14 Things You Didn't Know About Rodney Mullen

We take a look at the legacy of Rodney Mullen, inventions, skateboarding, movies, video parts and much more.

Great resources on Rodney Mullen:

[feensta]

I bumped into Rodney in Hyde Park in London about 9 months ago. We spoke for about 20 minutes on all things skating. Really nice and awesome guy.

[jasonball]

Rodney, has been my hero since the 80’s I have still got one of his original set ups and get it out occasionally (I’m now 48) the TED talk he did along with other interview’s at the time, helped me evaluate my life and what was important to me. So his most important contribution to me was saving my humanity and making more humble as he is.

[SeenGod]

it’s crazy that Rodney was doing tricks in the 80s that still blow my mind 40 years later

[benttelecaster]

I met Rodney twice . First time we chatted about Black Sabbath and bill nye the science guy for like half an hour . He’s an amazing dude to chat with and has amazing friends and interests outside of skating

[mariotheslut]

Met Mullen once and seriously one of the most genuinely nice guys ive ever met. Love his energy and we are so blessed to have had him in our lifetime. Legend.

[spdLife]

To me there’s still nobody more technical and fluid than Rodney, what he was doing was light years ahead of his time, even watching him today blows my mind and don’t get me wrong there’s a lot of guys pushing the progression of the sport to levels never thought possible. The sport would never be what it is without and I’m so thankful to grow up in his time. If you’ve never road those old school boards you have no idea what it’s like to do anything on them. Absolute legend 👌🏻🤘🏻 well covered man 👍🏻

[skepticalbystander]

Rodney will always be by far my favorite skater, his passion and heart means more to me than his insane abilities, the fact that his ovelry-exceptional skills shine a heavy light on him, and he in turn uses that to inspire and show how admirable being humble and down-to-earth is is just other-worldly! He is one of the best examples of what being a good human being is, inside and outside of skating. Thank you Rodney, seriously, from the bottom of my heart, we need more people who care and are self-disciplined like you!! You are an absolute inspiration!!

[larryshepherd]

The primo and dark slides he was doing were mind-blowing. Rodney is skateboarding. And i can watch his tedtalks and interviews for days. He really is a brilliant guy.

[mustbebrando]

I have watched the bones brigade documentary probably 50 times. It motivated me to be a better skater and learn my all time favourite trick. It took me 2 straight years everyday working at it. I learnt the frontside air just because of watching them fly through the air. It was worth every second. I HIGHLY suggest that video to any skateboarder. It changed my life. I quit drugs, ate healthy and realized that skateboarding IS MY DRUG. Thanks Bones Brigade, Rodney Mullen, Tony Hawk, Steve Caballero, Mike McGill and Lance Mountain. I will never be the same person again.

[FtotheP]

Started skating 20 years ago after watching his part in THPS2. Couldn't have asked for a better role model. Thank you Rodney!

[josh_hyneman]

I'd have to say that Mullen is one of the most if not the most influential person in street skating. There are too many tricks that he invented to be able to pick just one as the biggest contribution to modern street skating but the flat land ollie was the doorway to all other tricks so that would have to be my pick. Imo he's the GOAT in street skateboarding.

[UrbanOutlawsSkCo]

I remember when Tensors first came out with the slide plates. Rodney has always been able to push skating into new frontiers

[jochenschnelle]

I remember that back in the days we were totally blown away seeing Rodney doing the first primo slides and dark slides. Sliding on the wrong side of the board was so unbelievable.
And I guess the technicality of many of his tricks can not be rated high enough. There are still many flip / under flip / pressure flip tricks and manual combos Rodney did many years ago that very few skaters (if any) did after him since then.

[matthewwalker]

9:57 I swear to god, these days I always read stories about "the most influential people in Skateboarding history" and I read about Rodney, I read about Tony Hawk, Gonz, Stacey Peralta and they're all absolutely worthy, but Mike Ternasky very rarely gets mentioned. He is definitely under appreciated in that regard as so many of the top skaters from that era, in particular Danny Way, state how important Mike was to them. I mean, without Mike, we would literally have had no post-Bones Brigade Rodney Mullen. In my view he is skateboarding's unwritten champion.

[missjayspeechley]

On the note about the flatland ollie, back when I first started skating, it was the latest trick. And being able to ollie back then was enough to attract sponsors. It seems now to have become the basis of nearly every trick. I landed an old school (pre-ollie) kickflip at a skate park once, and everyone under 30 lost their minds. Good thing I didn't try one of my old signature no handed haze beans, but modern boards are a bit longer than old school freestyle boards, increasing the risk

[gavin]

That bit about Rodney switching stances is legendary, like when you blow out a shoe and have to skate switch the rest of the session but scaled to a human body

[LetsGoWrongboarding]

Rodney is to skateboarding as Bach is to music. There is simply skateboarding before Rodney, and skateboarding after.

[plexyglass]

The true goat, and I don't use that word ever. Invented the modern skateboard shape, the flatground Ollie, an entire genre, the most iconic tricks AND he switched stances decades into his career and still skates circles around everyone. If his life was made into a movie it would be criticized for being too unrealistic

[sasproductions]

Rodney is in everyones heart and when hes gone, im gonna cry for sure.

[stuartmclean]

Rodney's Plan B part changed what was thought possible on a skateboard especially the darkslides in 1992. Very humble guy