Rodney Mullen Another dimension
“I was switching in and out there a bit,” says Rodney Mullen, eyes watering and bloodshot with dark half-moons draped below. The guy’s tired. And he looks it. But still, he musters on - shaking hands, posing for photos, signing his print-perfect signature onto shoes and skateboard decks in Urban Chaos in London’s Covent Garden.
At forty-three, Rodney Mullen isn’t just another veteran pro on another skate shop tour. In a world dominated by one-dimensional poster boys, this pioneering innovator is about as multi-dimensional as it gets. He’s a prodigal skateboarder who single-handedly invented the staple tricks in every pro’s arsenal (something he claims makes him “feel connected to others somehow”); a businessman behind such seminal companies as World Industries; a self-confessed socially awkward maths geek who chose the life of a pro skateboarder over a maths and bioengineering degree; and a former-anorexic prone to bouts of suicidal depression who grew up in a Florida farmhouse under his father’s strict hand. He may well be one, or some, or all of these people. But right now, amid his duties for long-time sponsor Globe, he’s just a guy in need of caffeine after a long transatlantic flight.
John Rodney Mullen was born in Gainesville, Florida, in 1966 but the real birth of the man that Rodney is today can be traced back to New Year’s Day, 1977. In the spirit of the season, his father agreed to let him have a skateboard, but added a caveat: Rodney had to promise to wear a helmet and pads, and would have to stop when he finished high school or if he got seriously injured.
After owning a skateboard for just over a year, he was taken to a contest by Inland, his first sponsor, who had entered him without him knowing. Waiting in the wings, little Rodney was unexpectedly called on to perform. Not wanting “to look like an idiot”, he did his routine and won. Freestyle contests were very much the norm for young skaters at the time and, with his mastery of flatland tricks, Rodney was no exception. By 1980, he was winning contests throughout Florida and had caught the eye of local Powell-Peralta Bones Brigade member Tim Scroggs. Later that year, team manager Stacy Peralta called up the Mullen household requesting that young Rodney fly out to California to compete. After another victory, he was signed on as a fully-fledged member of the legendary team. The rest of Rodney’s high-school days were spent studying hard during the week, and touring as a child skate celebrity at demos at the weekends - doing something he calls “a little dog show for me, running around and doing my routine”.
As Rodney’s skating developed, he didn’t just learn new tricks - he invented his own. In 1981, he took the basic mechanics of a halfpipe ollie and transferred the trick to flat ground, inventing a manoeuvre that would change the course of skateboarding history. As veteran pro and former Bones Brigade teammate Mike Vallely says, “The birth of modern skating starts with Rodney Mullen. The flatland ollie is the beginning of everything.” Over the following years, more tricks went from being a figment of Rodney’s imagination and a spin of his homemade fingerboard to staples of every skater’s repertoire: the kickflip, heelflip, 360 flip, fingerflips, underflips - even switch stance skateboarding was all Rodney’s doing. Mark Gonzales, a street skating pioneer in his own right, goes so far as to describe Mullen’s influence as “probably one of the biggest on street skating”.
HUCK: A kid outside just called you his hero. How do you deal with being placed on such a pedestal?
Rodney Mullen: I just skate, nothing more than that. So when people say I’m their hero, I think if only they knew that I’m nothing more than just a bit more skating than them. I go through phases where I feel like a fraud but in the end you just accept it at face value. They are just really glad to meet me, the best I can do is show them that I’m normal. I always appreciate it because I used to think it was going to end any day soon. What bums me out is when I see guys who carry themselves like they’re better than everyone else. I think, ‘Dude, you’re a fraud like me.’
Has your attitude to meeting fans changed over the years?
When I was young and coming out of a dysfunctional family, all I had was skateboarding. Suddenly I’m being flown around the world and people are asking me for my autograph and I had no idea what to make of that. I was always grateful for it but more so terrified, it was so foreign. I was twelve years old but in my mind, I was more like an eight year old. I remember physically throwing the pen saying, ‘I’m no different than any of you, I just want to skate with you’ and running away.
After your days of freestyle and touring, you went into street skating. Did you feel like you had to consciously change your style when you made the transition?
That was embarrassing, man. I changed the way I approached my tricks, but you can’t really change your style. You can just evolve into what you are doing. With freestyle, you aren’t skating any obstacles so you never look up and you barely roll. When I started street skating, it was ridiculous. There was a huge learning curve. I would be constantly ploughing into things like I was blind. I wasn’t used to judging timing and speed. I was already known for being a pro so people thought I would be really great. I sucked at street. It was so hard because I was terrified to even practise in public, but Mike Ternasky tapped into the fact that skateboarding defined me. Filming with Mike for Questionable - he took it seriously, feeding you protein powder in the morning, like Rocky. When I got into it, I knew I was committed so I knew I couldn’t look stupid when the video came out. On the night of the premiere, I sat next to him. The crowd cheered at my casper slide and he put his arm around me and said, ‘This is where it starts. This is the beginning.’ That was like a starter pistol to me.
For the full interview check out HUCK#020, out now.
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