Birth date: 2/13/81

Place: San Jose, California

In the Rollerblade team since: 2007

Best results: 1st place 2001 Detroit, 1st place 2001 Superhick, 4th place & Best trick 2001 Hoedown, 2002 IMYTA World Champion

Best contest: Superhick

Favorite music: lately it has been very chill, Jazzy, downtempo music. Some artists are: Christopher O'Riley, The Bad Plus, Kings of Convenience, Madeleine Peyroux, Sebastien Tellier, Sound Tribe Sector Nine, The Dodos, Grizzly Bear, Jon Brion Michael Jackson

Favorite movies director: Adam Sandler

Where would you like to go for holidays? Japan, to stay at a Monastery and learn the Samurai way... on blades.

He looks light, as if the wind was a friend able to push him further. And it is quite windy in Paris today. Rob just raced with Tamara on the Alexander III Bridge, near the Grand Palais. It is like a game to them. “I was having a session recently in New York, with hundreds of kids. It reminded me when I was a kid in the streets of San Francisco. We were riding all over the streets in a big pack. It was like for that time we owned the streets. We owned New York... It was one of my most recent favorite memories."

This is Rob. A 29-year-old-advanced-street-skater, still at the top because he skates like he lives: like an artist. “I like paying attention to form and fluid movements. I like the feeling of smooth movements and I always try and let my skating go this way. I take my inspiration from people much like Vincent, who has every movement under control and seems to skate easily.”

Rob used to compete in the past. He travelled a lot for that, in the USA, but also in Europe or in Asia. He won many contests. “I started street skating in 1993 or so. I was a kid in San Francisco, a kid among other talented kids. We were skating together in the streets just having fun pushing each other but not intentionally. There was a slight vibe of competition, but it was friendly and fun.  I always wanted to be a pro skater as a child. In High School it was all I thought about and after High School it became the only thing I focused my life on. A year or so after High School I decided I wanted to REALLY make it happen so I quit my job, went on tour, and won a contest which made me pro.

Skating is still the basis of Rob’s life. But today, competition does not mean as much as it used to. “I still travel, but mainly for videos. I was in Thailand recently. Through rollerblading, I have made friends all over the world, and am constantly invited to stay with these different friends to film videos and shoot photos.” But Rob’s attitude shows clearly that the skating light is still there. “Skating is very much like a philosophy to me: I try to be perfect, to be calm, to be balanced in all my movements. I look forward to the good movement, the seamless one.” When you are listening to Rob, you feel like you are talking to an artist, who always keeps his mind ready to create the most beautiful figures. He explains this with his arms, and soon with his legs. He was speaking; he is now skating, lightly, with the wind as a friend, which pushes him further…