Rodrigo Petersen – Quem é Você
‘Oh no, all I had was 70 dollars haha. I had a sponsor in Brazil but I quit just before I left even though I hadn’t saved any money and my board was selling really well… Definitely a life lesson.’
Like many of our favourite American Dreamers heading out to Cali to ‘make it’ in the late 1990s/early 2000s, when 19-year-old Rodrigo Petersen arrived from Brazil, he really didn’t have much of a plan. At 15 he’d left his hometown of Curitiba for a skate trip to another part of the country, thinking he’d be back in no time, but as it’s so often the case with these stories, one trip led to another, and before he knew it he’d landed himself in The City Of Angels, clapping and cheering on the set of ‘Win Ben Stein’s Money‘ between schoolyard sessions to scrape by.
These were the days of filming with Fernando Garcia for what would later give birth to LA County, revered by many as the quintessential LA video of that era and notable for playing a big part in putting Rodrigo, Jesus Fernandez, Dani Lebron and Enrique Lorenzo on the map. Being in the mix of this project also introduced him to countless friends, some of whom – like fellow waist-high nollier Paulo Diaz – remain to this day huge influences. Plus he now had a taste of what was in store for him out there…
So after coming back to Brazil for a year, in 2001 he decided that if he really wanted to feel good on his board, he had to commit to moving out there properly, which he did… And from then on it snowballed! Fernando Garcia became the TM Neighborhood Skateboards, for which he scored the closing part in Kaleidoscope:
He then landed himself a spot on Nike SB practically at its inception and helped set up the program in Brazil, got a couple of boxes from Seek/Alien, then from Aesthetics as it was coming to an end (love the imaginary timeline in which he has a part in Ryde Or Die Vol.2), became close with Long Beach legends Rob Gonzalez and Danny Montoya and was an integral part of Listen and then later Boulevard (after a quick stint on Organika), LRG had him travelling the world with Anthony Claravall (who also got his footage into countless 411s), and here we are today celebrating his latest video part at 43!
Deeply rooted in the Viajeros Locos that built his career and defined his friendships, Quem é Você (meaning ‘who are you’) coincides with Familia Skateshop releasing a board in Rodrigo’s honour as part of their Inspo Series, and features guest tricks from shop don Steve Nesser (who tagged along for many of these wild Listen vid filming excursions) as well Rob G, Toya and Brian Brown! We’ve been huge fans of those glorious, fully extended pushes and explosive snaps for years now and couldn’t be more stoked that all his going-with-the-flow has landed him where he is today: continuing to progress, universally regarded as one of the nicest people in the game and getting a homage board alongside the likes of Karma Tsocheff, Joe Brooke and Jeff Taylor.
Rodrigo’s board (second left) is based off one of his paintings 🙂
