PHOTO BY KEVIN DOWLING

I respect Robert Guerrero immensely. Through the years Rob’s skating has grown and grown into something too beautiful for words.  To put it poetically, his blading is a swimming through ever opening doors. Whenever he graces the bay area scene with his presence I silently admire his style, flow, and consistency.  As the session progresses his lines build and build from simple, perfectly executed lines, to lines peppered with extremely technical grinds, boosting airs and tucked switch, natural and illusion spins. He is an inspiration to any passionate rollerblader over 25 years old.  Rob is also one of the few overseers of the numerous rollerblading communities all over the world.  For years he has been traveling through the country, from one rollerblading shire to the next, infusing each with his revitalizing energy.  He is perhaps the closest thing we have to a rollerblading guru, yet at the same time he is a sensitive, self critical, and real person who is open enough to admit that he is still finding himself.  Rob lives his live by the motto, ‘be open to the present moment’, and this continues to guide him from one moment to the next.  As a culture we are continually blessed to have ‘Rob G. to the full effect’.

-Wolfman

Your style has slowly evolved into something very unique–into a watery, flowing, building, and endless line skating steelo. What has brought on this development?

Its funny to see my mind go a bunch of places with this one..but thats is why we are seeing where it goes…a lot of it came from periods of time where I would go out and focus only on breath and relaxation I would read different books about Tai chi and just movement in general and how to go about moving in the most efficient manner. Once i began to get specific results from being aware of my breath and movement it gave me a “feeling” to aim for. I would learn what felt good and what didn’t. And if it didn’t feel good I would do my best to avoid it. Its a huge battle though. Still is. Feeling verses logic. I would do experiments at this one skatepark to see what would come out of me if I only focused on breath and relaxation. It’s not all feel of course, but I found that a lot of the time I sabatoged myself with my own throughts so I suppose I just took it in the other extreme

I’m having some cheese crackers and wine right now BTW
grapes too

hah, i’m drinking beer and working out with a stretch band!

hahahahahhahahahahhahahhahahah
hahahahah
im literally LOL
ng right now

nice.

In my mind one of your greatest contributions to skating is your understanding of flow. It is difficult to express flow with words, but I am wondering how you would express the connections between flow and feeling on and off the blades.

Flow to me is something I allow to happen, or block with my thoughts about myself and my environment. It’s invisible force that moves me to express myself. Its the thing that makes your blood flow, moves clouds, and gives water its nature. I of course can not say what it is, nor is there a point in saying “what” it is. I just try and move with it the best I can. The flow for me is when I’m relaxed, and moving with the forces of gravity. I learned to feel things out in rollerblading. I guess it can be more simply said that I didn’t want to get hurt, and I wanted to achieve an awesome feeling when I was on my blades no matter what I was achieving on the outside. I base a lot of whether or not I am Flowing the way I want to by weight distribution

So do you think that the flow moves different people in different ways and styles?

Well…i think the flow might be the same an universal, but the vehicles and what makes them up produces different and unique styles like for example…someone like Frankie Morales has a very distinctive style….everything about his life leading up to the way he blades now has influenced his style of movement. I think that is an amazing thing.

Yes it really is! I have always been fascinated how a person’s life and soul flows into their blading so naturally.

Exactly. Everytime I go out…i can kinda gauge how linked up my mind and my body are. Sometimes they are linked nicely and i can just flow off the bat. Other times my body is tired or sore, or just not flexible enough from not stretching or whatever I have done previous, and I’ll try to do something simple and bust my ass.

How do you cope with growing older and still putting the pressures of professional blading on your body? Do you have to do a lot of work to maintain your body?

The mind is free from physical constraint, but the body is subject to the laws of this earth so sometimes when the mind is ready to go, the body is like “nope…I ain’t doing that shit” and you get broke off. I think this is the reason alot of older dudes stop blading, because when your young you can do anyhting without stretching or eating properly but as you get older it gets harder and harder to maintain that youth in blading.

I think it is really sad that some skaters quit thinking their bodies are trashed when all it would take is a little bit of sustained effort — stretching, diet, light weight training — to make them feel up to skating hard again. But I guess part of blade-culture is the laziness and abuse that leads to the unraveling of the body.

Well, I have to do alot to achieve what my mind wants to do. So yeah I do feel not only the physical pressures but my own mental pressures. You can really get down on yourself when your mind says one thing and your body another. Lately though, I have been noticing that I have to do alot more. I’ve been doing Yoga combined with some stretches before I go skate. If I wake up early enough, I can get a long routine in, otherwise its a quick one before the sesh goes down. I know I should be going all out before each time though, because what we do to our bodies is really bad. All of the impact takes its tole. Kids don’t know about it and neither did I. You just find out when your older.

