The Barn puts down a backside disaster.
Rob was born in Michigan, grew up and discovered skateboarding in Ohio. He made the move out west and turned pro for Santa Cruz in the mid 1980s. After retiring from the professional ranks in 1990, he started Santa Cruz Bikes.
Grant Brittain was the photographer.
Thrasher - November 1988 Volume 8 Number 11
6 comments:
totally dumb question, but was this guy cool? by that, i mean, did he have friends, was he funny, did he throw a decent party now and again?
he always seemed like a solid B+ skater, but i never hear of anyone who hung out with him or skated with him regularly, and i certainly don't remember any interviews with him. it was easy to guess that he skated and then went home and watched tv.
was he just a boring dude who skated well and had a graphic that sold thousands?
I've kind of been wondering about him, too. I've read a bunch of bike interviews with him recently and he seems like a decent guy. It's as if he's getting more coverage for skateboarding now than when he was pro. I don't recall any interviews, but he must have had a Pro Spotlight in Transworld before I started skateboarding. He was somebody whose name never came up when other pros listed who they skated with or as people's favorite pro. One thing that could a factor is that Rob was a little older than a lot of the other pros of the time frame. He was 27 when he retired in 1990. He definitely got lucky with the board graphic, which is fine.
I came across an interview with another Mid-Western skater - I believe it was Bill Danforth - who was reminiscing about the early eighties skate parks in that area and mentioned that Roskopp skateboarded, switched to rollerskating (including vert) and then returning to skateboarding. Also, this ad that I'm some of you will remember of RR jump ramping over the band Bl'ast gave me the impression he was more of a partier - granted it was just an ad.
When I started skating in 1985, I remember a story going around (may have read it in an old Thrasher, too) about someone finding somebody's grocery list of tricks to do in their contest run. It ended up being Roskopp's. Like he had his tricks planned in order. Can anybody confirm this?
He just win with a board graphing....My first board was the Face I, and I bought it just for the graphic obviously (ehy it was the 80's ) , It's a little be sad that this graphic now is simply everywhere ... hope he still get his graphic incentive . By the way, this is the First time I see a trick by Roskopp
G.
Watch the Santa Cruz Wheels of Fire video on youtube and you'll see he was a cool guy with a sense of humour. It's a great watch anyway.
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