Rob McKinley Doesn’t Go Pro

There’s been a bit of discussion over at SkateboardRumors.com about Robbie McKinley not being turned pro by Girl started by his comments in this online article from Slap Magazine.

I agree that Robbie should have been turned pro by Girl, but not because he’s all that good.

I think Robbie should have been turned pro because he’s marketable. This topic is up for debate, to be sure, and I could be totally wrong, but I think a McKinley deck from Girl would sell. Promoted correctly I think it could sell better than Carroll, Howard, or Wilson’s decks over the next year or two.

Why do I think his would sell better than any of those three?

1. He’s younger, or at least he seems younger. I don’t know how old he really is. But Howard, Carroll, and even Wilson are getting a bit old and while their skating is good it’s nice to see new people once in a while. Nothing against those guys, Carroll and Howard have style for miles, and Wilson has been skating better lately, but I’ve been watching these guys do the pro thing since 19 ought 93.

2. While his skating may not be quite as innovative, it’s on par. You have to admit there isn’t much Robbie does where you say “Wow, I haven’t really seen that before.” He did about the biggest straight nollie I’ve ever seen in Yeah Right! but the rest of his skating was only up to par. If his skating isn’t ahead of everyone else it isn’t far behind, which is more than I can say for a lot of other pros out there.

3. But he does have a good, solid style. Robbie has one of the best nollie 180s I’ve ever seen, and everything else he does is clean and solid. He makes tricks look good, even relatively simple ones. Remember in Yeah Right! how he does that nollie crook right before going over that wall drop? That nollie crook looked so nice. It’s pros who skate like that, while amateurs get the trick done but fail at making it look so fun to do.

Now while those are some reasons I believe Robbie should have been turned pro, I don’t know all the reasons he shouldn’t have. Certainly he was the best up and coming guy out there, and he was already a little older than most guys going pro. But maybe there’s more behind the scenes that no one knows about. Maybe he got caught stealing Rudy’s lunch from the Crailtap fridge or something.

My advice to Robbie would be to jump to another company, go pro, and milk it for all it’s worth while you can.