Rob Machado Interview on Fuel
Rob Machado’s had an interesting year. We won’t go into personal details because there’s no need to get all TMZ here, but we’ll just say it’s been an obvious time of growth and transition for him. Throughout the last year Rob’s been working on “The Drifter”, the much anticipated, soon to be released movie that chronicles a year of his travels primarily through Indo. Last week it won best film at the Ombak Bali 2009 film festival, but this seems to just be the beginning of the winning circuit for this Taylor Steele/Machado endeavor. We caught up with Rob when he was on some downtime in Cardiff.
FUEL.TV: You haven’t really surfed contests in the last few years but recently you popped up at the US Open in Huntington Beach. How did that go?
Rob Machado: It was pretty good. I made it through a couple heats. Ended up getting ninth. I hadn’t competed in over a year so I wasn’t that bummed to not be battling it out at the end. It was a really good event and we had that really good swell. It was fun to surf.
FTV: Is that the biggest you have ever surfed HB for a contest?
RM: Yeah, I would say that’s the biggest I have ever surfed that in Huntington for a contest.
FTV: You’ve spent a lot of time in Indo in the past few years so you are pretty used to heavy solid waves these days…headed back there soon?
RM: I spent most of the year in Bali and throughout Indo working on the movie. This year I have only been back once. I miss it. It’s been good finishing the movie and wrapping it so we can get it out there.
FTV: Why are you living in Bali?
RM: It’s a really good place to be based out of. My whole deal is to try and get good waves in Indonesia and it’s a good place to base yourself and then move out from there.
FTV: So are you still competing or are you retired and just soul surfing?
RM: No, I am not competing anymore. I will probably do a few events a year like the US Open. I’ll do the Hurley Pro in September. I will always try to get into Pipeline in Hawaii. Those are the three events I will surf for sure.
FTV: What do you think about the rumors of a new surf tour. Would that get you competing again?
RM: I have heard about that. I was asked if I would be interested in participating. You hear that a lot and I am always like “sure” but a lot of them never happen. This one sounds more serious, but you never know.
