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