CCS rider, Rodrigo TX has been crazy busy as of late. Not only is he in the process of putting the finishing touches on his part for the highly anticipated Flip video Extremely Sorry, he’s been simultaneously traveling the world, compiling footage for the first ever LRG video. Rodrigo, along with his LRG teammates were recently living in a leased Brooklyn apartment for almost a month, nabbing footage during New York’s more weather permitting months. After having a filming mission foiled by a day of nonstop rain, Rodrigo dropped by the CCS headquarters with LRG staff Videographer, Anthony Claravall. I sat down for a quick interview with Rodrigo in order to probe the brain of one of street skatings best. Here it goes.

Portrait by Brian Uyeda.

Ok Rodrigo, so let’s do this. Where are you living at the moment?
I did have a house this whole time, but I just gave it up about 10 days ago when I left for this trip. I’m going to get a new place in Costa Mesa, Orange County soom. I’m always around with this guy (Claravall).

How long have you been in the states?
Almost 10 years. Maybe 9 and a few months now.

What part of Brazil are you from?
I’m from Sao Paulo.

How often do you go back home?
I try to go 3 times a year, for a month or so each time. But I usually stay longer and end up staying for a month and a half.

Are you in the states for good now?
I’m here to skate. I want to stay and skate and once I can’t skate anymore, I’ll probably go back to Sao Paulo.

Rodrigo hops up to a tall 180 nosegrind. Photo by Brian Uyeda.

You’re filming for two videos right now, the Flip video and LRG video. Is it insane filming for two major videos at once?
Well, not really because I've been done filming for the Flip video since I think the beginning of the year, so right now I’m just trying to get enders for it. I’m done, pretty much. Only if I get something really crazy, then it’ll go in. So now I’ve been mainly filming for the LRG video...now for probably the last year. We started in April of last year.

Do you have a trick list for what you want done?
(Laughs). No, not really. Not even a spot list. I’ll be like, I have enough of this trick or that trick and I’ll move on. Usually I’ll want to do a trick and I'll try to find a spot that’s good for it. It’s all from my head I guess.

I know you guys are trying to really spread out the footage as far as where it’s all shot. What are some places you’ve been traveling to?
We went to China, Thailand in January and February and it was pretty dope. We made a little video of the trip, a little LRG promo. It should be out soon. Then after that I went to Brazil for a month and then I went on an eS’ tour with me, Danny [Garcia], Bobby [Worrest], Mikey Anderson. We went to Central America. Columbia, Costa Rica, Peru and Panama. It was really dope. It was my first time going to all those places.

Anthony: Tell him the story about how you guys got robbed at gunpoint.

What? You guys got held up?
Yeah, in Peru. Skating at a spot. We were just skating at this spot at the outside of the city. It was pretty dope actually, there were a bunch of banks, hips, pyramids…it was dope. But I was skating with my iPod on and it was right after I tried a trick, so I didn’t hear anything. All I heard was one gunshot. I look and a guy has Mike Manzoori’s camera, holding it. Then he holds up his gun and shoots it into the air…

TX takes a backside bluntslide to a tight roll in, to a steep plummet. Sequence by Matt Daughters. Courtesy Gold Wheels.

What?! That’s insane.
Yeah, it was crazy. And then the guy starts running to the car where his partner was and he see’s Olly (Oliver Barton) with the camera, and Olly’s in the middle of taking his shirt off, and can’t see anything. He was in the street shooting sequences and it was really hot, so he puts the camera down, takes his shirt off and he heard the shots as he took the shirt off. So he got stuck with it (the shirt) over his face. The guy just put the gun in his face when his head came out and took his camera.. We all just ran and they were gone within like 7 seconds. It was crazy. And Scuba was filming too but he was kind of far from everything.

Did you watch the footage?
Yeah, it’s on the eS' website. It’s a shaky camera version but you can hear the gunshots. It’s crazy because we watched the footage again from Scuba’s camera and you can see the gunmen in the background, the car parked checking us out for like 10 minutes. So the whole time they were planning what they were gonna do. It was pretty intense. It was crazy cause we went to Thailand and it was super mellow and China was so chill and then we went to Peru and it was crazy.

You’ve pretty much been all over the world by now. What are some of your favorite places to skate?
Lately, I have to say Thailand. It was dope. The food, the spots, the skaters, the people. And it was hella cheap too. We stayed on the beach and had these bungalows and probably paid 4 US dollars each a night. So we stayed in like a 5 star hotel and paid like 20 bucks each a night. So you skate all day and you go back and relax good at night.

What do you think of NY?
It’s dope. I never got to stay here. This is my third time here but the first two times I only got to stay for two days. And this time I’m able to check it out more, skate around the city, but the weather’s been kind of crazy. Too much rain. Like today we all got ready to skate, but when we got outside, it was already raining.

So what’s next?
Woodward skatecamp for a week, DC for 4 days, and then back to New York.

Do you ever get burnt out on traveling?
Not really. Sometimes I get tired but if I’m on a trip I’m skating more so I’m hyped that I’m out doing stuff. If I’m staying home, it’s a big difference. I mean, I skate but I don’t try to film and shoot photos as much. It feels like you’re doing something when you’re constantly traveling and skating. You feel like you earned your time off. *

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