The
film festivals are gone and its time for skiers and snowboarders to
reclaim the hills for their own purposes. And there's only one real
way to do it... slap an obstacle course on the side of one and rip it
a new one.
--- The SLUG Games
return on Saturday up at Brighton, bringing out some of the best our
state has to compete in various competitions. And remember to grab
your rental tux and cheap corsages as it all
plays out to this year's theme of The Prom Jam. Gearing up for the
event I got to chat with SLUG's Sports Coordinator and
pro-skater Adam Dorobiala, who you may remember from last year's chat about SLUG's 20th Anniversary. This time we chat about his career and experience with the magazine as well as
the events this weekend, plus his take on extreme sports as we look at his body of work throughout.
Adam
Dorobiala
http://www.slugmag.com/
Gavin:
Hey Adam! First off, tell us a bit about yourself.
Adam:
I am action sports coordinator at SLUG Magazine, I teach
skateboarding in the summer at Spocks Skatecamp and if its dry out
and I'm not working, you can find me skating around the city.
Gavin:
How did you first take an interest in skateboarding and other
extreme sports?
Adam:
Maybe I can accredit my father for that. He would always take me up
to Mt. Hood in Oregon while he windsurfed and up to Snowbird to
ski/snowboard with him at a really young age, so it was just natural.
Skateboarding looked so fun and interesting that I got a board and
started from there. I figured it was about the same as snowboarding
(which I was getting bored of) the only difference is falling on
cement. I would spend hours and hours in my front yard building and
skating the sketchiest ramps ever. Completely obsessed, its just so
damn fun.
Gavin:
What was it like for you first learning to board and hitting up
skate parks?
Adam:
I wont lie, it took me a minute to figure out. Ultimately I think it
was the lack of skateparks that made skateboarding easier and easier.
I would have to skate to my friends houses and from there we would
have to skate to a spot, so I think all the time clocked on my board
to and from spots made me more comfortable with how to ride it. We
covered so much land each day back then, sometimes I wonder why I
even need a car today. Now, with all the parks everywhere, I feel
like kids just get dropped off and don’t really take the time to
learn how to even push their boards. They see the X-Games and play
the video games that just make them want to learn tricks and not the
basics.
Gavin:
What drew you to do local competitions and demos, and what's it like
for you while participating?
Adam:
I have never really been that competitive so I would just go to the
competitions to see how they worked. Only recently have I entered
some competitions, and they can be fun but at the same time there is
a level of egotism that goes along with them. That’s why I don’t
like to compete, it seems like only a few people go to have fun and
the rest are there to prove a point, and that’s not skateboarding
to me, that’s a team sports mentality in my opinion.
Gavin:
What kind of gear do you prefer to use when skating?
Adam:
Obviously I like riding Sevenfold decks (if I run out of those then
Salty Peaks boards are the next best thing) and softer wheels. I like
softer wheels because they are stealth mode, super quiet and they
grip better so you can skate faster without slipping out when you try
to make quick adjustments. My trucks are kinda loose, although I
tightened them up a bit just to see what it felt like and have stayed
with it. My very first pair of skate shoes were a pair of Adidas
organic shoes made out of hemp, way back in the day, and they were so
good that I skate Adidas as much as I can nowadays. And other than
that, as long as it rolls, its good enough.
Gavin:
How did you come to get involved with Sevenfold Skateboards, and
what's it been like working with them?
Adam:
I got involved with Sevenfold after a trip out to San Francisco with
the Salty Peaks team to film for the skate video “Makin’ Moves.”
Caleb Orton had been skating for them for a while and we ended up
staying at Jimmy Nelson’s house (marketing manager for Sevenfold)
for a few days. He showed us around, took photos and apparently Jimmy
liked my style and thought that I would make a good fit on the team,
so he got in touch with me after the trip and told me they were
thinking about bringing me in on flow. After Jimmy had talked with
Chris Opilla (owner of Sevenfold) and all the other people making
Sevenfold happen, I got a call. I was planning a trip to go skate
Maui so I gave them all the footage from that trip and made my first
podcast. I took five or six trips out to S.F. last year to meet up
with Jimmy to skate, talk, discuss ideas for graphics and film for
other podcasts. You can find those podcasts online at
SevenFoldsSkateboards. Its been about two years now and I cant
complain. I really like skating for them, they are true to the scene
and always help me out.
Gavin:
You also gained an interest in photography, how did that artform
catch your eye?
Adam:
Not sure really, I guess it’s in my genes or something. My
grandfather was an avid photographer, and my uncle as well, I think
photographic eyes are just part of the Dorobiala genetics. Plus its
really fun.
Gavin:
Education wise, you studied photography at SLCC as well as the Art
Institute of Pittsburgh. What persuaded you to seek out a degree for
that, and what eventually led you to not finishing?
Adam:
Well, a college degree is something that you are supposed to have
nowadays, supposedly. And since I was excelling in my photography, I
figured just go to school for that. I won a photo competition in my
senior year of high school, well first regionals and then state
(didn’t place at nationals), which gave me a scholarship to SLCC
for one year. I rolled with that and then did the same competition
again at the college level the next year for SLCC, I won state again
and went to Kansas City for the nationals and placed third. This gave
me another scholarship to SLCC as well as a voucher to some school in
Boston for 2500 dollars or something. I ditched the Boston voucher
and went back to SLCC to finish up my Associates in photography. In
my final year at SLCC I won again and headed to nationals one more
time and placed first at nationals. They offered me a few different
scholarships and I decided to take the 30,000 dollars to the Art
Institute of Pittsburgh. At first it seemed like a great idea and I
thought I was gonna get my Bachelors easy as pie, that was not the
case. The Art Institute didn’t accept all my credits and the
scholarship was pretty chincy compared to how much it was going to
cost to finish up there. The teachers were pretty bad, not to boast
or anything but they would give me shit for stuff they knew I was
right about and it was just all around bogus. I thought about it for
a long while and then decided leaving would be best for me. I took a
greyhound from there to visit my extended family in Buffalo, New York
and then another greyhound to Knoxville, Tennessee to spend some time
with my grandparents and aunt on my way home. It was a way better way
to spend my money than paying for some snobby unsuccessful
photography telling me what I already know and having to pay some
ridiculous amount to hear it. I’ll just wait things out until I get
an honorary degree somewhere, although I wouldn’t mind teaching
photography one bit.
