English Translation:
Have you ever come across somebody and just knew? Just knew they were one of a kind? Well…with Roberto, we just knew. About 10 years ago, our distributor from Spain at the time had told us he had this ripping skateboarder who was down for Consolidated and wanted to ride for us. We started flowing him boards, and pretty soon, he wrote to us that he wanted to come visit. From the second we met him, it was on!
Yeah, sure Roberto rides for Consolidated. But really, that comes in second to our friendship. If I had to describe Roberto in one word, it would be "unwavering." He's as solid as they come. Once he has your back, you will never have to think twice. He will cheer with you when you're stoked, and pick you up when you're down. I pull inspiration from him on a daily basis.
If his mom had had her way, skateboarding would have lost Roberto, to of all things, tennis! Luckily, skateboarding was in his blood from the second he stepped foot on a board, and he never looked back. (I’m sorry Sra. Aleman!). Just don't ever play him in tennis or racquetball. And not necessarily because he's good either. It's just if you win, get ready for him to not talk to you for a while. And if you lose, get ready for him to rub it in your face for a really long while! (Cool…after digging deep, I finally found something unflattering to say about him-he's a really sore loser...and even worse winner!)
Being a pro skateboarder to Roberto is not a "job." Skateboarding to Roberto is more like a drug. When he can't skate because of an injury or some other reason, after a couple of days, he is practically jumping out of his skin. Whether it's through skating, filming others skate, capturing footage of everybody, or learning to edit, he just has to surround himself with skateboarding. I love watching Roberto with the rest of the team. His energy level is so contagious, and I see him giving the same type of inspiration I pull from him, to them as well.
For those of you reading this intro, if you ever have the chance to meet Roberto, think back to this intro and after hanging out with him, I think it will make a whole lot more sense. Roberto is 100% skateboarder for life, and we are very grateful to have him be a part of our lives.
We love you a lot Rober...
Leticia
---IT HAS BEEN 10 YEARS SINCE YOUR LAST DOGWAY INTERVIEW , WOULD YOU SUMMARIZE WHAT HAS HAPPENED IN THOSE 10 YEARS?
It goes so quick, but a decade is a decade. So many things happen during 10 years in someone’s life that it is not easy to summarize.. but I can tell you that the value I give to it is positive and good…yeah, there have been times when I was hurt and I had to get surgery, but that would be the only negative point in those 10 years…
In comparison, the better times are so much greater, and those are things that will last forever. All those places in the world that I had the opportunity to see, the long list of friends that never will stop growing, and the best experiences of my life: trips, tours, video parts, interviews, etc etc....my career as a professional and how I even ended up here. The sponsors that help me keep it going. Luis Matesanz at the beginning with North Cal Distribution, was the guy who helped me out a lot with my relationship with the companies in USA. He was the guy who told Consolidated about me, and sent me there. From the first time I met Consolidated and met everybody, they decided to put me on officially and since then, it has been like family.
After that, a few years later, Volcom became a part of me and we have always had a super good relationship. I have been skating for them around 6 years.
So many things in 10 years…
The good thing about it is that we’re still here, right?! Doing another interview with you, 10 years later, and playing tennis in the pool a little bit ago, eating the best seafood on the Island where we went to shoot the portrait for the interview…all this thanks to skateboarding, if one should enjoy life the best they can, I'm sure we are doing it right.
---HOW DO YOU SEE YOURSELF IN THE NEXT TEN YEARS? DO YOU THINK WE WILL BE HERE LIKE NOW DOING ANOTHER INTERVIEW?
Who knows what is gonna happen in the next ten years. I hope I am still involved in the skateboard industry…unless skateboarding ends up in Footlocker or some lame shit.
Maybe I will be married with children…but just the thought of that makes me shake. So we will see...maybe I’ll start skating pools but I'm not too good at it so, I don’t know. For sure I will have a miniramp in the backyard and I will skate and have some beers with the homies
I will see you in ten years and I will let you know.
---WHAT DO YOU MISS FROM THAT TIME?
Tons of things…but most of all, skating all day with out worries, worries of filming or shooting photos, or the responsibilities that you have when you are 29 years old.
Just the pure essence to skate, skate and skate, just skate with your friends, going to sleep thinking about skateboarding and waking up wishing to do it. The trips without money, stealing from the supermarket to eat, sleeping in the streets, just traveling to an unknown city and just by seeing a skater you would have the weekend solved by staying at their house and being fed from their moms.
