{"id":70194,"date":"2017-07-15T09:00:07","date_gmt":"2017-07-15T16:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/?p=70194"},"modified":"2019-05-01T17:18:14","modified_gmt":"2019-05-02T00:18:14","slug":"christian-fletcher-surf-skate-style","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/christian-fletcher-surf-skate-style\/","title":{"rendered":"Christian Fletcher Surf Skate Style"},"content":{"rendered":"
SURF SKATE STYLE WITH CHRISTIAN FLETCHER<\/a>.<\/strong>\nINTERVIEW BY DAN LEVY<\/a>.<\/strong>\nPHOTOS BY HERBIE FLETCHER<\/a> AND MARK SULLIVAN<\/a>.<\/strong><\/pre>\n
 <\/p>\n
What\u2019s new, man? What is that noise? Are you in the bathtub?<\/strong><\/p>\n
Yeah. There\u2019s nothing like a Japanese bathtub. They\u2019re short, but deep.<\/p>\n
[Laughs] What are you doing in Japan?<\/strong><\/p>\n
I\u2019m with my dad. My dad has an art show at some big department store thing and we\u2019re going to the Green Room Festival and he has an art show there too. It\u2019s like a three-day music festival. Then I\u2019m going on to Indo and he\u2019s going home. I\u2019m sending the kid home. Check it out. My dad has a new look. I got him to dye his hair black last night from this guy that I know that\u2019s a hairdresser. It\u2019s the first time he\u2019s ever done it. It was really funny.<\/p>\n
Wow. Wait. I\u2019m pointing the camera at a picture of Jay.<\/strong><\/p>\n
That is the definition of surf skate \u2013 Jay Adams. Jay is the definition of skate surf. I\u2019m surf skate.<\/p>\n
You\u2019re right about that. When did you first hear of surf skate style?<\/strong><\/p>\n
Surf skate or skate surf? I think they\u2019re different.<\/p>\n
When did you first hear of either one?<\/strong><\/p>\n
Well, I didn\u2019t hear of it. I lived it. You know who my dad is, so I just grew up with it. I didn\u2019t know you were supposed to differentiate the two really. I grew up surfing and skateboarding. My whole family was surfers, so that\u2019s what I knew. I was surfing in contests when I was five years old and I was also skating Carlsbad park when I was five years old with Mike Weed and my dad in 1975. I wasn\u2019t allowed to skate the big bowl because it was too big and my dad wouldn\u2019t let me go in it. Later on, when I went back to McGill\u2019s and saw what the big bowl consisted of, I was like, \u201cYou\u2019ve got to be kidding me. I wasn\u2019t allowed to go in this fuckin\u2019 thing? It was like 8 feet deep with the mellowest tranny you\u2019ve ever seen.<\/p>\n
[Laughs] Nice. What does surf skate style mean to you?<\/strong><\/p>\n
It was just a way of life. That was what you did. You went surfing and you went skateboarding. I was always trying to surf on my skateboard and do laybacks on little curbs or do Bertlemanns in the middle of the driveway.<\/p>\n
So you were watching Bertlemann do laybacks on waves and you were doing them on your skateboard.<\/strong><\/p>\n
I was watching Bertlemann do laybacks on a skateboard too. That\u2019s where they got it, right? Bert revert. Surfing and skateboarding weren\u2019t segregated yet. People didn\u2019t even know how to ollie when I was a little kid.<\/p>\n
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Christian Fletcher – stalefish – 1989. Photo \u00a9 Herbie Fletcher<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
What do you think caused skateboarding and surfing to get segregated?<\/strong><\/p>\n
It was probably Ian Cairns. He seemed to ruin everything. He wanted surfing to be that \u2018four to the shore\u2019, clean-cut, blond-haired, blue-eyed generation. With skateboarding, when I was ten years old, Jason Jessee and I were best friends. We learned how to ollie together, and you didn\u2019t smack your tail to ollie back then. You bounced off your outside toe edge wheel. That\u2019s why a lot of people say that me and Jason have very similar frontside ollies.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re like the best ever, by the way.<\/strong><\/p>\n
Yeah. I couldn\u2019t have had a better partner.<\/p>\n
You guys were some of the first ones to crunch your back leg up. You control the whole thing with your back leg instead of your front leg.<\/strong><\/p>\n
