Pop an ollie and innovate Rodney Mullen

so that’s what I’ve done with my life

as a kid I grew up on a farm in Florida

and I did what most little kids do I

played a little baseball did a few other

things like that but I always have a

sense of being an outsider and it wasn’t

till I saw pictures in the magazines

that a couple of the guys skate I

thought wow that’s for me you know

because there was no coach standing

directly over you and these guys that

were just being themselves there was no

opponent directly across from you and I

love that sense so I started skating

when I was about 10 years old in 1977

and when I did I picked up pretty

quickly in fact here’s some footage from

about 1984

it wasn’t until 79 I won my first

Amateur Championship and then by 81 I

was 14 and I won my first World

Championship

which was amazing to me and in a very

real sense that was the first real

victory I had watches this is a Casper

slide where the board’s upside down

mental note on that one this one here an

ollie

so she mentioned that is overstated for

sure but that’s why they called me the

Godfather of modern Street skating here

are some images of that now I was about

halfway through my pro career and I

would say what mid-80s

freestyle itself we developed all these

flat ground tricks as you saw but there

there was evolving a new kind of

skateboarding where guys were taking it

to the streets and they were using that

Ollie like I showed you they were using

it to get up on the stuff like bleachers

and handrails and over stairwells and

all kinds of cool stuff so it was

evolving upwards in fact when someone

tells you they’re a skater today they

pretty much mean a street skater because

freestyle took about five years for it

to die and that stage I’ve been a

champion champion for 11 years which

and suddenly it was over for me that’s

it it was gone they took my ProModel

off the shelf which was essentially

pronouncing you dead publicly that’s how

you make your money you know you have a

signature board and wheels and shoes and

clothes I had all that stuff and it’s

gone the crazy thing was there was a

really liberating sense about it because

I no longer had to protect my record

there’s a champion champion again check

it sound so goofy but that’s what it was

right and I got to what drew me to

skateboarding the freedom was now

restored where I could just create

things because that’s where the joy was

for me always was creating new stuff the

other thing that I had was a deep well

of tricks to draw from that were rooted

in these flat ground tricks stuff the

normal guys were doing was very much

different

so as humbling and rotten as it was and

believe me it was rotten I would go to

skate spots and I was already like

famous guy right and they everyone

thought I was good but in this new

terrain I was horrible people go oh he’s

all oh what happened to Mullen so homely

as it was I began again here are some

tricks that I started to bring to that

new terrain and again this is

undergirding layer of influence of

freestyle it made me fall that one

that’s like the hardest thing I’ve ever

done okay look at that it’s a dark slide

see how it’s sliding on the backside

those are super fun and actually not

that hard you know at the very root of

that seat Casper’s simple as that right

no biggie

and your front foot the way it grabs it

is I had seen someone slide on the back

of the war like that I was like how can

I get it over because that had not yet

been done and then it dawned on me and

here’s part of what I’m saying I had an

infrastructure I had this deep layer

where where it’s like oh my gosh it’s

just your foot it’s just the way you

throw your board over just let the ledge

do that and it’s easy and next thing you

know there’s 20 more tricks based out of

the variations so that’s the kind of

thing that you check this out here’s

another way and I won’t over

do this a little indulgent I understand

there’s something called a primo slide

this is the funnest chick ever to do

it’s like skimboarding if this was the

con slide sideways every which way

okay so when you’re skating and you take

a fall the board sits that way or that

way kind of predictable this it goes

every which way it’s like a cartoon the

Falls and that’s what I love the most

about it it’s so much fun to do in fact

when I started doing them I remember

because I got hurt I hadn’t I had to get

a knee surgery right so there are a

couple of couple of days where actually

a couple of weeks where I couldn’t skate

at all it would give out on me I’d watch

the guys I go this warehouse with a lot

of guys were skating my friends I was

like man I gotta do something new I want

to do something new I don’t start fresh

I’m selfish and so the night before my

surgery I watch them I was like how am I

gonna do this so I ran up and I jumped

on my board and I came and I flipped it

down and I remember thinking I landed so

right footed thinking if my knee gives

don’t just have more work to do in the

morning where was the crazy thing I

don’t know how many you guys have had

surgery but you were so helpless right

you’re on this gurney and you’re

watching the ceiling goodbye every time

it’s always that and right when they’re

putting the mask on you before you go to

sleep all I was thinking is man when I

wake up and I get better the first thing

I’m going to do is film that trick and

indeed I did it was the very first thing

I found which was awesome no let me I

told you a little bit about the

evolution of the tricks consider that

content in a sense what we do is Street

skaters is you have these tricks say I’m

working on dark slides or a primo did

you guys know the stuff now what you do

is you cruise around the same streets

that you see a hundred times but

suddenly because you already have

something in this fix domain of this

target it’s like what will match this

trick how can I expand

how can the context how can the

environment change the very nature of

what I do so you drive and drive and

drive and actually I gotta admit this

because I was struggling with this

because I’m here but I’ll just say is I

cannot tell you not only to be in front

of you but what a privilege it is to be

at USC campus because I have been

escorted office many times so let me

give you another example of how context

shapes content this is a place not that

far from here it’s a rotten neighborhood

your first consideration because am I

going to get beat up you go out and see

this wall it’s fairly mellow and it’s

beckoning to do Eubank tricks right but

there’s this other aspect of it that for

wheelies so check this out there’s a few

tricks again how environment changes the

nature of your tricks freestyle oriented

more wheel down and wheelie down what’s

this one oh I love this like surfing

this way the way you catch it this way

those sketchy going backwards and watch

the back foot what’s the back

a mental note right there again we’ll

get back to that here back foot back

foot okay up there that was called a 360

flip

notice how the board flipped and spun

this way both axes and another example

of how the context change and the

creative process for me and for most

skaters as you go you get out of the car

you check for security you check for

stuff it’s fun you get to know their

rhythms you know all the guys that

cruise around such a humbling thing man

no matter how good you are

right you still got to deal with and so

you hit this wall and when I hit it the

first thing you do is you fall forward

as you just as you’re just you punch it

up and then when I would do that

it was throwing my shoulder this way

which feels like oh wow that’s begging

for a 360 flip because that’s how you

load up for a 360 flip and so this is

what I want to emphasize that as you can

imagine all of these tricks are made of

sub movements executive motor functions

more granular to the degree to which I

can’t quite tell you but one thing I do

know is every trick is made of combining

two or three or four or five movements

and so as I’m going up these things are

floating around and you have to sort of

let the cognitive mind like rest back

pull it back a little bit let your

intuition go as you feel these things

and these these sub movements are just

kind of floating around and as the wall

hits you they connect themselves to an

extent and that’s when cognitum I

anything up 360 flip I’m gonna make them

so that’s how that works for me the

creative process the process itself of

Street skating so next Oh mind you those

are the community these are some of the

best skaters in the world see you soon

my friends oh my gosh there’s such good

people and the beauty of skateboarding

is that no one guy is the best in fact

any of us is rotten to say it my friends

but a couple of them actually don’t look

that comfortable on the board what makes

them great is to the degree to which

they you

they’re skateboarding to individuate

themselves every single one of these

guys you look at them you could see a

silhouette of them and you realize like

oh that’s him that’s Haslam that’s

costume there’s these guys these are the

guys and skaters I think they tend to be

outsiders who seek a sense of belonging

but belonging on their own terms and

real respect is given by how much we

take what other guys do these basic

tricks 360 flips we take that we make it

our own and then we contribute back to

the community the anyway that edifies

the community itself the greater the

contribution the more we express and

form our individuality which is so

important to a lot of us who feel like

rejects to begin with the summation of

that gives us something we could never

achieve as an individual I should say

this there’s some sort of beautiful

symmetry that the degree to which we

connect to a community is in proportion

to our individuality which we are

expressing by what we do next these guys

very similar community that’s extremely

conducive to innovation notice a couple

these shots from the police department

