me it’s about personal satisfaction. Doing something because it feels good. I think I might have been of that last generation where filming and photography kinda didn’t really matter.”
How do you feel to be put on this pedestal in street riding? Do you think street riding has changed at all? I think everything has changed. It’s not just street riding. Everyone is about selfpromoting. All the taboos are gone. People think it’s normal to want the world. Remember when you were younger and the worst thing you could possibly say when you got to a spot was ‘I’m going to do this tomorrow when there’s a camera out.’ Remember that! ‘Oh you only ride when there’s a camera out!’ I think things in general used to be a little more sacred, not just in riding. People are everywhere, on all these websites and blogs. Let’s say for example, a roadtrip’s main objective being just for getting footage. I remember when I started going on a few of those and I was like ‘this whole thing has just been constructed simply so riders get shit done. It’s not actually a roadtrip.’ When you were young, three or four friends would jump in a car and drive out and if you didn’t want to ride, you didn’t feel guilty about it. Nobody cared, nobody cared if you went swimming all day or hung out on the beach. It was just some friends having a good time. So it’s like a false image? I wasn’t really thinking that, more that people just want to be working the whole time. Everyone is trying to get a job in it. To make it their work. It’s really strange to me. There’s not a great deal of people making good money riding bikes though, really. Yeah, but there’s enough guys making enough just to get by. You were a pro once anyway? That shit didn’t last long at all though. I wanted it to last. Basically, I wanted to do nothing and get money. That’s my ideal job! Saying that though, I did ride all the time. Even if I wasn’t doing much, I’d be looking for spots or session a parking lot learning fakie manuals, I’ve always been like that. It didn’t last and it didn’t work because the people sponsored me for doing what I do. Then when I was on the team they’d be like ‘okay now I want you to do this.’ I always thought, ‘you sponsored me for doing what I do, there must be a reason why you hooked me up. Now why are you trying to change me into something else? How do you feel about the whole filming thing becoming your job? I’m real back and forth with it. There’s times
Bob Scerbo
I honestly love it. When things are right it’s the best job and I can’t think a bad thing about it. I hate carrying a bag around. I fucking despise it and I always have. Now I’ve put myself in a position where I have to be the guy carrying the bag around all day. I feel like it’s a dirty little joke sometimes. But yeah, I do enjoy what I do but like any job it has its ups and downs. Like being on the road the whole time and little things like having people constantly staying at my house, sleeping on the floor, that puts stresses on relationships. When you’re living with a girl and every morning she has to step over four smelly dudes and ten forties of Mickey’s just to get out of the front door. It’s not a healthy life. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.
What – the pro life or the industry life? Either. If it just happens for you then there’s not much you can do. But if you pursue it and expect something… you’re in for a shock. Bob’s neighbor walks in. He’s been at the gym, doing some sort of fighting. “You win?” Bob asks. “No, No way man. I got my ass kicked.” Bob laughs and the neighbor says bye and gets his coffee to go. Philly is a strange place. In the house beside Bob there’s a ten-year-old with full sleeve tattoos, prison style.You wouldn’t quite believe it if you saw it. I get that impression a lot with Philly. I feel like you can get away with anything. Bob tells me that his teachers probably haven’t said anything because at least he’s in school. I hear on a couple of occasions that Philly is what New York used to be like, before Mayor Giuliani got his hands on it. Anyway, I start up with a question I’ve wanted to ask Bob since we started…
How do you feel about ghost writing people’s sections? Well, that’s a tough one because there’ll be occasions when I’ll find something and be like ‘this would be great for this guy.’ But there’s other occasions where I just want to document what people did. I don’t want to create the scenario. A good rider, in my opinion, and this works at any level, should have stuff that they know about just out of instinct almost. No matter if you’re doing the craziest shit or just cruising around hitting bumps, if you’re going to film a section on street I think it’s important to get out there and find the stuff you want to ride. That’s street riding to me. It’s so obvious too. Do you feel riding in general is becoming more about height, numbers and statistics over the actual feel and aesthetic of it? I don’t know… You can get into that whole discussion of people looking at my riding and going ‘oh that dude?! He only rides foot high
85