Yeah. You snap your back leg out, like on a surfboard, to keep pressure against your  <\/span>surfboard the whole time, otherwise your board flies away because it\u2019s the lightest of all the boards, and it\u2019s also the biggest, so it gets affected by the wind the most. It\u2019s also the most <\/span>unpredictable because it\u2019s different every time and there are so many variables. Even if it\u2019s glassy, you\u2019ve still got the wind from the wave pushing you forward. Even if it\u2019s glassy, if you don\u2019t snap it out, your board flies away from your feet. Being on a surfboard, I had to snap the tail out, but, on the way back in, I had to suck my back leg in to keep the pressure on my tail to keep the board against my feet.<\/p>\n
What parts of skateboarding remind you of surfing?<\/strong><\/p>\n
A frontside grind on pool coping, like a slash grind, Jay style. If you do that barefoot, with some Astrodeck on your skateboard, it\u2019s the same feeling as doing a frontside off the lip.<\/p>\n
Who has the best surf skate style now, in your opinion? One of them might have come out of your balls.<\/strong><\/p>\n
Yeah. Greyson, on a skateboard, does have the best surf skate style because he looks like he\u2019s been surfing his whole life, but really he just learned. He\u2019s a product of evolution because my dad was on a longboard and then he was part of the shortboard revolution and then the next generation was me with the skateboard revolution on a surfboard. The next step would be a skateboarder. That\u2019s evolution in a perfect world, as far as transitioning from surfing to skateboarding.<\/p>\n
What about surfers with skate style?<\/strong><\/p>\n
Well, you can look at Tony Magnusson and Cheyne Magnusson. There\u2019s a pretty good example of skateboarding transitioning into surfing. He\u2019s the first one that I know of that has a kid that rips <\/span>surfing that was a skateboarder.<\/p>\n
I never even thought about that one. Okay, how has surfing influenced skateboarding and how has skateboarding influenced surfing?<\/strong><\/p>\n
Well, for me, I\u2019m left-handed, so I\u2019ve lived in a world of right-handed chauvinism for the last 47 years, but lefties tend to see the world a little  <\/span>backwards. For me, I tried to surf on my skateboard and skate on my surfboard. You\u2019ve seen me skate before. I\u2019m doing layback smith grinds and layback tail slides around the corner. I do a lot of different moves that would be like surf style moves on my skateboard, but then I go out in the water and do a lot of skate style moves on my surfboard, so I attribute that to being left-handed.<\/p>\n
Do you see any groms picking up on that style?<\/strong><\/p>\n
Yeah. The groms nowadays are completely different than they were when I was younger, or even down to Greyson\u2019s age. These younger kids all surf and skate, but most of them skate skate style and they surf surf style.<\/p>\n
Do you think skateparks have anything to do with that?<\/strong><\/p>\n
Oh yeah, for sure. They closed all the skateparks when I was a little kid. In \u201882, everything shut down, and my parents made me pick and choose. They said I could either be a surfer or a skater, but I couldn\u2019t do both. At the time, those were crucial learning years between 12 and 17. I got sent to Christian schools for a while, and Jason and I lost touch with each other. He was off skateboarding and I was off surfing. We met back up again when we were a little bit older, and shit has been cool ever since. He\u2019s kind of hard to get a hold of, but he\u2019s my oldest friend though.<\/p>\n
You guys are both into motorcycles too.<\/strong><\/p>\n
Oh yeah. Actually, I bought my first motorcycle for the road, when I was with Jason. I turned 18 and I bought some used chopper and it had \u201cBeast of Burden\u201d painted on the side of it. The thing was ridiculous. It was 650 or 750 Bonneville. I didn\u2019t know how to work on it, so my parents moved it to my grandpa\u2019s warehouse, and my Grandpa sold it without asking me.<\/p>\n
Oh no. Okay, I have one more surf skate question then we\u2019re going to freestyle it. Is surf skate style important today?<\/strong><\/p>\n
For myself, I\u2019d say, style is the most important thing you can have in either one of those sports, because then you\u2019ve got flow. At the same time, you\u2019ve got innovation and you\u2019ve got attitude to go along with it, because attitude comes with skateboarding. Attitude also comes with surfing, but it\u2019s a different kind of attitude. I\u2019m not talking about that \u2018I\u2019m cooler than you entitled lame\u2019 attitude, because when I was a kid, surfers were cool. They all had personalities. Skateboarders did too. Then Spicoli stereotyped the sport of surfing in America and       <\/span>ruined it. It was like, \u201cOh yeah, I know that dude. He\u2019s a dumb stoner.\u201d Skateboarders were already kind of shunned as outcasts. They were looked at more like bikers were looked at, you know, so their attitude was a little bit more pissed off.<\/p>\n
