We caught up with local boy Chris Da Canha from Durban who has been ripping lately! He loves his skating, skimboarding and punk rock! Arrive at any Durban playground and you’re likely to see Chris either jumping around to some mad ska tunes or running down the beach and busting some sick skim moves!
1) How many extreme sports do you participate in?
Extreme sports? Makes it sound so hardcore! My first love is Skating, which was the first boardsport I got into. I also dig surfing, and the most recent “extreme sport” i’ve been hitting is skimboarding with my mates.
2) How does proper sick skimboarding actually work?
Proper sick skimboarding works thus: With a finely crafted skimboard, you run along the beach, straight at the on coming shorebreak, get onto the board (stand up) in which ever way you can, riding out to the closest wave (which will hopefully be curling just in front of where you’re going to turn), then you have to wrap, which is basically like doing a big carve or snap on a surfboard, and riding back in, with maybe a shove-it or a tube to end off the wave. To get onto the board, you can either drop the board on the saturated sand or shallow water (which is my preffered method) or you can bust the Run On Board (R.O.B.) method. Here, you hold onto the board, place it in front of you in the shallow water, and only remove you hands from the rails when you have firmly planted your feet. It’s not as hard as it sounds…
3) Do you think Jesus would surf, skate, skim, or rock out with some ska tunes if he were around today?
I kinda like to think Jesus would be a surfer. I can imagine an effortless and aesthetic style. Surfers are usually calmer, or more at peace than skaters. And I don’t know any other skimboards other than the scooter-skim team, so I couldn’t really call Jesus a skimmer. So yeah a surfer. Is this borderline sacriledge?
4) How did you come to know about God?
I grew up (am growing up) in a home where there was (is) a knowledge of- and a faith in God, but without much parctice or focus on the Word or any of that. My older brother got saved and started hitting Sonsurf meetings, when I was like 11 or 12. He invited me to a Sonsurf camp at Pennington, which is on the south coast of Durban, when I was 13 (in my first year of highschool). I went with a few mates, and on the first night, the preacher (I think it was Steve Gray) spoke about being on this side of the fence or that side (or wall or bridge, I’m sure you’ve heard that one, who hasn’t?). Anyway, my mates and I ended up giving our lives. Brett Edy and my brother prayed for me, and that was that!
5) What is your favourite surf, skim, or skate trick?
Jeepers. Favorite surf trick would probably be those air to lipslide vibes, where the lip of the wave is used like coping (hey, i’m a skater!)
Best skate trick would be this one thing I saw years ago one one of the early Europe videos I think. Jason Ellis busted a kick-flip back-flip nose grab Christ air! And this is like late 90’s! The vid closed the scene with a still frame of him upside down in the air, fully stretched out, busting like a quasi-crucifix, grabbing the nose of his board. Truly amazing. Favorite skim trick would have to be probably a wrap to barrel, with a shove-it thrown in just before you get covered up.
6) Who are your current sponsors?
Currently, my only sponsor is Handsdown clothing.
7) Tell us a bit about Handsdown. What makes them better than other labels?
Handsdown is the (relatively) new kid on the block in regard to the manufacture of quality, locally-produced clothing, and more recently, skimboards. They get all their clothing production done in South Africa under free and fair conditions (i.e. no sweatshops), and they produce the highest quality goods they can. If they’ve made it, they’d wear it, or something like that. They are also the frist guys in South Africa to produce high quality/technologically advanced skimboards, which both ride extremely well, and can take the the level of abuse we put them through. I guess what makes them better than other labels is that they don’t rely on cheap, thrifty imports to survive, and in every way possible they base their business practices on scripture. To roughly repeat what one of the owners said about this, is that it may not be the easiest way to run a business, but there is no other way they’d rather do it. I think that’s pretty rad.
8) What is the biggest thing you’ve ever done in your life?
The biggest thing? Like trick-wise? Or by the measurement of Kurick’s? Uh, trick-wise, the best skating trick I’ve ever done, is a toss-up (in my view) between a kickflip indy grab over a 5ft spine ramp, or a fakie full-cab heelflip rock. Or something like that. Kurick-wise, i’d say about 12.
9) What kind of music do you like and which bands are ripping in your opinion?
The kind of music I dig the most and listen to the most, is punk rock and ska, and any cross-over inbetween. Some bands which I think really rip are: Dogwood, Five Iron Frenzy, Streetlight Manifesto, Millencolin, Pennywise, RX Bandits and Mad Caddies (I tell strangers every day that I got to see Mad Caddies play live). Flogging Molly, Rise Against, and Face To Face are also really cool.
10) Any words for the folks out there?
“Feel the
power of the PHANTOM MULLET,
Tremble and cower from the PHANTOM MULLET,
White metal burn of the PHANTOM MULLET,
Combed straight or permed it’s THE PHANTOM MULLET,
And you, cutting it short on top,
I want that for me.
Growing it long in the back,
So savage and so free.” – Five Iron Frenzy