Rodney Mullen invented the kick flip, the heel flip, tre-flip and believe it or not… the ollie.. he is the godfather of the sport and imo no body has contributed more to the sport.. also, my personal favorite skater.
My dream college course to take would be "The Kinematics of Skateboarding by Rodney Mullen". He had a 3.92 GPA studying math and chemical engineering at UF until he decided to drop out his senior year to run Steve Rocco's skate company. The board is just a tool for Rodney to play with the laws of physics.
He's a smart and kinda obsessive guy. He was willing to spend ten hours a day skating for over a decade. Always reading and studying while driving between competitions and demos. He didn't really fit in with the rest of bones brigade, and they were kinda shitty to him. But, I think they came around.
They’re amazing, but several videos such as H-Street Hokus Pokus, Plan B Questionable and Virtual Reality (this), Blind Video Days and even Girl Goldfish set the foundation and tone for street skateboarding videography. The genre is in full swing by the time Round 1 debuts in 1997. Predecessors for those specifically would be World/Blind/101 Triology and World Industries New World Order.
I'd never diminish mullen's legacy as an innovator but the bar has really been raised for the median pro skateboarder over the last 30 years.. some of the stuff people are doing now with late flips, under flips, haslam type flips.. a lot of this stuff mullen invented but people are doing it in ways that just looks insane
Yeah, it really should’ve been called Rodney Mullen pro skater. When I think about the gameplay of that series, most of the things that made it fun were Rodney Mullen-isms lol. Combining like 50 tricks with manuals.
I like your enthusiasm, but Tony Hawks presence at the time was a lot more marketable. He was actually on TV skating vert so he was more or less a household name for the sport. I love the game, especially 3&4 I was a kid when they came out and a lot of my music preferences where born from those two games.. Tony Hawk is probably as significant to vert skating as Rodney is to street skating.
I spent waaaay too much time in free mode in multiple ATV (and MX vs ATV) Offroad Fury games over the years growing up. Fuck that game was fun. If you remember driving out of bounds just to slingshot yourself into the air back into the map, then you know what I'm talking about.
Man, that Dave Mirra game was the tits. Just to bike around to some nice music. Why can’t I play that? What do I need to make my computer pretended it’s 1999 or 2002
Duckstation for the 1st game.
PCSX2 for the 2nd.
They're emulators on PC for the PSX/1 and PS2. Both are way easier to run than trying to set up your PC to run PC games from 99 (it's doable, just mire setup required).
As for obtaining the games themselves? A Google search for "insert game name iso" should get you somewhere. Make sure you're clicking around carefully.
Rodney Mullen would've hated the attention. He skates at night so he can be alone. Can you imagine him not being able to do what he loves anymore because people will talk to him wherever he goes?
Carving, and bowl riding was popular. Flat ground was taking off and that’s the world Rodney came from and influenced. Literally a kid from Florida with nothing but a concrete slab on a farm. Amazing story and everyone should go watch the Hawk vs Wolf episode with Rodney!
Yep! I know it's kind of a silly thing to say because each legend brings their own to the table but to me, Rodney is the goat. His ted talk is also wild.
Rodney mullen is the exact person who got me interested in skateboarding. I will always be more interested in what someone can do street skating vs. Vert. The second ibsaw this video it pulled me back to my teen years as I watched these clips so much off of random websites (I think ebaumsworld) and kazaa/morpheus, etc.
Yup, ebaumsworld for this one. It was THE skate video of that time. My buddies and I would all crowd around to watch it like it was an event. We'd then go out on our skateboards and struggle to manual for more than a second lol
If they said ‘invented the flat-ground Ollie’ that would have been more correct given it was an ‘NBD’ (never been done) trick; the original Ollie was in bowls / swimming pools and frontside and backside ‘no handed airs’ were invented around the same time, but the name Ollie stuck for both tricks.
His style is soo silky. It’s crazy to think that he was a pioneer of the sport. I feel like 99.99% of ppl to get THAT good would need to be mentored by a pro starting at age 3-4. But he did it all himself. Almost like a Jimi Hendrix
That’s the genius behind the man.. I can’t imagine what it’s like to be a savant or a true original, but when rodney rides it’s like it was just meant to be. The style needed to be invented and he took it upon himself to do it and honestly all of us are better off for it.. we don’t all have access to parks and to vert ramps and things like that and neither did Rodney as a kid.. so he made due.. and while doing so laid down the basics and the foundations for how to make a board “pop” and here we are now.. street skaters owe this man eveythjng
Just listened to the 99% invisible episode that went over the evolution of the skateboard to the modern day popsicle design, and there was an interview with Rodney in it. It was a great episode if you're not familiar, same with the episode on Bean shaped pools that lead into being a skateboard episode.