Which worked well for you. You brought that to surfing and the \u201csurfing industry\u201d didn\u2019t really like it.<\/strong><\/p>\n
Yeah. We called it \u2018four to the shore\u2019 or \u2018three to the beach\u2019 because you used to have to do three turns all the way to the beach and ride the whitewash. I looked at it like, when the wave turned to whitewash, the wave was done and it was time to catch another one.<\/p>\n
What do you think made you try airs on a surfboard?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n
My dad took me skateboarding, so it came natural to me. I was going to Carlsbad and then my grandfather\u2019s office was across the street from Skate Odyssey, which was a huge skateboard park in \u201878 and \u201879. That was the first time I ever skated a clover bowl. I rolled into the bowl part and I went straight on my ass. My board shot super high in the air and landed on a picnic table where a bunch of older kids were sitting and eating lunch. It scared the shit out of me. It was so embarrassing.<\/p>\n
Wow. Well, your dad said you started out hopping on waves. Those were his words.<\/strong><\/p>\n
Well, that\u2019s because he was a surfer, but that\u2019s how you learn. I don\u2019t really remember learning how. People ask me if I remember my first air, and I don\u2019t. I was just doing them. That\u2019s why my dad probably said I was hopping. I was learning how to bounce my outside wheel off cracks in the sidewalk to do little ollies. When I was a kid, you didn\u2019t smack the tail to do an ollie. That hadn\u2019t come out yet. When I was really young, nobody did ollies.<\/p>\n
Have you always been curious about building surfboards too?<\/strong><\/p>\n
No. I never wanted to build surfboards. I wanted to leave that to the professionals. I was a surfer. We didn\u2019t have tools in the house. We didn\u2019t even have enough tools to put together a skateboard when I was a kid. Back then it took years and years to learn how to shape surfboards because you had to know how to use all these tools and shit like that. I was always a surfboard designer, but I could never get what I wanted because my designs were a little different and no one wanted the hassle of making them, so I had to wait for technology.<\/p>\n
Why were they a hassle to make?<\/strong><\/p>\n
It\u2019s because I liked all kinds of different shit. I used to get surfboards that had a double barrel concave from the nose to the tail, and then it had concave on both sides of that, going towards the rail, but then there was one full concave, if you took a straight edge, that went from rail to rail. Then I had a kicktail on the last couple of inches on the bottom, so I could release good. That\u2019s five different concaves plus a kicktail, so the shaper was pissed, the glassers were pissed and the sander was extra pissed. I learned at a young age that, if I wanted to get shit done at the surfboard factories, I had to hang out and bribe the guys. I lured McElroy off the bar stool at the Wagon Wheel, or the Broken Spoke, with a 12-pack and a bag of weed. A lot of times I\u2019d try to get the guy sanding to stay up most of the night because I was leaving somewhere, so I had to bring a 12-pack to coax them into sanding my boards. Now it would be tough to bribe somebody that\u2019s in China or Vietnam building your surfboard.<\/p>\n
[Laughs] True. Let\u2019s jump to Astrodeck because Astrodeck is like the griptape of surfing. How did that come about?<\/strong><\/p>\n
Astrodeck is the griptape of surfing. That came about from my dad going to the skatepark and riding skateboards.<\/p>\n
How did that change your surfing?<\/strong><\/p>\n
