Ever since he jumped on the scene, Chris Troy has been a pleasure to watch skate. To judge a book by its cover you'd never expect Troy to be such a techie rail skater. He flips into and spins off of big ole 12-stairs rails like it's a knee high ledge. Recently Troy had a minute-plus of footage leaked onto the internet that was meant to be a Gold Wheels intro, but it quickly got a buzz and instantly put Troy back on the map. ESPN.com caught up with Troy to talk cars, shoes, Black Label and how he's lucky to be alive to enjoy all of it.
ESPN.com: What are you up to, Chris?
Troy: Currently I'm running some ignition wires on my '67 El Camino that are being kind of fussy. The last guy who wired it, who I got the car from, did some hodgepodge work and things are kind of sketchy. One minute I have ignition and it turns over and then you go to try it ten minutes later and I don't so somewhere there's a bug in one of the ignition wires from the key switch to the ignition box.
And you just dropped a new motor in it too?
Yeah, I've been working at my dad's buddy's, Gale Harlow's shop -- Midwest Auto Repair. He used to work at General Motors and grew up all around this stuff in Detroit so he's the hot rod god and he's been teaching me stuff. A year ago my motor died when a washer fell into the air cleaner stud. I fired it up and didn't know it fell in, so it was sucked into the cylinder. I've been working under him to pay off engine parts so I can build a new motor.
How did you get into cars in the first place?
My dad. He had a bunch of cars: El Caminos, Camaros, etc... He was the class of '69 so he grew up all around that stuff and he worked at all the dealerships.
You see yourself leaning towards auto mechanics after skateboarding?
At some point, yeah. That's why I'm trying to learn as much as possible now. And I like doing this stuff so I might as well. But I've been learning other stuff too. My dad lives on a country club so we've been fixing lawn mowers, pump houses that pump all the water on the golf course, fixing gold carts and anything that breaks, we fix.
Aside from messing with the car, what else have you been up to?
I've been trying to skate a bunch but lately I've just been trying to get my car done. Black Label is working on a promo video, a 10-15 minute little thing. We're hopefully finishing it by the end of this month.
Do you have a bunch of footage for that? You just dropped that web clip?
That was supposed to be my Gold intro video and something happened and it got released before the Gold stuff for my wheel came out. So now we have to figure something else out for the Gold Wheel. But that part was only a minute and twenty seconds. I still have some other footage that I've been saving for Lucero.
I talked to Omar Hassan for his Vans Rider Week and he said there's a bunch of changes in art direction happening at Label.
John is going to be doing a lot more of the artwork but aside from that we're just gonna keep on keeping on. That's why John wants to get this promo video out because it feels like we haven't done anything for a while. That's why I'm trying to get this car done and get some final clips for him. I've been here at the shop 9am to 9pm every day for a week straight. Other than the car and skating I've been fishing a bunch. I got a kayak. When I hurt my spleen I started fishing in the ocean a lot because I couldn't do anything else so now I'm on full blown 6am missions in the harbor in my kayak -- it's so fun.
What the hell did you do to your spleen?
That was over a year ago, last March, I broke it in half. I almost died in the hospital. If I didn't go to hospital when I did I would have died in my sleep that night. I was internally bleeding out and I didn't know. There's a video of it on Transworld. I went to check out this square, sketchy, 13-stair rail. I boardslid it a couple times and then I went to feeble it.. I got in a boardslide and locked up my wheel in the lower part and got Superman'd to the flat bottom. I put my arm down and my elbow jacked into my side and that's what hurt my spleen. It was nasty. I didn't know it happened. I'm still paying for that medical debt. I still owe them four grand. I had insurance but my deductible is a couple thousand. But if I wouldn't have had that I'd owe like $175,000.
Damn! You can't afford to get hurt in this country! I remember you filmed that "Barefoot in the Park" clip at The Berrics after everything happened with Adio. Have you been getting shoes form anyone since then?
Yeah, Justin Regan has been hooking me up with some Vans. I'm super stoked to be able to rock Vans -- they're so good. I've been trying to get stuff done to show them that I'm not a pile.
Looks like you're getting it done.
I'm trying.
