this is not an official announcement, it is just something i found on awebsite, full interview is available soon. just a snippet...

There comes a time in every young skateboarder's life when they realize that the flawless seven minute video part of their favorite skateboarder actually took two years and thousands of takes to film. It's a cold wake-up call for a young idealistic mind looking for a superhero. And much like Barry Bonds's recent home run record (tainted by a steroid scandal), it leaves a bit of doubt in your mind as to the actual greatness of the event you just witnessed.

But for anyone who witnessed the men's street skating final at X Games 13, there was little doubt about the actual greatness of Jereme Rogers. In the 45 minutes of uncut street skating that comprised the final, the buzz-cut, tattooed Boston native landed enough mind-bending stunts to fill three average video parts. In fact, if you look over the results sheet for Rogers since turning pro in 2005, you'll see the 22 year-old has found himself on the podium at just about every major skateboarding competition. And as a result of his success, he's been asking himself one question. "Why me?"

Risen Magazine: Any significance to your tattoos?

Jereme Rogers: This is for my friend Mike from Long Beach who got shot and killed, and this is for Chris Jackson—we called him “Dark Man." He got stabbed at a house party and killed. This is just a skateboard—it’s pretty much my life. I’ve got LA and Boston, these are my roots and where I grew up. Here’s Jesus and this is from the top right crescent on the dollar bill. And this is faith over fear, and that’s about it so far.

RM: You’ve had a couple of friends die pretty young. How long ago was that?

JR: Yeah. They were both young. One was within the last year, the other within two years.

RM: Did that change your perspective on life at all?

JR: It keeps me realizing the temporariness of life.

RM: Do you think you’re an impulsive person?

JR: Yeah. Sometimes you can have so much passion about something and you can get burnt on it for a second. But, skateboarding stays fun to me, so that doesn’t happen. But if you put your passion into something, it helps you get it quicker.

RM: How will you know when it’s time to retire?

JR: Everybody does different things. I personally want to be progressing until I retire. I want to retire when I feel like my body just can’t handle it and I’m not going to be able to put out a comparable video part to my previous one. Like a music artist wants every CD to be better than their last one. I don’t want people to look to the past and say, “That was his best part."

RM: You don’t want to be like one of those bands who continue touring ten years after their greatest hits?

JR: A lot of skateboarders do that. And I can understand that because you love it and you’re getting paid off it, so it’s hard to just let it go. It’s easy to sit around and keep making money from sponsors and stay around longer than you should. I don’t want to be that guy. I want to be on point until the day I stop.

Maybe I’ll keep skating, but I’ll retire in the sense that this will be my last video part. I can’t beat that so I’m going to stop.

RM: When a lot of young professionals start out working, they’re always looking to move on to better jobs. What will be your better job after you’re done skating?

JR: I’ve thought about other stuff. I like sports and I’ve thought about taking up golf when I’m done, because people play golf when they’re old. If I can figure out how to skateboard, I can play golf. I’ve thought about driving NASCAR, but apparently that’s dangerous. [Laughs]

I’ll definitely do business stuff. Skateboarding has been opening doors for me to start a company or do different business stuff. I like business.

RM: I see you’re into bling. You have religious tattoos and then you’ve got all this bling. Do you think that’s an odd combination?

JR: Nah. I still give back from what I get. It’s not like I spend everything I have on jewelry and cars and stuff. I make what I make and then I always give back and donate. You know, I’m playing my role. I could understand looking at it that way but I definitely think that if someone knows me, they know I’m only promoting God.

RM: Did you ever have a moment when you weren’t a religious person and then you noticed that there was something working on you?

JR: Yeah, my whole early life I didn’t go to church, I wasn’t raised to be anything religious. My dad was very much to himself, but I found out later that he was a Christian. I didn’t find that out until after I had developed a good relationship with God. He never talked to me about it. It was something I came to when I was nineteen or so ... about three years ago.

RM: Was it from reading something or experiencing something in particular?

JR: Experience. I never really read books. I think it came from having a lot. Instead of having so much and being like, “Dang, I’m so tight," I was wondering why I had it. Why did I get to drop out of school and move out here? Why is this working right? There’s got to be something behind it. And I came to God through that process.

RM: You felt responsible for understanding what you had been given and your responsibility? Like Spiderman?

JR: Definitely. That’s what my girlfriend has tattooed on her wrist. But I definitely feel responsible for what I have and I can’t just be a selfish person.

RM: Do you ever lie awake at night and worry about things?

JR: No, I’ve got a Tempur-Pedic. That cuts out a lot of time for thinking because you fall asleep on that thing so easily.

RM: Is that true?

JR: Yeah, it’s amazing. If you want to sleep on your left side, you’ll never have to roll over because your weight is evenly distributed, however that works.

RM: Have you ever met a professional skateboarder with a low self-esteem?

JR: Oh yeah, definitely. Some people could have confidence when it comes to their skateboarding and then when they’re off their skateboard, not have much self-esteem. They could be a totally different person.

When they’re in their skateboard mode, they’re not going to have low self-esteem because they wouldn’t land anything, they wouldn’t be a good skateboarder.

RM: Skateboarding and life are different skill sets?

JR: Yeah. There are a lot of skateboarders with random personalities. Some people start skateboarding to be different or to rebel. I didn’t do it for those purposes, I just enjoyed it. For some people, though, they took it on for random reasons and then they got good.

RM: It seems like there are a lot of skateboarders and surfers in Southern California who are particularly religious. What’s the connection there, if any?

JR: I think it’s picking up. It hasn’t always been like that. It seems like God is coming to young people these days. Of course there are always people who grew up in it, but it definitely isn’t something that was in skateboarding ten years ago.

Back then there wasn’t anybody around in the sport who was that way. Now there are a lot of people like me, Paul Rodriguez, Ryan Sheckler, and some of the other main people in the industry, and it just gets passed around.

The thing that’s cool and the reason I’m glad I’m a skateboarder and not something else is that I can skate, be myself, bring God into my skateboarding, and not [be conflicted]. Like a rapper can believe in God and the stuff he’s rapping about may not be able to reflect that because he has to promote all this other stuff. I can skate and not have to promote anything.

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