65 Facts About Rodney Mullen

John Rodney Mullen was born on August 17,1966 and is an American professional skateboarder who practices freestyle skateboarding and street skateboarding.

Rodney Mullen is considered one of the most influential skateboarders of all time.

Rodney Mullen won his first world freestyle skateboard championship at the age of 14; over the following decade, he won 34 out of 35 freestyle contests, thus establishing the most successful competitive run in the history of the sport.

Rodney Mullen has appeared in over 20 skateboarding videos and has co-authored an autobiography, entitled The Mutt: How to Skateboard and Not Kill Yourself, with writer Sean Mortimer.

Rodney Mullen's father was a dentist and property developer while his mother was a child prodigy and accomplished pianist who graduated high school at the age of 14.

Rodney Mullen began skateboarding at the age of ten, on New Year's Day of 1977, after a neighborhood friend introduced him to a skateboard.

Rodney Mullen promised his strict father that he would cease skateboarding the first time he became seriously injured:.

Rodney Mullen thought I'd get hurt and never get good, and the culture was bums, and I'd turn into one.

Rodney Mullen was a dentist, but before that he was military, and there were times you'd call him, 'Sir.

Rodney Mullen practiced in the garage of the family home while wearing a comprehensive protective pads setup, a precaution that was part of the deal with his father.

Rodney Mullen spent time with his sister's surfer friends who skated on weekdays.

Rodney Mullen became obsessed with the skateboard and practiced for many hours on a daily basis.

In 1978, even though he had only owned a skateboard for just over a year, Rodney Mullen placed fifth in the Boy's Freestyle category at the US Open Championships at Kona Skatepark in Jacksonville, Florida.

Rodney Mullen's biggest influence in skateboarding at the time was a Walker professional skateboarder, Jim McCall, who was coached in his early years by Walker.

Rodney Mullen was influenced in a positive manner by professional skateboarders from Florida including Ed Womble, George McClellan, Clyde Rodgers, Tim Scroggs, and Kelly Lynn.

In later years, Rodney Mullen was coached by Barry Zaritsky, who owned a company called SiO Safety Shorts.

When his family moved to a farm in a remote part of Florida, Rodney Mullen began perfecting his flat ground techniques in the family garage; he has said that the isolation and lack of terrain naturally guided him towards freestyle skateboarding.

Rodney Mullen then proceeded to win thirty successive amateur competitions in the late 1970s, mostly in his home state of Florida, culminating in a win at the Oceanside Nationals in June 1979.

In 1980, the 14-year-old Rodney Mullen entered the Oasis Pro competition, defeating the world champion, Steve Rocco.

Shortly thereafter, Rodney Mullen turned professional as a member of the renowned Bones Brigade team.

Rodney Mullen was recommended to the Bones Brigade by skateboarder Tim Scroggs, who was a member of the team and a fellow Floridian.

Rodney Mullen competed voraciously throughout the 1980s, often frustrating competitors and judges with his consistency and progressive ability.

Rodney Mullen enrolled in the chemical engineering program at the University of Florida, leaving during his senior year prior to completing his degree in order to take over management of World Industries with fellow Bones Brigade team member and company co-founder Steve Rocco.

Rodney Mullen's tricks are now considered essential building blocks of both modern street skateboarding and vert skateboarding.

Rodney Mullen and Rocco had embarked on a very risky venture, as Powell Peralta was an established company and Rocco's upstart company had been struggling at the time.

Such pressure is alluded to in the World Industries video, Rubbish Heap, in which Rodney Mullen's sequence ends with a team member, Jeremy Klein, deliberately breaking his freestyle skateboard and then handing him a note from Rocco, accompanied by a street skateboard deck, in which the end of freestyle is declared.

In 1991, Rodney Mullen joined the high-profile skateboarding team, Plan B Skateboards.

Rodney Mullen's segment begins with traditional freestyle tricks executed on flat ground, but quickly transitions into Mullen skateboarding across public terrain to shift into street skating tricks and lines.

Rodney Mullen introduced two newly invented tricks in Questionable, the kickflip underflip and the Casper slide.

Rodney Mullen's reluctant transition from freestyle to street skateboarding was a symbol that legitimized the technical direction street skating had taken over the previous few years.

Rodney Mullen focused on the progression of this transition in subsequent Plan B videos, including 1993's Virtual Reality, in which Rodney Mullen showcases the newly mastered trick, the darkslide.

