Rodney Mullen is probably an alien. He's too weird and cool and innovative to be from this planet. Skaters used to say he was a mutt of a human, and that's the title of his book.* He's one of the coolest, most genuine people I've ever met, an amazing skateboarder, an original member of the Bones Brigade, and a guy who has gone on stage to explain creativity and innovation to some of the smartest people in the world, at TED Talks. Here's a look at Rodney Mullen. Above is a brand new interview of Tony Hawk and Jason Ellis interviewing Rodney for their podcast Wolf vs. Hawk. I got about 50 minutes into this last night, it's a great podcast. I need to listen to the rest tonight.
"Just try to be an individual when you skate. Don't look at others, don't think about others, it just brings you down... It comes out of you, that's how it gets good."
-Rodney Mullen, in the mini interview I did with him when he was 19, at The Spot in Redondo Beach, in late 1986 for FREESTYLIN' magazine. Follow this link, and go to the December 1986 issue of FREESTYLIN', page 56, to check out that interview.
On my second night in Redondo Beach in 1986, my new co-worker and roommate, Mark "Lew" Lewman, led me down to the place where he and a few locals practiced flatland BMX freestyle every night. The large brick paved area, on the north end of the Redondo Beach Pier, had been dubbed The Spot by the freestylers. "There's a skater down there you have to meet," Lew yelled back, as I followed him on my Skway. "He's amazing."
On that night, I think it was just Lew and I practicing our flatland freestyle tricks. After an hour or so, a sandy haired guy on an old beach cruiser road up. Lew said "Hi," as the guy rode past and set up on the smooth concrete area, next to The Spot. In between trying my tricks, I watched this skater pull his socks up to his knees, and put on knee pads. Then he checked out his skateboard, meticulously put white tape on his finger tips, and then went through some stretching exercises. Only then, 15 minutes or so after arriving, did he step onto his small, flat freestyle board. He went into this sort of stationary wheelie thing, swinging the front of the board about 270 degrees, while keeping balanced on the back wheels. It was a warm-up of his. Then he started doing his tricks. I watched from a distance. It was like watching an Olympic athlete or something begin to train.
Lew and I and the other BMX freestylers just rode down to The Spot, in jeans or shorts and a T-shirt, and just started trying tricks. Rodney trained. He went on for 2 1/2 hours or so. He never fell. He stepped off his board two or three times. But the tricks he was doing were insane.
By that point, I had been goofing around on skateboards for 9-10 years, and could do rock walks and back wheel spins. I'd never bought a skate magazine, I knew almost nothing about the world of pro skating. I was a kid from Ohio and Idaho that just pulled out my board to goof around now and then. Lew told me that Rodney was the 8 or 9 time world champion freestyle skater at that point. Rodney just kept skating by himself. Lew and I finished up riding, and I think we rode down to the pier to get a Coke, maybe a slice of pizza as well, then rode back. Rodney was still just skating away, alone.
Finally Rodney took a break, and took a swig of water. Lew headed over towards him, and I followed, on our bikes. Lew introduced me to Rodney, and we talked for a few minutes. That's how I met 19-year-old Rodney Mullen. He was one of the original members of Powell-Peralta's Bones Brigade at the time. Rodney was going to college in Florida, in his first year, and debating between going into engineering or medicine. He ended up taking a much different path in life, when his friend Steve Rocco started a little skateboard company a few months later... called World Industries.
I wound up talking to Rodney quite a bit after our sessions, for the two or three weeks he was in California. Sometimes it was Lew, Rodney and I talking for a while, and sometimes jut me nd Rodney. We did the FREESTYLIN' interview one afternoon, with Windy Osborn shooting photos, there at The Spot. Rodney taught me how to do pressure flip style kickflips on his board, on my second or third night there. Night after night he blew my mind with all the tricks he could do on a skateboard. Non of it was death defying, but they just looked so freaking hard. He came back in October or November for another three weeks. Again, Rodney, Lew and I wound up talking a lot after our sessions. I remember him showing me half flip underflips then... in 1986. That trick blew the minds of street skaters about 8 years later in a Plan B video.
Rodney not only invented many of the core freestyle skating tricks, like the flat ground ollie, kickflips, double kickflips, the ollie impossible, and 360 flips, but he invented the tricks that the emerging street skaters took to bigger, gnarlier terrain, as street skating took over, and went worldwide. I watched Rodney trying to teach Mark Gonzales impossibles on his street board there, at The Spot, one night.
Rodney Mullen made a huge impression on me, like he has on thousands of other people. One big idea was that I could take freestyle seriously. It wasn't just goofing around, like most people thought then, it was a legit sport, and form of athletic creativity. Years later, Rodney re-invented street skating, and in more recent years, has given TED Talks, and done many interviews, about the nature of creativity to some of the most intelligent people on the planet.
None of us at The Spot back in 1986 expected any of that to happen. It's weird and amazing how life unfolds at times. I saw Rodney once more, when I took my bike up to the Hermosa Pier, in late 1987, I think. Rodney and Steve Rocco were skating for a crowd there, and I did some BMX freestyle, and we talked a bit. I remember Rodney saying, "You've got a lot of new stuff." I thought he was talking about my bike. But he said, "No you've learned a lot of new tricks." I had improved a ton in that first yea rin Southern California. But I didn't think Rodney ever really watched us ride. Obviously he had. I haven't seen him since then. I've been following him through videos for the 34 years since, like everyone else.
The podcast interview above is great, and here are several other videos of Rodney Mullen to check out, if you're interested. Take your cap off, our mind is about to be blown.
One of the better compilations of Rodney's skating online.
Rodney Mullen TEDx Talk- "Pop an Ollie and innovate"
Rodney Pop Tech Talk - "Getting Back Up"
411 Video Mags "A day in the life of Rodney Mullen" (late 90's?)
Lemelson Center interview with Rodney The Lemelson Center is part of the Smithsonian's National museum of American History, and focuses on invention and innovation.
Rodney as stunt double for Ben Stiller in The Secret Life of Walter Middy They talk about this in the podcast above.
Physics Girl on why Rodney's tricks should be impossible Yeah... no kidding.
Wired Magazine: Rodney Mullen- The intangibles that distinguish us
Impact Theory: Rodney Mullen- How to use pain to become the best in the world
From the Ground Up: Rodney Mullen (documentary)
Vogue: Rodney Mullen in 360 degrees (and SUPER slo mo)
Bones Brigade- An Autobiography Stacy Peralta's look back at the legendary Bones Brigade
The Man Who Souled the World Steve Rocco/World Industries documentary
Rodney Mullen's run- NSA Oceanside 1986 contest- Gork and Lew took me to this contest when I flew down for the weekend, for my interview with Wizard Publications. That was about a month before I actually got the job, moved there, and met Rodney. Don Hoffman, the guy interviewing Rodney at the end of his run, became my boss at Unreel Productions a year and a half later.
* Not a paid link.
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