It made it so you could stay on your board and your board didn\u2019t ding or break as easy. It was like <\/span>griptape with a cushion. When you\u2019re skateboarding, your shoes are the cushion. When you\u2019re <\/span>surfing, your surfboard is more fragile. You need it to be light, but that means it\u2019s weak. Astrodeck helps save your board from the hard impact of <\/span>landing, because learning how to do aerials, you\u2019re landing in the flats a lot, so you break a lot of equipment. When you break equipment, then what do you do? Back then you didn\u2019t get 25 boards for each contest like the kids do now. Back then, if you had a surfboard sponsor, you\u2019d get 10 surfboards a year and that included Hawaii. Nowadays, kids ride boards that are smaller, so they don\u2019t have to change as much. When I was a kid, you needed boards that ranged from 5\u201910\u201d, which was a small board then, all the way to an 8 foot board. You wanted a whole quiver within increments of inches. You wanted a 6\u20198\u201d, a 7\u20190 and a 7\u20192\u201d or a 7\u20194\u201d and a 7\u20196\u201d, because you needed that variety for paddling and stuff. Surfing Pipeline, sometimes you break three or four boards in one day if the waves are good. Back to the thing with the griptape, my dad used to put Astrodeck on the whole deck when he first started, so it was just like griptape. He had to go into the surf shop and do demonstrations of how to put it on, because people didn\u2019t know how and it would get bubbles in it and peel off. He worked <\/span>really hard on his glue formula to make sure it stuck. Nowadays, it\u2019s gone to the tail pad. Why are people so dumb that they think it only works on your back foot? You don\u2019t walk out of the house with one shoe on. You don\u2019t go skateboarding with griptape on half of your skateboard. I guess Spicoli was headed in the right direction. Surfers are dumb. They only have traction on one foot, when you\u2019d think it would be good for your front foot too. The guys from the contests, I really don\u2019t understand them. The guys on the pro tour now get $100,000 for first place usually. If you\u2019re competing for $100,000 and you have the chance to get an edge over your opponent by having traction on both feet instead of just one foot, wouldn\u2019t you be riding with traction on both feet? That\u2019s a lot of money at stake, so how dumb are they? It\u2019s stupid.<\/p>\n
That brings me to a segue. What about your brother and his recent helicopter acid drop? Where does that come from?<\/strong><\/p>\n
Danny Way. He did that years ago. I wanted to try that, but I just never had the means, you know? I\u2019m really stoked he did it. It\u2019s sick.<\/p>\n
So that\u2019s basically your brother taking skateboarding to surfing right there.<\/strong><\/p>\n
Yeah. He\u2019s always been taking skating to surfing, but he didn\u2019t really want to do airs growing up though because I did them and he didn\u2019t want to be <\/span>anything like me. He was a big fan of Tom Carroll because he was the only person that was the same size as him, and you can really tell in his surfing.<\/p>\n
Why didn\u2019t he want to be like you?<\/strong><\/p>\n
Ask him. I was too busy being me. I didn\u2019t have time to think about that.<\/p>\n
Okay, here\u2019s a question. Did you want Greyson to be a surfer or a skater?<\/strong><\/p>\n
Well, I wasn\u2019t a real big fan of surfing through a lot of years, but I would go skateboarding every single day though, so I took Greyson with me. His mom thought she was punishing me because we\u2019d stay up all night at band practice after surfing and skating, and then Greyson would wake up early in the morning and she\u2019d say, \u201cWell, you\u2019re up, so you have to take him.\u201d I\u2019d be all, \u201cSweet.\u201d So we\u2019d go down to San Clemente Pier and we\u2019d do wheelies down the hill ever since he was a tiny little baby. I think I was doing wheelies down the street with Greyson when he was 3 weeks old. Other parents kind of tripped out on it. Oh well, look at how he rides a skateboard today. It\u2019s like the Crocodile hunter and his kid. That\u2019s what I do and that\u2019s what he was taught.<\/p>\n
[Laughs] Did you just compare yourself to the Crocodile Hunter?<\/strong><\/p>\n
[Laughs] I tried to stalk the Crocodile Hunter. I was in Australia and I tried to stalk him because I\u2019d seen videos of him surfing in his safari suit. I wanted to go surfing with him so badly, but then he died. I was in Australia when he died and I was so bummed because he was my hero. He didn\u2019t even stare danger in the face. He let danger stare him in the face while he looked into the camera. \u201cCrikey!\u201d He was the coolest. Anyone that can let danger stare them in the face and they don\u2019t even give a fuck and they just look into the camera and keep talking and cracking jokes \u2013 that\u2019s harder than being in the tube at Pipeline and looking backwards.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s just as unpredictable. Okay, so how are you using the Astrodeck traction in your new surfboard designs?<\/strong><\/p>\n