Rodney Mullen stated that through extensive stretching and the use of blunt objects he was able to break up the scar tissue in order to restore his range of motion.

Rodney Mullen further explained in an interview at Germany's Bright tradeshow in 2011:.

The Almost company celebrated its 10th anniversary with an event at the Berrics indoor skate complex in early March 2014, and Rodney Mullen attended the venue for the first time.

Rodney Mullen appears in the video skateboarding at musician Ben Harper's residence and Harper performs a single trick at the video's conclusion.

Together with other members of the Almost team, Rodney Mullen appeared in a June 2015 photo retrospective of the Almost brand that was shot and curated by skateboard photographer Seu Trinh.

Rodney Mullen was part of the Globe brand's "EUTrippin'" 2015 European tour, alongside other team members including Mark Appleyard and Haslam.

Around 2000, Rodney Mullen engaged in the development of his own skateboard truck design, a concept that would later become the foundation for the company Tensor.

In 2000, Rodney Mullen filed for a United States Patent in support of his innovative work in the area and submitted the following abstract to the US Patent and Trademark Office:.

Rodney Mullen subsequently left Enjoi to co-found Almost Skateboards with Daewon Song, who had been unable to find success with the two preceding deck companies that he had founded, Deca and Artafact.

Kubic's management remained intact, and Rodney Mullen began working for Globe under the Dwindle Distribution brand.

Rodney Mullen contributes to the design of experimental and composite deck constructions for Dwindle's other brands, such as Blind and Darkstar.

Rodney Mullen's popularity grew in 2000 when he made his first appearance in the Tony Hawk's video game series.

Rodney Mullen has since appeared in various titles of the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series including:.

In 2015, Rodney Mullen wrote the foreword to the Dwindle and Globe history book Unemployable: 30 Years of Hardcore, Skate and Street reflecting upon his twenty-year involvement with those companies.

In 2003, Rodney Mullen wrote and released his autobiography, The Mutt: How to Skateboard and Not Kill Yourself.

Rodney Mullen has completed numerous public speaking engagements and has been invited to present on topics such as his personal life, skateboarding, innovation, creation, and the concept of community.

The Lemelson Center at MIT invited Rodney Mullen to visit the center, a part of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History to discuss invention and innovation from within the context of American society.

Rodney Mullen was invited by the Sapling Foundation, as part of its TED public speaking series, to present at the University of Southern California in June 2012.

Rodney Mullen's talk was entitled, "How Context Shapes Content", and featured his perspectives on the manner in which the street-based context of skateboarding influences his practice, in addition to his view of the skateboarding community, whereby he compared the community to the open source and hacking movements.

In December 2010, Rodney Mullen stated in an interview that he was preparing to film a part for the upcoming Almost video, although he did not appear in the 2012 video, 5-Incher.

Rodney Mullen figured out how to ollie on the flat ground, and street skating wouldn't exist without the ollie.

Every time you ollie, you should get on your knees and thank Rodney Mullen or take him out to eat if you see him skating around Los Angeles.

The vert tricks done now, like a heelflip frontside Cab, wouldn't be possible without the heelflip, which thanks to Rodney Mullen comes from freestyle.

In 2002, Rodney Mullen won the Transworld Skateboarding Readers' Choice Award for Skater of the Year.

In May 2013, Rodney Mullen was an inductee of the Skateboarding Hall of Fame and was present at the award ceremony that was held in Anaheim, California.

Rodney Mullen has always had the most mind-boggling most difficult tricks on top of having invented 50,60, who knows how many tricks.

Rodney Mullen has been credited with inventing the following tricks :.

Rodney Mullen has publicly stated that an identification of his favorite skateboarders is an "endless" task.

Rodney Mullen describes himself as "juvenile" who prefers to skate during the night and on his own.

Rodney Mullen is a Director's Fellow at the MIT Media Lab and a Distinguished Research Scholar with the Smithsonian Institution.

Rodney Mullen has addressed NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab and the Royal Society.

Rodney Mullen is a member of the scientific advisory board of the C4 Foundation.

In 2013 musicians Ben Harper and Lee Hartney revealed a close friendship with Rodney Mullen and described the skateboarder as a "brother".

Rodney Mullen has assisted Harper to learn skateboarding, as the musician has undertaken intensive practice in the fifth decade of his life.