LUKE “THE DINGO” TREMBATH
“Kids are going to university studying things they’ll never need, getting in debt, and it doesn’t need to be that way. If I can help one kid find their path, then that’s my job done.”
Luke Trembath
TV Host & Founder of Find Your Grind
Los Angeles – California
Luke ‘The Dingo’ Trembath, is one of a kind. No two ways about it. He is one of those people that no matter the project, you know if he is working on it, it’s about to go to that next level. He’s been an event announcer, had a TV show, radio show, and presented at the MTV awards alongside some of the most famous people in the world.
However, peel all that away and you will find one of the most genuine, real, caring people you could wish to meet, and a man who has taken a new pivot with his career. Through his new project Find Your Grind, he’s helping teenagers understand how best to channel their energy as they think about their own future. Based on his own successes and struggles, Find Your Grind is a self-discovery platform helping kids find career paths and jobs for the 21st Century.
Jonathan : So, let’s start at the beginning, you’re from Australia, right?
Dingo : Yep, when I was a kid I was into BMX, surfing, skating and snowboarding. I tried at six years old and it just worked for me, as I was better at it than anything else I tried. I started traveling and competing in the year 2000 and ended up transferring to schools in the US to finish up.
When did you first start announcing at events?
So Pat Bridges was the editor of Snowboarder mag. When I was like 16, he said, “where you are right now, where you’re at, you could do something much bigger than snowboarding. You could come in and be the voice.” I started with a megaphone, just started screaming into that thing, I was snowboarding with Danny Kass and Shaun White, so I was mediocre compared to them and so then this direction really took off. I started hosting more events, doing the event and also interviews for TV after the riders runs through the halfpipe and slopestyle. I was making like $500 a day from each so I’m doing these events and walking away with $3,000 from a weekend.
So how did you go from event announcer into TV?
In 2006 I got the chance to go on MTV Made where I had to go and essentially coach a girl for six weeks. It was pretty grueling, but at the end she was pretty good, sliding boxes and stuff.
I’ll never forget it though man. I was walking down the street in Santa Barbara straight after that and these two kids come running down the street after me, “hey, OMG, wait you’re the Dingo!!” That was the switch for me. That was the moment I realized this could be something bigger. Back then 11 million people would watch that show!
Meanwhile, I also had deals with Boost mobile, Monster and Oakley all of whom brought me out to do events. They paid me to go to all kinds of events where I met all kinds of random people like musicians and actors. From there I met Rob Dyrdek and it kind of set me into thinking about how he had gone from skateboarding into TV. I was then like, man I want to get our show on TV, so Danny Kass and I started planning our first show. We were about to do a tour with Grenade, with events at local mountains around the US. We pitched that as the first season, and we were so confident we could make it happen that we paid for it all ourselves. We then sold it back to Fuel TV.
You must have believed in yourselves to do that!
Yes, I mean I saw everything that was going on with us and saw the potential, so just went and got it done ourselves.
You transferred to school in the US, how did that go?
Yeah so, I dropped out. I was doing homeschool from 10th grade. I was traveling quite a bit and we would have to check back in once a week and I just kind of stopped reporting in. I’ll never forget the day we came back and drove to the school and Betty Tiddles the teacher is like, “Here, I think you should have this,” and gives me a GED (General Education Diploma) book. I walked out, left the book on the shelf, never saw the book again and that was the last time I was at school, ha ha ha.
You have been on radio, TV, internet, live events, have you ever done any formal training?
In 2006 I did a couple of classes with a voice coach, but it just didn’t really work for me. I kind of realized, especially when I was doing radio, that being natural works better for me.
Do your family look at what you have achieved and wonder how the hell you created all this?
100%. I was supposed to move back to Australia at 18 years old and start building houses, but it was one of those things that happened organically. It kept escalating. My 18th birthday Shaun Palmer (a very famous snowboarder) was there whom my dad knew as he was into snowboarding so he kind of knew something big was happening. Three years later for my 21st, we had the first season of the show going on Fuel TV and my birthday party was in Las Vegas, hosted by Rick Ross, Pit Bull and Trouble Andrew. My whole family including my grandma came over for it and that was like, ‘oh my god, what!’
Have you had any other moments where you’ve been like, how did I end up here?
Yeah so the 2015 MTV awards I presented with Kelly Osborne. So, I get walked in. Kayne walks in, Kardashians, Fall Out Boy. I’m stood next to Jared Leto. In the rehearsals I’m wearing a tank top and these tiny shorts, and the produc- er comes up and so I’m like, “don’t worry, I’m wearing a suit tomorrow.” He says that I should stay in this outfit tomorrow! You’re just like, what is going on?
Do you have a couple things you would tell yourself as a teenager?
Yeah so, the crazy thing is in the middle of everything I fell into a huge depression in 2009/2010 because I was confused. I was young and everything was happening that I didn’t really set out for. I was around all these people that I aspired to be, and I think for a while I was trying to be somebody I wasn’t. Insecurity is a real thing. I felt a lot of pressure. It took me a while to find myself. I ended up in hospital after I tried com- mitting suicide. I was sick for like a year there, but didn’t tell anyone. I wish I could go back and tell myself that it’s going to be ok and voice it over with people.
If you are going through troubles you need to talk it out, whether it’s with friends, family or more professional help. That’s where Find Your Grind came from. At this point I had been on Ridiculousness and so kids at high schools knew me.
Being able to tell kids about the pain I had gone through, and just because you see me on
TV doesn’t mean everything is shiny and great. Having those conversations with youth going through the same problems really helped me. Most people just want to be heard and that just changed the direction of my life.
Find Your Grind was me saying, “yes you will go through hard times, but you got to talk through it.” I love it as it’s me going into schools where you have these kids who are always told you need to be a certain way and I come in like, “naaah, I been working since 16 years of age and no one has ever asked me for a degree. I’m here to peel the window back and show you some of these other opportunities out here.”
Kids are going to university studying things they’ll never need getting in debt, and it doesn’t need to be that way. If that’s what I can do, is help one kid find their path, then that’s my job done.
So, you are kind of getting to look under the hood of the education system. Do you think that the traditional path of school to university is going to become less relevant in future?
I mean there has been a ripple effect just started in Silicon Valley as both Apple and Google have said you don’t need a degree and if you are smart enough you can work there. Listen, there are certain careers where you are going to need that degree education.
However, there are other industries where you could maybe finish high school and do some shorter learning sprints. Like say a finance course for $300 for a few months might help people more than four years of college. Bigger companies, Amazon, Microsoft and Google, you’ll start seeing them identifying the skills they need and building programs specific to their own needs. I think we will see this shift away from people studying things they will never use, getting crazy in debt. Hopefully anyways. I just feel like there is such an opportunity for change right now. We need to secure jobs for our future. Kids need to know there are routes forward. We need to redirect how we educate our kids and the industries we send them into.
You mean more vocational learning, right?
100%, I mean asking a 14 year what you want to be is ridiculous. Most 30 years olds don’t know what they want to be. You have to flip the funnel and put lifestyle first. What do you want to get out of life? Do you want to live in a big city, do you want to live in the mountains or the beach? Start there, flip the funnel and back into that lifestyle building the pieces around it. We’re doing it wrong. Let’s find out what skillsets you have, what you’re interested in and then let’s build the other way.
Thanks Dingo!
Please enjoy this from The Bombhole an amazing interview with Luke.