It\u2019s the same way I\u2019ve always been using it, on my front foot and on my back foot. I like surfing very shallow reefs, sometimes pretty much dry, and I like surfing waves most people don\u2019t. Sometimes I surf at night by myself, and some of the waves that I surf most people don\u2019t even want to surf in the daytime. Some of those waves, I also surf with tennis shoes on, so that\u2019s real surf skate style. That way I can do floaters over the dry reefs and stuff like that and pull into barrels and do off the lips on close outs. When I get worked or kick out, I plant both feet on the reef and I can march around like I\u2019m in Venice Beach.<\/p>\n
[Laughs] And not get cut.<\/strong><\/p>\n
Yeah. With booties, you get a false sense of <\/span>security. Coral can cut right through booties. If you wear shoes, the shoes can straight crush <\/span>everything. You have a square edge on your shoe, so you might lose a little bit of control as far as doing turns and stuff, but the lip can hit you in the head and it doesn\u2019t necessarily knock you off your board because you have such a solid stance from having that square edge.<\/p>\n
Wow. That makes sense.<\/strong><\/p>\n
I have videos of that too. Vans ran a poster of me launching an air in red-checkered high-tops. I landed on the lip and it looked like I was doing a frontside smith grind.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s so sick! Okay, tell me about the boards that you and Mike Maldonado are making now.<\/strong><\/p>\n
The boards we\u2019re making now, we\u2019re calling them intergalactic space vehicles.<\/p>\n
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Christian Fletcher pushes the limits of possibility with this lien air in 1990. Photo \u00a9 Herbie Fletcher<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Yes! That\u2019s what they look like. Mike was saying you guys use some automotive technology in them, which is random.<\/strong><\/p>\n
Yeah. We do an automotive clear coat on the top to make them really nice and shiny. They\u2019re buffed and polished and all that stuff. They\u2019re like <\/span>surfboards used to be, old school.<\/p>\n
And they\u2019re 3D?<\/strong><\/p>\n
Yeah. If you put 3D glasses on, they look 3D. The new ones are super crazy looking. I copied my dad\u2019s favorite nose rider and made it 6 feet long, so that way you can ride the nose on a short board. It\u2019s a hybrid. If you ride a longboard or a shortboard, you can mix it up. I have hybrid maneuvers on that one, like you can do a floater and run to the nose and do a side slip 360 over the bowls.<\/p>\n
What?<\/strong><\/p>\n
Yeah. Well, I grew up on a longboard as a kid. If I didn\u2019t know how to ride a longboard, my dad would have castrated me. In fact, I grew up on a single fin. I was really lucky. I was born in \u201870, but I started surfing at such a young age, that I still got to be part of the \u201870s. I started out riding a single fin and that progressed to a twin fin. I think I rode a tri fin before I rode a twin fin. My first contest I rode a tri fin. I won the San Onofre Surf Club        <\/span>annual contest in 1976. I was five years old and I beat Clint Carroll who was nine. His dad and my dad were serious rivals as kids. You know, Corky. Clint has kind of had issues with me ever since.<\/p>\n
[Laughs] Okay, that kind of leads to my next question. What is the coolest thing your dad ever taught you and what is the best thing you ever taught Greyson?<\/strong><\/p>\n
The coolest thing my dad ever taught me was pretty much how to live and also he taught me to not give a fuck.<\/p>\n
Is that what you taught Greyson?<\/strong><\/p>\n
Well, I tried, but it didn\u2019t work out that well. He\u2019s a Pisces, so he\u2019s a little bit sensitive. For me, I truly don\u2019t give a fuck. All the guys I went to war against as far as surfing goes, my dad told me, \u201cDon\u2019t <\/span>listen to those guys. They don\u2019t know what the fuck they are talking about. Just keep doing what you\u2019re doing.\u201d That\u2019s when I was talking about doing aerials and stuff.<\/p>\n
Why do you think they were so dismissive of it?<\/strong><\/p>\n