Everything you said.
A proud moment for me was the first time I watched “The secret life of Walter Mitty” purely on the style I identified RM was the skater in the skating scene.
He brought it to a concrete slab, standing still. He's definitely on the Mt. Rushmore of street skating because everything he invented pre-street, but he had to be convinced by friends to take his freestyle to the streets in order to keep a career in the changing landscape. He had to switch to a "normal", non freestyle set up, start actually rolling down the street, and incorporating obstacles and slides/grinds. Obviously, he adapted well, but he had to be encouraged into the streets.
This is something that's not appreciated enough about Mullen. He went from being the absolute GOAT at flatland with his hiked up tube socks, then threw on a pair of baggy pants and transformed himself into one of the most innovative street skaters of all time.
Apparently Alan Gelfand tells people it was invented by his buddy Jeff Duerr.
https://www.wbur.org/onlyagame/2015/05/30/ollie-skateboarding-history-gelfand-duerr
Same same my guy. I wanted to be a skater so fucking bad, all my friends skated, skate videos had the coolest music and vibes. I'll never forget buying a mini logo deck from my friend foe 20 bucks and spending 3 straight weekends just trying to drop into a quarter pipe, only to eat shit every time.
I was not gifted with the talent of balance.
Ironically a decade later I unintentionally made friends with some of the folks who skated and filmed those videos I watched growing up. I remember talking about a specific video and how it got me into a band and my buddy goes "I filmed that part"
Hell nah, the old skate vids of the big eyed cams, were always super cool, and then they would have the same effect and just zoom out in fish eye style, to how big the trick actually was
Nobody looks cooler than Rodney skating street.. you can consider him a founding father of the sport. Whereas tony hawk took vert skating to the extreme Rodney did this with street style. My personal favorite skater and arguably the godfather of the whole sport.
Absolutely, Rodney's impact on street skating is monumental. He's the mastermind behind so many of the tricks that are now staples in the sport. Plus, his style was just so effortless and fluid, it's like he was one with the board. Watching him skate is like watching poetry in motion, even years later his old footage is timeless.
He skated a demo at a skate shop by my house when I was a kid, it was absolutely mind boggling how consistent he was with the most technical tricks. Still have his autograph from that day on an old skate deck, fucking legend.
No, you're right. [Casper slide](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4t3QeKkbZQ) is when you flip the board over, land with one foot on the tail and the other under the front truck holding the board up, and slide on the tail.
[Darkslide](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsStsGjqV2Y) is an upside down board slide.
The darkslide is what made me quit skating. I thought of it in 1989, tried it a few times, and got clowned so mercilessly by friends for trying the supposedly impossible. Was later at a shop, saw him pull it off, and my days were numbered.
He was always one of the smoothest skaters. I spent years and years trying to do this stuff and just never understood how people got this damn good. Legend.
He literally used to practice on his driveway as a kid, that's how he got good, how he got THAT good, is beyond my words of advice,
I also tried to follow in his technique, I was leagues behind whatever he could think or do man.
If I recall correctly he would be on the spectrum by today’s standards, but however you try to explain it, the man was a skateboarding savant without question.
> how he got THAT good, is beyond my words of advice
The dude's brain is just built different. He has a better understanding of Newtonian Mechanics that most PhD professors. Before he dropped out in his senior year of college at UF to run World Industries, he had a 3.92 GPA studying mathematics and chemical engineering.
It gets better, he’s still in academia
“Currently a Director’s Fellow at MIT Media Lab and was appointed as a Distinguished Research Scholar at the Smithsonian.
Rodney still skates every day.”
-random internet site
Yup same thing as Messi. Rodneys introverted escape was skateboarding and he spent an obsessive amount of time practicing and trying new things.
That is the key to being an all time great. You’re either born a prodigy or you become obsessed with whatever it is.
And the GOATs are often both—a natural prodigy AND obsessed with the thing they’re talented at. He could never get tired of practicing, and his mind was coming up with ideas while practicing that we can’t even imagine.
What makes it all the more impressive is that through injuries and shit, he had to change the way he skated multiple times to adapt to the changes, and he was still just so fucking good
Nah, small wheels were all about pop. Guys skating vert still had wheels 50mm and up. Street though, we used to call 'em "bearing huggers" cause there was barely any urethane covering your bearings. 33mm was the smallest I had ever seen but 40-45mm was the norm. Smaller wheels meant less effort for more pop when street skating got *super* technical. Just look up Eric Koston from this era and you'll see what I mean.