but it’s quite similar I mean what is it

to have right it’s knowing a technology

so well that you can manipulate it and

steer it to do things that was never

intended to do right and they’re not all

bad you can be a Linux kernel hacker and

make it more stable right more safe more

secure you can be an iOS hacker make

your iPhone do stuff it wasn’t supposed

to not authorized but not illegal and

then you’ve got some of these guys right

what they do is very similar to our

creative process they connect disparate

information and they bring it together

in a way that security analyst doesn’t

expect right doesn’t make me good people

but it’s in the heart of engineering

it’s the heart of a creative community

an innovative community and the open

source community the basic ethos of it

is take what other people do make it

better give it back so we all

further very similar communities very

similar we have our edger size - it’s

funny my dad was right these are my

peers but I respect what they do and

they respect what I do because they can

do things it’s amazing what they can do

in fact one of them he was urged in

young entrepreneur of the year for San

Diego County so they’re not you never

know who you’re dealing with

he we’ve all had some degree of fame in

fact I’ve been I have had so much

success that I straighted always feel

unworthy I’ve had a patent and that was

cool and we started a company and grew

it it became the biggest and then went

down and they became the biggest again

which is harder than the first time and

then we sold it and then you sold it

again so I’ve had some success and in

the end when you’ve had all of these

things what is it that continues to

drive you as I mentioned the nice stuff

and these things what is it that will

punch you because it’s not just the mind

what is it that will punch you and make

you do something and bring it to another

level and when you’ve had it all

sometimes guys they they die on the vine

with all of that talent and one of the

things we’ve had all of us is Fame I

think the best kind of thing because you

can take it off I’ve been all around the

world and there’ll be a thousand kids

crying out your name and it’s a weird

visceral experience it’s like it’s

disorienting and you get in a car and

you drive away ten minute drive and you

get out and no one gives a rat’s who you

are and it gives you that clarity of

perspective of man I’m just me and

popularity what does that really mean

again not much it’s pure respect that

drives us that’s the one thing that

makes us do what we do have had over a

dozen bones these guys this guy over but

810 concussions to the point where it’s

comedy right it is actually comedy they

mess with it um next and this is

something deeper and this is where I’m I

think I was on tour when I was really

one of the fine line biographies and

it’s the red one of the blue one and he

made this he made this statement they

were so profound to me

it was it that the Nobel Prize was the

tombstone on all great work and it

resonated because I had won 35 out of 36

contests that I’ve entered over 11 years

and it made me bananas in fact winning

isn’t the word I want at once the rest

of time you’re just defending and you

get into this like turtle posture you

know where you’re not doing it it you

jerk the joy of what I love to do

because I was no longer doing it to

create and have fun and when it died off

from under me that was one of the most

liberating things because I could create

and look I understand that I am on the

very edge of preaching right here I’m

not here to do that it’s just that I’m

in front of a very privileged audience

if you guys aren’t already leaders in

your community you probably will be if

there’s anything I can give you that

will transcend what I’ve gotten from

skateboarding the only things of of

meanings I think it’ll permanence it’s

not saying that’s all they say it’s what

it is is that there’s an intrinsic value

in creating something for the sake of

creating it and better than that because

man I’m 46 year old I’ll be 46 and how

pathetic is that that I’m still

skateboarding but there is there is this

beauty in dropping it into a community

of your own making and seeing it

dispersed and saying younger more

talented just different Talent

take it to levels you could never

imagine because that lives on so thank

you for your time

they reinvented yourself in the past

from freestyle the street and it was

about four years ago you’ve officially

retired

is that it what’s next that’s a good

question

something tells me it’s not the end yeah

IIIi every time you think you’ve chased

something down it’s funny no matter how

good you are and I know guys like this

it feels like you’re polishing a turd

you know and I thought the only way I

can extend this is is to change

something infrastructure and so that’s

what I proceeded to do through a long

story

one of desperation so if I do it rather

than talk about it if I do it I’ll be

the first to know

you