Wow! Who would have thought robbrink.com would come up seventh on a medical search engine site when the term rectal exam was typed in? Good thing I had a camera ready for this incident with Tim O'Connor and Kerry Getz's dog back at Tampa Pro in 2001. Even better that I know how to appropriately name my photos to maximize search engine hits, eh? Tim managed to be the first out of the top seven matches to not be referencing a human butt, however, he was still three spots...
If you think this one is long overdue, you should see how much Tampa Pro footage I have yet to edit and put up here. But, as I've said before, I 'm a writer not a video dude, so that's where my priorities lie. That being said, y'all can stop emailing me and leaving comments on how much my filming sucks. I know it does and I don't give a rat's ass. You should be out skating anyway, and because you are sitting in front of the computer instead, be thankful I'm giving your bored...
I was fairly excited when Plan B announced their little Saturday afternoon BBQ and signing at the etnies Skatepark of Lake Forest today. However, after waiting around for three hours, only Paul Rodriguez and PJ Ladd showed up and neither skated. Paul signed autographs for a lineup of kids and PJ kinda hung around...
WE threw a Coachella Festival pool party at Frank Sinatra's old house. I even peed in his toilet. It was glorious. The place was wrecked, people were diving off the roof into the pool and it was a serious good time. Somewhat reminiscent of the infamous "Baby Ruth pool scene" in Caddyshack. At least someone in this "industry" still knows how to have fun!
About a decade ago, back in Northern New Jersey, me and a bunch of my friends were skating our asses off, getting sponsored (which, of course, is nearly every skater's dream at one time or another) and having some pretty damn good times. In the mid-nineties, NYC, NJ and Philly blasted onto the radar of the skate industry and TransWorld decided to do a 27-page (yes, 27 freakin' pages!) article on the NJ scene for their November 1997 issue, alongside a Tim Brauch interview and Danny Way's first record-breaking high air and helicopter bomb drop. Not too shabby for 'ol Dirty Jerz huh?
I was scanning these photos for a friend and tripping down memory lane and thought it would be cool to post 'em up here. Of course, there's no photo of me. Although I had some sponsors and competed a bit, I was never quite as good as the rest of these dudes. I spent far too much time working overnights in a bagel shop and in college working on the writing degrees to bring my skating to the level these guys did. But it paid off because I ended up getting some of my first writing gigs for TransWorld a few years after this article came out. Maybe these guys aren't all pro skaters now, but they have come pretty far, each in their own way. I'm proud of 'em. So here's some of my long-time NJ friends:
Recently I saw some pictures of your knee and it was basically destroyed.
That big old gash? I wear two of those carbon fiber CTI knee braces. I was skating this sticky ramp and knee sliding out of a trick pulled on my kneepad, which is wrapped around my knee brace and the hinge of the knee brace jammed into the side of my knee and punctured my knee. It sucked.
Ok, here's the deal. At a large event like the X Games, before they can even catch their breath from skating the contest, all the medal winners get shuffled into press room and sit at a table waiting for reporters to swarm in, acting all frantic and asking gay questions, as if they are interviewing Tiger Woods or Kobe Bryant after some huge tournament or game or something.
At Summer X Games 11, I was providing the skate coverage for EXPN.com. Most of the time I just put my recorder down on the table and let the other reporters do all the work. But sometimes the questions got lame, so I had to chime ask my own too. So here's a never-before-seen Paul Rodriguez mini interview from after he won the gold medal in Street. I pressed "record" in the middle of him answering a question from another reporter dude...
Franck Boistel, the man behind such classic skateboarding shoes as the original Marc Johnson Emerica pro model and èS Creager and Muska pro models sent this in yesterday:
Hey Rob.
We don't know each other. I am the ex-footwear designer for Sole Technology. I have been the first designer after Pierre on all brands for nine years. I surf regularly between a bunch of skateboard related websites so I found yours. I just wanted to tell you that I really like your blog, your spirit and your talent. I like your big mouth, I found that it's a quality that you don't find often on people, saying the raw truth. I love the New York Mess and Arto's crack on the etnies website. I wish we could meet and grab a beer. Shoot me a line sometime and keep it up!
Cheers,
Wrote this one for etnies.com. Throughout the interview, Ali said "I don't know" and "fuck" a lot, but I had to cut that kinda stuff out for the site. Not that many people get the chance to interview a guy as outrageous and elusive as Ali, and, even though this is a basic interview for a younger audience, I'm stoked that I had the opportunity to do it.
