John Rodney Mullen (born August 17 1966 in Gainesville, Florida) is a professional freestyle skateboarder, and considered to be one of the most influential freestyle skaters in the history of the sport.[1] He is credited with inventing many tricks, including the flat-ground Ollie, the kickflip, the Heelflip, the 360 flip, and the Impossible.
Contents |
Early career - the 1970s and 1980s
Although his father was opposed to the idea of his son skateboarding as he considered it a dangerous activity, Rodney Mullen began freestyle skateboarding on January 1, 1977 when he received his first board, at the age of 10.[2] After nine months, Mullen gained the sponsorship of Inland Surf Shop, and placed first in the first contest he entered at Kona in Jacksonville, FL, in the Boy's Freestyle event. Immediately he was noticed by Bruce Walker,[3] and became sponsored by Walker Skateboards. Over the next three years he went on to take nearly 30 victories, which had been achieved mostly in Florida, culminated in a win at the Oceanside Nationals in June, 1979. Coached by Barry Zaritsky, Mullen endured a radical training regime, which led to the defeat of world champion Steve Rocco at the Oasis Pro in 1980. He turned professional with legendary skate company Powell Peralta and was a member of the Bones Brigade. In 1988, Mullen left the University of Florida, where he had been studying Biomedical Engineering for four years.
In early 1989, Mullen left Powell Peralta and became a partner in World Industries with Steve Rocco, as well as maintaining his professional status as a rider for the company. By the end of the freestyle competition era in 1990, Rodney had won 34 of 35 freestyle competitions he’d entered over the previous 10 years. This is the most successful run in skateboard competition history.
Later career - the 1990s to present day
His tenure at World Industries marked the beginning of a shift in his skating career from freestyle to street skating. He left the World Industries team to join Plan B, a super team made up of some of the highest profile pros of that time. Throughout this period Mullen was urged by Plan B founder, Mike Ternasky, to adapt his freestyle skating to street. This approach was first seen in the 1992 Plan B video Questionable, and ushered in a new era of street skating that took freestyle tricks which were traditionally done without rolling, or at slow speeds in a confined flat area, to a more varied terrain, often at speed and incorporating obstacles. After the death of Ternasky in a car accident, Mullen started the A-Team in 1995. It was his take on forming a super team with the defection of Plan B from the World Industries empire. A-Team folded in 2000 and Mullen went from company founder to company rider under former A-Team rider Marc Johnson, who started Enjoi Skateboards. Mullen left Enjoi and headed Almost Skateboards along with Daewon Song, which he continues to maintain professional status. Mullen expanded his product development and created Tensor truck in 2000[4] and has also developed experimental and composite deck constructions for Dwindle brands.[1] In 2000 he was granted US patent number 6,443,471 for a skateboard truck assembly.[5] In 2002 the World Industries companies, under the holding name Kubic Marketing, were bought out by Globe International for $46 million. Kubic's management remained intact and Mullen began working for Globe International under the Dwindle Distribution brand.[6] In late 2003, Rodney Mullen was voted as the all-time greatest action sports athlete on the Extreme Sports Channel's Legends of the Extreme countdown. 2004 saw the announcement by Dwindle that it has been producing skateboard decks in China under the direction of Mullen. A Dwindle spokesperson explained that the move was “to better control our current product quality and develop new advanced products. All this, while simultaneously lowering the price on existing skate-deck products.”[7]
Mullen also penned an autobiography in 2004 with the help of Sean Mortimer, entitled The Mutt: How to Skateboard and Not Kill Yourself. Mullen continues to skate street and the tricks he pioneered; like the Kickflip and the flat-ground Ollie, once considered technical and difficult, are now considered basic tricks. Rodney, however, continues to invent and adapt his own tricks such as underflip and darkslide variations.
Mullen's invented tricks
- 180 Kickflip
- 50-50 Saran Wrap
- Varial heelflip
- 50-50 Sidewinders
- 360 Flip
- 360 pressure Flip
- 540 double kickflip
- 540 Shove-it
- Backside 180 Flip
- Casper 360 Flip
- Casper Slides
- Darkslides (Adapted from Mark Gonzales' idea)
- Double heelflips
- Flat-ground Ollie
- Godzilla Rail Flip
- Gazelle
- Heelflip
- Helipops (360 Nollie)
- Half-cab kickflip underflip
- Half-cab impossible
- Helipop Heelflips
- Handstand flip
- Kickflip Underflip
- Mullen Flip
- No Handed 50-50
- Ollie Kickflip
- Ollie Impossible
- Ollie Nosebones
- Ollie Fingerflip
- One footed Ollie
Selected videography
- Powell Peralta: Skateboarding in the '80s (1982)
- Powell Peralta: The Bones Brigade Video Show (1984)
- Powell Peralta: Future-Primitive (1985)
- Powell Peralta: The Search for Animal Chin (1986)
- Powell Peralta: Public Domain (1988)
- World Industries: Rubbish Heap (1989)
- Plan B: Questionable (1992)
- Plan B: Virtual Reality (1993)
- Plan B: Second Hand Smoke (1994)
- Plan B: The Revolution (1997)
- World Industries: Rodney Mullen versus Daewon Song (1997)
- World Industries: Round 2: Rodney Mullen versus Daewon Song (1999)
- Globe Shoes: Opinion (2001)
- ON Video: Winter 2002 Issue - Mullen is featured in a documentary (2002)
- Almost Skateboards: Round Three (2004)
- Globe Shoes: United by Fate, Vol. (TBA 2007)
- The Man Who Souled the World (2007)[8]
Appearances in '80s culture
- Rodney Mullen did many of the skateboarding stunts for Christian Slater in the 1989 skateboarding movie Gleaming the Cube. He can be seen performing his own unique freestyle maneuver in silhouette in order to look like Slater. At the end credits, he can be seen, from an overhead view riding his own Mike McGill skateboard with the camera only zooming in on his foot work.[9]
Appearances in modern culture
Mullen has appeared in the Tony Hawk Pro Skater (THPS) console games including THPS 2,3,4, Tony Hawk's Underground, Tony Hawk's Underground 2, Tony Hawk's Underground 2 Remix, Tony Hawk's American Wasteland, and Tony Hawk's Project 8. He also appears as a featured rigger skater in Tony Hawk's Proving Ground.[10]
Current sponsors
- Globe Shoes
- Almost Skateboards
- Tensor Trucks
- Matix Clothing
References
- ^ Weyland, J (2002) The Answer is Never: A Skateboarder's History of the World Arrow, London. p276. ISBN 0-09-943186-6
- ^ Mullen, R (2004). The Mutt: How to skateboard and not kill yourself. p.32. ISBN 0-06055618-8
- ^ Walker, Bruce. Rodney's sponsor and coach from 1977 to 1980. Bruce Walker profile
- ^ Turning On a Dime. Transworld Business (2000-07-11). Retrieved on 2007-09-29.
- ^ Skateboard truck assembly - Google Patents
- ^ Globe Buys Kubic. Transworld Business (2002-07-05). Retrieved on 2007-10-08.
- ^ An Update From The Crew At Dwindle. Transworld Business (2004-01-27). Retrieved on 2007-10-08.
- ^ [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0924461/ The Man Who Souled the World ] at the Internet Movie Database
- ^ Gleaming the Cube → Trivia at the Internet Movie Database
- ^ Tony Hawk's Proving Ground Featured Skaters. Activision. Retrieved on 2007-10-15.
Brooke, M (1999). Concrete Wave: The History Of Skateboarding. ISBN 1-894020-54-5.