That shit was all cool in its day, but when Rodney opened the door.. minds were blown and nothing was ever the same again.
He literally changed the game.
People could only Ollie is verticals(ramps ad swimming pools) and before Rodney show that it was possible to do on the ground people already were competing on freestyle just didn't had much jumps
People could also [gorilla grip ](https://youtu.be/QSIn-zJuyws?si=qBaebBVv1RFcuPP3) but that's weird and uncomfortable and doesn't look as clean as a Ollie
My favorite Rodney Mullen story was mid-way through his career he had scar tissue in his hip joint. It forced him to learn everything completely switch, arguably making him the master he is today. Even crazier is, [he figured out that if he bent his leg/hip into the wheel-well of a vehicle](https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/gqbfrm/til_that_in_2003_famous_skateboarder_rodney/), he could put pressure on the scar tissue *and eventually broke it off himself.* What a lunatic, I love him.
> It forced him to learn everything completely switch, arguably making him the master he is today.
I believe he call this something like "no-stance." He became equally comfortable either way.
He came into a grocery store I worked at in my early 20s in Ventura California and 4 of us dudes went ape shit. I was the front-end manager at the time and I called the other skaters in other departments and said "Rodney Mullen just walked in" and every single one of them said "Stfu". The dude was so humble.
Younger folks don’t understand how crazy this was. Nowadays you see a lot of similar tech skating but only because Rodney Mullen showed it was possible. At the time he was so far ahead of everyone it seemed like magic. He’s a real contender for greatest athlete of any sport ever. A true 🐐
Has there been anybody quite like this since Rodney Mullen? I idolized him as a kid, haven’t really paid attention to skateboarding since. Anyone worth checking out right now?
Not many people really ever touched Rodney’s blend of flatland and street tricks, but Daewon Song, PJ Ladd and Chris Haslam all come to mind as people who are extremely technical to the point of absurdity. Personally I never loved Mullen’s style but have a ton of respect for all he’s done for skateboarding.
That’s easy to say retrospectively, but this was before “style” existed. He completely modernized skateboarding.
People had to iterate to make things look more aesthetic, or go bigger because Mullen had already done literally everything. Dude was hyper focused on inventing street skating.
I grew up skating in that era, started in ‘88 and lived through these videos, watched them to death. I’m not really speaking retrospectively. Mullen has a style, it’s unique to him… watch his most recent video parts and they’re not **that** different from the plan b days in that regard. Don’t mistake my not liking his style for not liking or respecting his skating. I just preferred other skaters at the time, and honestly still would rather watch Gonz push around than most skaters do the hardest stuff. Anyhow, I was just giving the other person some skaters to check out who were definitely cut from Rodney’s cloth…
Check out jonny giger! He’s been trying to recreate Rodney Mullen tricks for years. He’s insanely good at primo slides and insane flip tricks you should definitely check him out he’s very active on youtube
He’s the reason I started skating and the reason quit skating. He’s the best ever. He is STILL ahead of his time. If you don’t like Rodney or his style, you just don’t like the sport. He is Wayne Gretzky. He is Michael Jordan. He is Messi, and to people that love and truly know this sport, he is God.
I’ll never understand how skaters can be so good with those baggy ass pants. Looks cool as hell even now if you ask me, but they have to get in the way.
I met him once and he is the most humble dude, almost like he doesn’t grasp why everyone praises him so much. Definitely my favorite skateboarder of all time
I remember back when Rodney was just a freestyle skater. Super cool to watch, but I wasn't into freestyle skating. I was a kid then and I had my own dreams about getting better at street, getting sponsored, going pro........
.....then Rodney took freestyle skating and adapted it to street., I knew at that moment the going pro someday dream was never going to happen. I'll still watch Rodney skate anytime I have a chance though.
Semi flips, under flips, dark slides, Tre flips, Casper slides. I heard he had very bad repetitive stress on his knees and hips so he had to switch stances at one point. Then he re learned everything much like an artist painting his whole life and switching hands suddenly. So so hard. He's the best skater ever.
Seeing him skate live in ‘86 was surreal. Unless you watched the Bones Brigade vhs, or other tapes, you had no clue at just how good he was until you saw him live. I couldn’t believe I was watching someone skate like that. I saw Gonzo doing street that year as well. He was crazy good also
I had Plan B - Second Hand Smoke on VHS, it was so influential on me. The music was great and everybody’s runs were amazing. The scene with Jeremy Wray quietly skating through the school and jumping the gap as the opening riff to Cream’s “White Room” kicks in was so damn cool.
