Romel Torres is more than happy letting is know that he isn’t a contest skater—at least not in the traditional sense. He didn’t grow up eagerly chasing podium spots or getting runs dialed with judges in mind.
His roots are in the streets—the gritty streets of Portland, Oregon, no less—but for the past three years, he’s still found himself rolling around Cowtown’s PHX AM.
Hey, if you’re gonna skate a contest, it might as well be PHX AM! And The Platfrm caught up with Romel during practice to talk about riding for FA and Converse, street skating, and why contests aren’t really his thing. Dive in:
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Stepping onto the contest course might not be in Romel’s comfort zone, but as Louie Lopez puts it, “he can hold his weight just street skating.” Boom. While most of the eager rippers out there are fine-tuning their runs, Romel brings the same raw, organic energy to PHX AM that he does to the streets.
Related: More Than a Shop: The Story of Cowtown and Its Impact on Skateboarding
He’s out there skating the course in his own unique way, and again, as Louie mentioned, it is super entertaining. Anyways, if you haven’t already pressed play, do it and follow Romel as he cruises through practice and qualifiers, taking in the controlled chaos and firing off a few bangers.
Spoiler alert: he didn’t make it to the finals—but he’s more than okay with that. In fact, at the end of the video he even says, “I don’t think I made it through.” Comically tacking on: “That would suck if I had to skate tomorrow.”
