RODNEY MULLEN // 1984

September 23, 2024

When Mullen first became interested in skating, his dad refused to let him have a board—he didn't want his son to waste his talents on such a dangerous, marginal sport. But he finally relented in late 1976, and Mullen responded by devoting upwards of six hours a day to skating alone in an un-air-conditioned barn, which became a sweltering refuge from his father's temper and stern admonishments.

Since that barn had a flat concrete surface, Mullen gravitated toward a now-defunct skateboarding discipline known as freestyle, a close relative of ballroom dancing—twirls and fancy footwork were freestyle's bread and butter. The skaters who soared off ramps generally scoffed at freestylers as timid and dull. But when Mullen started to compete in professional contests in the early 1980s, even the most judgmental skaters were enraptured by his tricks, which reflected the mathematical bent of his mind.

“Everyone else looked at a skateboard and said, ‘OK, so you ride on the deck,’” says Stacy Peralta, the skater and filmmaker who managed the Bones Brigade team. “Rodney looked at it and saw a three-dimensional object. You didn't necessarily need to ride on the deck—you could turn it upside down and skate on it, you could skate on the edge of it.” Mullen won contest after contest—34 of the 35 that he entered during his Hall of Fame career—by nailing some truly unbeatable tricks. Press play and enjoy some if his fancy footwork.

Source Credit: https://www.wired.com/2015/01/rodney-mullen/

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