P:Ketchum
There are several iconic images that come to mind when you think of sports. Then there is the Machado fro. ~Click Read More for photos and the full interview.
There are several iconic images that come to mind when you think of sports: Michael Jordan’s mouth open, tongue out dunk, Tiger Wood’s fist pump, Tony Hawk’s 900 at the X Games, even Shaun White’s red mop.
Then there is the Machado fro. I was standing on the beach, looked over my shoulder and caught a glimpse of a person walking towards me a couple hundred yards away and in a split second I knew my interviewee had arrived. It wasn’t the lanky stride, and I couldn’t even make out his face, but I knew the Machado fro.
Rob got to the beach just in time to take some pictures with fans, sign a few autographs with Ben Bourgeois then head out for his heat. When he was done, I followed him back to the Reef Team house and relaxed with some of the guys as Rob got changed. I heard stories of how “hospitable” the locals had been the night before and how many of them surfed on cruise control for their first heat because their head hadn’t quite cleared yet.
Out of the blue, the always energetic, Justin Swartz, jumps up, runs over and grabs Rob’s Al Merrick and declares, “Come on you got to see this!” With that, the living room clears as Justin heads down the hallway and charges into the bathroom that Rob is trying to change in. The next thing I can tell is that there are 10 guys looking into a pitch black bathroom staring at a green glowing surf board and the ever mellow towel-clad Machado patiently muttering, “Yeah, it glows in the dark… can I get dressed now?”
Eventually, Rob emerged, Justin was off to his next adventure, and we found a place to talk about surf, life and ping pong.
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Photos by: Keith Ketchum, Jason Hudson, and Chris Straley
Being supposedly retired, what is it like living with all these young guys?
It’s funny because I never really traveled like this. When I first got on tour I did the QS by myself. You could stay in California and still qualify for the CT, you just didn’t have to travel. I never really was in the situations and it’s kind of fun. It’s cool you know, I know all of these guys. Jeremy and Austin, we surf the same spots. Chris is down the street, and Benny lives down the street. It’s a pretty tight little crew. I just came off the Hurley Shred Stick events down in Florida. And that was the same the thing, we had a motor home and just a couple of hotel rooms with Timmy Curran and Saxon, and just like guys that we traveled and hung out for years, so it’s cool.
Do you take the travels you want to take now that you are retired and not worried about it?
Yeah, pretty much. There is always the kind of things that my sponsors ask me to do. The summer time is pretty hectic. I come to the East Coast a couple of times, and then the US Open and then go to the X-Games. It stacks up a little bit. Then going into ASR then the Boost right after is a lot. But then there is usually a Hawaii trip in there, and then I start planning for trips for places I want to go with people I want to go with. It is a lot different seeing and traveling with the circus.
Spending time at home is a real big thing on your list. Do you get to do that as much as you like, or does your family travel with you at all?
I kind of have a deal setup. I don’t really travel more than two weeks at a time, unless my family goes with me. That’s pretty much the limit. That is all the kids can handle.
It is a pretty glamorous life that they talk about, being on the tour. It has got to wear you down with the constant traveling to everywhere to do everything on the QS and CT.
For sure, it’s radical. The QS is just as intense as the CT. Those guys are heading into a stretch right now. I mean, Japan, England, France, Portugal are all back-to-back. That’s crazy.
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No, I couldn’t imagine doing that with a family. I don’t think it is possible. Just the focus, the physical and mental, and the shape you have to be in to be able to perform at that level is the hardest part. The mental is more than the physical, and if you have to take care of your family, it is going to wear on your mental. You’re not going to be able to focus.
One thing I really want to talk to you about is Life Rolls On. Tell me a little about Jesse and Jesse’s Story that’s coming out. Is that going to be kind of like a documentary about him?
I am in it. Yeah, it is coming out. It’s his story.
Were you and Jesse friends before his accident?
Yeah, I knew Jesse. He was five or six years younger than me. He was kind of like that grom you would see down at the beach that was ripping and you know, “keep and eye on that kid.” I would kind of see him a little bit here and there. It was after the accident when we really became good friends. I think it was four years after his accident that we took him surfing.
I remember one video I watched with you guys in it, and he had a complaint that you kept pushing him left into the waves. He said “he keeps thinking I am goofy foot, but I am not.” I just thought that was really cool.
