A handful of people inquired about this site’s opinion on a recent Bobby Puleo interview (although the word “interview” should be used lightly, as the rubric of journalistic standards doesn’t exactly lean in favor of an interview with someone being published on their own media outlet, as opposed to an unbiased third party’s platform.) Between insisting that Austyn Gillette skates like the remaining millions of skateboarders, the fact that this website is guilty of showing people from other places spots (i.e. showing the entire world spots), and knowing the “What the hell?” factor that arose from an early screening of Deathbowl to Downtown, where this guy’s influence (which he mistakes for everyone else’s lack of creativity) was able to contort history so much that someone could claim he “Pioneered the New York style of skating,” we’re going to stay out of this one. The whole thing comes off as a skateboard-equivalent of one of those conversations where someone will rattle off five artists that “ruined hip-hop,” while championing the fact that Ghostface has made the same album for five years in a row.
Nevertheless, Billy Rohan, a native of Florida, a state mentioned as one of the corrosive forces behind the declining state of “art” in skateboarding, wrote a significantly more bigger-picture-encompassing response on his website, which aligns with a lot of where this website’s beliefs stand:
“Whether or not this interview destroys his skate career has no relevance in your mid-thirties. The true legacy of Robert Puleo will rest with art historians 200 years from now in museums throughout the country. Much like Pike, who spent his final days being taken care of by his fraternity brothers with just enough money to survive and who eventually died penniless, only to be entombed in America’s sacred pyramid years after his death.
So to does Bobby Puleo at the least deserve to have the respect and care of the brotherhood of skaters that recognize his devotion and contribution to the art of skateboarding. Theres a much larger world out there waiting for Bobby Puleo, his Mausoleum in skateboarding will live in the minds of people who grew up listening to Wu-Tang, watching him skate in the Infamous video, La Luz, Static and Mad Circle [videos], who said to themselves, ‘I want to leave my shitty town in Florida and skate that dope marble shit in NYC or SF or London.’ Not because we wanted to take you out, but because you inspired us to think differently about our surroundings and all that’s out there to be explored. Thank you Bobby Puleo. If this is your farewell interview for skateboarding, where ever you rest and no matter how much money you don’t have, the ideas you sparked in thousands of street skaters across the world will never be replaced with marketing money.”