I don’t even think its about laziness and abuse as much as just what we are taught. I know as a culture alot of us take pride in not being a mainstream sport or something, but I wish I had a coach to make me stretch and work out every day! hahah. Its alot harder when you have to self motivate. Everything We learn on blades we teach ourselves.

So how else has your perspective on rollerblading changed since you were a little kid?

Back when I was young you used to be able to skate anywhere you wanted pretty much. Courthouse, police station, even school when it was in session! I think that freedom just made skating alot more fun. You didn’t have to think about where you could go skate, you would just go do it, and people either thought what you were doing was interesting, or they just flat out couldnt comprehend. I miss that about street skating. Street skating is so business oriented now. Gotta know what you want to do so you can get the clip and be out. I havn’t experienced just a straight street session in a long time aside from this little rail I skated the other day by myself with Juan Mosqueda and Jeff Berg. Seems like that session vibe has transferred to the skatparks. For me anyways.

We also have the freedom to decide where blading goes, each person has a say to a certain extent. Are you happy with the direction rollerblading has taken in the last 5 years? What about the current rollerblading culture and mode of skating are you critical of?

I used to carry a lot of heavy opinions about blading. What it is, what it should be and what’s right and what’s wrong. I still do have some, but I have noticed that a majority of the reason for having them was just to be proud of having them so that I could engage in specific conversations about it or feel smart about something. I try not to have as many these days about the state of Rollerblading. I can not comprehend whether it is in a right or wrong place. I have a hard enough time figuring out if I am in the right or wrong place let alone judge an entire culture and its proper rate of growth. I think my opinion now is, its young. And when your young you do things like we are doing now. Your rebellious, disrespectful, think you know everything, etc. I’m not saying that every one in rollerblading is like that, but if you were to have a pie chart with what age makes up the majority of rollerblading, I bet it would be somewhere between 10 and 17. My numbers are not accurate, but I’m sure you get the idea. As a whole we want to be recognized and in the mainstream like skateboarding, but are we really ready? I have no clue, and I can not decide. I think its just good to ask that question.

Yea I totally feel that as well. I know that you are also getting into rec skating. Whats up with rec skating for you?

I guess my “rec” skating or non “aggresive blading” started up again when I got some of the Rollerblade Fusion X7 Frames. They are UFS (they can fit on any skate) and come with 90mm wheels flat. The first time I rode these was in downtown Atlanta and it felt amazing. It was like I was my 14 year old self but on steroids. I was doing stair-rides anywhere I could find them, and was jumping on and off of everything in sight. It was a feeling that I had long forgotten, and a feeling I think kids these days never even get to experience once in their life. The simple act of enjoying blading. I grew up in the beginning phases of blading, so all you could do was enjoy rolling around and occasionally jumping off of stuff. Kids now a days start off with antirocker setup, and know nothing of just enjoying cruising fast on big wheels. We spend so much energy seperating ourselves from the rest of rollerblading culture (rec skating, hockey, fitness, etc.) because they are “gay” or are not what we do, but these activities are our roots! I know they are mine anyways. I began with rec skates, playing hockey, and bombing hills.

I know that Rollerblade is making rec. skates this is really exciting to me, at the same time, Rollerblade brand is the subject of immense controversy. Often I hear people bashing the brand because of its history of dropping great riders and leaving the sport. What are your thoughts on this topic? Is Rollerblade a brand that we can trust into the future?

The big big difference is that Tom Hyser is working at RB now and managing the street product and marketing. The presidents of RB felt there was no reason to pay a Pro team without the correct manager to take care of Pro skaters. That’s what lead to the demise of the last Pro team. The old Pro team riders were very young and didn’t mesh well with the old team manager. Now that Tom is in charge, Rollerblade is supporting an International Pro team. A team of the best riders from all over the world representing very distinct skating styles. Sven Boekhorst manages the riders in Europe under Tom’s supervision. Rollerblade has been committed to making street skates since day one. RB was the first to pay a Pro skater, Chris Edwards. Rollerblade also had the first Pro skate. They are also the only ones who chose to support my blading life and career. I don’t know if you could hold the future of blading in any one companies hand, but I do think that if you enjoy the products and they further your blading potential then you will buy them. If not, then you will buy another pair of skates.

Thanks so much for your time Rob. We have really touched everything that I had in mind, and your answers have been really good. Is there anything you would like to say to end your interview?

Maybe some thanks? Thank you Kevin for coming up with some of the coolest questions I’ve ever been asked. Thanks to Tom Hyser, the Hyser family, and Rollerblade for believing in a dude that still wants to live the dream. And thanks to anyone that comes to visit www.Controlledaccidents.wordpress.com and leaves a kind thoughtful message. I read them, and they do impact and inspire my life. Thank you!

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 25th, 2009 at 10:11 pm and is filed under Blade Ripping. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.