Robert Brink - Writer

DC Shoes Pro Bios 2004: Way, McKay, Dyrdek

November 23, 2005 | Skip To The Comments (0)

DC Pro Team Bios 2
By Rob Brink
dcshoes.com June 2004

Here's the final batch of team bios I wrote for dcshoes.com in the summer of 2004.

Rob Dyrdek

If you mention the word “entrepreneur” in relation to skateboarding, Rob Dyrdek most likely comes to mind. He founded and operated his own hip hop record label, P-Jays. He started Orion trucks and founded Reflex bearings. He's the man behind the revolutionary Rob Dyrdek/DC Skate Plaza concept/operation; he has appeared in music videos, Rolling Stone and Playboy magazine and made cameos on multi-platinum records. He has starred in his own DC television commercial; he has action figures that bear his likeness. He is in video games and on trading cards.

Perhaps “pioneer” should go hand in hand with “entrepreneur” here. Rob was part of Alien Workshop from day one for over a decade before he helped launch Seek in 2003. He was the first street skater and third addition to the DC team, at which point his concepts for shoe designs changed skateboard shoes forever. Rob built one of the first private “training facilities” skateboarding had ever seen (other than maybe the infamous “World Park”) He had one of the most memorable advertisements (slathered in blue paint) for Droors Clothing, and in skateboarding, ever. Did we mention he came from the obscurest of obscure places? Dayton Ohio.

Imagine a friend or acquaintance of yours told you they wanted to complete all the aforementioned things. You would laugh you ass off and think they were either completely out of their mind or on serious drugs. Maybe Rob Dyrdek is a dreamer. But somehow he makes it all reality. Don't be surprised if the “time machine” he bought for $350 ends up actually working one day. Dyrdek is just that kind of guy.

Of course, none of this means jack shit without skateboarding. “Image and personality aren't anything if you can't back them up on a skateboard,” says Dyrdek. And, due to his reputation for being slightly extravagant and outrageous, there's probably no other professional skater that needs to back that up like Dyrdek does—consider it done. Rob Dyrdek got his first skateboard in 1986 and entered his first contest a month later. Have a look around you at the skaters who have only been skating a year or two, never mind only a month. How ready are they to enter a contest? Exactly.

The day of that contest, Dyrdek coaxed (in traditional Dyrdek salesman style) Neil Blender to donate his setup. Neil obliged and three months later Dyrdek got a shop sponsor. Five months later, Dyrdek was on G&S. Shortly after, pro for what would become perhaps the most innovative, mysterious, and legendary skateboard companies of all time—Alien Workshop. He's had major video parts in the known classics Memory Screen, Time Code, Dreams of Children, Photosynthesis, and The DC Video. He has proved a tough competitor on contests and influential on street. He still has that board that Neil Blender gave him—it's his pride and joy. If you hear the way Rob Dyrdek describes skateboarding, like in Tom Penny's part of TransWorld's Anthology video, or him and A.V.E. hilariously breaking into Steve Berra's private skate park to cure the skate itch in Death of a Video Magazine, you realize just how much of a skateboarder Rob really is. Rob Dyrdek knows how to describe skateboarding, he knows how to help it evolve, he knows how to run skateboarding businesses, and most importantly he knows how to skateboard—and he does it damn well.

Colin McKay

A fact that a lot of us don't always consider is that DC was launched and endorsed by two, for the most part, vert riders, which is something that was probably considered a suicidal business move back in 1994 when DC started, due to vert's decline in popularity, and would still be considered that today. Colin was the second member of the DC team, and the fact that DC is still thriving 10 years later is a testament to his abilities and influence as a professional skater.

Colin first came to the skateboarding world via Powell Peralta's Public Domain, skating Vancouver's wooden indoor play lands like the Skate Ranch with other future pros like Moses Itkonen, Sluggo, and Rick Howard. Colin was young and he was good, and people envied it, hated on it, and respected it all at the same time. A few years later, Colin made a move to what would prove to be one of the most legendary skateboard team rosters in history—Plan B.

With the Plan B videos, Colin proved to be one of the last vert and street skateboarders (along with Danny Way). Since Virtual Reality, the only exception might be Bob Burnquist in his early Anti Hero days. But for the most part, Danny and Colin were the last to excel at both and film video parts that reflected such versatility and talent. Wouldn't it be nice to have someone new come along and do the same?

