Paul Rodriguez Interviewed on Idea Generation
Idea Generation recently sat down with Paul Rodriguez to hear about his career spanning from his early days as a young skateboarder in California, to becoming the face of Nike SB, to launching Primitive Skateboarding and everything along the way including how how he became an acclaimed investor, exploring the trades of everything from beer to lemons. Sit down with Host and Creator Noah Callahan-Bever as P Rod shares growing up dreaming, getting into skating and when it turned into obsession, crafting a career from passion, finding sponsorships, creating his style, learning from the greats (including Tom Penny, Eric Koston, and Andrew Reynolds), turning pro, becoming the face of Nike SB, processing criticism, approaching fatherhood, defining success, launching Primitive, Saint Archer, taking ownership of yourself, burnout, injury and the challenge of recovery, full circle moments, good idea vs. bad ideas, lemon ranch investment, his next phase of life and how he keeps the fire burning.
“At one point I just wanted to be Tom Penny. He dressed the coolest. He looked like he was asleep while he was skating. He looked like he never messed up and he was just the most legendary. The way everyone would talk about him is if he didn’t even really exist. He was a myth. He was like Santa Claus. Like you would hear a story about him. ‘Oh, the legendary Tom went to this spot, didn’t even look at it, did the trick down the stairs. First try, didn’t even look at the stairs. He just did it.’ You would just hear these stories, like, ‘Man, I want to be a legend like Tom.’
Then also Eric Koston. Eric’s the best. When you think of the best, it’s just Koston. Koston. Koston. And Eric was just constantly progressing on handrails, switch and fakey stuff. He was constantly progressing. He was the most precise skater.
Once I got older, I realized instead of wanting to be another one of these guys, being a copy of this guy – which you can never be as good or better a copy of someone – I realized I’m just gonna take a piece of all my favorites and try to put him into me, and create my own recipe. So that I can be the original me.”
-Paul on his skating influences and finding his own style
Watch the full interview above!
From Battle Commanders, It Must Be Nice, Ambidextrous, to BATB champ, and Run & Gun champ, P-rod has set the standard for high quality skating at The Berrics. Take a look at some of his projects with us, below:
