The Motivation 2.0: Real American Skater: The Chris Cole Story

Chris Cole:
It took two years to actually convince my mother to buy me a skateboard because she was an ICU nurse and she was afraid I'd get hurt.

Jennifer Cole:
You know, we didn't know much about skateboarding then. It hadn't become mainstream. It was just, sort of, what the surfers did when there wasn't a decent surf.

Jennifer Cole:
I remember he was six when he first asked for one. I said, 'no, you can't have a skateboard, those things are dangerous!'

Jason Fahnestock:
For a long time, he just skated by himself out front. And he used to tell me that he thought he invented every trick.

Rodney Mullen:
So I get this guy is skating and I start talking to him and I realize, man he just loves skateboarding so much. He's just going after it. Whatever the case, you point me to it, I'm going after it type of thing.

Bam Margera:
I think Chris Cole's main skater that he looked up to was Rodney Mullen. And Rodney Mullen gave the poor decision to give Chris Cole his phone number.

Bam Margera:
They were the rippers of that time and before it was like, New York and DC were the hot spots of the East Coast. But because of Love, Philly became the main East Coast skate mecca.

Rob Dyrdek:
To find one that has perfect ledges, ledges off stairs, a hand rail, a legendary gap. You know, like, there's so many aspects of Love Park that basically became one of the world's greatest natural street skate parks. Ultimately, it was enough to create an entire culture of its own around it.

Jennifer Cole:
We had a rule that because skateboarding is noisy, the sound of the impact is noisy, he was not permitted to skate before 9:00 in the morning or after 9:00 at night.

Rodney Mullen:
This is what I recall. And again, when I talked to Chris and though I hadn't met him, we pick up a lot pretty quickly because we share so much, right? So I'd get the occasional calls from Chris and he'd be lit up, talking about what he did and I would get flashbacks of, 'man this is what I lived for when I would make a trick.' And I tried to feed that the best I could because I knew how important it was for me.

Tony Hawk:
Love Park became a hub of East Coast talent. You know, and a lot of things were measured by what you could do at Love Park on what obstacle.

Bam Margera:
They call Philly the city of brotherly love, but I beg to differ.

Chris Cole:
It's easy to make up reasons to hate somebody. You know? Especially when they're good.

Jamie Thomas:
I kind of took a leap of faith in the sense that, a couple of the team riders weren't really feeling it and I was like, look I think this dude is one of the most talented skaters I've ever seen and he's a really cool dude. He was probably the first dude we put on Zero where we didn't get a unanimous vote.

Stevie Williams:
When I first discovered Love Park, it was about 50, maybe 60 skaters skating around. I didn't know what the hell they was doing. I didn't even know no tricks. I just was like, 'damn this is dope!' All different kind of races. And I was addicted. I mean, Love Park, you had to know people to go there and have fun. If you didn't know people, it wouldn't be fun for you.