Geoff Rowley Talks Football

It's not uncommon for skateboarders to have interests outside of skateboarding. If life was one-dimensional it would become dull. Liverpool-born Geoff Rowley was bred on football (or soccer as it's known in The States) even before he discovered skating. Recently, one of our best skate writers, Seb Carayol, who you might know from his amazing blog ode to skate graphics past, Memory Screened, sat down with fellow football fan, Rowley, and got the scoop on the similarities between skating and soccer for French magazine, So Foot. Seb was good enough to give us an uncut/unedited English-translated version of his French interview. Thanks, Seb.

Geoff Rowley –So Foot mag interview, uncut

So Foot Magazine in France isn’t exactly your average jock/soccer mag. To me it takes a Big Brother approach to football, making fun of people, interviewing players with the craziest life stories (one became a porn star after his career, one was a spy, this month’s was addicted to sex and banging girls in the stadium’s hallways), straight up making fun of them sometimes –good stuff. To the point that I religiously buy it every month even if I’m not that much into football! They’re so left field that they immediatly accepted my idea to interview Geoff Rowley, a life-long Liverpool FC supporter, about his love for the game. The one-pager came out, all edited down, but below is the whole interview –not in French! You're welcome.-Seb Carayol

Interview: Seb Carayol
Photo: Artofoto

It’s pretty unusual for a skateboarder to be into soccer. How did that happen?
Geoff Rowley: I was born in Liverpool, about two miles south of the Anfield Stadium. I grew up going to Liverpool and Everton games (Liverpool’s other football team –ed.’s note), because my father is a supporter of Everton, The Blues, and I'm a supporter of Liverpool, The Reds. I went to a lot of derbies with my father growing up, which is pretty funny because he’s a Blue and I'm a Red. We’d shout, but not at the same time.

Why was your dad an Everton fan?
Why? I don't know. You'll have to ask him that. It's one of them things where you're a little kid and people ask you, “Who do you support?” I said, "Liverpool", and he was already an Everton fan. But my dad played football, semi-professional soccer, he played for Brighton & Hove Albion, down there, he was big soccer player, but then my grandfather died so he moved back home to be with his mother. He kinda put the soccer aside. It made him move away, and move back when my grandfather died.
I grew up with football in my veins, both sides of my family all went to games. My mother's brother was one of the Liverpool hooligans in the 70s and early 80s and stuff, in and out of jail for all kinds of stupid shit but he went to every game; he'd come back from every Euro game and bring me the programs. So I have all these old booklets.

Did you play as well?
Yeah, I played for the school; I played for the first Sunday league team up until two years after I started skating. I 'd go to a soccer game in the morning; I'd still have my Liverpool socks on and go skate. I'd just leave the socks on. Red and white stripes Liverpool socks, and skating, sometimes I’d be made a bit of fun of.
Also Flip, for a few years, we had our own soccer team where we'd play 7-a-side. Ian Deacon was in goal, with 7 on a side everybody kind of runs around, different positions but I was mostly midfield.
Nowadays I just play for fun, on a lot of Flip trips we always take a soccer ball ‘cause a lot of our guys are from South America, like Burnquist, Luan and David Gonzalez, they all kick the ball around. Whenever we pull up at a gas station there's always a ball being kicked around. Tom Penny is actually a really good soccer player, he's really good. Get him in good shape, and he's one hell of a forward. Deacon is a good goalie. Actually Ali Boulala is a good goalie too. I think if we ran a full-on soccer team we'd give everybody a run for their money. Luan Oliveira and David Gonzales, their footwork, you've seen Brazilians play football, right? Both of them, gnarly ball control.

Is skateboarding more violent than football?
No. No way. At least not Football in the ‘80s. People would get away with murder, there were no cameras then you know?

