The Untold Truth Of Rob Dyrdek

It may seem like it's all fun and games for professional skateboarder-turned-TV personality Rob Dyrdek as he zip-lines across his office, swims with sharks, or breaks world records for the craziest things — but there's some behind-the-scenes hustle going on for this businessman 24/7. "Most of the time, I'm so serious with the stuff I do in my normal life," he admitted to The New York Times in 2011. "It's almost like the television stuff is an outlet to be crazy."

Everyone everywhere knows Dyrdek as the reality star of three super successful shows on MTV: Rob & Big, Fantasy Factory, and Ridiculousness. But there's more to this guy than just viral videos and dangerous stunts. "It allows me another creative outlet besides my true passion," he added to the publication, "which is business, and second to that is skateboarding."

Dyrdek's career has taken many twists and turns ... on more than just a skateboard. From acting to entrepreneurship and practically everything in between, there are lots of things viewers probably don't know about this daring dude. Let's grab our boards and alley oop into the untold truth of Rob Dyrdek.

While Rob Dyrdek has taken over our television screens doing daring stunts, he was first performing tricks as a professional skateboarder while he was still only a teenager. During his skateboarding career, the star set an impressive 21 world records (via Yahoo! Finance), and still holds 16 to this day, including most skateboard nollie kickflips in one minute and highest skateboard ramp jump into water.

"It's been an honor to do it over the years," Dyrdek told Guinness World Records in 2014. Though most of these records have been made with a skateboard in hand, the adventurous star has done some pretty crazy things that fans could see throughout seven seasons of his reality show, Fantasy Factory. For the finale that same year, he rode something a little bigger than a skateboard to create the record for the farthest reverse ramp jump by car, telling reporters at the scene, "That's the last scary thing I ever want to do in my life!"

However, it wasn't the last. Though the dangerous stunt was supposed to be for the actual series finale, MTV wanted more seasons from Dyrdek's successful show. "[We] did a whole show, a singing speech to say goodbye, [an] hour-long special," Dyrdek divulged on In Depth with Graham Bensinger, adding that he was hesitant to sign on for a seventh season. Fortunately for fans everywhere, another "final final finale" aired a year later.

Rob Dyrdek and Christopher "Big Black" Boykin appeared to be best buds on screen, so it was easy to assume these friends went way back. However, when Dyrdek had an idea for a show about himself and his security guard, he called up a local security company for recommendations. "[I] said, 'We're just looking for a really funny, big, lovable guy,'" he explained on Jon Interviews in 2018. "And he's like, 'Oh, I've got the perfect guy for you!' And, I swear, we hit it off from the first go."

The two, of course, went on to star on Rob & Big, which premiered on MTV in 2006 and lasted three seasons before Dyrdek was done. "MTV wanted another [Rob & Big] season, but I didn't want to ... be known for it," he told Liveaboutdotcom, noting that his other businesses weren't getting the attention they deserved, so he brainstormed. "I thought, what if I added a [skate park] to my business? And once it came to that I started slowly thinking about a big warehouse." The perfect balance was born: Rob & Big turned into Fantasy Factory, and luckily, "Big Black" was on board.

Sadly, two years after their hit reality series ended in 2015, Boykin unexpectedly passed away. "You still have a hard time believing it," Dyrdek later told Jon Foss. "... In my mind, he's still in Texas. I just haven't seen him for a while."

Rob Dyrdek hates the stigma that comes with all skateboarding movies, so in 2009, he set out to make a good one. After all, there seems to be nothing this guy can't and won't do. Skateboarder, entrepreneur, reality television star, world record breaker, and now screenwriter can be added to Dyrdek's vast list of achievements.

Dyrdek spent months developing the idea for a full-length skateboarding film called Street Dreams, but after pitching the script he co-wrote with friends to multiple agents, sadly, nobody wanted to make it. They simply didn't like how it would have a hard R rating. "It's a beautiful movie outside of all the cursing," Dyrdek explained on In Depth with Graham Bensinger in 2016. However, he's never let anything stop him before — not even being attacked by a tiger or shark — so he set out to make it himself. Working with a producer friend, he hired a crew, actors (and even had a role in it himself), set up a nationwide meet-and-greet tour, and paid to have it shown in over 30 theaters. "750,000 budget," Dyrdek said. "I ended up spending 1.8 million of my own money." Wow.

Almost seven years later, Dyrdek finally saw a return in his investment from iTunes sales. "It was like 17 dollars," he admitted. It's still something, nonetheless, as he added, "I'm like, 'What?! ... This is major!'"

There's no doubt that tuning into any episode of Fantasy Factory will make you want to live each day like it's your last after watching all the crazy things that Rob Dyrdek does onscreen. If living out each day to its fullest is your M.O., you can officially live out every February 1st as Rob Dyrdek Day, too.

In 2012, the mayor of Los Angeles dedicated an entire day to Dyrdek because of his dedication over the years to keeping kids off the streets and in skate parks that he's built across the city. "There's not enough simple kindness in the world," Dyrdek said during an episode of Fantasy Factory as he accepted the honor at city hall. "For Rob Dyrdek Day forever, I want it to be more than just about skateboarding, but I want you to ask yourself at the end of each day of Rob Dyrdek Day, one question: D.Y.R.D.E.K.?" The crowd of councilmen were equally confused during his otherwise inspirational speech, so he explained, "Did You Really Do Everything Kind?"

Though Dyrdek keeps busy with his many business ventures, he's always made time to give back to kids around the local Los Angeles area, previously explaining to HuffPost, "With success comes responsibility of playing your part."

When Rob Dyrdek was a teenager, he was more interested in hitting the skate park than the books. "I was so focused on becoming a pro skateboarder," he told AzTeen Magazine in 2010. "I would sit in school and think about all the tricks I was going to do." So right after celebrating his sweet 16, Dyrdek picked up his skateboard and made a sweet deal with a skateboarding sponsor. "I didn't go to my senior year of high school, which was unheard of in Ohio," he later explained to Inc. Instead of living a life of gowns and tassels, he moved himself to California to pursue 'boarding and business.

Even though Dyrdek became a serious success with an estimated net worth of $50 million, he had many failures along the way. "I had a skate shop that lasted about three months," he said, adding that he even tried out the music business. However, looking back, Dyrdek told his past self, "Just because you think it's cool that you're a pro skateboarder and you got a hip hop label, you don't know what you're doing. You have no business in there."

Instead, he stuck to what he knew — skateboarding — and eventually MTV took notice of the 'boarder and businessman. "Everything I do builds upon itself," Dyrdek told AzTeen Magazine, "and is a catalyst for doing bigger and better things." And the rest, as they say, is history.