Because, for one, they couldn\u2019t do it. You know I was just in the Philippines last year and I saw little kids in the middle of nowhere doing backside air reverses and shit.<\/p>\n
Sick!<\/strong><\/p>\n
Yes! I win! I knew I won anyway, but that was just a serious confirmation when you see kids in the middle of nowhere doing it. That just means that aerials are universal. You can go down to any beach in the world and you\u2019ll see kids doing aerials. Any beach you go where people are surfing, except for that beach in the movie that Rizal made that shows kids just learning how to surf that have never seen surfing before and they were riding pieces of broken boats. Besides that, any beach that you go to in the world, you\u2019re going to see kids doing aerials, so Ian Cairns can fuck straight off! All he\u2019s done is hold the sport back. The thing where we were talking about when surfing and skateboarding sort of parted ways, is because skateboarding progressed so much because you get so much more riding time and more predictability. Surfing hasn\u2019t. If you were to surf Venice every single day for a year, three times a day, for two hours a day, how much time do you think you\u2019d actually get standing on your board? An hour? How much time do you get standing on your skateboard when you go to the skatepark for two hours?<\/p>\n
Two hours.<\/strong><\/p>\n
Exactly.<\/p>\n
Good point.<\/strong><\/p>\n
I still have maneuvers that I\u2019ve wanted to try since the \u201880s, and I\u2019ve never gotten the right section to try \u2018em. That sucks and it makes it really hard for the sport to progress. That\u2019s another reason they didn\u2019t want aerials because they weren\u2019t consistent. I wasted a lot of waves learning to do aerials.<\/p>\n
What about the wave pools now?<\/strong><\/p>\n
They\u2019re gutless. For one, they\u2019re not saltwater, so your board doesn\u2019t float that good. For two, they aren\u2019t very powerful. The new ones, I\u2019m sure, are different. I haven\u2019t had a chance to ride those.<\/p>\n
Why wouldn\u2019t they make them saltwater?<\/strong><\/p>\n
It\u2019s probably because saltwater corrodes everything. I don\u2019t know. I\u2019m an eighth grade <\/span>graduate and I\u2019ve got saltwater on the brain. That means it\u2019s corroded.<\/p>\n
[Laughs] It\u2019s corroded in a good way. So what\u2019s the most punk rock thing about surfing and the most punk rock thing about skateboarding?<\/strong><\/p>\n
What\u2019s the definition of punk rock here?<\/p>\n
Well, I\u2019ll quote Jay Adams and say, \u201cPunk rock means just tearing shit up and not giving a fuck.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n
Okay. Well, I go surfing in the middle of the night by myself in waves of serious consequence. With all of the sharks, I also go surfing with knives in my wetsuit.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s up with all the sharks? Have you ever come face to face with a shark?<\/strong><\/p>\n
I just got chased out of the water in Australia by a 14-foot tiger shark at 3:30 in the morning. I was with my buddy, Pato. He grew up around a lot of sharks, and we saw the shark and we paddled straight in. We got to the beach and he was puking all over the beach and I was like, \u201cAre you okay?\u201d He was like, \u201cI couldn\u2019t shit, so I had to puke.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s gnarly \u2013 a 14-foot tiger shark\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n
Check this out. Type in \u201cSharks in Capistrano Beach\u201d on your computer. Do you see how many goddamn sharks come up? Those are all right in front of my grandpa\u2019s house in Capistrano Beach. Watch them go straight in towards the beach. They like stingrays, and that\u2019s the inside of the bay where all the stingrays are. That\u2019s where I grew up surfing. I grew up right up the hill and my grandparents live on the beach right there. There were 15 of them the other day, and the sheriffs came by and called my grandfather out of the water. My aunt hit one in the head with a paddle when she was on a stand up paddle board. The sharks go right into the beach. They feed on stingrays inside Capistrano Bay by Doheny. There are like 10-foot stingrays there. That video is being filmed from the reef right outside my grandparents house. When I was a kid, my dad and my grandpa called that reef \u2018the garden\u2019 because they would go diving there to get lobsters and fish. They called it the garden because there are a lot of fish out there, so don\u2019t you think the apex predator would be hanging out somewhere near the garden? They\u2019re everywhere now. They bit some lady\u2019s leg off a few weeks ago, and she ended up having to have it amputated. They\u2019re caught on film jumping out of the water at Trestles on the Surfline camera, so I surf with two big knives in my wetsuit, <\/span>because what happens if I get scared and drop the first one?<\/p>\n
