Greg Weatherall © Lat34
Rogers: "Skate, Pray, Call it a Day."
Sep 14 2006 / San Jose, CA
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Known for his spirited skate style – and his intense and outspoken religious devotion – Jereme Rogers has been a major star of this year’s Dew Tour, winning the Right Guard Open in Denver and holding down the number two spot in the overall standings. The 21 year-old skater was named 2005 Rookie of the Year by Transworld Skateboarding, and is probably in the running for 2006 Skater of the Year by anybody who is keeping track. Rogers sat down with Lat34 immediately after his third place finish at the Toyota Challenge Skate Park Finals in San Jose.
Lat34: Great skating tonight. Congratulations! With your third place finish tonight, you’re now in second place in the overall standings. If Nyjah Huston’s out, then it’s just between you and Ryan Sheckler for the Dew Cup. How much rivalry is there?
JR: I wouldn’t call it a rivalry because it’s not that serious to me, but me and Sheckler are definitely duking it out for first place. I was first until the last stop, and then he brought me down to second. It’s looking like I’m probably going to be in second overall because he has three wins now, so even if I win in Orlando I don’t know if I can catch him. That’s fine by me!
Lat34: Obviously you’re pretty comfortable skating this kind of terrain. Is there anything different you’d like to see in future Dew Tour skatepark designs?
JR: It’s funny you say that, because I don’t really feel comfortable at all! I skate parks like this sometimes, but I’m a street skater and I’d like to see more street stuff on the contest courses – more ledges and rails, and less 20-foot mounds. It’s supposed to be a street contest, you know? But I like the jam style format, because it’s not like an all-eyes-on-you situation, it’s more like an actual day at a skatepark. One fall isn’t going to bring your score down as much, so you can focus on doing harder tricks and just feed off of what everybody else is doing. It’s fun!
Lat34: Do you have a strategy coming into each event or an overall strategy for the tour?
JR: My strategy is to live day by day: Skate, pray, call it a day.
Lat34: Since you self-identify so strongly as a street skater, why is it important to you to skate in these kinds of events?
JR: Oh, it’s not important to me at all! I have a street career, I’m a street skateboarder, and this wouldn’t change my outcome as a skateboarder either way. It’s just a little bonus! I do enjoy it though.
Lat34: What positive outcome do you think comes from events like the Dew Tour?
JR: It shines a light on skateboarding and brings some new respect to it from people who might not have been exposed to it otherwise. Most of these parents and a lot of the people in the stands or at home watching on TV aren’t going to just go buy a skate video, so they may not have an understanding of what it’s all about without events like the Dew Tour. Maybe now that they’ve seen this, they’ll look deeper and find out about some other great aspects of skateboarding.
Lat34: Besides the Playstation Pro in Orlando next month, what are you looking forward to this year?
JR: My first pro model shoe comes out in November with the DVS Shoe Company, so I’m pretty excited about that, and I’m also putting out a video in November that I orchestrated. I have a full part in the video, and then there are five other skaters I invited to the project.
Lat34: You have a pretty clean image for a skateboarder, but you’re also covered in tattoos. Are there specific stories behind them?
JR: Mostly they all revolve around God. I’m here for a short time, and my purpose is to get out His message. I’m in love with skateboarding and I have fans through that who look up to me, so I’m going to try to use that attention and hopefully people will develop a relationship with Him through that. Hopefully I’ll see you, hopefully I’ll see a lot of these people, hopefully I’ll see everybody in Heaven, but not everybody is going to be there! So I want to get the message out there as much as possible.
Lat34: I’ve noticed a trend where some churches are starting to have skate parks. Are there other obvious connections you see between these two aspects of your life?
JR: My church recently did a service where there was a mini-ramp inside the church and a crazy amount of people came, like 3,000 people. We skated the mini ramp, and our pastor skates too so he skated with us. He preached, and then a bunch of people got saved, probably like 1,000 new people who most likely wouldn’t have been there if it weren’t for the skateboarding.
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