RUMBLE ON THE REEF: A base level of love that is just flowery, man
Rumble on the Reef: He is the cheeky but solid and professional soundtrack for many of the skateboarding competitions in Queensland and you’ve probably heard his voice before. ASCI (Australian Skateboarding Community Initiative) MC & Skate Coach through 8 years Theo George is the legend guiding everyone through Rumble on the Reef this year again.
We sat down to chat to him about all things Rumble, — the atmosphere, the event, the prep that goes into MC’ing… and wait for it guys and girls: he even shares fashion advice in the end.
(Written interview under the video)
Welcome to Slabzoo
Well, thanks for having me, dude.
You’re known as the voice of skateboarding in Australia… The golden Mic…
…NO NO NO!!!! I don’t want that title, hahaha
Ha… well what can we expect from you from rumble?
Consistency is key in what I do. I think you're going to expect what you've always expected professionally, on time, structured, not too much bullshit on the mic.
I'm just going to do me make sure that the day runs sweet because on the day it's really just like game face. I just want to do the best I can on the mic and make sure everyone has a good time.
How do you prepare?
Oh, I'll be honest. I always get nervous before an event and then it's like that whole butterflies feeling like, you know, oh, I'm going to stuff up on the first sentence, blah, blah, blah. As far as prep goes… I always have a note pat on my hand because I actually write everything down from the event usually the night before.
Most of the stuff I do, I'm just rallying off the back of my head and not really thinking too much about what I'm saying. You just get into a state of flow. I have my notes about like, what division am I doing? What's the format for the runs and then a list of skaters. But then as soon as the formalities of the rattled off, it's just like, all right, cool GAME FACE on.
What makes Rumble a special event?
It’s very well structured in regards to having all the feeder events throughout Australia, which are then pre-qualifiers. So they have these free events in all states. So there's a bit of an opportunity for everyone to really showcase their talents, represent their communities, fly out to Mackay for the big rumble and hang out with all their homies from across Australia.
It's gone from being this standalone event to having all these other events that are in place just to support and enable people to come and showcase their talent.
If you’re a kid who is not into competing — is Rumble still fun?
Yeah. There is a last chance qualifier down there, or there is just like all sorts of events happening down there on the day.
There's skate coaching and a game of skate competition. And we've got demos from all of the pros.
I think Songline skateboard is going to be coming out this year. Shout out to Songline. It's actually the Indigenous Australians Skateboarding team. So it's our first nation skaters showcasing their talent which hasn't been done too much before. We had that first big demo over Fremantle in Western Australia. And it was amazing to see. So it's going to be really cool to bring it back home to our own pool.
What’s the atmosphere like?
It's just that it's that crew, the atmosphere, the locals are so open and accepting of absolutely everyone and stoked to have people to skate with. When you get all this national and international crew that come together to little old Mackay it is not a big population, but the whole crew is ready to skate, it’s just infectious.
It really just like gets into the absolute root level of the event and spreads from there is that base level of love that is just flowery, man.
You’re known for the Lairy shirts and the red sunnies — have you got any in-store for this year?
Oh, you know, I actuallyhit up the op-shopswhen I get there. Yeah. I always find something sick. And actually this [Thrasher cap] was an op-shop find from young Jack the ripper over in WA.