[Laughs] Another good point.<\/strong><\/p>\n
I still surf a lot at night by myself.<\/p>\n
Why do you like to surf by yourself?<\/strong><\/p>\n
Well, because you shouldn\u2019t have to talk grown men into having fun. By the time I talk them into going out, which could take a few hours, the conditions change. I used to be really scared of sharks, but I\u2019ve risked my life in so many other ways by now, that I don\u2019t think a shark is going to kill me. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s how I\u2019m going to go.<\/p>\n
You can see them coming, right?<\/strong><\/p>\n
No. When they attack you, they come from below, so you never see it. They come from below you and they come straight up and they hit you and they don\u2019t miss. They\u2019re so close to shore nowadays, so that\u2019s a huge difference between surfing and <\/span>skating. You might run into a land shark on your skateboard, or police or whatever, and they\u2019re scary, but they ain\u2019t that scary.<\/p>\n
Do you wear shark repellant or do you have one of those little anti-shark <\/span>wristband things or whatever?<\/strong><\/p>\n
That shit don\u2019t work. What I have is fluorescent-colored equipment. Most things in nature that are poisonous have fluorescent colors. They did some study and it actually works better than those shark repellant things. Not only that, the last thing someone sees is a flash of fluorescent color before they get run over. In other words, it\u2019s like, \u201cGet the fuck out of the way because I\u2019m poisonous!\u201d So back to surf skate style, I just went and rode my skateboard and my surfboard. I would go down a hill looking at the hill like a wave. I would ride around on my surfboard and look for ramps. You\u2019d hear surfers talking like, \u201cOh, look at that ramp.\u201d Well, I was one of the first people looking at it like that.<\/p>\n
What you did is insane, and I love that your dad was like, \u201cDon\u2019t listen to what people are saying.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n
My dad was the only one behind me on this thing.<\/p>\n
Which is nuts because as a skateboarder, watching you surf, it makes full sense to me. I don\u2019t understand why anyone would want to hold that progression back.<\/strong><\/p>\n
It\u2019s because there was a certain hierarchy in <\/span>surfing. The companies like Gotcha and Quiksilver, are the ones that sponsored the contests and put the ads in the magazines and paid the surfers. If, all of a sudden, Herbie\u2019s kid comes out and is doing stuff that none of those guys could do, then where does that leave the whole industry?<\/p>\n
So you were basically better than  <\/span>everyone and they couldn\u2019t deal with it.<\/strong><\/p>\n
Well, I wasn\u2019t necessarily better. I was different. I was doing stuff they couldn\u2019t do though, yes. I was doing things differently and the kids thought it was cool. So where does that leave the whole  <\/span>industry? They had to persecute me or I would have fucked up the whole rotation. At the end of the day, I\u2019ve pulled a lot of emotion out of people. They\u2019re never going to forget me. I\u2019ve got a lot of lovers and I\u2019ve got even more haters. That means I\u2019m doing something right.<\/p>\n
Wait. You\u2019re in Japan right now. What are you looking forward to doing over there?<\/strong><\/p>\n
Partying! Japan has a huge surf skate scene.<\/p>\n
They love you, huh?<\/strong><\/p>\n
Not only do they love me, aside from my dad, Japan stuck behind me. They\u2019re an extreme culture. Nisi was the epitome of surf skate.<\/p>\n
I miss that guy.<\/strong><\/p>\n