I used to love when people looked at me weird because I was with a skateboard, It made me feel different and at the same time special. It made me love it so much more, because I was a rebel in the eyes of society, and that differentiated me from others, and if I was sure of anything, it was that I didn't want to be like the rest.
Now everything is different, not bad necessarily, but just different. You have to pay bills, you try to go skate and and you have to make it productive, and sometimes it doesn't work out. You have to do photos to be in the mags and film for the videos you’re working on. Pay more bills...
--- HOW IS IT LIVING IN THE STATES?
--Well, it's not bad, I don't live there all year, I spend half the year there. Every 3 months there and then 3 months in Europe. The part that I like the most is that I never get bored of any one place and the bad thing is that I never get used to any place either. I'm more established in the States I think. I have a room there and it doesn't matter where I travel, I always come back to the same room in SF, but here in Spain I go from one place to another-at my parents house in my hometown the first couple of weeks, then Barcelona at my friends’ houses, and the rest of the time, just somewhere.
---HOW WAS IT IN THE BEGINING, WHEN YOU ARRIVED TO THE STATES YOU DIDN'T EVEN KNOW HOW TO ASK SOMEONE’S NAME.
Yeah, it was something I didn't expect, it was crazy, I was just 19 years old and didn't speak a word of English, but it was such a great experience. I will never forget, Scott Bourne, who used to ride for Consolidated at the time, picked me up from the airport, even though my flight was delayed 5 hours, he was still waiting for me! jejejeje
He took me to party that night and he kept buying me beer (I didn't like beer at that time but I didn't want to say no). It was crazy, after partying, we went back home but he lost his keys, so we ended up in some other bar.
I didn't know where I was, we dropped my luggage at Scott's friend’s house, and the next day we were leaving on tour to Oregon with pretty much all the team back then - Jason Jessee, Alan Petersen, Bailey, Karma, Scott. I didn't know any of these people and I was getting in the van totally hung over, and that’s how I met all those dudes that were my idols since I was a kid.
We were late to the first demo, so they didn't pay us what they were supposed to. We didn't have enough money for everybody to keep doing the tour, so half of the crew went back to Santa Cruz. I was tripping out but at the same time I was like: Fuck, these people are rad. They are crazy, they don't care at all! And me, still unable to speak English, but just trying to listen and talk with all of them. At least Bailey was there and he helped me out when I really needed it.
---FROM MATOLA A LITTLE VILLAGE OF HUNDRED PEOPLE …TO SF. WHAT DO THE PEOPLE FROM YOUR TOWN THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU DO? IS IT TRUE THAT THE PEOPLE FROM A SMALL VILLAGE DON'T UNDERSTAND WHAT'S GOING ON?
The only contact I have with the village is my family. I don't deal with anybody else. It’s pretty much old people that don't even know I live in the States or that I skate. The friends I used to have from there ended up doing really bad shit like drugs and partying a lot. A lot of them have ended up dead because of drugs and that shit. Whenever I hear about one of them through a mutual friend, I'm really stoked on the decisions I made when I was young and that I didn’t follow that path.
--- IN YOUR FAMILY, ONE OF YOUR BROTHERS IS A HUNTER AND YOUR OTHER BROTHER IS BULLFIGHTER. WHAT DOES YOUR FAMILY THINK ABOUT YOU SKATING?
--What are they gonna think, they have seen me grow up doing this and now I make a living out of it just like any other job, so they totally back me up. The only thing is that I travel a lot and I don't see them too often, but every time I come back from the States the first stop is to visit my parents for a few weeks.
--- WHY IS EVERYONE IN YOUR FAMILY TALLER THAN YOU?
--Maybe because when I was growing I decided to be vegetarian and I didn’t get enough nourishment? Either way, it is not that big of a difference, and by the way, I’m as tall as you…and now that you are vegetarian, you are even smaller!
--- DON'T DO IT?
-- Well, at this point everyone knows what Don’t Do It is about. It’s a campaign that is trying to preserve the roots of skateboarding and fights to keep it into the hands of skaters and not of businessmen that have never skated and the only thing that they’re looking for is money.
---YOU HAVE A CONSOLIDATED TATTOO IN YOUR ARM. CONSOLIDATED FOREVER?
--Well, everything started on a Consolidated tour on the east coast of the United States. Leticia came along with us for a few days. She and I were partying in a bar one night and we were talking about how much we wanted to get the Cube tattoo for so long, so we decided we were gonna do it.
