words and fotos jeff potocar
Jeff : How many kits have you rigged today Rodney?
Rodney : I rigged multiple kits today. A two hour trip to CT for a meeting rig, then two hours back to NYC, rigging & maneuvering in NYC traffic.
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| rodney revisits the first hill he ever bombed roughly 20 years later |
Jeff : Is the chizzy in the mizzy?
Rodney : The check is no longer in the mail and in my clutches, Thank You.
Jeff : Give me a good Coco story
Rodney : While skating at the Brooklyn Banks, Mr Santiago & friends played cruel jokes
on one another. After becoming fed up with one of his friends sneaking sips of his
“bug juice” he decided to relieve himself into that particular friends “bug juice” bottle.
Then proceeded to wait for his friend to take a sip, then another, until another friend could no
longer take the sips and ratted Coco out; then a high speed chase ensued for an hour.
“I’m gonna kill you!”.
Jeff : Billy Waldman?
Rodney : Billy is Doing well, living in Brazil with his wife and two kids and skating daily.
Jeff : Is dune your son?
Rodney : Haa Haa Haa!!! No……. he’s my brother.
Jeff : Did you really hand cut all the original Shut boards?
Rodney : Absolutely. By all means necessary was our motto back then. We got the job done.
Jeff : What happened to Shut?
Rodney : Shut was a victim of rapid change in an industry, poor business management and greedy people trying to own something that wasn’t rightfully there’s.
Jeff : What about when Zoo was going, you made Jay Maldanado do spray can fades on all the boards?
Rodney : I can’t remember if Jay worked for Chapman or not ?...if he did, it was likely he would have had a shift spraying fades on decks.
Jeff : i heard that he did, so here's a big one, what happened to Zoo?
Rodney : Zoo morphed into something beyond me and still supports skaters as it should. If the brand no longer supports skaters then it is no longer serving the purpose it was meant to. The legacy that was built by “ The Soul Artist of Zoo York” and by the original “Zoo York Skateboard company founders” will live on forever.
Jeff : What happened to the Jeep Vallely gave you?
Rodney : While it was amazing Mike did that for me...I was not in a financial position to keep it and had to sell it.
Jeff : Hows the family?
Rodney : The Family is great! Everyone is alive and smiling. Can’t ask for more then that right?
Jeff : This is true, Thats awesome, oh so are you ever gonna bring back the flat top/gumby hairstyle?
Rodney : The hair line will no longer accommodate such a thing.
Jeff : Future plans for shut?
Rodney : The future plan for shut is to just keep at “the grind” and build a bigger platform for all involved to prosper.
