son
Surfside
ROCCO
"The new guys think the old guys
don't have any talent, and the old guys
think the new ones don't have style. Me,
I was there when it started; I've seen it
all up to this point; so I guess that puts
me in the middle.
"I've taken what I think are classics. I
skate for myself and my conception of
what it's all about. How do I fit in?I don't
fit in.
"The media's as screwed up now as
It's ever been. Those guys sit in their
offices and try to tell people what's
happening out on the streets. There
were five Oceanside contests before
Scroggs got on the cover of
SKATEBOARDER. What it took to get
Tim on the cover was Stacy literally
taking him into the office and making
Scroggs skate on Giggles desk. I mean
the boys in the office had never seen
skating before until Peralta and
Scroggs called them out. That's how
bad it was. The media's a joke, the
bland leading the blind. Look at that
ridiculous Kodak commercial...that's
not skating, it's not even reality.
"The freestyle renaissance...like all
revivals is too late, it's already hap-
pened for the skaters. The bowl riders
used to laugh at me when I skated the
3
streets. For six months, the big joke
was that I did aerials off benches and
handplants on curbs. Well look at
skating now, and you'll see that street
skating is the front-running movement.
Look at the bowl-riders-now they've
all got music, choreographed routines,
continuity, etc., in freestyle, that was
going on five years ago.
"Rodney's hot, but he's got his scene
and I've got mine. I could never skate
like Mullen; I wasn't raised on some
2'x4' environment; I was raised out on
the streets, out on the pier.
"The judging scene is a total joke.
Sometimes to win you don't skate
good, you just skate to impress the
judges' conception of what is good.
"After you're out there and ahead for
so long, you feel like dropping back and
letting everyone else catch up. You
move on to something else, but the
public still expects the same old thing.
I've seen Pine, Peralta, Alva, Olson,
Barden, those types of guys all go
through it. They keep themselves
Interested, they skate for themselves,
but some people want it to be like it was
before. Me, I'm lucky: my sponsor is
such a flake I never feel like a commod-
ity. It's a good relationship because we
never see each other. I skate and he
mails the checks...sometimes."
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