Who is Rob Selley?
Personally, I’ve never bought into the saying “don’t meet your heroes”. I put a large chunk of that down to the fact that when I was a teenager, I got to skate with Rob Selley quite often, during the early days of Radlands Plaza. By that point in my life, I had heard a lot about Rob – how sick he was at skating, how much he had done for UK skating and, of course, he was the owner of Motive Skateboards. After meeting him for the first time, I could also confidently say he is one of the nicest dudes I’ve ever met through skateboarding. Over ten years later, I’m lucky enough to be able to ask Rob some questions and hopefully show anyone who doesn’t already know how rad he is.
What are you listening to at the moment?
Mainly Drum and Bass and Turntablism, but I listen to all sorts.
What got you into skateboarding?
Police Academy 4 and my brother.
How much has the width of your board changed over the years?
Always used to skate thin boards in the 90s, 7.0 and 7.5s, I’m up to 8.25 at the moment. I doubt I’ll go any bigger than that.
Where do you skate mostly nowadays?
Radlands and MK, but I’m trying to get about on more missions recently.
Have you ever worn a slim pair of jeans?
Haha! Never!
Favourite ledge trick?
Switch Ks and Back Tails.
What was it about Alex Moul that you loved so much as a kid?
He was on another level back then, and Curtis was as well.
How did you become so ahead of the curve when it came down to ledge tech in the UK?
Not sure I was, but having good granite blocks in MK definitely helped.
How come you left Blueprint for Reaction?
I was working at HSC distribution around that time with Gunner, Matt Anderson and everyone there, so when they started it up, I just thought it made sense.
I could never find who did the song for the Reaction part you shared with Rodney Clarke. Who was it?
Haha! you won’t find it anywhere, it was my bro, Mr Brown who made the beat. He and I did the scratching with my mate Jamahl rhyming.
You’ve had some gnarly ankle issues over the years. How did you cope with not being able to skate for two years? – What was your outlet?
Mainly scratching and painting.
When you think of Buszy, what’s the first trick that comes to mind?
Sean’s switch flip tail up the T.
What’s the story behind the handmade model of the Buszy you have?
Haha!! That sketchy thing, it was just a rough concept model; my brother is an architect and used to make models, so I just did a similar thing for the layout. I don’t have it and don’t even know if it still exists.
Have you kept a lot of product/keepsakes from over the years?
I have my 2 Blueprint boards and a set of wheels.
Outside Buszy, where is your favourite spot in MK?
The Theatre.
What was the connection between DC and Buzsy dudes? Feel like that’s all I saw when I skated there as a kid.
I just got on DC first, then Sean and then Bushy so there was someone on the team for quite a while.
Snaddon is our rep for DC Shoes nowadays. Got any stories about him that we can embarrass him with?
Not really, Dave’s a legend!
How did the chance to help design Radlands Plaza come about?
Just through being in the user group and working with Jeremy Donaldson from Wheelscape.
Had you had any prior experience designing a skatepark before? Not counting Buszy as that’s obviously a bit different…
Yeah, I’d worked for Gravity Skateparks for a while.
Looking back at the design process, was there anything you’d change now?
There are definitely a few things that I would change or tweak for sure.
Did you take any inspiration from famous spots around the world?
A few bits I guess, I remember I did the 3 up 3 down because there was a DGK indoor park that had a similar one of those at the time.
I still think Sean Smith should have been a bigger name in skateboarding. Why do you think that is? Switch flip back tail up the t-block is hands down one of the best tricks ever done there, especially considering how many pros have skated there.
Yeah, Sean’s incredible! I thought he was going to make it happen when he went to Barcelona.
The Switch flip T was insane. He was on fire that day, he did that, a flip back tail up the T, flip front noseblunt slide, and a switch flip tail flip at the theatre, all in the same day.
What made you bring back Motive?
Multiple reasons, really..
When I mentioned I was thinking about starting it [Motive] up again to Bushy, he said he was down straight away without me even asking him, so that was the main reason I thought it might work, I suppose.
Also want my children to see me following my passions and be inspired. I do a lot of childcare so I need flexible working hours as well.
Lastly, I still want to skate, film and shoot photos as much as possible.
How did you come up with the logo?
Just evolved from a sketch, really.
Who is on the team at the moment?
It’s just Sean Smith, James Bush and James Gazzard. We’ll hopefully be getting some more heads on soon.
If you could pick anyone on earth to skate (current or past) for Motive, who would you pick?
That’s a tough one, too many to choose from.
What was it like watching James Bush grow into the skater he is now?
Sick! It’s been amazing to see him evolve as a skater and as a person too. Absolute legend!
Dimensions is up there as one of the best UK skate vids of the 2000’s for me. Have you got any plans to make another full-length vid?
Nice one! Yeah, I would love to do another one for sure.
Where do you see Motive in 5 years’ time?
Hopefully smashing it. Haha!
What’s next for you?
Just going to keep working on Motive, skating, filming and shooting photos as much as possible and taking care of my family.
Thanks Rob!
