41 Rodney Mullen: The Most Important Skateboarder There Is

(NOTE: Over a decade ago, Dave Carnie wrote a way better article than this one about Rodney which was also about Freestyle Skateboarding called "Freestyle with Rodney Mullen." If you want to read it you need to get a copy of the Big Brother from November 1999, or just grab a boob. See post 40, below.)

Make no mistake. This is a tribute.

Freestyle Grand Master, Rodney Mullen, really is the Godfather of skateboarding. When I was a kid, I got to see him skate once in real life at a Plan B demo in FL. If you knew me then, you were probably there too. It was a small town. (Part of that demo was in the SHS video too.) You may be another one of the many who have been privileged enough to have seen such ninja precision in real life. It is a precision born of countless hours of practice. Dedication and talent in a perfect hybrid. He invented what would become modern street skating in his side yard as a kid. He continues to astound the world with new, inventive moves constantly. Using absolutely every square mm of the skateboard's surface area. He is also the only individual capable of many of his inventions with any consistency. Anyone who's ever been fool enough to try casper slides can probably vouch for this. (Not me.) 

Casper Slide (from the Plan B days)

Similar to what Bruce Lee, Michael Phelps, Jordan, or Jackson, achieved in their mental-physical (possibly psychic) harmonic excellence so does Rodney on the skateboard. Not only does he perfect the existing, physical art, he pushes its innovation. There are others both before and after him who share this ability. 

The OGs*

Adams

Alva

Barbier

Caballero

Cardiel

Gelfland

Gonzales

Guerrero

Hosoi

Hawk

Hirata

Jesse

Klein

Lieu

Mariano

McGill

Mullen (Featured-duh.)

Peralta

Song

Thomas 

Trujillo

Vallely

Way

My biased list. It names just a few very-well-knowns on an all-time list that gets longer all the time. A list that continues its expansion as you travel to different spots. There are a shitload of names that aren't up here, even though they should be. I didn't want to type forever. Although all these people were integral in making skateboarding successful, no one was ever as prolific as Rodney was at trick invention. 

Tricks Rodney Invented** 

50-50 Saran Wrap

50-50 Sidewinders

360 Flip

360 pressure Flip

540 double kickflip

540 Shove-it

Airwalks

Backside 180 Flip

Casper 360 Flip

Casper Slides

Caballerial impossible

Double heelflips

Flatground Ollie

Frontside Heelflip Shove-its

Godzilla Rail Flip

Gazelles

Heelflip

Helipops (360 Nollie)

Half-cab kickflip underflip

Helipop Heelflips

Half Flip Darkslide

Handstand flips

Kickflip Underflip

Kickflip

No Handed 50-50 Kickflip

Ollie Impossible

Ollie Nose bones

Ollie Fingerflip

One footed Ollie

Rusty slides

Sidewinders

Switbchstance 360 Flips

(*There ought to be a mix-tape…All skating. No docu-history.)

(**source: rodneymullen.net/bio.html)

Half Flip Darkslide (This used to be on my wall. Photog: Unknown. Someone from TWS?)

Although he didn't invent the ollie, he innovated and perfected the flatground ollie which is the skeleton of all modern street skating. Without his contributions as well as those from the OGs listed above, there is no way skating would have made it as far as it has today. There's a board in nearly every home in America, now.

Fuck yeah.

I know, if any skaters read this, that I am preaching to the choir. There is a personal commitment involved in skateboarding. You know you had to, like Rodney did first, practice if you ever wanted to be able to ollie. You may have spent hours and hours in the driveway going over it again and again. Drowning and burning up countless bowls of cereal in the process. Trying to get higher with every attempt. It can be very frustrating, but once you get them, it's a total high. Once you feel what it's like to do a trick right and land, riding away clean, you know what all that work was for. 

For physical geniuses like Rodney, this feeling and its pursuit are much more than any art or sport. On his level, this energy seems to move in a constant, Zen cycle. A perpetual organic generator. While we all can't be so committed and graceful, it is true, for all people who truly love skating, that it really is a way of life. Although being a skater isn't always the most profitable, or family-pleasing, path one can take in life, you must be true to yourself. You might not be rich or have power over others, but some people don't need that shit to be happy. Some people can find happiness in simply controlling a skateboard. Live to rip. Rip to live. Live and Let Rip. 

Without people like Rodney and the OGs, all may have at one time been lost. The Skateboarding industry itself, may have imploded in the early 1990s. It's coffin would've then, been unbelievably laid beside the comic book industry's. Fucking bonkers when you think about it today. Instead, because of Superman's Death and people like Rodney Mullen and those both listed here or not, the monster has been kept alive. Today, it stomps and skates the Earth, large and in-charge. A Godzilla of creativity. 

You can learn more about Rodney Mullen @ LINK. Do what you love. Love what you do.

Hail Skatan.

-2013 Wielgorecki