Chad Muska

Chadcherch Michael Muska (born May 20, 1977) is an American professional skateboarder. Muska was inducted into the Skateboarding Hall of Fame in 2020.

Early life

Chad Muska was born in Lorain, Ohio to Joel Kevin Muska and Deborah Ann Muska. He has a sister, Lyndsey who is two years younger than him. His father was of Hungarian and Swedish ancestry and his mother is of Serbian ancestry. Muska first became interested in skateboarding as a young person following a relocation to Phoenix, Arizona, where his father was residing at the time. with very little money, a sketch book, and a portable cassette player to further pursue skateboarding and art.

After parting ways with Maple, Muska joined Toy Machine, which is prestigious among professional skateboarders. Muska became a leading member of the Toy Machine team, facilitating Elissa Steamer's sponsorship, and was a team member alongside Ed Templeton, Mike Maldonado, Jamie Thomas, and Brian Anderson.

Muska filmed for the Welcome to Hell video, a 1996 project primarily driven by Thomas, and he was expected to receive the highly regarded last part of the video. However, the video premiere was cancelled on the evening of, and his part was omitted from the public video release due to an altercation with both Templeton and Thomas that same night—a skull was placed over his face in the video case artwork.

1997–2005: Shorty's, Fulfill the Dream, Circa

Following the issues at Toy Machine, Muska joined the then-fledgling Shorty's brand. Muska was chosen to develop the Shorty's skateboard deck division and the company thrived as a result. He is popularly known for his part in the 1998 skateboarding video Fulfill The Dream, and he appeared in a total of four videos for the company.

Following his time with éS, Muska joined the C1RCA footwear team in 1999 as the first pro skater for C1RCA and released numerous signature shoe models with the brand. Models such as the "CM901" and "CM902" were promoted in magazine advertisements, and Muska also continued with the hidden "stash pocket" design feature that he utilized at éS. Thomas was also with the brand at this time, but the previous issues at Toy Machine had been resolved by this time. Muska parted ways with Circa in 2005.

2006–2012: Element, Supra, Skytop (I, II, III)

Muska then left Shorty's in early 2006, and selected Element Skateboards as his next skateboard deck sponsor in December. Following his move to Element, Muska stated, "I am very excited about joining the Element family! I look forward to this new chapter in my skateboarding career... And you can bet on it that we are going to make some big things happen." The company officially welcomed Muska with an advertisement in 2007 that featured a photograph of Muska performing a frontside flip on a street-based transitional structure—the byline for the promotion read "Welcome To The Family".

After he left C1RCA, Muska subsequently founded the Supra footwear company in 2006 with Angel Cabada from One Distribution (owner of the KR3W apparel brand). The Supra footwear brand has been endorsed by Muska since the company's inception, and Muska's first Supra signature model—the "Skytop"—was one of the first team rider models that was released. The first Muska Supra advertisement appeared in 2006, while the inaugural official Skytop promotion appeared in 2007. Muska has designed the signature shoe models, the Skytop, "Skytop II" (2009), and "Skytop III"; a low-cut version was also released. All of the Skytop designs were created in collaboration with footwear designer Josh Brubaker and were initially perceived as outlandish by Muska's peers in the industry. Muska appeared on numerous occasions as a referee for the sixth installment of the Battle at the Berrics contest series, run by The Berrics website.

Muska partnered with the New Image Arts gallery to open his first-ever solo art exhibition, titled "Transitions," in June 2013. Muska explained:

... I set up this space. It was sort of a concept space for me and just a trial thing to bring a lot of people together from skaters to photographers, to artists and designers, directors, architects – I mean all these different people in one space and I wanted to encourage creativity. There was a big 20ft wall with supplies and it was a non-stop changing graffiti wall. So anybody that came I encouraged them to paint, interact with each other, have a good time and then my work was being created there and displayed there as well and people came and saw that and asked me to do the show, and that's how it happened.

In 2019, Muska created the cover art for Epiphany, an EP by British electronic musician Ross from Friends.

Influence

Muska was identified as the 12th most influential skateboarder of all time by Transworld SKATEboarding magazine in December 2011. In response to the matter of his influence on skateboarding, Muska stated in response:

I'd like to think that I've brought something to the table. I caused a little bit of a stir at times in the industry when I think it needed it. People can talk shit about me or they love me—I don't know what they think about me—but at least I feel I added something to the industry and I had so much fun doing it.

Influences

After his inclusion in the "30 Most Influential Skaters of All Time" list released by Transworld SKATEboarding magazine in 2011,</blockquote>

Muska has also identified Jamie Thomas as a major influence and described him as an individual who is readily able to identify others who are willing to work at their skateboarding diligently. Muska explained, "I'd just watch what he was doing ... he's talking and they're listening to him, you know? So I think Jamie really opened my eyes more that you could do more than just skate and get more involved with these companies, you know?"

In 2008, Muska opened the store "Factory413" in Los Angeles, with business partner Cabada; The retail outlet is described on the store's website as "a hub for avant-garde Los Angeles brands and a creative outlet for both founders."

Muska has released signature products using the "Factory413" name, such as sunglasses in 2010 and shoe collaboration with Supra in late 2012.

Video games

Muska is a playable character in the Tony Hawk's video game series, from Tony Hawk's Pro Skater to Tony Hawk's Underground 2. Muska later reprised his role in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2, a remake of the first two entries in the Tony Hawk's series.

Music

Muska's music has been released under the alias "Muskabeatz" and he has produced music for old-school hip hop artists, such as Afrika Bambaataa, Biz Markie, MC Lyte, Guru, Melle Mel, Ice-T, Jeru the Damaja, and KRS-One, as well as Wu-Tang Clan members Raekwon and U-God. For his debut release, Muska had planned to produce a drum 'n' bass record, but he decided during the recording process that the album should have an "old-school feel" to it—the self-titled Muskabeatz record was released on February 13, 2003 on Muska's own 1212 Records.

Personal life

Following his move to Mission Beach as an adolescent, Muska was mostly homeless and spent a significant period of time sleeping on the beach; in 2012, Muska explained: "I had nothing and those were, I can still say, by far, the happiest days of my life. Happiest beyond, craziest times, test, gnarliest adventures, everything, you know?"

On July 14, 2011, Muska was arrested for "felony vandalism" on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles, California.

In 2021, Muska returned to his native Ohio to build and manage a farm. He also provided design consultation in the building of a new skatepark in the town of Lorain.

Videography

Maple: Rites of Passage (1994)
Etnies: High 5 (1995)
411VM: Best of 411, Volume 2 (1995)
411VM: Issue 11 (1995)
Transworld: Uno (1996)
Church of Skatan: Wild in the Streets (1998)
Shorty's: Fulfill the Dream (1998)
Genie of the Lamp (1998)
411VM: Vancouver 1999 (1999)
Transworld: Feedback (1999)
Digital #3 (2000)
Transworld: Anthology (2000)
TSA: Life in the Fast Lane (2001)
Collage (2001)
Shorty's: Guilty (2001)
Transworld: Videoradio (2002)
411VM: Good As Gold 50 (2002)
ON Video: Summer 2002 (2002)
Shorty's: T-Stance Holmes (2003)
411VM: Issue 58 (2003)
The Death Squad: Oklahomies (2003)
ON Video: Summer 2003 (2003)
Shortys: How to Go Pro (2005)
Strange Notes: Covers, Baby! (2007)
Element: This is My Element (2007)
Streets: LA (2007)
Supra: European Tour (2011)

The 1996 Toy Machine video Welcome to Hell features a bonus part from Muska that was edited to a song by Nappy Roots called "Right Now".