Rodney Mullen
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Rodney Johhny Mullen (born August 17, 1966 in Gainesville, Florida) is a professional skateboarder, and widely known to be the most influential skater in the history of the sport (Weyland, 2002, p.276). He is credited with inventing many tricks introduced throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, including the flat-ground ollie (Mullen, 2004, p.115), the ollie Kickflip, the Heelflip, the 360 flip, and the Impossible which are regularly performed in modern street, freestyle, and vertical skateboarding.
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[edit] Early career the 1970s and 1980s
Rodney Mullen began skateboarding at the age of 10. Mullen, sponsored by Inland Surf Shop, won his first contest at Kona in Jacksonville, FL in 1977, placing third in the Boy's Freestyle event. Mullen, then 11 years old, attracted the attention of Walker Skateboards, who signed him to a contract.
For the next 10 years, Rodney placed first in every contest he participated in. His nearly 35 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 lead to his defeat of world champion Steve Rocco at the Oasis Pro in 1980.
In early 1989, Mullen left Powell Peralta and became a partner in World Industries with Steve Rocco. 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.
[edit] Later career - the 1990s to 2000s
His tenure at World Industries marked the beginning of a shift in his skating career from freestyle to street skating. Throughout this period Mullen developed a highly technical version of street skating based on his freestyle experience. This approach was first seen in the 1992 Plan B video ‘Questionable.’ Mullen has continued to develop his skating style based upon a fusion of freestyle and street. Mullen skated for various companies during the 1990s, all of which were under the World Industries umbrella. As well as being a professional skater, Mullen started to design new products including the Tensor truck in 2000 [1]and helping to design and engineer various World Industries pro decks.
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 with a pro model on Almost Skateboards [2].
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.” [3]
Mullen also penned an autobiography in 2004 with the help of Sean Mortimer, entitled The Mutt: How to Skateboard and Not Kill Yourself.
[edit] Video Appearances
Mullen has been featured in many skateboarding videos including, inter alia:
- 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)
- Almost Skateboards: Round Three (2004)
[edit] References
- Brooke, M (1999). Concrete Wave: The History Of Skateboarding. ISBN 1-894020-54-5.
- Mullen, R. & Mortimer, S. (2004) The Mutt: How to Skateboard and Not Kill Yourself, HarperCollins, New York. ISBN 0-06-055619-6
- Walker, Bruce. Rodney's sponsor and coach from 1977 to 1980. oceanave@aol.com, http://www.floridaskater.com/floridaskater%20bruce%20walker%20profile.htm
- Weyland, J (2002) The Answer is Never: A Skateboarder's History of the World Arrow, London. ISBN 0-09-943186-6
