King of the Street

Street skater Rob Dyrdek loves to meet his goals. And he’s able to check things off his list that other people wouldn’t even dare attempt.

Rob Dyrdek, one of the best street skaters in the world, was unhappy. And for good reason – every time he used public handrails or curbs for trails, the police would soon get on his case. "Constantly having to run away was getting old. That’s why it I thought it was really important to create a legal space for us skaters."
On June 11, 2005, two and a half weeks before Rob's 30th birthday, he got his wish. In his hometown of Kettering, Ohio, he cut through the red ribbon at the new "Rob Dyrdek DC Shoes Skate Plaza", thereby opening entirely new horizons for street skaters. Because with a surface area of 3600 m2 his skate plaza is actually more like a palace than a park.
Well, the landlord simply prefers a certain amount of luxury. "If I hadn’t ever started to skate", Rob says, "then I’d probably be a professional gambler in Las Vegas."

The Gambler

Rob – or DAX, as his friends call him – has always enjoyed pushing his luck. He entered his first competition as a 12-year-old, only a month after learning how to skate. That’s gutsy in itself, but even gutsier is what he did afterwards. In the parking lot, Rob talked his idol Neil Blender into giving him a board – he took a look at Neil’s jam-packed car and said, "I don’t think there’s enough room for that board in there." At 16, Rob dropped out of school to pursue a career as a pro skater. At 18, he moved to California to advance his career. Again, he was successful. Rob became one of the best and most sought-after street skaters in the USA as well as a walking advertisement for a few prominent skating companies like G&S, DC Shoes and Alien Workshop.

Im-posing

The "Rob Dyrdek DC Shoes Skate Plaza" is by far not the only wish Rob has fulfilled in recent years. Rob is also the owner of his very own "Training Facility", a skating centre with 350 m2 of surface area. He’s designed decks and his own line of shoes with DC, including the DC Dyrdek 1-3, the DC Exacta and the DC Plaza. In addition, Rob has already done TV adverts for DC, sung backup on the Limp Bizkit album Chocolate Starfish, and been featured in the magazines Playboy and the Rolling Stone.
There’s only one thing Rob has still not accomplished: he’s never been “Poser of the Month” in the magazine Thrasher. But his 81-year-old grandmother was when she donned a skating outfit and posed in front of her house! That makes it pretty clear where Rob got his talent.