Rob Dyrdek
The evolution of the plaza always came from the idea of just a really good place to ride a skateboard that you could ride at anytime, and that's what the foundation always stands for - being a place that's free, open and legal... for those that are technical, to do really hard stuff, and for those who are learning, to just have fun.Collection: Legal
With success comes responsibility of playing your part, to do what you can to help not only those that helped you get to where you're at, but the future of who's going to be playing a part of your business and everything you do in your entire career.Collection: Future
I am truly blessed to have been a part of the MTV family for so long.Collection: Family
Skateboarding has given me everything I have and created who I am.
In skateboarding, you're never bigger than the streets.
Anything is possible if you're willing to work for it.
The serious professional skateboarder doesn't have a job. They get paid enough not to.
I spend 2 hours a week in an infrared sauna.
You knew LeBron James was going to be LeBron James when he was a sophomore.
No one can fathom that the top 200 pro street skaters run from cops on the weekends and use a generator and lights to light up a handrail at 2 in the morning to get a trick that's going to be in an advertisement that will be shown around the world.
'Rob & Big' was a buddy comedy show.
I only drink coffee grown in high altitude rain forests.
No matter what I do, how much money I make, where I live, or what kind of car I drive, the stuff I skateboard on is the same stuff that every other kid in L.A., every kid in the country, everybody in the world is skateboarding on.
I don't think I've ever had a vacation, to be quite honest with you.
DC and Monster have always supported my vision for street skateboarding, from building skate plazas throughout the world to now creating the first-ever professional skateboarding league.
Once you get a trick on film, it's there forever.
With 'Fantasy Factory,' I want to take skating beyond the Tony Hawk generation and represent the street-skating generation.
There is nothing like watching a crazy video for the very first time.
Without a doubt, Dana White is my biggest influence.
The mainstream thinks that every skateboarder aspires to be in the X Games.
California just does not remotely embrace the fact that it's where skateboarding itself was birthed and where 90% of the industry is.
The reality of professional skateboarding contests is that they're not relevant in our world.
As I've evolved, I'm capable of doing a lot of things at once, but really, as an entrepreneur and business person, it's more about adding the right structure to be able to handle scaling all those things as opposed to being at the forefront of doing a lot of them.
I can't watch myself on TV.
The way skateboarding contests were in the past was like going to a basketball game and being told at the end of the game what the score was and who won. Think about how unengaging that would be if you didn't know who was ahead or if it was a close game.
'Wild Grinders' becoming an animated series, and airing on Nicktoons is another one of my boyhood dreams come true. I came up with the name when I was eleven years old, when I needed a name for my first skate crew - who knew it would turn into such a mega brand?
If my parents really understood how much I've learned that I could never learn in school, they'd be very proud. Instead, I'm still their crazy kid, sagging his pants and dancing around on the laptop.
What's skateable is limitless by design.
There's nothing more ridiculous than seeing yourself in a video game.
One of the best things to me about 'Skate' is that if you play this game from beginning to end, you just got a complete education on what skateboarding is.
I quit high school to be a pro skateboarder out of Ohio, which is just asinine, but it was meant to be.
For me, part of one my big movements is building authentic street environments for skateboarding.
Street League Skateboarding is the premier professional skateboarding league in the world, with the biggest prize money in history.
Half of my success is my fearlessness and recklessness - of just seeing the end and not stopping until you get there.
In Ohio, I built the world's first skate plaza.
As a professional skateboarder, I can't look at anyone getting hurt - it freaks me out.
Skateboarding for me is a whole lot different for me than before the TV fame, if you will, because going out in the street is a little bit different.
Sometimes I'll be somewhere, and the cops will show up to kick me out and end up just asking for a photo.
As skateboarding evolved, it evolved away from competition. Having a best-trick contest doesn't work.
At most contests now, skaters are judged against themselves.
I started my first company when I was 18 and learned by trial through fire, having no formal education or entrepreneurial experience.
I operate best on big vision and creative detail.
I built a very methodical television show around my business. I learned how to use television as a platform to advertise products. I created a platform showcasing the stuff that I build. It's taking the integration model to another level.
Business is my passion.
I try to seize every opportunity I can.
I was raised by some very grounded, hardworking, Middle America parents.
My entire life is a single body of work.
MTV has a been a great partner over the years. I'm truly grateful for the platform they've provided for me to create and refine compelling, entertaining media at the highest level.
Justin Bieber, I love to death. He's such a cool, ridiculous, much crazier kid in real life - more than he's really allowed to be, because he's a Unicorn and very rare.
I've got some alien blood in me.