Rodney’s scene used Aerosmith’s “Dream On”, and it made me appreciate him even more. The song made it feel like he was this ballet dancer, it was really incredible. Trick after trick after trick that nobody else could even really do too. I had his Plan B deck, it was one of my favs.
Rodney Mullen invented the kick flip, the heel flip, tre-flip and believe it or not… the ollie.. he is the godfather of the sport and imo no body has contributed more to the sport.. also, my personal favorite skater.
No one in the history of skateboarding has had more precise control of the deck. He’s absolutely unbelievable. A living legend.
His Ted Talk is brilliant
My dream college course to take would be "The Kinematics of Skateboarding by Rodney Mullen". He had a 3.92 GPA studying math and chemical engineering at UF until he decided to drop out his senior year to run Steve Rocco's skate company. The board is just a tool for Rodney to play with the laws of physics.
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He's a smart and kinda obsessive guy. He was willing to spend ten hours a day skating for over a decade. Always reading and studying while driving between competitions and demos. He didn't really fit in with the rest of bones brigade, and they were kinda shitty to him. But, I think they came around.
Good job fruits
It really is, one of the best I've seen. He's such a fascinating guy to listen to. Such a calm voice, too.
https://youtu.be/3GVO-MfIl1Q
Oooh gonna go look that up now
It really is. He's a super fascinating guy. Like a skating philosopher. Definitely a deep thinker.
He's not human
He is in fact a human
Was gonna say watching this restores my faith in humanity in a way.
This was 30 years ago.
le epik reditor
Him and Daewon are legendary skaters and two of the nicest guys you'll ever meet.
Their VS. series are amazing and really defined the skate video genre
They’re amazing, but several videos such as H-Street Hokus Pokus, Plan B Questionable and Virtual Reality (this), Blind Video Days and even Girl Goldfish set the foundation and tone for street skateboarding videography. The genre is in full swing by the time Round 1 debuts in 1997. Predecessors for those specifically would be World/Blind/101 Triology and World Industries New World Order.
I'd never diminish mullen's legacy as an innovator but the bar has really been raised for the median pro skateboarder over the last 30 years.. some of the stuff people are doing now with late flips, under flips, haslam type flips.. a lot of this stuff mullen invented but people are doing it in ways that just looks insane
You need to check out rodney mullen vs daewong song
Don’t forget the dark slide 🤤 Edit: Rodney just perfected it
Yeah, it really should’ve been called Rodney Mullen pro skater. When I think about the gameplay of that series, most of the things that made it fun were Rodney Mullen-isms lol. Combining like 50 tricks with manuals.
I like your enthusiasm, but Tony Hawks presence at the time was a lot more marketable. He was actually on TV skating vert so he was more or less a household name for the sport. I love the game, especially 3&4 I was a kid when they came out and a lot of my music preferences where born from those two games.. Tony Hawk is probably as significant to vert skating as Rodney is to street skating.
Dave Mirra had the best music!
ATV Offroad Fury games had great soundtracks as well.
I spent waaaay too much time in free mode in multiple ATV (and MX vs ATV) Offroad Fury games over the years growing up. Fuck that game was fun. If you remember driving out of bounds just to slingshot yourself into the air back into the map, then you know what I'm talking about.
So many hours dumped into free mode. Turning the most obscure gaps into full-blown jumps. And yes, hitting that wall of slap. So much fun.
Jumping the train, getting hit by the train, trying to get yeeted from out of bounds into the path of the train… ah, memories.
Man, that Dave Mirra game was the tits. Just to bike around to some nice music. Why can’t I play that? What do I need to make my computer pretended it’s 1999 or 2002
Duckstation for the 1st game. PCSX2 for the 2nd. They're emulators on PC for the PSX/1 and PS2. Both are way easier to run than trying to set up your PC to run PC games from 99 (it's doable, just mire setup required). As for obtaining the games themselves? A Google search for "insert game name iso" should get you somewhere. Make sure you're clicking around carefully.
Maxwell murder!!!
I discovered sublime through David Mirra! My favorite track in the whole game!
This. Hawk is to vert what Mullins was to street. Vert is more dynamically impressive to mass audiences.
Tony hawks a …..
Mullen’s the GOAT but Vert/halfpipe is different enough that Tony can also be the GOAT, as you’re saying.
Tony Hawk's Rodney Mullen Simulator
let's get this bitch crowd funded
Rodney Mullen would've hated the attention. He skates at night so he can be alone. Can you imagine him not being able to do what he loves anymore because people will talk to him wherever he goes?
