INTERVIEW AND PHOTO | JONATHAN LABEZ @JMLABEZ
VIDEO | DENNIS LOPEZ @WCKEDAWESOME
I’ve known Robert Besabe longer than I care to admit. From teenage to 20 something – I don’t need to do the math to tell you Robert’s been blading a good chunk of time. Originally one of the local ‘Carson babies,’ Robert comes from a heritage of local names like Ranier Piramide, Tat Nasu, Steve Cortes, and Ryan Santos. If you look at his skating through that lens, his style, choices of tricks and spots fit right in.
I hadn’t seen Robert in over 5 years until this past January shooting for Mesmer. I was pleasantly surprised he was still throwing down impressive tricks (to which he rebuked they were, ‘baby hammers‘ haha). I watched a Them throwaway edit as well as Nickel and Dime Promo on his Instgram a few weeks later, still just as impressed with his ‘babies.’ I immediately DM’d him to ask if he’d film a One Minute One Spot for Be-Mag.
What we didn’t count on was Robert getting kicked out of the spot while filming with Dennis Lopez. To not let that go to waste, they added a few clips from later in the session. I think we can bend the rules just this one on this edition of One Minute One Spot[ish].
Tell us a bit about yourself Robert
Let’s see how much I actually know about myself! Well my name is Robert Besabe for starters. Haha. I’m 29 years old, from Carson, California born and raised. I now reside in Lake Elsinore, which sucks because there’s nothing to do there. Also all my friends are in South Bay area! I absolutely love eating food – I always have a bag full of snacks when we go skating. I’m just hungry 25/8. Ive been skating since 2009/2010. Hmm, I think that’s all I can think of right now.
What’s a clip you landed in the last year you’re most proud of
The obstacle was a ledge that was broken in middle, offsetting the second part of the ledge and it had a fence next to it as well. The trick was p-star, lift soul foot to a fastslide back to pstar on the second ledge. It did take me a while to get it down because of the rusted fence being so close. If my arm got close or I missed the trick, I’d fall into the fence or graze my arm (I probably needed a tetanus shot afterwards) and that wasn’t very pleasant at all!
I’ve never done a trick like it before, as I am trying to bring in more of a technical side into my skating these days. This trick was in my lil’ flame grind edit which can be found on my ig @robotbesabe.
In your ideal skate tour, what would be your top 5 blade spots bucket list?
1. Spain
2. South Korea
3. Japan
4. Australia
5. France
Something people wouldn’t expect you to do?
My friends would definitely never expect me to pick a spot to skate, which made the top 5 blade spots pretty funny. I usually am just along for the ride for the most part. They wouldn’t expect me not to show up without snacks. Haha.
FOLLOW ROBERT ON INSTAGRAM @ROBOTBESABE
FOLLOW DENNIS ON INSTAGRAM @WCKEDAWESOME
