When he left the University of Texas at Austin in 1993 with a broken ankle, a backpack, and a one-way ticket to Los Angeles, Arlo Eisenberg had no intention of becoming a big wheel—he just wanted to skate. Yet within three months, the Dallas native was performing with Team Rollerblade, a corporate-sponsored squad of elite exhibition skaters, and he’s been on a roll ever since: In 1994 he was named world champion street skater by the National In-Line Skate Series, and the next year he was featured in a centerfold calendar published by Skater Magazine. Today the irreverent 22-year-old is the biggest celebrity and the most tireless promoter of the slacker sport known as aggressive skating. Sponsored by FSL sports watches and Roces skates, he does demonstrations all over the world. Between gigs he edits a skating magazine, Daily Bread; is part owner of a skating equipment company, Senate; and stars in skating videos for MTV. His mission, he insists, is as simple and clean as a frontside grind. “I’m trying to make the sport look beautiful,” he says. “I love it. It’s cool.”