Gavin:
What eventually led to you getting involved with SLUG
Magazine?
Adam:
I had just gotten back from the east coast and I was getting back
together with some friends and one night we just happened to go out
skating and Bob Plumb, senior skate/snow photographer for SLUG
at the time, came too. I won't bore you with the the whole story (as
it can be seen in the other interview I did for you last year) but it
ended out working out just fantastic.
Gavin:
How were things for you filling that position and basically learning
the ropes in publishing?
Adam:
I had never really had an office job, so that was odd at first, but
being able to skate to work is the best. I knew the programs we use
pretty well before starting, but it was all the stuff that goes into
getting each issue out was a shock to me. Deadlines make or break so
much of our content and then all the little things you do in the
office to make shit work is crazy. I guess I am desensitized now, but
when I first started it was definitely tough.
Gavin:
From your viewpoint, how is it being both a writer of the
skateboarding scene while also being an active participant?
Adam:
Its not too bad. Sometimes you get people asking you to come skate
when really all they want is for you to do an interview on them.
Sometimes I feel like people think that I am just a writer, not a
skateboarder, and there have been instances where I have to show them
that writing is just something I do when I cant go out and
skate.
Gavin:
How did the opportunity come about to be the Sports Coordinator? And
what's it been like for you holding that title and the work you
do?
Adam: I
think it was more like the opportunity was created by all the newer
action sports staff starting to pitch more and more ideas and slowly
when we got more pages Angela just figured it would be better to give
me that title seeing that I was mostly running that section of the
mag. I like what I do here a lot and am glad I have great people to
work with that are creative and talented in what they do. Lately we,
Chris Swainston (photographer and writer) and myself, have been
getting into design so we can design the skate pages to look exactly
how we see them in our heads and that has been another great thing.
It takes stress off of Josh Joye (issue designer) and lets us make
sure that the layouts turn out just right for every story we
run.
Gavin:
Speaking of events, The SLUG Games return to Brighton this week. Tell
us what you got planned for it and the events you'll be
holding.
Adam:
Yeah, The Prom Jam, February 6th, its all themed around
high school prom. We are going to have obstacles that you may find at
a school dance to shred on and after the competition is over, we are
going to have a dance at the Alpine Rose at Brighton. Its gonna be
pretty fun and funny to attend, if its anything like what we have
done the last few years, I imagine there are going to be lots of
awesome shenanigans.
Gavin:
A month from now you'll have Beat The Pro up in Park City. What have
you got lined up for that event?
Adam:
Its going to be round two of last year's Beat The Pro competition. I
don't want to give out too much info about it but just know that
round two is gonna be twice as action packed and gnarly as last years
Beat The Pro.
Gavin:
A little state-wide, what's your opinion on the way skateboarding is
handled by the city and state? And is there anything you wish you
could change?
Adam:
You can skate the Library downtown on the stipulation that “your
wheels cant leave the ground.” I find that a lot of places are like
that with some lame ass rule ruining our fun, but that’s fine
really because not listening to stupid rules is what we do best. That
and fucking shralping around like a pack of hungry wolves. I don’t
know if I would change anything really, maybe when people tell you to
leave they could not mention where the closest skatepark is. We know
where the the skateparks are, there is a reason we are not there. I
would change that and those damn rent-a-cops that think they are hard
asses.
Gavin:
Do you see any major changes on the horizon for snowboarding or
skateboarding?
Adam:
Its hard to say. I feel like things change on a daily basis. Mostly
I see smaller companies making a big difference in the industry
taking customers of the bigger businesses and distribution companies
out there. That and everyone getting burlier and burlier as to what
can be done on their shred sticks.
Gavin:
What's your take, both good and bad, on the way "extreme
sports" are presented nowadays with the X-Games and time on
ESPN?
Adam:
Overall I think its probably a bad thing. You have kids watching it
that want to be like these guys competing for the money or fame
rather than going out skating and not thinking about all the
corporate bullshit. I always tell kids I teach skateboarding to, just
go out and have fun and eventually something may happen but don’t
rely or expect it to, that just creates bad attitudes and inflated
egos.
Gavin:
What can we expect from both yourself, as well as future events
throughout 2010?
Adam:
Our skate comps this year will definitely be something to watch.
They get better year after year and this year should be no exception.
There is a chance we might be getting an underground training
facility/secret skate park that we might eventually open up in the
winter to do a winter skate comp. As far as what you can expect from
me this year... more of the same but better, faster, stronger,
harder. I am having fun doing what I do best and hope to continue
having fun as much as possible this year traveling and skating
whenever and wherever I can
Gavin:
Aside the obvious, is there anything you'd like to promote or plug?
Adam: SevenFoldsSkateboards, SkhateBoarding,
TrifeStatus, SLUG, the Sofa King zine, Bones wheels for
hooking it up time to time (thanks Elliott), SaltyPeaks, Borge
Andersen, SpocksSkateCamp.