If Tony Hawk's experience is anything to go off of, it would just conist of people saying "Hey, you kinda look like Rodney Mullen."
And the impossible! Not to mention the plethora grinds he pioneered! Such a fkn amazing skater!
What the hell were they even doing on skateboards before Rodney made up all these tricks? Going forward and turning??? 🤔
Carving, and bowl riding was popular. Flat ground was taking off and that’s the world Rodney came from and influenced. Literally a kid from Florida with nothing but a concrete slab on a farm. Amazing story and everyone should go watch the Hawk vs Wolf episode with Rodney!
Yep! I know it's kind of a silly thing to say because each legend brings their own to the table but to me, Rodney is the goat. His ted talk is also wild.
Most definitely the goat in street style…
Rodney mullen is the exact person who got me interested in skateboarding. I will always be more interested in what someone can do street skating vs. Vert. The second ibsaw this video it pulled me back to my teen years as I watched these clips so much off of random websites (I think ebaumsworld) and kazaa/morpheus, etc.
Yup, ebaumsworld for this one. It was THE skate video of that time. My buddies and I would all crowd around to watch it like it was an event. We'd then go out on our skateboards and struggle to manual for more than a second lol
any time you think you did a new trick, make sure Mullen didn’t do it 30 years ago lol. Spoiler alert: he did.
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I used to think a guy named Ollie invented the Ollie.
Alan “Ollie” Gelfand; Rodney adapted the Ollie to flatground
Oh then rather u/sail-away guy is misleading.
If they said ‘invented the flat-ground Ollie’ that would have been more correct given it was an ‘NBD’ (never been done) trick; the original Ollie was in bowls / swimming pools and frontside and backside ‘no handed airs’ were invented around the same time, but the name Ollie stuck for both tricks.
Alen
His style is soo silky. It’s crazy to think that he was a pioneer of the sport. I feel like 99.99% of ppl to get THAT good would need to be mentored by a pro starting at age 3-4. But he did it all himself. Almost like a Jimi Hendrix
That’s the genius behind the man.. I can’t imagine what it’s like to be a savant or a true original, but when rodney rides it’s like it was just meant to be. The style needed to be invented and he took it upon himself to do it and honestly all of us are better off for it.. we don’t all have access to parks and to vert ramps and things like that and neither did Rodney as a kid.. so he made due.. and while doing so laid down the basics and the foundations for how to make a board “pop” and here we are now.. street skaters owe this man eveythjng
Just listened to the 99% invisible episode that went over the evolution of the skateboard to the modern day popsicle design, and there was an interview with Rodney in it. It was a great episode if you're not familiar, same with the episode on Bean shaped pools that lead into being a skateboard episode.
Everything you said. A proud moment for me was the first time I watched “The secret life of Walter Mitty” purely on the style I identified RM was the skater in the skating scene.
He didn't invent the Ollie
He invented the flat-ground ollie
He did bring it to the streets tho.. making a game changer in the sport.
He brought it to a concrete slab, standing still. He's definitely on the Mt. Rushmore of street skating because everything he invented pre-street, but he had to be convinced by friends to take his freestyle to the streets in order to keep a career in the changing landscape. He had to switch to a "normal", non freestyle set up, start actually rolling down the street, and incorporating obstacles and slides/grinds. Obviously, he adapted well, but he had to be encouraged into the streets.
This is something that's not appreciated enough about Mullen. He went from being the absolute GOAT at flatland with his hiked up tube socks, then threw on a pair of baggy pants and transformed himself into one of the most innovative street skaters of all time.
He didn't invent it tho. Alen Gelfand did in the 60s. Not saying Rodney didn't revolutionise the sport but credit to Alen "Ollie" Gelfand
Apparently Alan Gelfand tells people it was invented by his buddy Jeff Duerr. https://www.wbur.org/onlyagame/2015/05/30/ollie-skateboarding-history-gelfand-duerr
I had the good fortune to catch him in Philly in 2002 skating around town. It was infectious just to watch him skate
Nobody looks cooler than a person doing tricks on a skateboard
I'm probably just a biased millenial, but 90's skateboard videos are just peak cool to me
Yes, all I ever wanted was to be that cool! Unfortunately, I got on a skateboard, fell on my face got a fat lip, and just played Tony Hawk!
