Chad Benson Still Going Strong at 50 years Young (Dec. 2025)

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(Excerpts from full interview) 

So you’ve done a lot of video parts. How do you think your skating has evolved?

I think I’m jaded and old and I don’t give a shit what anyone else wants to see. I don’t think along the lines of, “Man, I hope these people like this.” And I think it took me a while to get there...  I was like, “This part’s going to be the part that I want to film for me.” 

So what’s the difference between filming a part when you’re 25 versus when you’re approaching 50?

This question is awesome because Benji and I would have this discussion every time we went filming. The biggest difference, and it’s so funny, is for one, it takes longer to warm up, right? Once you get warmed up, I’m fine. The other problem is you don’t have the stamina to keep [trying something] as long. So you have to get to work and try to land it, otherwise, you’ll run out of juice. There were days where I just ran out of juice and I just said, “I’m done. I’m not gonna fight it.” And you can get injured easier, right? When you’re older, your body doesn’t have the elasticity it used to have. So you know you can get hurt. You can feel the muscles starting to get tight and you just say, “You know what, I’m done.”

You made sure everyone who you wanted a guest trick from had a guest trick in the part– why did that matter so much?

Because that’s the whole reason we all skate! It’s the friends, it’s the relationships that it builds, that’s the whole point of us skateboarding: you get to meet the best people through skateboarding. I don’t think everybody loves skateboarding because they’re like, “Oh, I like how I can grind.” It’s the relationships. You meet people and you have experiences with people and skateboarding is just a vehicle, literally, to taking trips and being around your friends and creating memories. So all the people who are in it I’ve been skating with at least 20 years.

What’s your favorite trick that you’ve ever done?

The switch tail down Hubba is up there, it has to be mentioned. The switch flip backtail on the kinked ledge at MCTC is up there. It was a hard spot to skate. Speaking of that, fakie tre flip on the Steep Bank of Doom has to be up there. That was a battle. Another one that stands out, this goes back to Benji, we were filming for Weekend Warriors. I was laying in bed and I had an idea for a trick, that’s right when I started getting into the combo tricks … I thought of the one at the rec center in St. Louis Park, the noseblunt on the inside of the ledge to blunt on the outside.

Read the FULL Chad Benson INTERVIEW @ Chad Benson: He’s 50! - Village Psychic by Mike Muzenrider> Instagram 

Filmed and Edited by Benji Meyer> Instagram 

Art Direction by Todd Bratrud> Instagram 

As we’re all well familiar, skate spots lead cyclical lives — a spot that’s good to go one month might then be off limits for another 4 months, only to be unknobbed and gloriously skateable for several months after that.

The ledges outside of the US Bank building (formerly the Pilsbury Building) are one such spot. Upon hearing that it was once again a ‘go’, we knew what to do: hit up Steve Nesser to film an installment of Can You Repeat That?.  *Note: this is somehow the first piece of content we’ve published with Steve. We’re still scratching our heads on that one.  

We returned to the recently unknobbed ledges to recreate a line Steve filmed 23 years prior in Fobia "Joy & Pain" (2001), a video that helped usher him and fellow Minnesota natives Clint Peterson, Emeric Pratt and Seth McCallum into the spotlight. We spent the day playing cat-and-mouse with security, dodging Vikings fans (SKOL!), and getting a history lesson on Minnesota skateboarding from the early aughts. 

Filmed by Kevin Horn and Village Psychic 

Edited by Village Psychic

Check out more of Village Psychic's vlogs & blogs @ VILLAGE PSYCHIC 

After IOTA, Emeric was quickly picked up by Consolidated and swiftly put out this banger skate part.