chrome ball interview #8: chima ferguson (2010)

Hey there, 

I caught up with Chima for more conversation in 2024. 

You should really read that one instead. 

You can find it here. 

=O =O =O

chrome ball sits down with real's newest pro for conversation.

First things first, if you had to choose between dressing up as any of these options for a Real team graphic series, what would it be: Elvis, a bunny, a fairy or a viking? (I know it’s a ridiculous question, but this shit has happened before.)

Definitely Elvis… Yeah, I love Elvis.

Good answer though I'd probably go with the rabbit. Alright, how’d you first start skating and what was your first set-up?

My brother started skating and I used to do whatever he did. I was young and looked up to him so I got myself a skateboard and started skating. The first board I ever had was this one from K-Mart with plastic trucks and all that… just a regular cheap board. But the first real board I ever had would’ve been like a third-hand Chad Muska board. His Shorty’s board.

Who were some of your favorite dudes growing up?

I always liked Geoff Rowley and obviously Muska. He’s like the ultimate legend. I like people that push it and skate pretty crazy

Now what’s up with your board, man? Your first pro model. You psyched?

Yeah, definitely. They're giving a bunch of boards to my friends back home so I’m pretty psyched on that. And the party is in a few days and they haven’t told me what’s exactly gonna happen so I guess there's some kind of surprise involved.

Now, are you gonna save all your boards as they come out or you gonna act too cool for now and pay triple the cost for them off eBay twenty years from now?

Nah, I’ll probably save one or two of every board I get now… that way when I get old, I can show my kids that I used to skate and reminisce on that kind of stuff.

Real has a long history of putting out some very personal graphics that the pros obviously felt very deeply about… like Jim’s Hanging Klansman or Tommy’s Native American tributes. Any future plans for specific graphics you have in mind?

I haven’t had time to think too much about it but for my graphics, I definitely want to do some things that Real doesn’t normally do. Try to be different. I want to have some different input into the team and a lot more of my own input into my graphics instead of having other people do it for me. I definitely like old school tattoos... the Virgin Mary and devils and all kinds of weird stuff.



Now you’re originally from Sydney, right? Are you still living over there now or are you making your way to the States?

I have a work visa for a year. I have the Vans video coming up also so I guess I’m gonna be over here for a while. But its tough cause I like my footage to be Australian spots instead of your standard California stuff that you see in all the videos.

So what is one thing Americans have all wrong about the Australian scene?

Well, a lot of people have never been to Australia so they think that it’s a wild jungle place with a lot of crazy animals. I live in a city where you never really come across snakes and kangaroos.

On the flipside, what was something that really surprised about skating in the United States when your first came over?

In LA, it’s all the driving that you have to do. When I’m back in Sydney, all I do is meet up with my friends and just skate around the city and all that good stuff. In LA, we have to drive out to the suburbs in all these cars. There’s way more driving.

Another thing is that over here, it’s a lot more serious. I’ll come out here to a skate contest or something, there’s all these people there and it seems really serious… it gives me anxiety. There’s all these vibes… its just skateboarding.


What spot did you want to skate the most when you first came here?

The first time I came out, we went from LA to Las Vegas and I was psyched to see Hollywood High and Beverly Hills High. It was pretty cool.

What spot stands out as one that you really wanted to hit when you were planning your trip back in Australia but once you got to the spot in America, it sucked?

Not one in particular. I just remember a lot of the spots looking much smaller than I expected them to be. Sometimes things look a lot bigger in footage. Kind of a reality check, I suppose.

What do you have in store for us in the highly-anticipated Real video? Is your turning pro gonna add anymore pressure to it? The "Lost Days" leaked so far have been sick…

No, not necessarily. A couple of years ago, I thought it was gonna be a pretty serious thing turning pro but after being around a few pros, you realize that you’re still just gonna go out and skate like everyone else does. All you really have to do is skate and hope there’s someone there with a camera, I suppose.

A lot of times I’ll think about it and be like “whoa, this is kinda crazy” but then again at the same time, its just doing what you want to do. No need for more pressure added.

Now is there at least a tentative release date on that thing yet? ... to at least give us a little bit of false hope before the inevitable delay?

The deadline’s been pushed back a couple of times but its currently in August and its supposed to drop in September.


Hope you’re right. Now you touched on this earlier… one thing that I’ve always enjoyed about your parts is that your locale allowed you to showcase spots that we never see in videos. Now that your spending more time over in America, are we gonna have to see you skating the same old spots that we always see everybody else skating and getting kicked out of?

Well, it will be a bit just because I’m gonna be in the States more than normal but at the same time, a lot of it was already filmed back in Oz so I’m pretty psyched on the mix.

You and Pfanner seem pretty close and now you guys are turning pro together. Does this is add to the experience and helps you cope with shit cause you know he’s going through the same stuff too?

It definitely takes more of the pressure off. He totally deserves that “pro status” or whatever. I see how he’s doing it and he’s just doing what he loves and is being cool about it so I’m just gonna try and be the same way so it won’t be that big of a deal.

You guys just entered your first pro contest the other day at Maloof. How was that?

It was good. I was kinda freaked out about that contest cause I don’t really do contests that often but Chris and Trapasso were in the same heat as me. It was good to skate with people that I know instead of some crazy machine with a skateboard.

Contests don’t mean shit but that contest was a little different… quite a few heavies in there that normally don’t enter those things. Did you have fun out there in the heat?

Yeah, it would’ve been better if they had the contest at night. During the day, it was just way too hot. I kinda got heat stroke. I’m not that into skating and competing but its good for Volcom and Vans to have their skateboarders out there and I want to do right by them. Its all good.


Give us your best Dustin Dollin story.

Damn… there’s so many of them. They’re all pretty wild… he walked into our hotel room randomly the other night. We just happened to be staying next door to him and he got lucky.

Which hairy dude is the more beloved treasure from down under: Richie Jackson or Lee Ralph?

Everyone loves Lee. He’s from New Zealand… He’s the nicest guy.

Favorite Shane Cross memory?

I remember the first time we were in New York together, KCDC got us on the list for some party. We had no idea what it was for but we got there and Jay-Z was there and Kanye were there… There were all these famous people and then there was us… just two random Australian kids. We didn’t really know what to do so we started drinking champagne and eating all their five-star food.

We got a taxi back to Brooklyn and I threw up all over the taxi. And when we got out, Shane started fighting with the taxi driver. He was so drunk that he actually thought the taxi owed HIM money… It was so funny.

We woke up the next day and we were about to leave the house and I was like, “Shane, your hair!” I remember one side of his hair just being completely solid with vomit. Definitely a good memory.

Super good. Anything else you’d like to add? Seems like you got a lot of stuff coming up this summer…

Yeah, I’m just gonna keep on doing whatever I’m doing and have a good time while I’m doing it.

Special Thanks to Chima and Deluxe.

Chrome Ball will return on Friday.