The Chrome Ball Incident – Jeremy Wray

The Chrome Ball Incident continues its always enjoyable series of interviews with a banger, as it catches up with big gap and stair innovator Jeremy Wray. From his time with Blockhead through to Plan B and then Element, this one marks off the years via the medium of the downright gnarliness that Jeremy has committed to film over the years. NBD’s at the Gonz Gap, the San Diego Sports Arena Triple Set and the Santa Monica Triple Set, plus of course the iconic water tower gap ollie which graced the November 1997 cover of Thrasher, Jeremy has undoubtedly left a large mark on skateboarding’s history by dint of putting his life on the line regularly.

Click on either the photo or text to be taken through to the interview, then scroll further still to watch the water tower ollie – because all these years later, it’s still fucking mental…

“But you weren’t popping flatground ollies up there beforehand, were you?

I’m not sure… I don’t think so. That was all real early in the morning but we were skating so much back then, I didn’t have to do much to warm up. I was just always ready to go.

I had gone up there beforehand to check out how far it was. Because you couldn’t really tell from the ground. It looks smaller from the street, but once you get up there and walk to the edge… oh man, it’s the most frightening thing you’ve ever seen. I really had to wrap my head around everything and know it was possible.

The mental thing is that the wall seemingly gets farther away as you’re coming at it, full-speed. And you can’t stop. That was the craziest thing I’ve ever had to deal with.”