I\u2019ve got a bunch of pictures of me going to the <\/span>hospital when he lost his foot, and bringing him a plunger all wrapped up nicely in a package. I was like, \u201cI got you a present.\u201d I thought he was going to throw it at me for sure, but he opened it up and said, \u201cOh, I\u2019ve been looking all over for one of these.\u201d Have you seen the \u201cFarewell, Nisi\u201d video that RVCA did? My friend gave me a hit of acid and I had to get up and do public speaking at Nisi\u2019s <\/span>funeral. We rolled a joint with his bones in it and smoked it. Then we found an abandoned boat and towed it out and threw some of his ashes in the water and when we got back to the beach, the boat was gone. It disappeared. We left some of his ashes in the boat, so we figured he\u2019s still in that boat cruising around fucking with people. Check out the video. It\u2019s on YouTube, if you want to watch it. It\u2019s pretty cool. If you guys need anything else, just give me a call.<\/p>\n
Thanks. We want to do everything we can to support you.<\/strong><\/p>\n
Cool. I appreciate it. I\u2019m stoked to be a part of things because you guys are the only independent skateboard magazine. The other ones are all corporate. You guys are still more of a zine feel. You guys are real. Those guys are corporate. Terri has done a hell of a job hanging in there. I respect that.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve got mad respect for you too.<\/strong><\/p>\n
If there\u2019s anything I can do to help you guys out too, I\u2019m stoked. I hope you guys are around for the long haul.<\/p>\n
Thanks man. I\u2019m stoked to talk to you.<\/strong><\/p>\n
Right on, Dan. Tell Terri bye. Have a good one. I\u2019ll send you some stuff from the road while I\u2019m out.<\/p>\n
That would be sick!<\/strong><\/p>\n
Okay cool. Right on. Take it easy.<\/p>\n
\"\"
Christian Fletcher – Clair’s Ramp, Brick, New Jersey, 1991. Photo \u00a9 Mark Sullivan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
JUICE MAGAZINE SURF SKATE STYLE STORY:<\/b><\/p>\n
The influence of surfing on skateboarding has been discussed since the beginning of both, yet we have now entered a new era, where skateboarding has returned the favor with its own unique influence on the surfing world. In order to get to the core of this cross over and to try to define the origins and current state and status of surf skate style, we\u2019ve interviewed some of the most innovative skateboarders, surfers, artists, documentarians, photographers, filmmakers and musicians on the planet. In honor of the great, Shogo Kubo, who once said, \u201cTo me, style is everything…\u201d welcome to our exploration of Surf Skate Style featuring interviews with Aaron Murray, Aaron Astorga, Abraham Paskowitz, Art Brewer, Bennett Harada, Brad Bowman, Brandon Cruz, Brian Brannon, Carter Slade, Chris Miller, Chris Strople, Christian Fletcher, Christian Hosoi, Craig Stecyk III, Darren Ho, Dave Tourje, David Hackett, Dennis Martinez, Dibi Fletcher, Don Redondo, Eric Britton, Garrett McNamara, Gerry Lopez, Glen E. Friedman, Greg Falk, Greg Galbraith, Greyson Fletcher, Herbie Fletcher, James O\u2019Mahoney, Jef Hartsel, Jeff Ament, Jeff Divine, Jeff Ho, Jim Fitzpatrick, Jim Gray, John Van Hamersveld, Jonathan Paskowitz, Josh \u201cBagel\u201d Klassman, Kalani David, Keith Morris, Kirra Kehoe, Larry Bertlemann, Laura Thornhill, Lizzie Armanto, Marc Emond, Michael Denicola, Michael Early, Nano Nobrega, Nathan Fletcher, Nathan Florence, Neil Stratton, Norton Wisdom, Pat Bareis, Randy Katen, Ray Flores, Rob Nelson, Robert Trujillo, Scott Oster, Shane Allen, Shaun Tomson, Shota Kubo, Solo Scott, Stacy Peralta, Steve Alba, Steve Olson, Takuji Masuda, Terry Nails, Tim Curran, Tim Hendricks, Tim Kerr, Tom Groholski, Tony Alva, Wes Humpston and Zach Miller.<\/p>\n
FOR THE REST OF THE STORY, ORDER ISSUE #75 AT THE JUICE SHOP\u2026<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SURF SKATE STYLE WITH CHRISTIAN FLETCHER. INTERVIEW BY DAN LEVY. PHOTOS BY HERBIE FLETCHER AND MARK SULLIVAN.   What\u2019s new, man? What is that noise? Are you in the bathtub? Yeah. There\u2019s nothing like a Japanese bathtub. They\u2019re short, but deep. [Laughs] What are you doing in Japan? I\u2019m with my dad. My dad has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70195,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4027,4028,4041,4042],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-interviews","category-skate-2","category-surf-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/30-Christian-Fletcher-Mark-Sullivan-scaled.jpg","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70194"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70821,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70194\/revisions\/70821"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}