SURFER Interview with Rob Machado

Of course, there are moments when Rob misses his old tour life...but this isn’t one of them.

Though it’s been just a couple hours since we left, Macy jumps into her father’s arms as if she hasn’t seen him in days. Rob carries her up the stairs as he continues to tell me how radically his life changed in 2001: A broken wrist cost him Australia. Complications with Patou’s pregnancy demanded that he skip parts of the South Pacific and Africa. Then as he readied to return in the fall, September 11 shocked the world, and the European leg was cancelled. By the time the Hawaiian season started, Rob’s WCT year was effectively over, so he stayed home to celebrate the successful arrival of his daughter Rose. There was an ASP meeting he could have attended in Hawaii to plead for a wildcard slot, but Machado never stood much of a chance at getting it. Kelly was returning in 2002, certain to get one of the two slots. Nine others were fighting for the last remaining one, among them Shane Dorian, who pled his case to surfers on the board and got the nod.

In the years since, Rob Machado has been spotted sandbagging at WQS events in some strange places, ala “Shoeless Joe” Jackson. But unlike the famous baseball player who was banned from the major leagues and kept playing in the minors under various assumed names, Rob arrives with no apologies, and he’s treated like a rock star playing a sneaker gig at the local pub. He’s not trying to requalify. That would involve way too much time away from home, and his girls are only this young once. He does it, he says, “Just to stay sharp.”

Was that whole thing a blessing in disguise? A huge one. I mean, I was bummed, really bummed, at the time but it’s worked out well. That was right when surfboards seemed to be changing a lot. So the timing was perfect for some fun. It was like, “Wow. Let’s go play.” I started bringing all kinds of surfboards on trips and my whole world just started opening up more.

Talk about fatherhood and the transition there and the reprioritization of everything. How long do you go away from home now? We’ve kind of made a pact on that one. Two weeks is the most, which is a lot different than it used to be. I used to leave for months at a time. Today, I don’t want to go away for two months. There’s no way. It’s just evolving with life. I still love to go on trips and push my surfing and travel to new places, but at the same time, nothing’s better than coming home now.

How difficult was that transition? It was weird at first for sure. My calendar was full for 10 years, then all of a sudden I had this blank piece of paper. It was kind of a trip, and at the time, I think I was sponsorless. Then I signed up with Hurley, but it took me some time there. It took me a while to be like, “Oh, you mean I have to make my own schedule? Nobody’s telling me where to be?” To figure out where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do actually took a while.

That had to be pretty liberating. It was a little confusing at first but it definitely didn’t take me long to get my own deal going and stay busy. The cool thing is that’s when this whole renaissance period came about with boards, so that enabled me to start experimenting a lot.

Do you find each variety of board teaches you different things about a wave? Exactly. That’s it. All of a sudden, you’ve got a single-fin, you’re not going to go straight down to the bottom and try to blast the lip and throw the tail. You learn how to draw a different line and take a different approach to the wave with every board. It’s boring if you only ride one board. You’re not a true artist if you are only using one brush.