Yeah, it is good. It was a crazy learning experience for us. Trying to figure out how the hell we were to push him into the wave and what we were going to do was crazy. We figured out how to put two foot straps on the rails, so that he could wedge his elbows into them, and that was a lifesaver. That just sealed the whole deal. We pushed him into a couple of white waters with a couple of reforms. Then he was like “Let’s go out the back,” and we were freaked out. We didn’t know if he was going to fall off, and if he was going to sink, and really if he was going to drown. Of course, we were too stupid to think to put a life jacket on him. We basically had fifteen people, and we put them in a line. There was me pushing him and a guy at the end [of the ride] with people all in between.
It must have been a little scary.
Yeah, we were all freaked out. It was like “OK, you guys ready! Here we go!” Everyone is standing there watching him go by. He was never farther than a hands reach from someone. Then it got to the stage where my friend and I would take him surfing by ourselves. We got so comfortable. He figured out how to make himself float, and he learned how to flip himself over from being facedown to floating on his back and a couple of other crucial things. Basically my friend and I would sit out the back with Jesse, and if I pushed him into a wave my friend would ride right behind. He would ride right next to him until he would kick out of the wave, and my friend would kick right next to him. That was the way it worked.
What do you think that’s done for Jesse’s quality of life, rehab and his mental state from the accident?
I would have to imagine it’s huge. I can’t even begin to put myself in his shoes, but I would imagine that something like that brings you a whole new outlook on life. Having one way of life and having it stripped away and having a little piece given back to you is probably a pretty good feeling.
What makes you such a popular figure in the surfing world?
I dunno. I think it is just day-to-day, everyday life. When it comes down to it, I just love surfing, and I think that in the end that’s what shines through. Whether it is for a contest, world title, or whatever it is, I always look back to something like when Kelly and I high-fived each other in ’95. I think that moment kind of connected me to those people who don’t surf. People went “wow, that guy is just having fun.” In that heat I lost the world title, but I think I gained a lot more at the end of the day. Ninety-nine percent of people who surf don’t compete. If you take the entire surfing population, there is only a one percentile that competes. Most people don’t understand. I go surfing because I love to go surfing, and it is the most peaceful place in the world. It is the greatest escape for me, but I also go out and compete and try my hardest. But at the end of the day, it is just a surf contest, and there is going to be plenty more (laughs). You can only do the best you can do.
I remember to this day driving back from Huntington Beach in 1990 or ’91, and I just won the OP Junior, and the year before I had lost to Kelly, I got second. So I was all stoked that I had won. It was a prestigious event. It was one of the biggest junior events in the country, and I just won. We were driving back home, and I was with my dad and we pulled up to this stoplight. He knew I was just expanded and thought I was the shit basically. He kind of called me out on it. He asked how I was feeling, and I told him that I was so stoked. He looked at the car next to us and said, “You think those people over there care about what you just did?” (laughs) He brought it all back to perspective. It was a real subtle way. It wasn’t mean or anything. It was just a way for him to bring me back down to Earth. He is good like that.
Your dad has been a big influence on your surfing as well as your life?
Yeah, totally. He was a perfect example of someone who goes out there and gives 100 percent. Try your hardest, prepare and do everything you can, and when you walk away, you walk away. It’s over, and it is what it is.
In the competitive nature of the CT, is it as cut-throat as people see it or at the end of the day is everyone still bros?
Nah, it is pretty intense. You know, at the end of the day I think that everyone appreciates each others surfing and everyone has that utmost respect for each other and what they do. But, everyone wants to kill everyone. Everyone wants to win. But I think we definitely had a neat little scene with the momentum generation, because we had something just as important as being on tour, and that was Taylor’s videos. That was like a whole different contest. We all battled to see who could get the best part or have the funniest thing, and Taylor was just along for the ride. He created this monster, and he sat back and let it happen and captured it all. It was really competitive. We would just go out and we would go to contests, but we were more excited to go video. There were days where if you had a heat and everyone else was going to go video, you would be bummed (laughs). It was a shitty feeling.
Rumor has it that you are pretty mean on the ping-pong table. Is that true, or does your
reputation precede you?
I have been known to win a few games, yeah.
