Who is Rob Dyrek?

Answer 1

Robert Dyrdek was born in Kettering, Ohio and began Skateboarding at the age of 11, winning his first competition 24 days later. The same year, Dyrdek became the youngest member of the G&S skateboard team. He turned professional at the age of 16, joining the Ohio-based Alien Workshop team, forgoing his senior year of high school. He reached fourth place at the 1991 World Championships, the first contest he competed in as a professional. As a teenager, Dyrdek attracted a growing number of sponsors, appeared in skate movies and on magazine covers, signature skateboards and other merchandise. One of his best known sponsorship deals developed after he befriended the founders of the Droors Clothing line. He not only began promoting their clothing, but was given the opportunity to design a signature line of the first athletic skate shoe. The nearly 30 shoes designed by Dyrdek helped establish what became DC Shoes. This exposure to the business side of skateboarding inspired him to venture into other projects such as the world-famous skateboarding training facility in San Diego and the now defunct hip hop label, P-Jays Records. At the age of 25, Dyrdek rededicated himself to street skateboarding. He began competing for the first time since his early professional years and received a multitude of awards and international recognition. The success and accolades renewed his desire to give back to the sport. He quickly identified the niche that needed to be filled in order to advance the sport - tackling the struggle that skaters faced in finding legal street skating sites in the United States. As Dyrdek experienced firsthand, street skateboarders are often ticketed, arrested and harassed by overly aggressive security guards and police. Dyrdek realized that many cities were open to compromise but were not qualified to follow through on their end of the agreement and they built poorly constructed parks that do not meet street skating requirements. He decided to task himself with providing street skaters with legitimate, safe and challenging street skating venues. The formation of the Rob Dyrdek/DC Shoes Skate Plaza Foundation in resulted in the Kettering Skate Plaza in his hometown of Kettering, Ohio. Working with the Site Design Group, Dyrdek designed the skate park by educating himself in design and drafting techniques. He used photos of his favorite skate spots to assemble an illustrated book of tricks and obstacles for the plaza. The 40,000 square foot Kettering Skate Plaza opened in June 2005, as a legal place for street skaters to hone their skills. The Kettering Skate Plaza received rave reviews from the skateboarding community and won the Modernism Award from Dwell magazine.Filmmaker Kirk Dianda documented the design process in the film Groundbreaking,which also serves as a reference for youngsters to lobby for skate plazas in their cities. Source: Wikipedia