Rodney Mullen

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John Rodney Mullen (born August 17, 1966 in Gainesville, Florida) is a professional freestyle skateboarder, and considered to be one of the most influential freestyle skaters in the history of the sport.^[1] He is credited with inventing many tricks, including many flat-ground tricks, the kickflip, the Heelflip, the 360 flip, and the Impossible.

1 Later career - the 1990s to present day
2 Mullen's invented tricks
3 Selected videography
4 Appearances in '80s culture
5 Appearances in modern culture
6 Current sponsors
7 References
8 External links

[edit] Later career - the 1990s to present day

His tenure at World Industries marked the beginning of a shift in his skating career from freestyle to street skating. He left the World Industries team to join Plan B, a super team made up of some of the highest profile pros of that time. Throughout this period Mullen was urged by Plan B founder, Mike Ternasky, to adapt his freestyle skating to street. This approach was first seen in the 1992 Plan B video Questionable, and ushered in a new era of street skating that took freestyle tricks which were traditionally done without rolling, or at slow speeds in a confined flat area, to a more varied terrain, often at speed and incorporating obstacles.

After the death of Ternasky in a car accident, Mullen started the A-Team in 1995. It was his take on forming a super team with the defection of Plan B from the World Industries empire. A-Team folded in 2000 and Mullen went from company founder to company rider under former A-Team rider Marc Johnson, who started Enjoi Skateboards. Mullen left Enjoi and headed Almost Skateboards along with Daewon Song, which he continues to maintain professional status. Mullen expanded his product development and created Tensor truck in 2000^[2] and has also developed experimental and composite deck constructions for Dwindle brands.[1]

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.^[3]

In late 2003, Rodney Mullen was voted as the all-time greatest action sports athlete on the Extreme Sports Channel's Legends of the Extreme countdown.^{[citation needed]}

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.”^[4]

Mullen also penned an autobiography in 2004 with the help of Sean Mortimer, entitled The Mutt: How to Skateboard and Not Kill Yourself.

Mullen continues to skate street and the tricks he pioneered; like the Kickflip and the flat-ground Ollie, once considered technical and difficult, are now considered basic tricks. Rodney, however, continues to invent and adapt his own tricks such as underflip and darkslide variations.

[edit] Mullen's invented tricks

180 Kickflip^[5]
360 Bigspin flip
360 nollie front foot flip
360 nollie heelflip
360 nollie shove-it late flip
360 nollie underflip
360 Pressure Flip
50-50 Casper
50-50 Saran Wrap
50-50 Sidewinder
540 Shove-it
540 Double Kickflip
Backfoot Varial Heelflip
Backside 180 Flip
Backside Double Heelflip
Backside Double Backfoot Flip
Blueberry Grind
Butterflip
Caballerial impossible
Caboodle Dakashaka Flip
Casper 360 Flip
Casper Slide
Casper Slide 360 Flip
Double Flip Casper Slide
Double Heelflip
Double Kickflip
Double Varial Heelflip
Flat-Ground Ollie
Gangsta Pop Rapper Grind
Gazelle (540 Shove-it 360 Body Varial)
Godzilla Rail Flip
Half-Cab Double Flip
Half-Cab Heelflip Darkslide
Half-Cab Impossible
Half Cab Kickflip
Half-Cab Kickflip Underflip
Half Flip Darkslide (Adapted from Mark Gonzales' idea)
Handstand Flip
Heelflip
Helipop (360 Nollie)
Helipop Heelflip
Impossible Casper Slide
Impossible Late 360 flip
Kickflip
Kickflip Underflip
Lally Pop Loopy Doo Doo Flip
Mitchell flip
No Handed 50-50
No Handed 50-50 Kickflip
Nollie Double Flip
Nollie Half-Flip Darkslide
Nollie Heelflip Darkslide
Ollie Fingerflip
Ollie Impossible
Ollie Nosebone
One Footed Ollie
Quadruple McDoogle Flip
Rusty Slide
Sidewinder
Switch 360 flip
Tré Flip
Triple Heelflip
Triple Kickflip
Varial Heelflip
Varial Heelflip Underflip
Yoho Plant

[edit] Selected videography

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)
ON Video: Winter 2002 Issue - Mullen is featured in a documentary (2002)
Almost Skateboards: Round Three (2004)
Globe Shoes: United by Fate, Vol. (TBA 2007)
The Man Who Souled the World (2007)^[6]

[edit] Appearances in '80s culture

Rodney Mullen did many of the skateboarding stunts for Christian Slater in the 1989 skateboarding movie Gleaming the Cube. He can be seen performing his own unique freestyle maneuver in silhouette in order to look like Slater. At the end credits, he can be seen, from an overhead view riding his own Mike McGill skateboard with the camera only zooming in on his foot work.^[7]