Friday, March 30

Rob Darden Interview

By Scot McElwaney
www.bmxonline.com

How old are you?
Twenty.

Who are your sponsors?
S&M, DC Shoes, TSG, Drew's BMX Shop, Fox Racing, EVS and Sun.

Where are you from?
I'm from Concord, Calif.

Where do you live now?
Greenville, N.C.

Why did you decide to move?
My friend John Reed, who now rides for DK, is going to school out here and he told me to come and hang out. I came out here for a month and it was awesome. I rode everyday and then I went back home and I probably only rode about six days out of a month, so I came back.

Do you plan on staying there for a while?
Yeah, definitely.

How long have you been riding?
Seven years.

Rob Darden walltap's the top of the tall sub box at the Anaheim, CA B3 contest.

What is your favorite form of riding?
I'd say dirt. Yeah, dirt is [my favorite].

How did you get started riding?
Just riding to school with my friends everyday and riding around the streets. I just took it from there. I didn't get my [drivers] license until I was 19, so I was always on my bike.

So you never went through the "I'm 16, so I'll quit riding because I have a car" phase?
No, I didn't even bother. I went right through that.

What was it like growing up in NoCal?
It was good. When I started riding, there were these trails called Lime Ridge, and there were always at least 20 kids there everyday, and we'd just session. Drew [Arroyo] of Drew's BMX lives right around there, so I would always ride with him in parks; him and Ryan O'Connell.

Who has influenced your riding?
I'd say Drew's probably been my biggest inspiration in the past year-and-a-half. But I would also say Joe Rich.

How did Drew influence your riding?
I don't know. He got me started on the tech stuff, and that kind of changed my whole style. He rides flat, but we'd go to the park and he'd do crazy stuff. I know that it completely changed me in the last year, year-and-a-half.

Darden took home first in street at the Kona CFB contest with huge box tricks like these.

Did you ride at the San Jose Ramp Club very much?
Yeah, I did, but when I first started going I only went once every other month. When I turned 19, I got my license, and then I got this shady van, so we drove down there twice a week. That was just like a year-and-a-half ago, so I only spent the last year going there.

Did the Ramp Club's closing have anything to do with you deciding to move?
Part of it. Yeah, definitely.

Why do you ride?
Why do I ride? Because I love it. It's a personal goal; it's just you [and your bike].

Do you have anyone you would like to thank?
I'd like to thank my parents, Drew, Duane [Taylor] at Fox, Chad Kagy and Eric Lawson.