In 2022, TJ Rogers posted about being diagnosed with testicular cancer on social media. His vulnerability was unusual for a pro skater, even in an era when Instagram makes pros more accessible than ever. In this instalment of ‘The Rules of Skateboarding’, Rogers speaks about the balancing of one’s personal life with being a pro skateboarder, and what to post, fresh off of a productive year in the spotlight.
Interview by Ian Browning
Illustration by Cosme
Ian Browning: Your cancer diagnosis, surgery and chemo all happened really quickly. I’m sure it’s not the first thing you thought of in all of this, but how quickly did you share the news with your sponsors?
TJ Rogers: My dog was the one that originally found my cancer four years ago — she kept trying hit me in the nuts while we were playing and hit me really fucking good.
A couple days later it was still hurting, and I ended up fucking and when I busted a nut it felt like someone was grabbing my balls with a vice grip. I got checked in January, got surgery in February, and then by March, after five weeks after surgery, my tumour markers were still elevated, so they told me I had to do chemo. There was cancer microscopically in my bloodstream or lymph nodes.
I shared the news with my sponsors pretty quickly. I let everyone know, “Yo, I’m going through this.” They were all really supportive. Red Bull gave me my out-of-pocket maximum for my insurance to cover all the bills. It was a tremendous help.
I was kind of iffy about telling the public at first, but people would say, “Yo, TJ, you’re hurt? What happened?” I eventually saw this interview of this sportscaster who was going through lymphoma or something, and he told the public on live television that he had it and that he wasn’t dealing with it alone. It really resonated with me, and I felt like I should do the same for skateboarding. That’s when I came out with that video of me going into my second round of chemo.
TJ Rogers discusses his testicular cancer diagnosis in an Instagram post. @tjrogers
I have diabetes, I’ve written about it publicly a little bit, and I’ve been really fortunate to have built a small community of diabetic skaters that I can holler at to ask questions or talk about it. Were there a lot of strangers that reached out to you once you went public?
A million percent, yeah. When I was going through my treatments I had a couple skaters or people in the skate industry hit me up to say that they went through it as well. It just made me feel like I wasn’t alone, that it wasn’t just me.
It was overwhelming at times, especially going through chemo, and the amount of support and love that I got was amazing. And seeing how many people have been touched by my story while trying to persevere and push through their own demons, it’s such an amazing feeling to be able to give back like that.
It wasn’t really that I needed reassurance. I only did it in the public eye because it was [during the height of] Covid and I was trying to let people know that, even with everything going on in the world, they weren’t alone.
“I got one clip, actually, during chemo. It was right after my first round and I was still feeling pretty good,” says TJ Rogers of this heelfip from his 2022 video part, ‘The Unstoppable TJ Rogers’. Luke Lutz / éS Footwear
Obviously, any sort of disease, there are other people that have it and there are resources to connect with people. But there’s something extra comforting about being able to talk skater to skater. Like, “Am I still gonna be able to street skate with this?”
Or do anything, you know? It was definitely a crazy moment, but I wouldn’t have traded it for the world. It was fucked, obviously, but I’m stoked that I went through what I went through. I always tell myself: it could have been worse.
I have a homie that got diagnosed with the same cancer that I did two or three months before me, but his was stage three, and it went to his lymph nodes and into his lungs. He had to have the open heart surgery type shit. Seeing him go through that while I was at the beginning of mine, I was like, “I got it easy, bro.” Count your blessings. It could have been way worse — way harder, longer recovery than what I had. I’m lucky that I listened to my body and I listened to my dog and went and got taken care of.
“The one session where I realised I was back, when I was done with all the chemo, feeling strong again … It was almost like a statement. I pulled everything out the woodwork.”
TJ Rogers on returning to skateboarding after recovering from testicular cancer
You said that you were skating all through it. It feels like a big part of a pro skater’s job these days is posting. You’ve got to have some clip to stay relevant in the firehose of new footage all the time. I assume you weren’t out filming for video parts in between chemo treatments. Did you feel pressure to try and get something for Instagram?
I got one clip, actually, during chemo. It was right after my first round and I was still feeling pretty good. I’d had my surgery, but luckily, I had [support from] Red Bull so I was going to physio and they were working on the scar tissue by scraping in my leg area. I got back to skating in three weeks after surgery.
I actually filmed a commercial for BN3TH boxers with Jason Hernandez when I was going through chemo. I threw my board over a fence, jumped the fence, did a couple ledge tricks, and then did a tre flip with palm trees in the background. You can kind of see my face and I’m losing my eyebrows and shit.
There’s a couple skatepark clips that I posted while going through chemo that are still on my Instagram. The one session where I realised I was back, when I was done with all the chemo, feeling strong again, was at the Primitive skatepark. It was almost like a statement. I pulled everything out the woodwork. I switch back lipped the Primitive rail, and I remember landing and doing a little manny, but I just slapped my fucking truck down with authority. Like, “Nah, nah, fuck that!”
“I don’t really like to be repetitive in a video part,” says TJ Rogers of some of his more left-field trick choices in “LAX-YYZ for éS”. Luke Lutz, Wade Power, Mitch Buangsuwon; éS Footwear / Free Skate Mag
Part of this conversation has been about how the public perceive who you are as a professional skateboarder, or how you present yourself as one. In LAX-YYZ, you did a slappy-crook-nollie heelflip-out which seemed unusual for you, being a slappy trick, but also very you because it was so technical. When you bring something new out of your bag of tricks and put it on film, do you consider how people are going to receive it?
That’s kind of why I did that, to be quite honest with you. I’ve dropped so many parts and over the years, it’s a non-stop an evolution, and I like to try and tie in different inspirations.
I don’t really like to be repetitive in a video part. Now, don’t get me wrong, I have a nollie flip into a crook or a noseslide — maybe both — in all five parts [released in 2025], but I only have one in each part. When I do that trick, I try to do it on a different obstacle, or something like a slappy. Or the roll-on back noseblunt: something that I can surprise the audience with, but also myself.
Ian Browning is a journalist and essayist based in New York who writes about the intersection of skateboarding and culture. He has written for Quartersnacks, Simple Magic, PLANK, Closer Skateboarding, Jenkem and Eater. As a columnist for Skate Bylines his ‘Rules of Skateboarding’ series explores nuances with notable characters.
The ‘Rules of Skateboarding’ is copy-edited by Max Harrison-Caldwell.
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