Chris Haslam (skateboarder)

Chris Haslam

Chris Haslam in 2011
Personal information
Birth name	Chris Haslam
Born	(1980-12-19) December 19, 1980 (age 36) Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada
Sport
Country	Canada
Sport	Skateboarding

Chris Haslam (born December 19, 1980) is a Canadian professional skateboarder whose natural stance is "goofy". He is recognized as an innovative skateboarder whose skateboarding is defined by creativity and progression.

When he was 11 years of age, Haslam relocated to Singapore with his parents. Haslam's family returned to Canada for a year in 1996, living in Komoka, and Haslam attended St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Secondary School in London, Ontario.

Haslam's interest in skateboarding began in November 1993, prior to his thirteenth birthday, and his first skateboard deck was from the Santa Cruz company. The first skateboard trick that Haslam learned was a 'kickflip'.

While residing in Singapore, Haslam entered his first skateboard contest alongside his brother. The contest was a mini-ramp contest and Haslam eventually achieved fourth place after initially tying for third place with his brother. Haslam explained in an interview: "I think they couldn’t give the trophy out to two dudes though, so I guess they put me in fourth place, so I ended up with that."

Haslam's first ever magazine cover photograph was for the publication, Concrete Powder—the photograph was taken at the University of British Columbia (UBC). Haslam head was shaved in the image, and he is executing an ollie, a trick in which the skateboard is elevated by manipulating the skateboard deck with the feet only.

Following his promotion to professional status, Haslam received his first signature skateboard model and described the design process in a magazine interview with the SBC Skateboard magazine:

I had two at the same time. One was the rocker dude, who was all white, with pink and blue and had spandex pants on and Van Halen tee ... Then there was another one—the Grizzly Haslam. My friend Mark Anderson wrote up this whole thing on why, for my first graphic, is should be the Grizzly Haslam. He made his own little graphic of this man with a bear and had all these photos of Grizzly Adams and a bear. We weren’t really feeling the board graphic on either of them so we just took one of the photos that he sent us, and it was five or 10 minutes before we had to send it in, so it was like “Shit, what are we going to do?” So we just put it on there, and we had this crazy photo of my face that we shot on there and it looked Photoshopy. I think that was one of my best boards that I ever had, it was pretty sick.