Did it help your skating?
Absolutely, yeah. Hand-eye coordination. It teaches you a lot of discipline but yeah, hand-eye coordination, it's very similar in that aspect. And I tell you what; it does fucking wonders for strengthening your legs, and on your stamina and on your lungs and shit. You run around a pitch for 90 minutes, you get quite a workout

Who as footballers would be great skaters?
Kenny Dalglich for Liverpool would have been a great skater, he always tried, really reliable, kinda like that as manager somewhat you kinda know what you’re gonna get but it's gonna be quality (Dalglish, a former player, is now Liverpool’s manager –ed’s note). He had power and he was really good, him and Steven Gerrard, powerful like that, they remind me a lot Jeremy Wray. Real powerful in the streets, if you've ever seen Steven Gerard play a game close up, watch the ball control for the size of him, the power, the strength, the ability to kick that thing wherever the hell he wants, be a defender, be in front to score goals, and be the motivator for everybody. If you watch that going down, I got lots of respect for that guy.

Does the hooligan A.CA.B. acronym apply also to skateboarding?
They are, yeah! All cops are bastards, it's official. They're the ones who kick us out off the streets, sometimes it's justified but most of the times it's not. It's just a power trip. That's a forever battle if you skate as much as I do, you know, I don't wanna see a cop when I go skate. I don't trust the police; I don't trust that kind of authority and power.

Do you follow less football these days?
If I’m flicking through television and there’s a Premier League game on I'll watch it, but I don’t follow points and ranking that much anymore. Sometimes I go to games early morning on Saturdays: some of British Legions camps that are around play live games and they'll have a traditional English breakfast. You can go 6 in the morning and watch a live game of Liverpool and get English food at the same time and get a beer, I go to those every now and then.

Did skaters understand the homage when you used "You'll Never Walk Alone" in your part?
It’s not just a football song: the generation that came before me, they came from the 60s, and adopted it as the song for the City because of what it meant, the passion for the city, and it reflected the passion for the Liverpool FC.
It was just the right time for it, for me and for that. It fit well. The band is from the city also, it's Gerry and the Pacemakers, and my dad's brother played with musicians and various bands from that kind of era and generation where the Beatles and all these Mersey beat bands came from. The music that came from Liverpool in the 60s turned into what the Beatles took and spread across worldwide. It was a pretty fucking rad message and it came from a really small town. That meant a lot. So, that's why.
I'm aware though every song has to mean something to me or it means nothing to me, I can't just go, “Oh, that song is so fucking cool.” I put a lot of passion into my skating cause I love it; it's personal like that for me. I don't want it to be the same shit.

Did people into football know that you used that tune?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. A lot of my family I gave the video to including my dad's brother who was in a lot of these bands from the 60s, the Mersey beat bands. They got a kick out of it. And my grandmother before she passed away, she got a real kick out of it. Imagine an old lady watching that skate video, saying, "This is a song from my youth, at least that means something to me. Good job Geoffrey." That was cool. And a lot of my friends from the City kinda appreciated that I didn't forget where I came from, you know what I mean, that I wasn't trying to be something else, and that I put something in there that fucking meant something.

Would you do an ad like Rune’s, kicking the ball around dressed as a skinhead?
No. I think people would take it too seriously. People already take our logo too seriously. Actually, the Flip Logo with the iron cross stayed but it came from that ad. Its concept was Rune as a gnarly vertical hooligan, that was funny. That was the humor. Rune is actually the coolest guy in the world, so to have him that gnarly, that was the twist. That's what was funny. Flip as a brand is a lot of tongue-in-cheek. If I had an ad like that, people would be like, “Wow, he's a Nazi!” I should dress as a fairy maybe. Shaven head and dressed in a tutu or something.

Do you miss Liverpool?
I miss English humor. I miss the social aspect of meeting people to go skate in England, the social side of growing up in England. England is a funny place, you have to laugh at things, it's a hard going, especially where I'm from, which is very middle class, kind of part of the industrial revolution, Northern England, all of the mines and all of the steel yards and stuff, very hard-working kind of history.
At the same time, I love skateboarding and the weather in California is like nothing else. I weighed it up and I went, “What do I care about right now? What do I want to do?” I love skateboarding and I still can follow these things, and be a part of where I came from. I go back a lot, probably four times a year. I go back and I go watch games. Last Christmas I went back and saw Liverpool against Bolton Wanderers.

Lastly, what does skateboarding have that football doesn't have?
Less rules, more freedom and personal creativity.

What does football have that skateboarding doesn't have?
Nothing.