After that, we headed to NYC. We have a friend from San Jose, Justin Bell, that is a tattoo artist. We had heard that he was working in NY, so we thought we could get our tattoos there, but when we got to NY, he had already left back to California.
After NY, Leticia went home, and we stayed on tour for a few more weeks.
When I got back to Santa Cruz I talked to Leticia and she still wanted to get the tattoo, so we went to San Jose to visit Justin, and we did it.
--- THIS PAST MONTH HAS BEEN HARD FOR YOU RIGHT?
--Fuck, yes it has been pretty hard. I got back from the States a month ago and I still haven’t been able to get on my board! The day after getting back from the States, I was involved in this little situation where I ended up with a broken rib. A little bit after that, my car broke down and then I had to get a hernia removed. So it’s been one month and nothing. But, the summer starts now, so everything will be ok. I have a lot of plans and I can't wait to start skating again. I spend all day doing rock and rolls on the miniramp at the moment, cuz it’s the only move I can do right now.
AFTER THE SUMMER.. PART II
HOW HAS YOUR SUMMER BEEN? HAVE YOU RECUPERATED?
--Jeje, yes I finally did recover, but it was slower than I thought. I went to these contests in Copenhagen and Prague, thinking I’d be good to skate by then…but couldn’t. It was just after Prague, when I ended up staying for a few more days with Volcom when I really started getting comfortable to skate again. And since then, it’s been perfect, no getting hurt or anything. Just some minor injuries that take me out for a day or two, but nothing serious.
---WHAT YOU HAVE BEEN DOING?
-- I spent all summer traveling, its been incredible. Barcelona was my home base, cuz I have a room there during the summer, but we went to Bilbao for a few weeks, then we went to this contest in Vigo, and after that we went to Elche, my hometown. We stayed at this house in the country where we were staying at the beginning of the summer…a little house with a swimming pool and a lot of hot chicks! Jejeje. Then we went to Almeria (south of Spain) to skate with a lot of people from there and then back to my Elche. After that, I went to Barcelona again and picked up Dani Lebron and Alberto Polo and we went back to Elche to try to finish this interview. We were there for just 5 days and then we went back to Barna and Irun for another contest. And on and on…but super cool, we’ve been having fun like little kids, I can’t believe it’s middle of October already…time flies!
---LOOKS LIKE YOU ARE STAYING LONGER IN SPAIN, WHEN ARE YOU COMING BACK TO THE STATES?
-- Yeah, I ended up staying longer because I was supposed to do a Consolidated tour on the East Coast, but it got cancelled, so that's why I am staying longer. If everything goes right, I will go to the States at the end of the month.
---WHAT ARE THE PLANS WHILE YOU ARE THERE?
--We are working on a South America tour with Consolidated. We are trying to talk with the distributors over there to see if it is possible. That would be for 3 weeks, we might go to Mexico as well to do a little tour and after that just go back to the city and skate.
---WHAT DO YOU MISS THE MOST WHEN YOU ARE HERE? AND WHEN YOU ARE THERE?
---Well, when I'm here I miss skating in San Francisco. It’s an incredible city, skating with my friends there, the Mexican food, eating dinner at Delfina and drinking beers at Dolores Park, my house on 14th, Leticia, Birdo. I don't know a lot of things, SF has always been my favorite city so I always miss it when I'm far away.
And when I'm in SF more than 3 months, then I start to miss Spain, jeje, family, friends, skating in Barcelona, the skatepark in Elche or Alicante.
---IN THE FIRST PART OF THE INTERVIEW YOU SAY YOU HAVE A ROOM IN SF, BUT BACK IN THE DAY YOU USED TO STAY AT THE CONSOLIDATED WAREHOUSE RIGHT?
--Yes, I spent a lot of time at the warehouse, never paid rent or anything and I had my own room. In the beginning, I just slept on the floor with a sleeping bag, but since I started coming out there more often, Birdo decided to build two little rooms for me and the rest of the team. He also made a shower as well, but just with 5 minutes of hot water, so in the winter, the showers had to be fast or you would freeze.
For a while now, we’ve been renting a room in SF. It’s the best, we pay it between Consolidated and me.
It’s in the Mission, a Mexican neighborhood. Well, it’s not the safest area in the City, but not the sketchiest either. For me it’s the best part, no doubt. It’s like the team room. If any of the guys from the team come, they can share the room with me, it’s super cool.
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