An interview with Rob Machado
Rob's latest film the Drifter may well be his final contribution of significance to surfing as a paid professional. It’s been some twenty years since we first met that emaciated teenager with hair like broccoli. In that time Rob has witnessed some seismic shifts in the game of pro surfing, some of which he's been directly responsible for. Here Rob discusses his film, answers to our criticisms, candidly divulges an epiphany he experienced in his tent in the depths of the Indonesian archipelago and details for us his observations of professional surfing.
Now approaching middle age, are you surprised to be still getting paid to surf?
When I first turned pro, guy’s careers pretty much ended by the time they were 30. They accepted it, stepped down and got a job in the industry. Tom Curren was the first guy to take it beyond that. You look at Kelly who’s 37 and he was in the hunt for a world title and is the reigning champ. I think it’s a matter of how dedicated people are to the sport. If I can still surf good and compete or be relevant to the sport why shouldn’t I?
Surfing relevancy was once determined purely by competitive results. What defines it today?
With the Taylor Steele era and the careers of guys like Margo the door was opened to free surfing, plus a few other things around that time that kept opening the door a bit more. Now you have a bunch of guys making a living off surfing without competing. When I was a grom it was a race to get on tour. Now, take the model Dane used. He free surfed, travelled, made an amazing movie and he’s what, 24 now and only in his second year on tour. To what do you attribute that change?Maybe these guys see the potential for longevity in surfing. They’re realising you can be on tour until you are 38. We wanted to get on straight away because we knew we’d be done by 30. Now it’s like, “shit I can do this til I’m 40, what’s the rush?” The sponsors may also have something to do with it. From their point of view, they look at a guy who’s won everything in the juniors and think he’s ready to make that step. He goes on tour and falls off the earth. Maybe it’s the sponsors telling them to build up their image, get a good section, get some sick shit out there and then go on tour as a known entity.
Even then, the world tour has proven not to be the guarantor of exposure it once was.
For sure. Magazines aren’t covering events, what you get is out of online coverage and when you are in the group of guys that are on the 48, how do you separate yourself from guys like Kelly, Mick, Joel, Dane, Jordy and Taj?
Long after many equally talented surfers careers have faded, yours has continued. How influential has Taylor been in your continued popularity?
It’s a huge part. From the get go, he was putting us on the map. In the beginning you had two things: make it on the ‘CT and get into the top ten or 16 and have a good section in Taylor’s movie. You can’t do that nowadays. It’s one or the other. Taylor was so important, because he showed another side of us to the competitions.Maybe that is the key to your continued relevancy. People feel they have a a connection to you because they’ve seen you grow in Taylor’s films.Even if it was those little skits and those little moments in there, it was that ability to see someone outside the contest scene and show you in a different light. It allowed people to connect to you in a totally different way. People would wait for the next one to come out every year. You tried your best to improve your part, do something different, but all at the same time being on the CT. You wanted your part to be something people would connect with and connect with you.
Do you think people know the real Rob Machado?
Yeah, they get a pretty good dosage of it.
Would you rather people know you or didn’t know you?
Some people like to separate their lives. If my life was on the level of the pop stars, and everyone was shooting photos when you walked out of a room and it was news when you did something wrong it would suck. You feel for those people. There are magazines that exist just to make people look shitty and exist for that purpose and you would want to separate yourself from that. But I don’t deal with anything on that level so I am comfortable with it.
The Drifter obviously favours personality as opposed to surfing. Was the goal of this film to provide a peephole into Rob Machado?
We wanted to do something different. We weren’t gonna go out and make a Stranger Than Fiction because I’m not that guy. There is not one aerial in my movie and I’m cool with that. I love watching Dane, Julian and Jordy do their shit but a lot of people have a hard time relating to what they do, they can’t comprehend it. I think back to the true reason I started surfing and it was that moment you pull up at a beach break and it is six foot spitting barrels with no one out. That resonates with people and that was huge objective of the film. But it was also personal. We went out and got the best waves possible but after that we wanted a story that could keep the non-surfer interested. We wanted a movie that ordinary people could follow and walk out with something.
A criticism we had was the failure of the film to give us the stripped back and vulnerable Rob that had spent a lengthy period in the wilderness. It was a film about you and about travel, yet it didn’t feel like we got anything raw and real.
I know what you mean. We talked about that but we made a decision to work with that red camera and it’s a beast. The limitations brought on by that camera made it tough to get that perspective. There were moments where we got the camera inside the tent and that was crazy. The tent is six feet x three feet wide and there was me in there with my cameraman who is like 6’2, holding a giant red camera in the corner of the tent (Rob scrunches up in a ball on the chair to demonstrate. The chair whinces). So there are those couple of shots. And there is the section at Deserts with me set up in my tent and you can see the waves breaking behind me. That is totally real. That was a big moment for me. That was my first trip with just my motorbike, my board and me to deserts.
That was the best section of the film. You find yourself in the circus that is modern day desert point, and you set up a tent beneath a losmen in the middle of it all.
It was amazing what having a tent does. I’d go in there and read my book and write my journal and no one would talk to me. I made that realisation early on and was like, “this is cool, I’m gonna roll with this.” I’d crawl in there and for hours and hours I would just lie in there waiting for the tide. Then I’d throw my trunks on and paddle out.
In periods of extended solitude, it’s common for travellers to experience minor hallucinations, psychotic episodes and/or intense epiphanies. Did you experience any?
I did. You have way too much time to think. In our society you are constantly distracted with stuff. You go home, you sit on the couch and you listen to music, or go on the Internet or watch TV. You never have to deal with yourself if you don’t want to. I had a book, I had a journal and I had some music. When it got dark you’d crawl into your tent because of malaria and dengue, even if you weren’t tired. There’s a lot of shit that people have going on in their life but they distract themselves and never dig beneath the surface and deal with that shit. I thought about that whole episode when I didn’t get back on tour because of the (injury) wildcard. Dude, I was bitter. I felt like I had been totally betrayed and I as if something had been taken from me. Shit like that, you push it aside when you’re at home. I realised that had that never happened I might still be on tour! I could still be in that in that cycle. I take my hat off to those guys because that is a gnarly thing. I look at that time as being stuck in a rut. You ride the same board, you want to perfect your skill, and you want to be healthy. It’s a job. You get there, you know where you are going to stay, you have all your shit, all your boards and you want to be healthy and make your shit happen. You want to do everything right so you have no excuses. You don’t wanna be like, ‘shit I went to that animal park yesterday, I didn’t surf. Fuck! I shouldn’t have gone to that thing.’ It gave me the chance to step outside that.
In hindsight, are you thankful for the wildcard renege?
I highly doubt I would have done what I did if it didn’t happen. I’m super stoked with the route my life took.
How do you compare the two lifestyles and which do you prefer?
When you’re doing the tour it’s killer. You are so in that mode. If you are a competitive person you get into it. You are given a schedule. It says Snapper, Bells, this and that all the way to Pipe. You’re whole year is gone. It’s gnarly, it’s super gnarly. Nowadays I look at a piece of paper (Rob holds up a blank piece of paper) and I have no idea what I am gonna do next year. It’s exciting.- Jed Smith
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Reply #39 on : Sun May 23, 2010, 16:31:22