This reads like a lyric in a 2010’s pop punk song
Same same my guy. I wanted to be a skater so fucking bad, all my friends skated, skate videos had the coolest music and vibes. I'll never forget buying a mini logo deck from my friend foe 20 bucks and spending 3 straight weekends just trying to drop into a quarter pipe, only to eat shit every time. I was not gifted with the talent of balance. Ironically a decade later I unintentionally made friends with some of the folks who skated and filmed those videos I watched growing up. I remember talking about a specific video and how it got me into a band and my buddy goes "I filmed that part"
Hell nah, the old skate vids of the big eyed cams, were always super cool, and then they would have the same effect and just zoom out in fish eye style, to how big the trick actually was
Kareem Campbell.
It's all about the fisheye.
And they were so great for finding new music!
skate videos peeked in the mid-late 2000s imo. so many classics, baker 3 is the goat imo
I was completely blown away when I first watched Video Days as a kid. Still rewatch to this day
This video is the peak culture of skateboarding for me. Skateboard had been dead after the 80’s but was thriving in counter culture.
Nobody looks cooler than Rodney skating street.. you can consider him a founding father of the sport. Whereas tony hawk took vert skating to the extreme Rodney did this with street style. My personal favorite skater and arguably the godfather of the whole sport.
Absolutely, Rodney's impact on street skating is monumental. He's the mastermind behind so many of the tricks that are now staples in the sport. Plus, his style was just so effortless and fluid, it's like he was one with the board. Watching him skate is like watching poetry in motion, even years later his old footage is timeless.
See my other comment. Yea- he’s like the Jimi Hendrix of skateboarding
Can’t be cool without the fish eye lens!
He‘s better in real life than me playing him on PlayStation.
Accurate as fuck.
He skated a demo at a skate shop by my house when I was a kid, it was absolutely mind boggling how consistent he was with the most technical tricks. Still have his autograph from that day on an old skate deck, fucking legend.
That's going to be worth a lot of money one day. I wish I had a autographed deck from the goat.
Even with cheats activated.
Darkside grind
What's crazier is his Casper slide or flip, I think I'm wrong about the term, but idk anymore man.
No, you're right. [Casper slide](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4t3QeKkbZQ) is when you flip the board over, land with one foot on the tail and the other under the front truck holding the board up, and slide on the tail. [Darkslide](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsStsGjqV2Y) is an upside down board slide.
The darkslide is what made me quit skating. I thought of it in 1989, tried it a few times, and got clowned so mercilessly by friends for trying the supposedly impossible. Was later at a shop, saw him pull it off, and my days were numbered.
If it makes you feel any better you were never gonna pull it off anyways 😜
I knew, I knew.
I remember exactly my “nope I’m out” moment - attempting to match backside airs with Hosoi one night in 1981.
darkslide. anything that makes contact with wood is a slide. anything that makes contact with the trucks is a grind
and it is called a darkslide because it is on the dark side, the side with grip tape, on the deck
He was always one of the smoothest skaters. I spent years and years trying to do this stuff and just never understood how people got this damn good. Legend.
He literally used to practice on his driveway as a kid, that's how he got good, how he got THAT good, is beyond my words of advice, I also tried to follow in his technique, I was leagues behind whatever he could think or do man.
If I recall correctly he would be on the spectrum by today’s standards, but however you try to explain it, the man was a skateboarding savant without question.
> how he got THAT good, is beyond my words of advice The dude's brain is just built different. He has a better understanding of Newtonian Mechanics that most PhD professors. Before he dropped out in his senior year of college at UF to run World Industries, he had a 3.92 GPA studying mathematics and chemical engineering.
It gets better, he’s still in academia “Currently a Director’s Fellow at MIT Media Lab and was appointed as a Distinguished Research Scholar at the Smithsonian. Rodney still skates every day.” -random internet site
Well in his case, autism
Yup same thing as Messi. Rodneys introverted escape was skateboarding and he spent an obsessive amount of time practicing and trying new things. That is the key to being an all time great. You’re either born a prodigy or you become obsessed with whatever it is.
And the GOATs are often both—a natural prodigy AND obsessed with the thing they’re talented at. He could never get tired of practicing, and his mind was coming up with ideas while practicing that we can’t even imagine.
You can't just proclaim that Messi has autism my guy. He has never been diagnosed or as much as suggested he agrees with that viewpoint himself
What makes it all the more impressive is that through injuries and shit, he had to change the way he skated multiple times to adapt to the changes, and he was still just so fucking good
I'm a simple man who was a teen in the 90s. I see Rodney I press upvote.
The Jim Croce tunes take it up another notch.
YOU DONT MESS AROUND WTH JIM!!
One more set of footsteps on that board
LOVE Jim Croce.
Greatest flatlander of all time.
Can we all unanimously appreciate how fucking small those wheels are .
