"Welcome to England / Babylon will snatch your visa"... The warning on this praised bootleg remix of Damian Marley's Welcome To Jamrock sure sounds true to many. It doesn't apply to Ross, though. At almost 20, the long-haired Irish has traveled the world and a lot of its seas, Sri Lanka included, without a problem. Not bad for a bloke straight from the city sometimes called "the big smoke", ie Harrow, North West London.
To him, skateboarding came almost out of coincidence, partly because the local skatepark shop's owner once gave him a board. It could have been anything, really, because Ross is curious, open-minded. Doesn't fit the little boxes. When you thought you figured out he's a reggae head, you realize he's into The Cure or Nirvana and reveres the most "obscure to the outside world" UK artists such as jungle legend Shy FX or Brit rapper Taskforce. When you've just categorized him as a techy skater thanks to a deadly b-side 360 kickflip, you find out he just tweaked a perfect melon grab over one of these mega-ramps, as seen in the Trailer Trash video. And so on. What other street skater got 4th place at the Quiksilver Bowlriders finals? Right. The beauty of it being that even though he regularly ranks in main contests, Ross cultivates more his partying skills than his training. He's just having fun, his only true goal, ever. Going through the journey of existence, he just follows Jamaican rubadub star Barrington Levy's adage : "Love the life you live, live the life you love"... Sounds like a program.