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Spike Lee Directs Anti-Gun Violence PSA featuring NBA Stars.
NBA Roster Features 100 International Players For Second Consecutive Year
Paul Rodriguez
After partnering up with men’s lifestyle brand AXE, professional skateboarder Paul Rodriguez, also known as P-Rod was in New York Wednesday, April 30, 2014 for a special launch event in honor of his new signature collection AXE Kilo. The six- time X Games medal winner captivated onlookers at Bathhouse Studios in Alphabet City with his “street” skateboarding skills, as he is famously known for.
With a steadily growing brand, P-Rod explained how his innate attraction to the sport as a young kid ultimately became after purchasing his first board, daily visits to his neighborhood skateboard shop, networking with other skaters, and watching skate videos helped to cultivate his now empire. The nonstop wet weather outside could not avert the skateboard junkies from lurking.
After a quick shake off, all was swell and in motion on the inside. Music, food,
beverages and goody bags were rendered while bystanders circulated the multi-level event space. After working up a sweat taking on the purpose-built skatepark with street skateboarding elements, Knockturnal.com had the chance to sit down with P- Rod himself for a quick Q&A.
Q: How did the business collaboration with AXE and your brand come about?
Paul: Through my Target endorsement, I don’t know who approached who about it, but I was contacted about doing a brand take-over with AXE within Target. It sounded cool to me, so I was like sure. And after deciding to go forward with the collaboration, I asked if I could collab with one of my favorite artists Mister Cartoon, because I don’t really fancy myself as a creative, kind of branding-marketing-packaging kind of guy, so I figured I knew the right person for that. I was thankful that he accepted it; he did some of his classic pieces, murals and stuff, which put a little flavor of both him and I into it. And that was really it.
Q: What are some of your hopes for your other newest venture Primitive Skateboarding that you launched just a few weeks ago (April 10)?
Paul: I got to a point in my career where I just wanted to take ownership of myself, I wanted to have a piece of me. So this was a great place to begin. Owning my own boards, after all, this is what I’m known for. Although I loved my sponsors, I am still in the prime stages of my career, been in the game for a while, I just felt that it was time to step away so that I could figure out my next move.
And since I had already been with Primitive, the store was already making a name for itself, it just made sense, why not make Primitive Skateboards and just grow that brand. There was already a great infrastructure there, so all the pieces seemed to come together. My partners do a great job so I can still focus on skateboarding, I don’t have to be in the office all the time. Now I have a chance to also find new talent, grow them, and help make their dream come true like my dream was able to.
Q: Why “street” skating over the other types of skateboarding categories within your sport?
Paul: Well I picked street skating because it was initially the type of skating that I was drawn to. Street skaters are the guys jumping down the stairs, gliding on the handrails, and you know just out on the streets skating on raw city terrain. And then you have the half pipe skaters, vert-ramp skaters, transition skaters, and then there are people who can just do it all. I wish I did it all, but I just kind of grew up skating street, it was more my passion, more appealing to me, and I think it has more swag to it.
Bethany Hamilton (Left) & Mallory Weggemann (Right)
Yesterday on March 5, theknockturnal.com was on the scene for a New York special screening of the EPIX original documentary “The Current” part of the ReelAbilities: NY Disabilities Film Festival and co- hosted by The JCC in Manhattan at the Times Center in New York City.
The film followed seven brave souls as they were tested by the ocean waters of: Bimini (Bahamas), Cozumel (Mexico), and Kauai (Hawaii) where they heroically swam with sharks and dolphins, went scuba diving, and surfed the waves of beautiful Hawaii. While keeping true to their driving principles of looking past their obvious limitations, all of which have made them each heroines in their own right, these great men and women have managed to make the impossible possible contrary to the naysayers. “Soul Surfer” Bethany Hamilton and Paralympic Gold Medalist Mallory Weggemann were in attendance at the screening and participated in a Q&A.
Check out our exclusive interviews below:
Bethany Hamilton
As one of the featured athletes in the film, what are some of your hopes for viewers to take away?
You can overcome anything you put your mind to. Having a faith in God was vital for my progression throughout my circumstance. My fear of not getting back into the water was bigger than my fear of coming in contact with another shark. And I try to see the positive out of all things.
As inspirational as your story is, what were some of the strengths you pulled from of your other cast mates?
We (Bethany and husband Adam) were specifically inspired by the love shared between Grant and Shawna, and how they stuck it out together after his accident.
How did you and your husband first meet?
We met through mutual friends and just got to know each other gradually. We didn’t know much of each other prior to meeting. On our first date, we jumped off of a 40 foot cliff.
Mallory Weggemann
Can you tell me about your connection to the water, and how the whole idea of “healing waters” relates to you?
When I was paralyzed in Jan. of 2008, two months before my 19th birthday, I thought my days of swimming were over. Being a competitive swimmer since the age of 7, the water was second nature to me, and it has always been my safe haven, but when I was paralyzed I thought it was taken away. But in April of 2008, 4 months later, I realized that it wasn’t, I got back in the pool, and swimming was like having my home back, it taught me so much about life as far as dedication, determination, and about life’s challenges and overcoming them. I’m free, I can do anything and everything that I want. When I’m in a pool, I’m not in a wheelchair. I’m free.
What led you to get back into the water?
Getting back into the water was actually kind of serendipitous. I had just gotten out of the hospital and was at my parents’ house. My sister saw a newspaper article for the Paralympic tryouts for the Beijing games being held about 30 minutes away from my house. I never heard of the Paralympics before then and didn’t know what to expect. They wanted to take me to check it out. I really didn’t want to, but my family could be really pushy (in a good-supportive way) so I went, that was on a Saturday. I left the pool, and then on Monday, I got back in the pool for the first time and literally fell in love.
What do you hope people take away from the film?
One of the biggest things that I always talk about is that everybody has a disability. Mine is physical, it could be mental, emotional, financial, spiritual, nonetheless, we all struggle with stuff every single day. And, yes the movie is about showcasing amazing abilities within the disability population, but it’s about more than that. It’s just about life, and it’s about all of us realizing that disabilities are universal and we all have it. And if we can all understand, the appreciation, respect, and graciousness we can have towards one another I think it’s just astronomical and it forces all of us to look internally and think what’s holding me back in my life, and then addressing that and pushing past it. That’s my biggest hope. It could be the smallest of things, but in your life the biggest of things, and just finding out those things and ways to challenge yourself.
“The Current” premieres on EPIX on Wednesday, March 12 at 8pm ET.
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