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Pipe Master and afro-aficionado Rob Machado is in Oz at the moment premiering his new movie, The Drifter. For the doco-style film Machado and a film crew spent six months scouring Indo for tubes and adventures and found plenty of both. |
Pipe Master and afro-aficionado Rob Machado is in Oz at the moment premiering his new movie, The Drifter. For the doco-style film Machado and a film crew spent six months scouring Indo for tubes and adventures and found plenty of both. Along the way Rob got to thinking – about how we in the western world are never quite satisfied and always seem to want more. And when we get more we just want, well, more.
The Jakarta Post describes it thus: “The Drifter is a visual metaphor for a free spirit’s conscious abandonment of the worldly traps of modern life as he searches for the inner freedom and spiritual joy offered by a life of renunciation.”
A life of renunciation sits at odds with the life of a guy who’s paid to promote loads of products we here in the western world don’t really need, I thought to myself. But then I checked out Rob’s website and was shamed. Rob is all over this stuff: he’s spruiking organic wax, sustainable sunnies, non-toxic wax remover, environmentally-considerate sandals and much else. In addition he is involved in loads of community and earth-friendly charities. When in Sumba he mucks in and digs a well for the local village. Can’t fault that.
Tracks: How long have you been interested in environmental issues?
Rob: It’s something I’ve always been into. I was raised a vegetarian so I was always aware of these kinds of issues. There wasn’t a whole lot of vegetarians around in the 80s – so we were ahead of the curve in that way. Nowadays I’m working on programs locally with kids – recycling programs and farming programs. It’s great man, it’s really fulfilling to give that knowledge to kids at a young age and see how it affects them.
Tracks: Are the surf industry more open to green ideas now than they have been in the past?
Rob: Definitely – I think there was an initial period were it was fashionable and everyone wanted to jump on the bandwagon. You know – organic is cool and everyone wanted to look involved but I don’t think there was a lot of follow through. Now its been a few years and some companies have had a chance to step back and approach it right. Lets not just buy a bunch of organic t-shirts and say yep, we’ve got an organic line. It’s more like [they’re saying] lets go and think about this in depth and really see how we can make a difference.
Pic: Rob throws one up for his major sponsor at Trestles in California.
Tracks: Eco-wax, sustainable sunnies, earth-friendly thongs – you’re representing a range of green products…
Rob: All my sponsors have all used me as an ambassador for certain products and I’m stoked. I feel like I’ve kind of pushed them in that direction – its almost like I challenged them you know? Hey, I know you guys got it in you – come on. Lets make a little bit of an effort and see what we can come up with. It’s cool they’ve all stepped up to the plate and began to think outside the box and started to do things differently: hey what if we made this out of recycled plastic and what if we made this out of cardboard …
Tracks: Is climate change a major concern for you?
Rob: I’m not too knowledgeable about it. I’ve watched Inconvenient Truth. It’s hard to say when you look at the history of the earth we’ve been through a lot of different cycles and some scientists say it’s just a cycle. Who knows? But it’s hard to think that there are six billion people on this planet and that we’re not affecting something. I think people are more conscious about [the environment] than ever. Wether it’s happening or not the good thing about it is that it has made people think about it and reaccess things. It’s a positive thing no matter how you look at it.
Tracks: I’m guessing you’re an Obama man – how’s he going in your view.
Rob: I back him. He’s bodysurfing at Sandy Beach – you’ve got to back that right? I don’t know if he’s really changed much yet but he hasn’t been in office too long. Politicians like to talk up a storm that’s what they do – so hopefully he pulls through and does some good things.
– Kirk Owers
For the ‘Drifter’ trailer go to tracksmag.com