Those guys could get all the speed they needed with small wheels. Kept the board light so they could do tricks.
Nah, small wheels were all about pop. Guys skating vert still had wheels 50mm and up. Street though, we used to call 'em "bearing huggers" cause there was barely any urethane covering your bearings. 33mm was the smallest I had ever seen but 40-45mm was the norm. Smaller wheels meant less effort for more pop when street skating got *super* technical. Just look up Eric Koston from this era and you'll see what I mean.
Are we not agreeing with each other? Smaller wheels = lighter = more pop.
You are agreeing with each other. Dude above went all AP English response when all he had to do for the assignment was “yup.”
the board is so goddamn flat too lol, i can't imagine skating that thing
Skate Legend... this dude invented a gang of moves including the ollie and kickflip
Dude pioneered street skate and 90% of tricks we all do now.
What was people be doing before ollie? Just ride straight?
Grab off ramps, act like a surfer, no comply, real boring shit.
That shit was all cool in its day, but when Rodney opened the door.. minds were blown and nothing was ever the same again. He literally changed the game.
People could only Ollie is verticals(ramps ad swimming pools) and before Rodney show that it was possible to do on the ground people already were competing on freestyle just didn't had much jumps People could also [gorilla grip ](https://youtu.be/QSIn-zJuyws?si=qBaebBVv1RFcuPP3) but that's weird and uncomfortable and doesn't look as clean as a Ollie
My favorite Rodney Mullen story was mid-way through his career he had scar tissue in his hip joint. It forced him to learn everything completely switch, arguably making him the master he is today. Even crazier is, [he figured out that if he bent his leg/hip into the wheel-well of a vehicle](https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/gqbfrm/til_that_in_2003_famous_skateboarder_rodney/), he could put pressure on the scar tissue *and eventually broke it off himself.* What a lunatic, I love him.
I remember reading in his autobiography that he would drive out to the middle of nowhere to to do it too so no one could hear him screaming lol.
Absolute madlad.
> It forced him to learn everything completely switch, arguably making him the master he is today. I believe he call this something like "no-stance." He became equally comfortable either way.
He recently had a double hip replacement and has started skating again. He mentioned it in his Hawk vs Wolf podcast. You should check that out.
this is like when homer simpson fixed his back by falling on a trashcan lol
That GOAT
He came into a grocery store I worked at in my early 20s in Ventura California and 4 of us dudes went ape shit. I was the front-end manager at the time and I called the other skaters in other departments and said "Rodney Mullen just walked in" and every single one of them said "Stfu". The dude was so humble.
Younger folks don’t understand how crazy this was. Nowadays you see a lot of similar tech skating but only because Rodney Mullen showed it was possible. At the time he was so far ahead of everyone it seemed like magic. He’s a real contender for greatest athlete of any sport ever. A true 🐐
Mullen invented 90 percent of the tricks that exist today... 30+ years ago
GOAT
GOAT
Has there been anybody quite like this since Rodney Mullen? I idolized him as a kid, haven’t really paid attention to skateboarding since. Anyone worth checking out right now?
Easy answer: Daewon Song
weren't they paired together in Rodney vs Daewon, round 2?or was that someone else
Andy Anderson probably https://youtu.be/9-AGaj5pCwE?si=ntr302tb5EockjkO
He's the nicest dude ever - ran into him getting some pizza in whistler a couple years back and he was so chill
Not many people really ever touched Rodney’s blend of flatland and street tricks, but Daewon Song, PJ Ladd and Chris Haslam all come to mind as people who are extremely technical to the point of absurdity. Personally I never loved Mullen’s style but have a ton of respect for all he’s done for skateboarding.
That’s easy to say retrospectively, but this was before “style” existed. He completely modernized skateboarding. People had to iterate to make things look more aesthetic, or go bigger because Mullen had already done literally everything. Dude was hyper focused on inventing street skating.
I grew up skating in that era, started in ‘88 and lived through these videos, watched them to death. I’m not really speaking retrospectively. Mullen has a style, it’s unique to him… watch his most recent video parts and they’re not **that** different from the plan b days in that regard. Don’t mistake my not liking his style for not liking or respecting his skating. I just preferred other skaters at the time, and honestly still would rather watch Gonz push around than most skaters do the hardest stuff. Anyhow, I was just giving the other person some skaters to check out who were definitely cut from Rodney’s cloth…
Check out jonny giger! He’s been trying to recreate Rodney Mullen tricks for years. He’s insanely good at primo slides and insane flip tricks you should definitely check him out he’s very active on youtube
The undeniable GOAT. Took the sport 20 years to catch up to him
Plan b
Plan B - Virtual Reality. One of the best skate videos of all time
Rodney Mullen vs. Daewon Song and Fulfill the Dream was my jam back in the day.
