Chris Chatt – All New!

Published on: 26th January, 2010

Last winter Chris Chatt got creative and gave himself a third knee. It could have been a career ending injury, but after a long recovery, he’s slowly getting back on it.

FoTP is stoked to see him back in the mix, and although he’s not 100% you can tell that one of the UK’s favourite rail riders will be soon. Enjoy our exclusive getting personal with Chris Chatt as he talks to us about the injury, recovery and getting back on the shred!

Big thanks to the photographers for allowing us to use the shots of Chris for this interview.

Welcome Chris! Let’s not mess about. It was a nasty injury, but we have to ask…how did it happen? Go on give us the details.

We were up in a tiny town called Mittenwald in Germany at a spot called the training rails, a 30 stair single down rail and an 18 stair down rail. The plan was to hit both in a row! So we started just warming up on the 18 stair rail with a few backside 50 50’s. I went to hit the rail frontside, but as I was approaching it was a bit too slow, so I just trailed of the take off to ride down the stairs, which I have done a million times before.

As I was on the stairs I started to go underneath the rail. The nose of my board hit me into the 1^st leg and threw me into the 3^rd leg of the rail hitting and snapping my femur in half!

I remember looking down as I hit the rail like it was slo-mo. I thought I hit my knee at first and thought “Oh f*ck no not the knee that takes so long to repair…”

So now I’m laying on the ground screaming my head off. I shunted forward to undo my bindings, stupid idea, but when you hurt yourself you don’t want to accept it, so you try an get up and walk it off. I soon realised that was too painful so Gary (Greenshields) helped out.

Everyone was rushing around me and Gary asked what made me think I had broken my leg. I went to lift it up and just saw a bump appear in the very top of my pants (the top of the break). Gary’s face went white and I shit bricks! Everyone panicked. I’m freaking, so I put my hands over my ears so I couldn’t hear all the noise, looked up at the sky and tried to calm myself down. My thoughts were – Oh you’ve f*cked it now, but at least my wrists are fine I can just play my guitar 24/7!

I was operated on in Garmisch hospital where they put a metal rod inside my bone running the length of the Femur with screws at each end. This has to stay in for a year, it’s taken out, then I’ve got 4 months before I can get back to proper snowboarding. 10 days in Garmisch then I was able to come home. Stoked!

We’ve heard that you’ve got pretty keen on the guitar since you haven’t been able to snowboard? Any riffs for your next film part in production? Do you think that has helped with your recovery, as it can get pretty boring when you’re injured.

Playing guitar has been the best thing since. I love playing and I always wished I had more time to play. So obviously not being able to shred for a year, I was like well I don’t need to spend all of my money on snowboard trips so I just went mad and bought 2 really rad guitars, a Marshall amp and distortion pedals and let rip! It sounds so amazing and I can’t put them down! Not sure if I’ll have any of my own riffs or songs in any snowboard movies, people aren’t to down with Medieval Heavy Metal, and Hair Metal tunes for snowboard parts!

What’s in store for Chris Chatt over this season then? Do you think that it’s going to be a quick fix to get back to the old ways, or are you going to take your time and keep it easy? Do you feel your confidence will be affected having spent such a long time not riding?

chatt_thumb_3 Most people ask if I’m going back to riding and am I going to be not as motivated. It didn’t take long, maybe 3 months, and I was like right this is enough, I need to go shredding now (obviously I couldn’t). I tried not to watch any snowboard movies or go on any snow websites just because it depressed me. It’s only recently I have got back on that flex. But I’m more motivated than ever right now to get rad. I have been thinking of some new rail stuff to do that hasn’t been done before and I just simply can’t wait to get back to the mountains.

I’m taking it slow though. As I still have the metal in my leg, I cant really hit big features, so I have just been cruising in SNO!zone and getting my legs back, but it feels good! I just wanna go and hit rails and do tranny finders, so its very frustrating at the same time.

Any ideas what’s the first trick that you are looking to get when your back on it? Anything in particular that you are looking forward to getting locked down again? And are there any tricks that you are looking to learn once you are back on it?

No there’s not really any particular trick I wanna do, I just want to tear around and not have to worry. If I see a gap, jump it, or if I see a tranny I can back flip out of, go and do it. I have some new rail combos too that I can’t wait to go and try.

I’m really looking forward to riding some pipe as well. People may be shocked to hear me say that. But I really enjoy it, airs and handplants. I also want to learn some upside down action the pipe, only in the spring slush sessions – pure goofballing!

Has your injury made you more determined to progress your riding, or are you looking to sit back and enjoy it a bit more? You’ve obviously had many experiences from snowboarding, but is there anything that you want to achieve more than before?

At first I just want to enjoy it with my mates and just feel really confident again. I’m in no rush to hit handrails for a while especially open ones where you can go underneath, f*ck that! Before I broke myself I was also competing in more rail contests and feeling good about those, so I definitely wanna get back on that boat. Film more video parts as well. I love filming. Its so much fun and seeing the end product is such a nice feeling.

The media side to snowboarding always plays a big part in a riders publicity for both yourself and your sponsors and last year you got some cracking shots for your sponsors. Are we going to seeing more of Chris Chatt in media spot light this season?

Not really this season because I only did a little bit of shooting before the accident. Next year I will also suffer because I’m not going to be able to shoot this season. Hopefully my sponsors understand that I’m not gonna have much coverage but I have some plans for when I’m up and running again. You’ll see.

Now you’ve had a chance to contemplate your time and experiences snowboarding, do you have any advice for others that experience injuries in their snowboarding?

I guess the best thing to say would be use your time wisely, but all I have done since being injured is play guitar, I could have done a lot of other stuff, for example the education route but I didn’t! Ha ha! I just played guitar and listened to more metal!

I have been hitting the gym hard which I didn’t before and would have never done, but now I’m much fitter than before and I feel fully ready for what snowboarding has in store for me when I’m back.

And finally, if you could have any 5 people in the world round for a dinner party who would it be?

Stewie Griffin, Eddie Van Halen, Derick Trotter, David Coverdale and Tom West. Now that’s Comedy!

Props to you Chris for taking the time for the interview, keeping it real and we’re looking forward to seeing you back on it asap!

Thanks FoTP, thank you to all my sponsors and to those who have really supported me during this time. Ride Snowboards, Vans, Dragon, Dalikfodda, SNO!zone, TSA and Airblaster.