Through the years Colin proved to be, not only one of vert's survivors, but revolutionaries—bringing street moves to oversized vert ramps and mega ramps with ease, pushing vert tricks even further and with style, impressing the skateboarding community at contests, videos and magazines and the impressing the nation repeatedly in the X-Games—especially during the infamous Tony Hawk 900 session. All the while, Colin has maintained “big gun” status and respect in the skateboard world and as a pro/businessman who could keep DC alive and well, thriving and evolving. He's landed television commercials for Mountain Dew and 1-800-COLLECT. He's a business partner in a Canadian skateboard distribution company called Center Distribution, and the owner of two RDS skateboard shops—one in Vancouver (also with a skate park to go along with it) and one in Encinitas. It's a lot to get from skateboarding, but well deserved when you consider what Colin has given (and continues to give) to skateboarding.

McKay now rides for the new Alien Workshop sister company Seek skateboards with fellow DC riders Rob Dyrdek and Josh Kalis. He recently dealt with some surgeries and some work visa problems that hindered his filming for The DC Video. But despite a short video part, and a lack of excessive media coverage (which nowadays may actually be a good thing) we all know we haven't seen the last of him.

Danny Way

We have all pondered the question “Who is the greatest skateboarder of all time?” and its one of those questions that might be impossible to answer. One can't really pick the best painter in history, or even the best musicians—sure we have our opinions and its all usually based on style, technique, output, longevity, attitude, influence, accomplishments, ability, etc. With skateboarding, some people will say there is no such thing as “the greatest skateboarder of all time,” but chances are, when the question is posed, Danny Way will be mentioned more often than most.

So how did he get there? By six years old Danny was already frequenting Del Mar Skate Ranch with his older brother Damon and skating with the likes of Kevin Staab, Steve Steadham, Billy Ruff and Tony Hawk. While tagging along with Damon and Damon's friends, Danny spent a lot of time skating street, but was also bullied into skating pools, vert, and mini ramps by the Vista Skate Locals (VSL as Damon's crew was known) in order to make Danny multi-terrained. “Danny was trying gay twists on vert when he was twelve years old, before he could even do decent airs or inverts. I think after years of that, he figured out how to eliminate far from his mind,” says Damon.

By ten years old, Danny was already sponsored by Hosoi and Vision. He was small, but an obvious talent and there was a buzz going around California about the up and comer. By twelve, Danny Way was asked to turn pro for the newly-formed, soon-to-be-legendary H-Street skateboards. Danny refused and joined as an am. Once on H-Street, Danny produced two video parts for Shackle Me Not and Hocus Pocus—easily two of the most important skateboarding films of all time. At fifteen, Danny was collecting paychecks in the range of $20,000 for board sales. Most importantly, Danny became close friends with Mike Ternasky. Who supported Danny's decision to leave H-Street for the greener pastures over at the newly-formed Blind skateboards, sister company to Steve Rocco's World Industries. Which soon, with the help of Mike Ternasky, formed another sister company known as Plan B.

Danny joined Plan B and The Questionable Video was soon released. The video, and Danny's part, changed skateboarding forever. The follow up Virtual Reality did the same. In 1993 many riders from Blind and Plan B left to form Girl, shortly after, in 1994, Mike Ternasky tragically died in a car accident. As if the demise of Plan B and the loss of his friend and virtual father weren't enough, just as DC was getting underway, Danny suffered a near fatal injury while surfing. Recovery was long and hard, doctors were clueless at times, but by Tampa Pro 1996 Danny was rehabilitated and better than ever, winning the vert contest.

In 1997, the DC mega ramp was built and Danny broke the world's record for the highest air on a skateboard. The same day he did a 12-foot kickflip indy and bomb dropped from a helicopter into the ramp. Two years later, now riding for Alien Workshop after the decision to finally close the doors on Plan B, MTV asked Danny to try the same stunts again for their Sports and Music Festival. He accepted, did the helicopter drop with a dislocated shoulder that he earned on an earlier attempt, and although he didn't beat the 1997 world record, still won the high air contest.

In the following years there were some knee and shoulder surgeries, some recovering time, and some filming for both a DC TV commercial and The DC Video. Everyone knew Danny's part would be insane, but no one could even anticipate what was to come. Between Danny's mind boggling mega ramp part in The DC Video and his unfathomable follow-up part in the Deluxe Edition less than eight months later. These two parts, packed with evidence of astronomical progression, larger than life skateboarding, and unmatched talent, proved to anyone who wouldn't already acknowledge that Danny Way is one of the greatest skateboarders ever, that he actually isn't. Danny way is the greatest skateboarder ever—period.