Robert "Rob" Dyrdek is know to many as "Rob" from the hit show Rob & Big. Rob was born June 28, 1974 in Kettering, Ohio). Robert Dyrdek and started when he was 15 winning his first competition 24 days later.[2] 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 and first contest he competed in as a professional.
As a professional, Rob Dyrdek attracted a growing number of sponsors, appeared in skate movies, 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 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.[3]The Kettering Skate Plaza received rave reviews from the skateboarding community and won the Modernism Award from Dwell magazine.[4] 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.
While building the Skate Plaza, Dyrdek's long time dream of making a movie about skateboarding came to fruition. Dyrdek’s foray into the film business manifested itself in the writing, financing, casting, producing and starring in his feature film, Street Dreams. The story is about a young skater from the Midwest who is suddenly faced with national exposure and personal adversity, reminiscent of Dyrdek's own rise to fame.
In 2006, Dyrdek became a reality TV star due to the success of MTV's Rob & Big. The three-season series was picked up by MTV after a skit written by Dyrdek in The DC Video became an underground sensation. The series ended in April of 2008 with Boykin moving out and, thus, ending the production of the show due to the birth of his first child. Dyrdek is coming out with a new show on MTV called Fantasy Factory. MTV wants it to come out in the 4th quarter so its expected to be released in late November or early December.
Dyrdek says, "I’ll actually start filming a new show that I call “Fantasy Factory” next month, which will be more about my skating, friends, business ventures, and adventures that I’m going to be getting into over the next year or so."
Adding to his acting repertoire, Dyrdek has been cast in the Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro film Righteous Kill.[5]
Current Dyrdek involvement includes: endorsements including Spy Optics, Alien Workshop and Monster Energy drinks; co-owner of Rogue Status, a clothing company with his business partner, former Blink 182 and current Plus 44 drummer Travis Barker; involvement with his own companies, Reflex Bearings and Silver Trucks; feature character in Skate, a video game from EA Sports; promoter of SafeSpot, an urban renewal program that seeks to take unused donated land and build safe skating grounds for street skateboarders; also a playable character in the game MTV Sports: Skateboarding released in 2000
is an American professional skateboarder, actor, entrepreneur, and star of his own reality TV series entitled Rob & Big with then personal bodyguard and best friend Christopher "Big Black" Boykin.[1] He currently resides in North Hollywood, California.
Rob was the first skater signed with DC shoes, he met big black through DC shoes and hired him to prevent security guards and others from stopping him from skating where he wanted. THey instantly became friends and the rest is history.
There are many questions about the show since Big moved out, Will their be a season 4? That hasn't been confirmed. But, sources say, "Yes," since Christopher "Big Black" Boykin has a baby daughter, now. But hopefully in the future, there will be a "reunion" episode where they meet again. MTV would probably get the most views in history that day, because who doesn't like "Rob and Big.".
