is a labyrinth of arbitrary judgments and ridiculous values. We care, if we care at all, about the most inane shit imaginable. The bedrock qualities of our activity – revolution, reinterpretation, re-presentation – are surely worth considering and defending, or at least positing, but beyond these, skateboarding criticism reduces down to taste, taste, and taste.

So it was a strange and educational day I spent with Chaz Ortiz. Having recovered, I’d like to suggest that it is nothing short of a miracle that Chaz Ortiz cares about skateboarding at all. What’s interesting is just how obviously he does. I have looked repeatedly into brown eyes that grew increasingly squinty as the day went on, and this much I can report with absolute certainty. Chaz Ortiz cares a whole, awful lot.”

 

Click over to JENKEM MAG for A Day with Chaz Ortiz

 

 

 

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