- April 23, 2024
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Mandarino is in the Florida Skateboarding Hall of Fame.
When Ormond Beach Fire Chief Bob Mandarino was interviewed in 1978 for a skateboard magazine, as one of the up-and-coming young racers, he was asked how long he would continue to compete. He guessed about ten more years.
“At 25, you’re starting to get over the hill,” said the 16-year-old Mandarino.
Little did he realize that he would still be racing and competing when he was in his 40s, in a career that took him to tournaments all over Europe and the United States, several championships and an induction into the Florida Skateboard Hall of Fame in 2003.
Now 52, his last professional race was in 2008. But he’s still skateboarding, with his son at a local park.
He doesn’t have the “go for broke” attitude of his younger days. He had several injuries in his career, and today is careful about falling.
“I keep it calm,” he said. “I don’t do any aerials. I just enjoy the feeling of the motion.”
But he said it’s a good activity to enjoy with son and get some exercise.
Mandarino started in the 1970s when skateboarding first became popular. He specialized in the tight slalom, where racers negotiate 60 to 100 cones in about 15 seconds. This event was possible to practice in the flat terrain of Florida, unlike the downhill, because all that’s needed is a ramp.
His favorite memory about his skateboarding career is the travel. Sponsors paid for transportation and lodging.
“I got to see the world,” Mandarino said. “I loved seeing the different cultures.”
He travelled to France, Sweden and Germany, and all over the U.S. He learned to navigate the Paris subways, even though he didn't speak French.
Mandarino won the Florida State Skate Board Championship in 1976 for the overall slalom, and in 1978 won the national championship by winning the U.S. Open.
“There were only a couple (of skateboarders) from Florida at the U.S. Open,” he said. “Most were from California or Colorado.”
In 2003, he won fifth place in the World Championships in California. That was the year he attained his highest world ranking, tenth. In 2004, on the French Riviera, he was one of three on a U.S.A. team, and they won first place against teams from all over the world.
There was a gap in his skateboarding career. He quit in the 1980s, when he entered college. Skateboarding had lost its popularity, parks were closing and Mandarino decided to concentrate on an education.
Then, in the mid-1990s, it became popular again.
“When it came back, it came back with a vengeance,” he said.
In 2002, he entered an amateur race, and discovered that he could still compete, so he renewed his career. The company Radical Skate Boards offered him a full sponsorship and he once again became a professional, competing until 2008.
Slalom courses in other states are steeper than in Florida. Mandarino said when he would travel to another state, such as Colorado, he would first stand and watch the other skateboarders go down the course.
“I would think, if they made it, I can make it,” he said.
He was never interested in the downhill, which involves high speed down a mountain.
“When you see people fall, they go tumbling like a rag doll,” he said. “There’s no brake on a skate board.”
But he said he has rolled down a mountain at speeds reaching 50 mph.
Mandarino said he loves his firefighting career and a highlight was being deployed for search and rescue missions after Hurricane Katrina for 10 days.
“It was a once in a lifetime opportunity,” he said. “The feeling you get when you’re helping people is amazing.”
He rose through the ranks in the Ormond Beach Fire Department, becoming lieutenant in 2002, captain in 2003, battalion commander in 2006 and chief in 2012.
