Chad Bartie: "I have a flat, long foot like a flipper"

Thrasher Magazine, Dec, 2003 by Michael Burnett

So Chad, y'all healed up after this massive injury?

Yes.

What happened to you?

Just folded my ankle very badly. I think I separated my ankle.

So it was just dangling off your foot?

I folded my leg outwards, then something popped and I felt it go out and come back in. It didn't feel good. I had no strength. I felt like it was just dangling.

Oh, man. So is this the worst one?

This is the worst one, ever, for me.

'Cause I would reckon as a kid you were one of those kids that would never get hurt, no matter what. Like the indestructible child.

I was always stretchy--I always could bend and just get out of things--hut over the years it's catching up to me.

How tall are you?

I'm six-two.

What kind of puddle jumpers are you walking in? How big are your feet?

Size 13. I have a flat, long foot like a flipper. Some of my friends call me--that's my nickname, Flipper. But it never really stuck.

You've been skating your whole life? There's always been skateboards in the house, fight?

No. At first me and my brother were BMX. Then at eight I started getting into skateboarding--so yeah, more than half my life.

Describe the area that you grew up in.

Gold Coast, Australia is a real beachy area. Pretty much the surf capital of Australia. It's all about surfing and it's a real beach sorta city. It's not really even a city; it's like a long town that runs along the coastline. A lot of skateparks. There is a city one hour north of us, which is Brisbane.

So you surfed right from the beginning too?

I actually never liked surfing for some reason. When I went to high school I was always the only skateboarder. A couple of my friends did it as a hobby kind of thing, but I was the only one that was really fully into it at school. The people I skated with were always six- to 10-years older than me; my brother's age. I was always the little grommet skating with the older guys.

Were they always cool about letting you come along?

Well, my parents were always strict about who I went with. If they were a little bit sketchy they were like, "No," but my mum and dad always took me and my brother, always supported us.

Do you ever remember a situation when you were the little kid being around the older skaters, and getting kind of freaked out?

No. I was kind of like the cocky little shit. I was the little guy that would jump off a bigger roof than any of the other guys. My goal was always to try and keep up with the older guys or out-do them.

A lot of the kids like that--like Danny Way, who was so good at an early--age get a bad reputation. Did you ever have that, where people thought you were a show-off?

My dad always tried to keep me straight. My dad's a big man so I never messed with him. I'm sure sometimes I did, but my dad and my brother always kept me straight.

You've got something unique that most pro skaters don't have--you've got your own truck company in Australia. What's that all about?

It's my brother's whole doing, I'm just sort of there to help with design ideas for it. It's just based in Australia; we keep it in Australia. It's a good truck. We're coming out with a new one, a better and improved one. We're always improving, 'cause it's never right the first time.

It seems like making a truck is a real hard thing to do.

It is. Dealing with any kind of metal, it's just hard to get the hardnesses and the angles fight, the molds right. It's just a long, tedious effort. So, struggle if you will.

Is surfing in Australia--there's a lot of sharks, right? Have you seen any sharks?

Yeah, I've seen sharks. I get out of the water straight away. Actually one morning--'cause my whole family used to surf, my mum boogie boarded, my dad surfed and my brother surfed--me and my mum saw a fin and it wasn't a dolphin, because dolphins go up and down and sharks go side to side. Me and my mum hopped out and we didn't tell my dad and brother 'cause they were further down the beach. So when they got borne we let them know, and they were kind of pissed at us.

What was your first trip to the US?

First trip was just a holiday trip with my family, which is when I was probably 13. That was just for two weeks, and I went to Del Mar to skate and they wouldn't let me skate 'cause I was too young. You had to be 14 or something, and I was 12 or 13. So I'm glad I got to see it at least, but I nearly cried that day when I couldn't skate. Anyway, then for just proper skating was with Matt Mumford with I was 15. We both rode for Chapter 7, which was Mike McGill's company. We came out and stayed with him for a little bit, and from there that's just when it all--we just kept coming back and forth from Australia to America.

What company did you eventually turn pro for?.

Well, from Chapter 7 it was Foundation for a bit, Birdhouse for a bit, and then New Deal was the first company I turned pro for. I stuck with them until recently, until the dissolve of the company, and now I'm just freelance.

How's Matt's band shaping up?

I have no idea. I get a preview tonight.

I know you probably tour more than most skaters. You're on the road a lot.