I play a lot of ping-pong too, and in my experiences there is always some guy that was a sailor in World War II that will whip your ass, some 80-year-old guy.
Yeah, I found those guys, and it was the best thing I have ever done. My friend and I, in his group of people he was the best, and none of my friends beat me either. So, we decided to go play and found a neutral table. It couldn’t be his garage or my living room or whatever. So we went to this rec center and there was a killer big, giant, empty, well-lit room. We looked at each other, and it was on. We played this best of seven series and I ended up winning. This was on a Sunday and all of the Chinese guys started showing up, and they set up these two tables. We thought we were good, and we started to play doubles with these guys, and we got lit up. Then we started playing singles. I didn’t win a game for like, I don’t know, but I started going back by myself. I would cruise in and these guys would bring in their paddles and would polish them up with the new rubber on them. It was another level of ping-pong that you had to adjust to. It was a whole other game.
They didn’t have any idea who you were, a superstar in your own sport.
No idea. Finally I beat one guy, and I was ready to do a victory lap around the room. I was so psyched. It was pretty funny, from whipping all of your friends to getting lit up. There was this one guy. He was like Master Yoda, and he must have been seventy five with gray hair. He would just stand there and no matter what you threw at him, he would just WABAM, blow it by you. I mean that’s what it is all about. Just when you think you are doing something pretty well, there is someone out there doing it better.
Is that the next tour you are going on, the American Ping-Pong Association? How cool is it to watch those?
It’s insane. Some of those guys look like acrobats, you know, flipping around. People go off in ping-pong. I mean, people don’t think you can get a work-out playing ping-pong, but we play and we sweat. It’s kind of like you’re exhausted. You play for like and hour and a half, and it’s like playing tennis or something. We need a big room. We don’t play unless it is a big space. Just this little square in the middle, but you are just all over the place.
Are you still involved in Life Rolls On, the charity part?
Yeah, I was on the board of directors for a while, but they have taken it to a new level, and I just help out with the fundraising however I can.
Is that your main charity or do you have anything else you try to bring awareness to?
I have a golf tournament every year. And I donate…
Oh yeah, what’s your handicap?
It is probably up around ten now. Every year I try to raise money with it. I started my own foundation, the Rob Machado Foundation. I find different charities or organizations that need funding in San Diego, and that’s what I do the golf tournament for. I started with the local school district and the music departments. I gave them a check for five grand just to keep the whole music classes and instruments in place. Then I found this organization called Healing Notes. They go to hospitals and play music for kids, and it was five grand to them in San Diego. But Life Rolls On and Jesse were the recipients the very first year.
How many years have you been doing it?
I think we are going on five. I am trying to evolve my foundation to be more about environmental awareness. I am in the process of working with this girl who works with Patagonia. We are going to create some programs for kids and start funding those through my foundation. My whole thing is going to be environmental awareness for kids. I am going to have a surf contest this year which is just totally green. I just want to teach kids about recycling. To enter the contest you have to make something out of recyclable materials. You have to bring something that is recyclable, just kind of teaching, it is all about education.
Do you have a website for your foundation?
No, not yet, we are really just kind of putting together the whole structure of the thing. We are still trying to put together the programs together, but Reef has the whole Redemption Line that they are coming out with. It’s great, I think my sandal is one of the first ones.
Is that where they can be re-used or are they already re-used?
They have created this new EVA that’s biodegradable. It’s made out of corn, I think, and it breaks down in eight years. These aren’t the ones [looking at his sandals] but the new ones, the bottom of the souls are recycled car tires, and in the leather they eliminate all the steps that have the chemical bi-products. The whole Redemption Line is environmentally friendly with organic cottons and stuff.
Cool, we’ll have to check them out. You’ve got another heat coming up. Good luck.
Thanks
Rob Machado is one of the best and most accomplished surfers in the world, winning eight events on tour, including a Pipe Master’s and being ranked in the top 10 in the world for five years including a near miss at a world title that he lost to Slater in 1995. In spite of his immaculate, soulful style and his immense talent and his trademark look; it is still the fact that he is a great, approachable guy that makes him one of the most popular surfers on the planet. With his hectic schedule he still makes time for his family, creates charity events and works in an opportunity to get humbled by Master Yoda. To keep up with Rob you can follow him around the globe at www.Robmachado.com.
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