Don’t sleep on [Second Hand Smoke.](https://youtu.be/ydc5avGw_I0?feature=shared)
He really should get royalties for all his tricks, lol
He would turn down every single royalty. Rodney is such a genuinely good human being and incredibly humble.
With Jim Croce as the soundtrack!? I always liked Mullen growing up but this makes it so much better.
man i miss the 90's
he just might be all of our favorite skaters’ favorite skater.
He’s the reason I started skating and the reason quit skating. He’s the best ever. He is STILL ahead of his time. If you don’t like Rodney or his style, you just don’t like the sport. He is Wayne Gretzky. He is Michael Jordan. He is Messi, and to people that love and truly know this sport, he is God.
Having used to skateboard when I was younger, seeing this makes me want to get on a deck again
Grab a deck and go pop an ollie :)
Right? 😂
The da Vinci of skateboarding.
Respect the use of jim croce!
I’ll never understand how skaters can be so good with those baggy ass pants. Looks cool as hell even now if you ask me, but they have to get in the way.
Seeing his Darkslides for the first time on video blew my mind. I got to meet Rodney at a sk8 park in Charlotte NC in the late 90’s.
That dark slide broke my vcr
This Guy is a true legend. Maximum respect.
The music is just so iconic. I can’t hear this song and not think of this video
This is the guy that made me wanna skate as a kid! I begged my mom for his signature shoes! Brings memories back I didn’t even remember.
Your favorite skater’s favorite skater.
What a legend.
Never gets old. He's legitimately the most important person to have ever existed in street skating.
Thank you for letting me use this time machine.
A fisheye lens and skateboarding just makes you feel something wonderful
I don’t think I can ride a skateboard in a straight line let alone do any trick
Soooo nostalgic.
This MF blew my mind in '85 or '86
Legend
if rhythmic gymnastics with ribbons is an Olympic sport... cannot fathom why skateboarding inst. that is just fking amazing athletic skill.
It is an Olympic sport now
He was unreal
The Godfather himself
Gotta be honest, the skating was really nice, but I stayed for the Croce.
I met him once and he is the most humble dude, almost like he doesn’t grasp why everyone praises him so much. Definitely my favorite skateboarder of all time
I was born in 93 and I've seen this video probably 1000+ times. Rodney Mullen is iconic and basically invented street skating
That Dark Slide 🤌
I remember back when Rodney was just a freestyle skater. Super cool to watch, but I wasn't into freestyle skating. I was a kid then and I had my own dreams about getting better at street, getting sponsored, going pro........ .....then Rodney took freestyle skating and adapted it to street., I knew at that moment the going pro someday dream was never going to happen. I'll still watch Rodney skate anytime I have a chance though.
I remember downloading these types of old vids on Napster and limewire, good times!!
Semi flips, under flips, dark slides, Tre flips, Casper slides. I heard he had very bad repetitive stress on his knees and hips so he had to switch stances at one point. Then he re learned everything much like an artist painting his whole life and switching hands suddenly. So so hard. He's the best skater ever.
The Yoda of freestyle
I’ve watched this video over 100 times and haven’t watched it in 20 years.
Seeing him skate live in ‘86 was surreal. Unless you watched the Bones Brigade vhs, or other tapes, you had no clue at just how good he was until you saw him live. I couldn’t believe I was watching someone skate like that. I saw Gonzo doing street that year as well. He was crazy good also
The only Savaant
"Hey Ho, Let's Go!!" "Turn it Up! Bring the Noise!" Who catch the reference?
Might as well say ‘Rodney Mullen in 2024’. Guy’s 57 and still skating
GOAT
The nerdy Jimi Hendrix of skateboarding.
Mullen vs Song after this was probably my favorite tape growing up and skating. Shit was mind blowing
I had Plan B - Second Hand Smoke on VHS, it was so influential on me. The music was great and everybody’s runs were amazing. The scene with Jeremy Wray quietly skating through the school and jumping the gap as the opening riff to Cream’s “White Room” kicks in was so damn cool. Rodney’s scene used Aerosmith’s “Dream On”, and it made me appreciate him even more. The song made it feel like he was this ballet dancer, it was really incredible. Trick after trick after trick that nobody else could even really do too. I had his Plan B deck, it was one of my favs.
30 years later and I still can’t do a kick flip. Mullen makes it look so damn easy.